You’re probably familiar with the name of HostGator, but do you really know what they have to offer? And is HostGator the right choice for your website? The platform offers website hosting and building in one sleek package. The website-building platform of HostGator is known as Gator. It is a budget-friendly platform, packed with all the necessary tools and features that are required to build and run a website.

Even though HostGator is mostly famous for its domain and hosting services, its website builder is no joke either and is just as efficient and reliable. In this HostGator review, we will walk through and explain the features and tools Gator has to offer all the while giving you an overview of its hosting services.

HostGator Review: At a Glance

HostGator Review
Web Builder Price	Starts from $4.95 per month
Hosting price Price	Starts from $2.75% per month
Drag-and-Drop Interface	Yes
Social Media Integration	Yes
Email Tools	Yes
Inventory Management	Yes
SSL Certificate	Yes
API	Yes
Uptime	99.99%
Hosting Types	Shared, WordPress, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, Reseller
Server Location	US
Customer Support	24/7 live chat and phone
Free Perks	Free domain name, free SSL
Refund Policy	30 days
Bandwidth	Unmetered

Gator is an easy-to-use, beginner-friendly website builder. The drag-and-drop editor allows users to build a website without hassle. Gator offers users two editor options namely, Traditional and Express. The Traditional editor offers users a list of templates from which they can choose the appropriate one and start editing. Whereas the express editor further simplifies the process by building a custom template automatically based on the users’ website category. 

Gator is not only user-friendly but also pocket friendly. The website builder is quite affordable and is light on the wallet. It is ideal for those who are on a tight budget and are looking for a website builder that is cheap but efficient. Plus, Gator also offers social media integrations, email tools, inventory management, SSL certificate, and API. 

When it comes to hosting HostGator is a company that provides affordable hosting services. They help people to make their own websites. HostGator has different hosting plans with advanced features and a free website builder. They provide 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone or video tutorials. If you want to create a website, then HostGator is worth considering.

HostGator Review: Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to use drag-and-drop editor	Design flexibility and creative freedom is limited
Unmetered bandwidth on shared hosting plans	Renewal prices are high
Fast performance	Doesn’t offer appointment booking feature on low price plans
Introductory prices are excellent	Is not suitable for building complex sites
Efficient email marketing tools	Limited configuration options for VPS/ dedicated servers
Unlimited storage on shared hosting plans	Not every plan supports window
Top-notch social media integration

HostGator Review: Web Hosting Services

Regarding hosting types, HostGator provides a wide range of options to consider. These include VPS hosting, Cloud hosting, and dedicated hosting. Let’s delve into the available hosting options and their respective strengths for different purposes.

HostGator Review: Types of Hosting Available

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the most popular hosting plan where you can utilize shared server space with other websites.

Cloud Hosting

Instead of being limited to a single location with fixed resources, Cloud hosting offers the flexibility to utilize resources from multiple servers

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is the most powerful hosting. It is specially designed to meet the needs of large businesses. It is best for businesses with high website traffic or extremely popular websites.

WordPress Hosting

This hosting type is specially designed and optimized to ensure WordPress’s easiest and fastest utilization.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting type is ideal for website owners looking to enhance flexibility in software installations, along with greater freedom for email communication and media streaming.

Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting type is specially designed for website owners looking to venture into the profitable business of selling hosting services. It is well-suited for individuals interested in starting their own website hosting company and leveraging HostGator products under their their own branding (white label).

HostGator Review: Features

Let’s take a closer look at some of HostGator’s advanced features:

HostGator Review: Security

HostGator offers powerful security actions against DDoS attacks. The security system is designed to safeguard against network-level flood attacks. To enhance security at website level, HostGator offers an exclusive feature called SiteLock Security, available at a monthly cost of $5.99. This amazing feature scans your website daily to detect any malware presence. Furthermore, it automatically eliminates malware from your website and provides reliable defense against malicious attacks.

HostGator Review: Uptime and Performance

HostGator gives its users a 99.9% uptime guarantee. HostGator is a prominent leader in the web hosting industry and has continually demonstrated its dedication to fulfilling this promise. It not only excels in reliability but also showcases remarkable performance capabilities.

By choosing this, customers can enjoy page load time that are up to 2.5 times faster. Moreover, HostGator provides exceptional customer support to further enhance the overall experience.

HostGator Review: Storage and Bandwidth

HostGator provides unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth across all plans. Additionally, it offers a helpful feature for automated website backups. This feature is initially included in your plan without any extra charges. However, when its time for renewal, you can continue to enjoy the convenience of automated backups for just $4 per month, with an annual billing of $47.95.

HostGator Review: Plans and Pricing

How much does HostGator Cost?

HostGator offers amazing price plans on all its hosting services. You can pay for hosting services via credit cards, PayPal, cheque, money orders and bank wires. They also offer money-back guarantee on their shared, WordPress, VPS, and reseller hosting plans. However, there is no money-back guarantee for dedicated hosting, setup fees, or domain name purchases.

Here’s an overview of HostGator’s pricing tier:

HostGator Review: Shared Hosting

Plan Name	Space	Bandwidth	Panel	Numbers of sites	Price
Hatchling	10GB	Unmetered	cPanel	1	$2.75/month
Baby	40GB	Unmetered	cPanel	5	$3.50/month
Business	unlimited	Unmetered	cPanel	unlimited	$5.25/month

HostGator Review: Cloud Hosting

Plan Name	Bandwidth	CPU	RAM	Numbers of sites	Price
Hatchling	Unmetered	2 cores	2 GB	1	$4.95/month
Baby	Unmetered	4 cores	4GB	Unlimited	$6.57/month
Business	Unmetered	6 cores	6GB	unlimited	$9.95/month

HostGator Review: WordPress Hosting

Plan Name	Visits per month	Bandwidth	Free migration	Numbers of sites	Price
Hatchling	100,000	Unmetered	1 website	1	$5.95/month
Baby	200,000	Unmetered	2 websites	2	$7.95/month
Business	300,000	Unmetered	3 websites	3	$9.95/month

HostGator Review: Reseller Hosting

Plan Name	Space	Bandwidth	Panel	Numbers of sites	Price
Hatchling	60GB	60GB	WHM & cPanel	Unlimited	$19.95/month
Baby	90GB	90GB	WHM & cPanel	Unlimited	$24.95/month
Business	140GB	140GB	WHM & cPanel	Unlimited	$24.95/month

HostGator Review: VPS Hosting

Plan Name	Space	vCPU	RAM	Bandwidth	Price
S. 2000	120GB	2 cores	2GB	Unmetered	$23.95/month
S. 4000	165GB	2 cores	4GB	Unmetered	$34.95/month
S. 8000	240GB	4 cores	6GB	Unmetered	$59.95/month

HostGator Review: Dedicated Hosting

Plan Name	Space	CPU	RAM	Bandwidth	Price
Value	1 TB HDD	4 core/ 8 thread	8 GB	Unmetered	$89.98/month
Power	2 TB HDD or 512 GB SSD	8 core/ 16 thread	16 GB	Unmetered	$119.89/month
Enterprise	1 TB SSD	8 core/ 16 thread	30 GB	Unmetered	$139.99/month

HostGator Review: Gator Features

Templates and Editors

When building a website, Gator offers users hundreds of beautiful mobile responsive templates to choose from. Plus, these templates are customizable, so you can use the drag-and-drop editor to customize the template as much as you want. Users can easily change the fonts, customize colors, add or remove sections, and much more. 

Plus, the website builder offers two editors a Traditional editor and an Express editor. If users wish to use a pre-existing template and customize it to suit their needs, they can use the Traditional editor. However, if you want a custom template based solely on their niche, they can take help from the Express editor. 

SSL Certificates

Gator also offers SSL certificates, that ensures the safety of users’ websites. With the SSL certificate, a padlock icon will appear beside the site URL. This little icon will ensure the visitors that the website is safe and secure. Without the SSL certificate, the warning ‘not secure’ will appear beside the URL and will drive even the bravest of hearts away from the website. 

Social Media Integrations

Like many other efficient website builders, Gator also offers social media integrations. These integrations allow users to embed content from social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and many more onto the website. These integrations will help connect different aspects of users’ online presence and will further help enhance the website with social buttons, image galleries, and live feeds. 

Website Analytics

Website Analytics allows users to trace traffic, view stats and track important information. The analytics informs the users about the number of visitors their site is receiving, how long they are staying, and which page they are frequently visiting. With the help of these analytics, users can make necessary changes that can help boost their website and increase traffic. 

Blogging

Gator offers excellent blogging features and tools. The templates for blogging are not only beautiful but are also modern and intuitive. Gator provides all the necessary tools that users need to start blogging. Bloggers can format text, include headings and links, add tags, images, videos, and header images, and can also change the URL of the post. 

E-commerce

For all the entrepreneurs out there, who are looking to establish an online store, Gator has all the necessary e-commerce tools that will are helpful. With the help of these tools’ users can, sell products, process payments, and track visitor interactions. Plus, users can also import product catalogs using Google Sheets, Excel, Ecwid, and CSV. 

HostGator Review: Gator for Different Kinds of Websites

Website type	Benefits	Limitations
Online store	Quick and easy to set up Offers great email marketing features and eCommerce tools	Even though Gator offers eCommerce on all plans, users must choose the expensive one in order to get rid of transaction fees
Business website	Great business featuresSEO and marketing tools, are available on all plans including the cheapest one	Tools are a bit too simple to run a business site efficiently
Blog	Simple, clean, and minimalistic blogging interfaceReliable and good SEO tools	Basic blogging toolsGator’s focus isn’t on blogging
Portfolio	Users can easily add various types of media to their websites, like image galleries and audio files	Limited design and creative freedom

For Online Stores

If you are looking to set up an online store then Gator might be the best option for you. Not only is it inexpensive but is also easy to use. Therefore, even new entrepreneurs can easily set up and run an online store via Gator. Its e-commerce tools are available on all the plans including the cheapest one. This is a great advantage and most website builders don’t usually offer e-commerce tools on low-tier plans. However, there are a few drawbacks most of the useful marketing and business tools are available on the cheap plans, plus the cheap plan users also have to pay transaction fees. 

For Business Website

Gator has many great business features in its arsenal including analytics, SEO, e-commerce, and social media integration. All these features can come in handy if you are a beginner however an expert might find them lacking. However, if you are looking for a simple, low-budget, and quick way to set up a business website then Gator is the best website builder for you. 

For Blog

Bloggers can easily add and manage a blog with the help of Gator website builder. It has all the tools necessary for blogging, moreover, the blogging interface is user-friendly and minimalistic. Users are provided with various tools through which they can edit, modify, and elevate their blogs. Unfortunately, Gator’s main focus isn’t on blogging so will not be able to find advanced blogging features and tools on the website builder. 

For Portfolio

If you are a beginner and want to create a portfolio site using Gator then good for you. However, if you are looking for design flexibility and creative freedom then you won’t find any on Gator. Gator is easy to use and simple but with ease and lacks features and flexibility. Therefore, Gator might not be the best website builder to set up a portfolio site if you want complete creative freedom. 

HostGator Review: Gator Plans and Pricing

	Website	Website + Marketing	Online Store	Online Marketplaces
Introductory price	$4.95/month	$7.95/month	$13.95/month	$19.95/month
DIY website builder with built-In blog	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
150+ mobile-optimized templates	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free domain	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free private domain registration	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free SSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unlimited appointments	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online payments & deposits	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unlimited products & categories	No	No	Yes	Yes
Marketplace selling	No	No	No	Yes
Fulfillment automation	No	No	No	Yes

Gator offers three plans namely Website, Website + Marketing, Online Store, and Online Marketplaces. Their introductory price ranges from $4..95-$19.95 per month. if you are looking to establish and manage a basic website then the first plan might be the best option for you. however, if you want to set up an online store then you will have to subscribe to either Online Store or Online Marketplace. 

HostGator Review: Comparison of All Plans

Appointment Scheduling	Website	Website + Marketing	Online Store	Online Marketplaces
Unlimited Appointments	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Online Payments & Deposits	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Appointment Reminders	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

E-commerce	Website	Website + Marketing	Online Store	Online Marketplaces
Mobile-Responsive Online Store	No	No	Yes	Yes
Unlimited Products and Categories	No	No	Yes	Yes
Secure Online Payment Options	No	No	Yes	Yes
24/7 Automated Sync Technology	No	No	Yes	Yes
Advanced Shipping	No	No	Yes	Yes
Connect to QuickBooks Online or Xero	No	No	Yes	Yes
Real-time Shipping Rates	No	No	Yes	Yes
Custom Discount Codes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Abandoned Cart Saver	No	No	Yes	Yes
Unlimited Inventory Locations	No	No	Yes	Yes
Sell on Facebook and Instagram	No	No	Yes	Yes
Marketplace Selling	No	No	No	Yes
Automated Sales Tax Calculations	No	No	No	Yes
Bulk Editing Tools	No	No	No	Yes
Fulfillment Automation	No	No	No	Yes
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment	No	No	No	Yes
Quick-Fill Listing Templates	No	No	No	Yes
Restock Management	No	No	No	Yes
Barcode Creation	No	No	No	Yes

Analytics	E-commerce	Website	Website + Marketing	Online Store
Basic Website Analytics	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Easy Google Analytics & Tag Manager Setup	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Powerful Ecommerce Reports	No	No	Yes	Yes

HostGator Review: Customer Support

HostGator offers various ways through which users can contact them if they require assistance. Users can either email them, chat with them on live chat that is available 24/7, call them, or consult the knowledge base that HostGator has to offer. Customer support agents are reliable, polite, and professional. If you have any queries or are facing problems in accessing the website builder’s services, you can contact them, and they will provide a solution to your problems. 

HostGator Review by Customers

Frequently Asked Questions