Hostgator Review

I recently changed web host providers due to the bad experiences I have had with IX Web hosting. I was looking for fast but affordable hosting solutions when I came upon Hostgator. I had experience with Hostgator many years ago, and was not very impressed. It has been almost 9 years, so I decided to give them another chance. For now, I am glad, as I am happy with the level of service I have experienced with Hostgator.

I currently have Hostgator’s Business Plan, which gives you unlimited domains, diskspace, bandwidth, free dedicated SSL and even a free Toll Free Number for around 15 per month. This is the most expensive hosting plan they offer short of dedicated hosting or VPN hosting, and suits my needs as I host many different sites. I have used Hostgator for about a week, and will give you my current impressions of the web host.

Setup

Setup was easy. In less then an hour after placing my order my website was ready. They sent me a easy to understand e-mail showing me how to access my control panel, and how to view my site before my domain propagated. I created my domain and began to upload all my files while I pointed my domain’s hostnames to Hostgator’s nameservers. In all it was an easy process that did not take much time.

Interface

Hostgator uses Cpanel, which is standard for many webhosts. Hostgator’s version of Cpanel has numerous options when compared to IX Webhosting. In truth, I have not used most of the options yet, as I am still exploring all the tools and features. This is a good thing, as this gives the end user more control over their website. In short, the interface is easy to use and offers numerous options.

Features

The features Hostgator’s Business Plan offers is impressive. Included are unlimited E-Mail accounts, FTP accounts, and SQL Databases. I choose the standard Linux version so I could have access to PHP. One feature I found impressive was Fantastico. Fantastico allows you to automatically install common web pages such as WordPress, PHPBB, etc. There are more than 50 programs you can install automatically. I am highly impressed with Fantastico.

Speed

I found Hostgator’s servers to be fast and efficient. Logging into the control panel is quick and take little time. When hosting a website, FTP transfer speed is highly important. You do not want to wait minutes to upload a file via FTP. I found Hostgator’s FTP speeds to be the fastest I have seen from a webhost. I was able to download 2 megabytes a second, and upload around 450k. Compared to IX Web Hosting, there is no comparison. FTP speed is also stable, and offers the same speeds no mater the time of day. Many hosts often use FTP in the late evenings or early mornings for backup purposes, resulting is hideous upload speeds. I have yet to notice this at Hostgator.

I have also noticed pages load faster then on IX webhosting. This is especially true when I try to access my stats in WordPress. Pages load within 1-2 seconds, and feels more stable. Overall, I am very happy with the speed of Hostgator.

Support

I found Hostgator’s support to be fast and efficient, for the most part. I had a technical issue regarding my e-mail, during which later I discovered was my fault. I spent almost an hour with tech support, while they were trying to solve the problem. In the end, I solved the issue myself, however I was glad they were willing to spend time with me to solve the problem. While support was not perfect, they did try to solve my problem.

Little Annoyances

I am not to happy with how they handle other domains. If you wish to host more then one website, then you need to set up an Addon Domain. An Addon Domain acts as a sort of subdomain in the system, with your main domain as the parent. You can set the Domain to have it’s own directory, so for real world purposes, it will appear to be a separate website. This annoys me, as I wish I could have simply listed domains to ease management. This is a small annoyance only; one I can easily live with.

Overall Impression

Overall, I am impressed with Hostgator. Now, I will wait to see how stable the servers are, and if there is any downtime. If I run into issues, I will post them here as updates. As of now, I recommend Hostgator, as it is fast, efficient, and cost affordable.

Learn more about Hostgator Here.

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About the author:  Psychcomp is owned and maintained by Nathan Driskell, a Licensed Professional Counselor - Intern specializing in Internet Addiction and Asperger's Disorder. Nathan is also a Web Designer and Network Administrator. Contact Nathan at the following locations: dami...@psychcomp.com">E-Mail Twitter

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Tags: Hostgator, web hosting

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 12:47 AM and is filed under Computers, Web Hosts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.