HostGator is an incredibly dependable host,
with a decent information base, extraordinary UI, and a wide choice of
facilitating arrangements.
Speed and
uptime as far as numbers (19 months information):
Ø The TTFT is somewhat better than
expected, at 0.59 seconds, yet then the rendering doesn't take any longer. It
finishes in 1.15 seconds.
Ø With 99.99% uptime, Hostgator is the
most solid host.
Because of
its interesting engineering, HostGator Cloud offers genuine cloud
adaptability and in a hurry asset the executives – a one of a kind
component among shared hosts.
What's more,
the apprentice inviting Gator web designer for exclusively constructed sites
and online business stores, 30-day movement period during which the HostGator
relocation authorities can move over any cPanel record of yours for nothing, 45-day
unconditional promise make HostGator a decent web facilitating for new
sites promotion bloggers.
The
organization bolster group is educated. Reasonable and highlight rich, this is
a host that is attempting by and by to arrive at the potential it indicated at
an early stage in its reality.
Things we
liked / disliked
+ 100%
Uptime
+ Free
Migration, SSL, Backup
+ Drag
And Drop Website Builder
+ Free
Domain Name
+ Unmetered
Space And Bandwidth
+ 55%
Off On 12 Months Plan
- High Renewal Rate - $10.95
- No-Free SSL on Basic Plan
HostGator
Review
HostGator is
among the most popular web hosting providers and I was eager to test its
mettle.
I set up a
basic WordPress installation on the HostGator Baby Cloud and measured the
response times and behavior under load of the HostGator servers. I also went
through many HostGator reviews to get a clearer picture about the
company support and policies.
My ongoing
tests of 11 most popular hosting companies rank HostGator as follow
#1 in reliability
#10 in frontend
speed
#10 in backend
speed
#5 in support
#9 in price
§ Pricing – 8.5/10
§ Support – 8/10
§ Features & Ease of Use – 8.2/10
§ Reliability & Speed – 8/10
Who Is
HostGator?
Without a
doubt, HostGator is among the most popular names in the industry, especially
for US-based users.
Currently,
it hosts about 10 million domain names, making it one of the biggest hosting
providers in the world. Not bad for a company founded some 16 years ago.
In the first
ten years of its existence, the company built a very solid reputation which
attracted the attention of EIG. The consecutive acquisition, as with so many
things EIG touches, wasn’t entirely beneficial and brought about several
massive outages early on in the Provo data center that affected BlueHost as
well.
Still,
HostGator recovered and improved upon its services. And while the standard
shared hosting offering of the company is not all that impressive, the
relatively new Cloud packages put HostGator once again in the mix of the best
website hosting companies.
Its Cloud
platform promises great speed, superb scalability, and seamless resource
allocation among other perks to make account and site management a breeze.
But is it
enough to consider HostGator as a serious contender for the best web host in
2018?
Let’s see
what the numbers say in this detailed HostGator Cloud hosting review.
The
Essentials – HostGator Uptime, Speed, Support
Uptime,
speed and quality support make or break a hosting provider.
1.
Amazing Uptime – 99.99%
Uptime is
effectively the most significant factor to consider while checking any web facilitating
audit. Speed additionally matters a great deal however a moderate site despite
everything benefits around; a disconnected page is an unmitigated catastrophe.
The
organization probably won't be perfect – you can see a portion of the HostGator
issues further down – yet its uptime is superb.
HostGator
has a 99.9% uptime assurance and guarantees free facilitating should this
administration level understanding be penetrated.
Presently,
the terms of administration specify that outside checking frameworks can't be
utilized to quantify uptime. Just the server logs are regarded solid enough to
be utilized in such cases.
That is
reasonable enough, as even the best checking devices are not idiot proof, and
HostGator has a worked in server uptime observing that can be gotten to through
the client entryway.
The Cloud
HostGator is an updated rendition of the standard shared stage, and the
overhaul is telling. It brings to the table two significant advantages: higher
unwavering quality and truly open overhauls that can be bought with a few ticks
and similarly effectively debilitated when not, at this point required.
On account
of the propelled Cloud engineering that permits the constant duplicating of any
site.
Average
Uptime 2018:
- August – 100%
- September – 100%
- October – 100%
- November – 100%
- December – 100%
Average
Uptime 2019:
- January – 100%
"HostGator is an extremely reliable
host."
2.
Average Speed
- Reasonable Response Time – 0.70s (11th)
- Reasonable Fully Loaded Time – 1.28s (10th)
- Questionable Under Certain Load – 9.43s (10th)
Note: If you
run speed tests on my area, results may change a piece. Indeed, even from a
similar testing stage, two back to back tests typically show marginally various
outcomes. My HostGator site is facilitated in Houston, so I tried it from US
areas. All modules and server-side storing were debilitated.
Stacking
speed is totally urgent for any fruitful endeavor on the web. A webpage that
takes over 4 seconds to stack is deserted by 74% of the clients, while slow web
based business sites are once in a while visited once more.
I test the
TTFB (time to first byte), and the time it takes for a site to be stacked completely.
The main measurement uncovers how rapidly the server reacts to a question. It
is a decent marker of how fast the facilitating machine is.
The
subsequent estimation shows to what extent it takes before the site is obvious
and helpful to the end client. Surely, this is significant also.
In the two
classes, across three testing destinations, HostGator Cloud facilitating was
noteworthy, checking in the quickest reaction and the second quickest time
to stack the landing page of my fundamental WordPress site completely. In
the next months, however, the reaction and burden times crawled up, debasing
the normal execution of HostGator.
My HostGator
site showed good results on WebPageTest.
I was truly
impressed by this performance, but when I put my HostGator site under load, the
server crumbled.
To clarify,
I purchased the second out of three Cloud hosting plans HostGator has. It was
doing reasonably well up until 30 virtual users, but then the struggle began.
In the end,
the average response time with 50 virtual users became the massive 7.9 seconds.
While the virtual users were fewer than 30, the Cloud server kept responding
within 0.3-0.45 seconds, which is pretty good.
Load Impact revealed some weakness
under load.
I have a WordPress
site on HostGator WordPress Cloud (slightly more expensive optimized
specifically for WordPress) and the Load Impact tests I run regularly show
similar behavior: very decent backend response up until 30 users or so and then
some serious lag. It is the slowest on average among all hosts reviewed by the Hosting
Tribunal.
In all
fairness, 30 concurrent users are not such a small number for a growing
website, but I expected more from the medium HostGator web hosting
offering.
Average
response time 2018:
- August – 0.17s
- September – 0.70s
- October – 1.71s
- November – 0.48s
- December – 0.57s
Average
response time 2019:
- January – 0.57s
Fully
loaded page 2018:
- August – 0.87s
- September – 1.26s
- October – 2.26s
- November – 0.92s
- December – 1.17s
Fully
loaded page 2019:
- January – 1.19s
Response
under load 2018:
- August – 7.9s
- September – 10.01s
- October – 7.99s
- November – 9.70s
- December – 10.89s
Response
under load 2019:
- January – 10.10s
"Fast servers that need
optimization to handle high volumes of traffic."
3.
HostGator Has Slow Support and Excellent Knowledge Base
I got in
touch with the support team four times while preparing this in-depth review. Once over email,
the other three times over chat. I was considering to test the 24/7 HostGator
phone support too, but these four interactions were enough.
For
starters, the wait time on chat is not that short.
The first
time I engaged a sales representative to ask clarifications about certain plan
features. The agents needed some 4 minutes to pick up my chat request. That’s
not horrible but is far from the best website hosts out there.
Then, my
question was rather simple but had to ask it twice, as the first answer I
received was a copy-paste from the website of the info I was asking
clarifications about. The second time I asked I didn’t change the wording much.
It seems that the agent simply read it more carefully and provided the answer I
was looking for.
HostGator support is open over all
channels of correspondence.
The second
talk I began with the HostGator support was identified with a specialized
issue. It was addressed rapidly, and the operator took as much time as
necessary to investigate the difficult I had (the inherent uptime screen wasn't
working). He researched for some time and raised the issue to the framework
managers for me.
This was
decent, however the specialist disclosed to me that I would be messaged the
case subtleties, to screen the circumstance. I never got an email, and the case
didn't show up under my HostGator client entrance.
After
another talk, I was informed that the ticket isn't logged under my record since
it has been heightened, which didn't bode well. It despite everything doesn't.
In the end,
somewhere in the range of four days after the fact, I got an email saying that
the framework directors know about the issue yet can't give me ETA about its
goals.
The last experience
I had with HostGator talk support was tied in with changing the cPanel topic.
It couldn't be any more obvious, HostGator Cloud has a tweaked cPanel subject,
which is pretty and utilitarian, however it doesn't permit you to change to
cPanel works of art like Paper Lantern or x3. My visit demand was hanging for
more than 15 minutes. At any rate the operator who at long last tended to my
issue was courteous and quick.
I will
likely convey genuine, impartial investigation of each host I look at and must
state that the HostGator client support is inconsistent, best case scenario.
This being
stated, I was glad to see that the information base has improved a great
deal. The quality and amount of assets have developed extensively since the
last time (summer of 2017) I checked.
Presently it
is a truly decent self improvement community.
"The HostGator bolster group is
under a great deal of pressure and the hold up times can be high, yet the self
improvement community is incredible."
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