How about HostGator? The latest detailed review of HostGator hostingHosting Table of Contents What is HostGator Cloud? Advantages of HostGator Cloud 1. Uptime up to 99.97% (over the past 10 months) 2. Top 5 loading time (only 419ms) 3. Special discount 4. Very user friendly 5. Free Extras: Anti-Malware, Global CDN, Daily Backups, and More 6. Good and fast after-sales service Cons of HostGator Cloud 1. Industry Standard Pricing Tips 2. Possible Cons: No Social Support Channels After my review, I came to the conclusion: HostGator is a web host with the best uptime and very good service. I’ve been a paying HostGator user for a long time and have been using this host for over 33 months. During this time, I carefully monitored and recorded all the important metrics and data such as load time, uptime and customer service responsiveness, etc. In this article, I’ll detail all the objective statistics on using HostGator Cloud, and dive into hosting pricing, extra features, and after-sales service to help you decide once and for all if they’re the right hosting provider for you business. Let’s take a closer look. What is HostGator Cloud? If you’ve never heard of HostGator WordPress cloud hosting, it’s normal because I’ve never heard of it before. After several months of successfully running HostGator’s cloud hosting service, I didn’t hear about it for the first time until EIG (the company that owns HostGator, BlueHost, and several other hosting providers) invited me to review their hosting service. I didn’t have high hopes for this review at first. After all, their low-cost shared hosting service (ranked 11 out of 30 hosts) didn’t quite inspire my confidence in HostGator’s service. But I was intrigued when a representative from HostGator told me about it: “Our high-performance managed WordPress platform bundles scalable cloud hosting and powerful features to make your website faster and more efficient than ever before. Runs securely. No need to configure caches and CDNs, and pages load blazingly fast across the globe.” What does this professional introduction mean? In short, they load 2.5 times faster! But we need to test it ourselves, rather than choose to believe it outright. We decided to pay at our own expense and pay to be their paid user using an anonymous Gmail account instead of using the account they have set up for us (to avoid using any privileges). After that, we created a default WordPress site, integrated multiple performance tracking applications, and started monitoring HostGator performance. After over a year of website monitoring, we wrote this article to detail every aspect of HostGator. Advantages of HostGator Cloud Most managed hosting is not acceptable to users if the server cannot provide reliable uptime. In the past, I have not been very happy with HostGator’s basic plan. However. . . Their cloud hosting service is a lot higher than the level of the industry as a whole. 1. Uptime up to 99.97% (over the past 10 months) Although HostGator Cloud’s uptime has dropped slightly in recent months, from a perfect 100% to 99.97% (0.03% better than the industry average), their stats are still impressive. With only 2 hours of downtime during use and a total of 36 downtimes, the HostGator cloud service is the 11th most reliable host we’ve ever used. HostGator Cloud Load Time and Uptime When choosing a web host, uptime is the most important statistic. Your host can have all the advanced security features and fast load times, but if your website goes down, it doesn’t matter because no one can see and experience it. Fortunately, HostGator has you covered. The average operating hours over the past 10 months are as follows: Average operating hours in December 2017: 100% Average operating hours in January 2018: 99.89 % Average operating hours in February 2018: 99.93% Average operating hours in April 2018: 99.99% Average operating hours in April 2018: 100 % Average operating hours in May 2018: 100 % Average operating hours in June 2018: 99.99 % Average operating hours in July 2018: 99.89 % Average operating hours in August 2018: 100 % Average operating hours in September 2018: 100 % 2. Top 5 loading time (only 419ms) Your page load time is one of the most important factors in maintaining a high-quality and user-friendly website. Don’t believe what I’m saying? please watch the following part: According to market research, if your website does not load within 5 seconds, you will lose over 74% of your mobile website traffic! Conversely, by reducing page load time, you can increase traffic and conversions by over 74%. coincide? I don’t think so! Fortunately, if you choose to trust and host your website on HostGator Cloud, you will never have to worry about losing potential customers due to slow page loading. With speeds of less than 419ms (more than 50% faster than the industry average of 890ms), HostGator Cloud is one of the fastest and most affordable hosting providers we’ve used. Here are the average load times over 10 months Average load time in December 2017: 440ms Average load time in January 2018: 430ms Average load time in February 2018: 456ms Average load time in March 2018: 479ms Average load time in April 2018: 433ms Average in May 2018 Load Time: 491ms Jun 2018 Average Load Time: 447ms Jul 2018 Average Load Time: 339ms Aug 2018 Average Load Time: 356ms Sep 2018 Average Load Time: 318ms Unlike many other hosts we’ve reviewed on this site, HostGator Cloud offers stable, fast service, ensuring a great customer experience for you and a great user experience for your audience. 3. Special discount Their base pricing is pretty competitive considering the performance and added features of HostGator cloud hosting services (which we’ll get to later). With prices ranging from $4.95/mo for the basic plan all the way up to $13.98/mo for the best deal, HostGator’s cloud plans are significantly cheaper than most of the 30+ web hosts we’ve used in the past. However, the price can be lower: HostGator is very generous, offering readers of our site an exclusive discount that lets you get HostGator’s cloud hosting for just $2.99/month. Also, this price is only for 1-month, 3-month or 6-month plans. After that, you pay the regular price, which is $14.95. However, choosing to buy a 3-year plan is a smart move as you can save a lot on renewal fees. If that’s not enough, you can also get a new domain name for $0.01 for 1 year. For $3 per month, any time you can guarantee web hosting with very reliable uptime and fast load times, it’s a pretty good idea to me. 4. Very user friendly “Bandwidth” is a very important part of a good hosting provider, just like ‘disk space’. Professional names like ‘net bitrate’, ‘throughput’, and ‘throttling’ are pretty obscure, but HostGator’s Layman’s point of view explains these words in a straightforward, approachable way. Plus, navigating their front-end site and control panel is a breeze. Even novice webmasters can quickly find and change important features, integrate useful applications, and make changes to account settings. HostGator uses clear terms like “maximum sites” and “monthly traffic” so that even the most basic of prospects can clearly understand the huge impact of each price drop. Their live support (detailed below) is available 24/7 if you run into problems, and they have a tutorial manual, FAQs, and other troubleshooting documentation available for the service. 5. Free Extras: Anti-Malware, Global CDN, Daily Backups, and More HostGator puts a lot of extras into their plans to make themselves even better. 1. Free Migration: One of the most notable features offered by HostGator Cloud is free migration. Unlike BlueHost, which charges nearly $150 per migration, HostGator Cloud will migrate your website completely free. No annoying bugs and extra fees. 2. Daily Backups: With just a few clicks, you can quickly set up full daily backups that will automatically store previous versions of your site, allowing you to quickly and easily copy your content when it harms your fans website back online and avoid the dreaded white screen glitch. 3. Automatic Malware Removal: One of the notable issues with WordPress sites is that every WordPress user has access to a plethora of plugins and third-party tools to address potential security concerns for hackers and cybercriminals. Fortunately, when your website is infected with some form of malware, HostGator will do its best to remove the malware and get back to business as usual. 4. Global CDN: In order to solve the network bottleneck problem, you can move the large files of the website (such as pictures and videos) to the CDN. When the user requests resources, the data is returned from the nearest node in the world, reducing the response time and improving the user experience. . 5. WPPro Developer Help: Another advantage unique to HostGator Cloud is access to WPPro developer help, which includes comprehensive WordPress beginner training and trusted professional web training to help you with a variety of different problems. For non-tech-savvy webmasters, this can be a huge benefit if you encounter technical issues that are beyond your skills or understanding. 6. Storage: The vast majority of basic shared hosting providers give you limited storage, but HostGator stands out in the industry by offering unlimited storage. 6. Good and fast after-sales service As I mentioned above, HostGator provides customers with the best support in the industry. Their 24/7 live support team is available via phone, email and responsive live chat, making for a quick and hassle-free experience for customers (which is not an industry standard). Over the past 8 months, I have submitted several enquiries, each of which has been handled quickly and professionally. Cons of HostGator Cloud It’s important to note that we’re big fans of the HostGator cloud service. With uncapped speeds, solid load times, and good customer support, it’s hard to find many complaints. There are some minor downsides to consider (though you can probably avoid them). The following will list in detail: 1. Industry Standard Pricing Tips Most web hosting companies have tiered pricing, and so does HostGator Cloud. For example, if you want to take advantage of the super attractive $2.92 deal on their site, you can only sign up once a month or a year. If you want more than 1 year, you have to pay $5.48/month – that’s going to cause you concern, right? The good news is that our special deal can help you get out of a longer-term commitment and lock in a longer-term service at such a low price. 2. Possible Cons: No Social Support Channels If you’re not a fan of live chat, email, or phone support, you might be disappointed by HostGator’s social support. Unlike many of their competitors, HostGator doesn’t seem to be active on their social channels, and if you submit a query on Twitter or Facebook, you may not receive any response. While this may not have much impact, it’s an issue worth considering. HostGator Cloud Pricing, Hosting Plans & Quick Facts Here’s a quick overview of HostGator’s cloud plans: 1. Starter Plan: This plan starts at $2.99 per month. It supports 1 site, 25k monthly bandwidth, 1GB backup and unmetered storage. <– We use this plan for our test site. -> 2. Standard Plan: This plan starts at $7.98 per month. It supports 2 sites, 200k bandwidth per month, 2GB backup and 150GB storage. 3. Business Plan: This plan starts at $13.98 per month. It supports 5 sites, 300k bandwidth per month, 3GB backup and unlimited storage. 4. Ease of Registration: The registration process is a breeze! 5. Payment method: You can pay by credit card or PayPal. 6. Upsells: There are some upsells in use. 7. Account Activation: In some cases, an account may take up to 24-48 hours to activate. 8. Control Panel and Dashboard Experience: cPanel. 9. Install Apps and CMS (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): Very easy, one-click install of the most popular apps. Do we recommend HostGator cloud? The answer is: we highly recommend it! HostGator’s entry-level shared hosting options, which we’ve reviewed before, aren’t all that great. However, these upgraded cloud hosting options are fantastic. Impressive uptime, a super low price of $3 per month, good and fast user service, HostGator is one of the best options for hosting your WordPress site. For further reading. Just click here and register. PS: If you’ve used HostGator Cloud, please consider leaving a review below – good or bad – it doesn’t matter. thank you for your support!
