HostGator scores high across the board but their lack of unlimited domains kept them out of the top 3. HostGator offers 24×7 support and is rated high on the BBB website.
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History of HostGator Hosting
In 2002, Brent Oxley decided to start HostGator.com, LLC from his dorm room at Florida Atlantic University. It started off as a small hosting company with only three servers and has grown into an industry leading hosting provider with over 12,000 servers under their management. They provide shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated webhosting to customers all over the globe.
Their customer numbers are well over 400,000 and growing and HostGator is proud to supply them with innovative products and services that complement and enhance their existing businesses. Whether you are a sole freelancer or a Fortune 500 company HostGator can provide exactly what you need. They serve over 200 countries with their exceptional service and products.
HostGator customers are usually developers or even web designers who provide hosting services to their clients and both small and large businesses use its affordable reseller and dedicated hosting services. Whether you are a novice or a computer and technology expert, you will find value here.
The company moved from Boca Raton, Florida to Houston, Texas in 2007 and they opened a new office in 2010 in Austin, Texas. Their new office was 20,000 square feet and ready to house a ton more staff, servers and more to satisfy even more customers.
In 2008, a customer satisfaction survey was conducted to existing HostGator customers. The survey found that about 90% of all their customers were satisfied with the services the company provided as well as being satisfied with the company overall.
The foundation HostGator is built on is industry leading customer service and support. It’s what they do on a daily basis and what they love to do. Every day, the company strives to improve and refine their service and support even more. Their mission and goal is to become the world leader in the global web hosting market.
The entire management team is made up of web hosting and technology experts and veterans that work together to make sure that HostGator consistently provides quality hosting services that it has made a name for itself with. The top tier data centers that they use, provides the flexibility to always deliver performance, reliability and performance. The hardware that is used to ensure uninterrupted service is all state of the art server hardware, HVAC, electrical and network systems.
The company has an A+ rating with the BBB and is an accredited member in excellent standing. With customer service being so important to them, you can be certain that whenever you have issues to get fixed, they are right there, ready to fix them. They have won many awards for their outstanding customer service including:
- DailyHostNews February 2013 Editor’s Choice Award
- Find My Host’s #2 Best Web Hosting 2012
- WordPress Hosting Review’s 2012 Best Host
- Joomla Hosting Review’s 2012 Best Host
- WordPress Hosting Review’s 2011 Best Host
- Joomla Hosting Review’s 2011 Best Host
- 2011 Best Free Website Transfer Service
- 2011 Best Small Business Hosting
- 2011 Code of Conduct Award by Web Hosting Search
- 2011 Best Reseller Web Hosting by WebHostingGeeks.com
- 2011 Best Windows Web Hosting by WebHostingGeeks.com
- 2011 FindMyHost Editor’s Choice Award
- 2011 Top 10 HostReview Award Best Budget Hosting
- 2011 Top 10 HostReview Award Fastest Growing Company
These are just a few of the awards that HostGator has won. There are a lot more and they all show that HostGator is exceptional in service and customer satisfaction. They are one of the qorld’s top 10 largest web hosting companies and host over 8,000,000 domains. With over 850 employees that are ready to provide 24/7/365 support they are the choice to make for business, personal or major Fortune 500 hosting.
Each of the hosting plans HostGator sells comes with a 45 day money back guarantee and they also offer an amazing 99.9% uptime guarantee that is offered by the CEO himself. If for some reason one of the customer service agents do not get your problem taken care of to your satisfaction, simply request that Adam be assigned your ticket and he will take care of you personally. This is the kind of VIP attention that you can expect as a HostGator customer.
In addition to excellent customer service, exceptional features and reliable servers, HostGator cares about the environment and they’ve invested in Wind Energy to help offset server emissions. They are serious in their endeavors to make a difference in the environment and as a result of these efforts; their shared and reseller servers are 130% wind powered. It may not seem like much, but below is exactly how important a difference this 130% makes. It is the equivalent of:
- Removing 444 cars from the road for a year, or
- Powering 321 homes with clean energy for a year, or
- Saving 5,654 barrels of oil, or
- Protecting 551 acres of forest for a year
By hosting your websites with HostGator you are contributing to these important differences. For those who try their best to live a green life, this is a great way to make sure your online presence is also green.
Signing up with HostGator Hosting
Signing up with HostGator isn’t hard at all. When you first decide to sign up you will need to choose which hosting plan you want. There are three to choose from: Hatchling, Baby, and Business. Each of them has specific features that make them what they are. Depending on what you need, you can compare the different plans and decide which one is perfect for your needs and the needs of your business. Once you decide on the plan you want, click the order now button. You will be taken to a registration page, also known as the Hostgator Order Wizard. On this page you will need to fill out a few things, starting with choosing whether you want a brand new domain or if you are using one that is already purchased by you. In addition to choosing that you will need to fill out the following:
- Package type
- Payment term
- Choose a username
- Choose a security pin
- Email address
- Full name
- Company name is applies
- Cell phone number
- Full billing address
- Credit card information
Here you can also choose any hosting add-ons you want. You can add:
- Domain Privacy Protection
- Site-Lock to secure and Accelerate your site
- CodeGuard – to back up your site
- SEO Gears to increase SEO and visibility
After all those are filled out and chosen, you will click on accept terms and conditions and finish the transaction. That’s all there is to it! HostGator makes the sign up process easy and fast for their customers so you can get started right away using the great features that come with the hosting package you are purchasing.
HostGator Hosting Package Choices and Features
HostGator has three main plans for customers to choose from. Each of them are affordable and even the least expensive one is packed full of great features to make your site standout. Each of the different plans is outlined below:
Hatchling
The hatchling plan is the least expensive of the three plans. The longer the term you choose you have a choice of payment terms to choose from:
- Monthly
- Every 6 months
- Yearly (paid by the year)
- Two years (paid in a lump sum)
- Three Years (paid in a lump sum)
Features included:
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 1 free domain
- 24/7 support
- Instant backups
- No contract
- 9% uptime guarantee
- 45 day money back guarantee
- $100 Google Adwords credit with $25 dollar Adwords purchase
- Free Instant Setup
- Unlimited Subdomains
- Unlimited FTP Accounts
- WordPress Hosting
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- CGI
- Fast CGI
- PHP 5
- Ruby on Rails
- SSH
- Perl
- Python
- SSI
- Cron
- FrontPage
- Curl
- GD 2
- Image Magick
- Streaming Audio/Video
- Free Module Installation
- Unlimited POP3 Accounts
- Web Mail
- Email Alias
- Auto Responders
- Mailing Lists
- Catch Alls
- Spam Assassin
- Mail Forwarding
- IMAP Support
- SMTP
- Latest cPanel
- SohoLaunch
- Hotlink Protection
- IP Deny Manager
- Custom Error Pages
- Instant Blogs
- Instant Portals
- Instant PHPNuke
- Instant Forums
- Instant Guestbook
- Instant Counter
- Instant FormMail
- Redirect URL
- Web Based File Manager
- PW Protected Directories
- phpMyAdmin
- AWStats (real time updates)
- Webalizer
- Raw Log Manager
- Referrer Logs
- Error Logs
- Shared SSL
- osCommerce
- ZenCart
- Cube Cart
Baby Plan
The Baby Plan is the next level in the three HostGator plan offerings. It has more features than the hatchling plan and is affordable too. The payment term offerings are:
- Monthly
- Every 6 months
- Yearly (paid by the year)
- Two years (paid in a lump sum)
- Three Years (paid in a lump sum)
Features Included
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Domains
- 24/7 support
- Instant backups
- No contract
- 9% uptime guarantee
- 45 day money back guarantee
- $100 Google Adwords credit with $25 dollar Adwords purchase
- Free Instant Setup
- Unlimited Addon/Parked Domains
- Unlimited Subdomains
- Unlimited FTP Accounts
- WordPress Hosting
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- CGI
- Fast CGI
- PHP 5
- Ruby on Rails
- SSH
- Perl
- Python
- SSI
- Cron
- FrontPage
- Curl
- GD 2
- Image Magick
- Streaming Audio/Video
- Free Module Installation
- Unlimited POP3 Accounts
- Web Mail
- Email Alias
- Auto Responders
- Mailing Lists
- Catch Alls
- Spam Assassin
- Mail Forwarding
- IMAP Support
- SMTP
- Latest cPanel
- SohoLaunch
- Hotlink Protection
- IP Deny Manager
- Custom Error Pages
- Instant Blogs
- Instant Portals
- Instant PHPNuke
- Instant Forums
- Instant Guestbook
- Instant Counter
- Instant FormMail
- Redirect URL
- Web Based File Manager
- PW Protected Directories
- phpMyAdmin
- AWStats (real time updates)
- Webalizer
- Raw Log Manager
- Referrer Logs
- Error Logs
- Private SSL Allowed
- Dedicated IP – $2.00 a month
- Shared SSL
- osCommerce
- ZenCart
- Cube Cart
Business Plan
This is the perfect plan for business owners with tons of features, ready to enhance and complement your business. There are monthly payment term choices available including:
- Monthly
- Every 6 months
- Yearly (paid by the year)
- Two years (paid in a lump sum)
- Three Years (paid in a lump sum)
Features Included:
- Unlimited Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- Unlimited Domains
- Free TollFree Number
- Free Dedicated IP
- Free Private SSL
- 24/7 support
- Instant backups
- No contract
- 9% uptime guarantee
- 45 day money back guarantee
- $100 Google Adwords credit with $25 dollar Adwords purchase
- Free Instant Setup
- Unlimited Addon/Parked Domains
- Anonymous FTP
- Unlimited Subdomains
- Unlimited FTP Accounts
- WordPress Hosting
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- CGI
- Fast CGI
- PHP 5
- Ruby on Rails
- SSH
- Perl
- Python
- SSI
- Cron
- FrontPage
- Curl
- GD 2
- Image Magick
- Streaming Audio/Video
- Free Module Installation
- Unlimited POP3 Accounts
- Web Mail
- Email Alias
- Auto Responders
- Mailing Lists
- Catch Alls
- Spam Assassin
- Mail Forwarding
- IMAP Support
- SMTP
- Latest cPanel
- SohoLaunch
- Hotlink Protection
- IP Deny Manager
- Custom Error Pages
- Instant Blogs
- Instant Portals
- Instant PHPNuke
- Instant Forums
- Instant Guestbook
- Instant Counter
- Instant FormMail
- Redirect URL
- Web Based File Manager
- PW Protected Directories
- phpMyAdmin
- AWStats (real time updates)
- Webalizer
- Raw Log Manager
- Referrer Logs
- Error Logs
- Your Own Toll-Free Number
- Private SSL Allowed – included
- Dedicated IP – FREE
- Shared SSL
- osCommerce
- ZenCart
- Cube Cart
Ease of Use for HostGator Hosting Customers
Making HostGator easy to use is one of the reasons they are so popular with their customers. On the website there are ways to contact support staff, learn about how to do certain things in relation to your account and a host of video tutorials. These tutorials are put together to help you navigate the site as well as learn how to use the features to the best of their ability. The video tutorials are so numerous it would take a lot to list them all here. Their video library is massively extensive and is designed to educate the customer and help them accomplish whatever it is they want to do. The site’s navigation is very easy and there’s no difficulty in finding the sections you need and want.
Help & Support Tickets
HostGator is all about customer support and help and their site is full of ways to get help should you ever need it. You can create a support ticket through email, check out and participate in the forums, go through a slew of tutorials or check the knowledge base. If all of that doesn’t work, there’s the telephone support and live chat options as well.
Whatever you need help with there are many choices to ensure that you get the help you need and the solutions you’re after to get things back on track. The customer support staff is trained in all aspects of HostGator, so there is no question that they will be able to answer your question and fix your problem or they will find another staff member who can.
Due to the fact that they are open 24/7/365, you will always have someone available to take your call and help you get your site straightened out, or email or any other problem you may be encountering.
Contacting HostGator Hosting and Finding them on Social Media
If you need to contact HostGator for any reason, you have a few different methods to choose from: telephone, email, and live chat. They are happy to help you and are available 24/7/365.
Website: www.hostgator.com
Telephone: (866) 96 – GATOR
Local Telephone: (713) 574 – 5287
International Number: 00+1-713-574-5287
Fax Number – Billing – (281) 476 – 7800
Fax Number – Abuse – (281) 476 – 7801
Email: Support ticket on the website through embedded form
Live Chat – Available on the site anytime
If you are looking for HostGator on social media, there are several you can follow them on. They’re happy to have you there! Just follow the links below.
Blog: http://blog.hostgator.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HostGator
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hostgator
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hostgator
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/hostgator
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hostgator.com?trk=company_name
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/hostgator/
HostGator will by far provide the tools and service you need to take your business to the next level. They’re committed to providing you the best of the best and that is why they are industry leaders.
Resources
- Hostgator Hosting – http://www.hostgator.com/