HostGator review
We read its page, corrected its first payment, checked every item we credit and left one open. Here is what we found.
- BySalwa Al-Otaibi · edited by Nora Al-Mutairi
- Read on
- Score6.2 / 10
Built from what HostGator publishes about itself on its hosting page, read in a browser without an account and without buying. Read on .
HostGator asks for three years up front for its advertised price to hold, which comes to a hundred and thirty-five dollars — the weightiest sum paid on day one anywhere on our table. The guarantee set against it is thirty days.
We corrected a figure before writing this page: Our record carried a first payment of 149.95 dollars on a thirty-six-month term at three dollars seventy-five a month, and the product of those two is $135.00. The difference between the two figures is fourteen dollars ninety-five, and we searched the page for a setup fee or a one-time charge that would explain it and found no mention of one
And it counts in their favour that the term is printed with the price: HostGator’s advertised price carries a line printed beneath it reading: for a 36-month term. The renewal is ten dollars ninety-nine a month and the money-back guarantee is thirty days. So the small figure on the card hangs on three years, and the page says so on the same line
How this review was built
We bought nothing from HostGator. We read its hosting page in a browser, because it refuses a direct fetch, and created no account and typed no personal detail.
The company prints no total on the page and we did not reach a cart, so the first payment we name is arithmetic rather than observation. The same limit applies to InMotion on the neighbouring page, and we say it in both places.
Speed and uptime sit outside the score, here and at every company on this list, because measuring them needs a bought plan.
Buying and price
5.2
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 33%
Three dollars seventy-five, multiplied by thirty-six.
We corrected the first payment before writing: Our record carried a first payment of 149.95 dollars on a thirty-six-month term at three dollars seventy-five a month, and the product of those two is $135.00. The difference between the two figures is fourteen dollars ninety-five, and we searched the page for a setup fee or a one-time charge that would explain it and found no mention of one
And what the page publishes about the term and the renewal: HostGator’s advertised price carries a line printed beneath it reading: for a 36-month term. The renewal is ten dollars ninety-nine a month and the money-back guarantee is thirty days. So the small figure on the card hangs on three years, and the page says so on the same line
The price score is low for two reasons together: the distance between three dollars seventy-five and ten ninety-nine, and the term the small figure requires. A hundred and thirty-five dollars on the first day sits against a thirty-day refund window, so the ratio between what is paid and what can be undone is a wide one.
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| Renewal jumps to 2.9× the opening price | 4.21 |
| The advertised price demands 36 months up front | 4.17 |
| The renewal price is on the pricing page | 10.00 |
| $135.00 leaves your account today | 3.25 |
Support availability
5.0
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 27%
One channel, and it stands alone on our table.
HostGator advertises support at all hours by chat alone, and one channel is what puts the support score at five, the floor on this criterion anywhere on our table. The score looks at published availability and how many routes there are, not at the quality of the answer.
And where this score fails our reader: HostGator publishes four entries in its alternate-language set, all of them English: the global default, English, the United States and India. Arabic is not among them and neither is any other language, and we found no statement about support languages in either direction
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| support around the clock | 10.00 |
| Contact by chat only | 3.33 |
| Publishes no Arabic support | 0.00 |
Published features
7.5
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 20%
Six items of seven, and one of them a question we left open.
The card carries a free domain for a year, a free migration tool, a Cloudflare network, an SSL certificate and WordPress staging. It names no backups, which is why we do not count them.
Email has a chapter at the foot of this page, because what the card says about it is not what we count, and we neither changed the count nor left it unmentioned.
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| 6/7 published features | 7.50 |
Refund and billing
8.0
Basis: the company’s own pages · weight 20%
Thirty days, against three years.
The score looks at three things: is the window written down, are the exclusions published, and does the billing show the renewal price. The company writes the first two, and its renewal price is on the card rather than at the billing step.
We did not read its full terms of service, so we do not know what happens to someone leaving mid-term. That question bears on anyone paying a hundred and thirty-five dollars in advance with particular force, and we say we have not answered it rather than leaving it hanging unmarked.
| Value | Points |
|---|---|
| a refund window of 30 days | 10.00 |
| The refund exclusions are written down | 10.00 |
| Billing does not state the renewal and its price | 0.00 |
Speed and uptime: we did not measure them
Speed and uptime sit outside this score because measuring them needs a bought plan.
And we did not reach a cart, so the first payment is arithmetic on the published figures; nor did we read the terms of service, so what happens on leaving part-way through the three years is not known to us.
Arabic: where it reaches and where it does not
Four entries, all of them English.
We read what it publishes: HostGator publishes four entries in its alternate-language set, all of them English: the global default, English, the United States and India. Arabic is not among them and neither is any other language, and we found no statement about support languages in either direction A country edition for India and nothing for anywhere else. Six of the fifteen companies on our table publish no localisation at all; this one publishes it for a single country.
Email: an item we left open
Email: what the card says, and what we count.
The card carries an item called Pro Email - Free Trial: HostGator’s card writes an item called Pro Email - Free Trial, rather than email included. We do count email among this plan’s features and we have not changed that, because its shared hosting runs on cPanel, which ordinarily provides mailboxes whether or not an email product is sold on top, and the card says nothing either way. So we publish what the card says and leave the credit an open question
We did not change the score, because changing it would have been a guess. This company’s shared hosting runs on cPanel, and cPanel ordinarily provides mailboxes whether or not an email product is sold on top of it. The card neither confirms that nor denies it — it sells a product and does not describe what sits beneath it.
So we could lower the score on an inference, or leave it and say nothing, or leave it and say so. We chose the third: the score stands, the question is published, and the reader knows that this one item is unsettled on our side.
This is the third company this week offering an item we count in the shape of a trial or a substitute: DreamHost gives mailboxes for three months, FastComet’s free domain is a transfer rather than a registration, and this one offers its email as a trial.
The full calculation
| Sub-score | Value | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 5.2 | 33% | 1.716 |
| Support | 5.0 | 27% | 1.350 |
| Features | 7.5 | 20% | 1.500 |
| Refund | 8.0 | 20% | 1.600 |
| Total | 6.166 → 6.2 |
If not this one, then what
Both picks are computed from the scores rather than written by hand: the first is the one directly above it in the ranking, the second the one that beats it by the widest margin on the criterion it loses on.
DreamHost
6.2The service directly above it in the ranking.
$2.89/mo on a 12-month prepayment: $34.68 today, then $10.99/mo
Read the reviewHostinger
7.1What this page offers instead on the criterion it loses on — Support availability.
$3.49/mo on a 24-month prepayment: $83.76 today, then $10.99/mo
Read the review
Bottom line
Buy from HostGator if you accept three years up front and want staging and a delivery network on the entry plan, you read English, and chat alone is enough for you. Stay away if you want a small first payment, or backups in the plan, or a second support channel for when the first one is down.
Questions
Did you buy this plan?
No. We read the hosting page in a browser, created no account and bought nothing. That is why speed and uptime are outside the score.
What will I pay on day one?
A hundred and thirty-five dollars for thirty-six months at three dollars seventy-five. We corrected that figure: our record carried a hundred and forty-nine ninety-five, and we searched the page for a fee explaining the difference and found no mention of one.
Is email included?
The card says free trial rather than included. We do count it among the features and have not changed that, because the hosting runs on cPanel, which ordinarily provides mailboxes, and the card says nothing either way. The question is open on our side and we say so.
Do I get backups?
The card names no backups, which is why we do not count them. Keep your own copy of your site.
How many support channels?
One, which is chat. That is the only one on our table, and it is why the support score sits at five.
What we know, and where from
Every figure on this page, where it came from and when we read it.
| What we say | How we know | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Our record carried a first payment of 149.95 dollars on a thirty-six-month term at three dollars seventy-five a month, and the product of those two is $135.00. The difference between the two figures is fourteen dollars ninety-five, and we searched the page for a setup fee or a one-time charge that would explain it and found no mention of one | we measured it | HostGator — Hatchling plan, 36-month term | |
| HostGator’s advertised price carries a line printed beneath it reading: for a 36-month term. The renewal is ten dollars ninety-nine a month and the money-back guarantee is thirty days. So the small figure on the card hangs on three years, and the page says so on the same line | the company states it | HostGator — term, renewal and guarantee | |
| HostGator publishes four entries in its alternate-language set, all of them English: the global default, English, the United States and India. Arabic is not among them and neither is any other language, and we found no statement about support languages in either direction | we could not find it | HostGator hreflang set | |
| HostGator’s card writes an item called Pro Email - Free Trial, rather than email included. We do count email among this plan’s features and we have not changed that, because its shared hosting runs on cPanel, which ordinarily provides mailboxes whether or not an email product is sold on top, and the card says nothing either way. So we publish what the card says and leave the credit an open question | the company states it | HostGator — Pro Email on the plan card |