HostGator

Been with them for over 5 years now and couldnt be happier. They are much more lenient and easy going than any other web hosting company out there. So much space and freedom to do whatever you want with the hosting package. Load times are super fast though the consistency on fast load times can improve, you just cant do better then price versus what is offered. Platform is also very clean and user friendly. It just feels like the complete solution you need.

Reliable web hosting provider with good customer service and lots of features.
HostGator’s current 1.5 star rating reminds me of Ryanair Airlines Unilocal situation — inexpensive, works fine, still not loved on here. HostGator is loved even less! (Ryanair has 2.5).
Pretty happy about the service. I moved to Hostgator from a really horrible hosting named Gigapros where sites were down for hours several times a month. My mailbox was always full of Google warnings about sites not working. I had to contact their service every week. They would fix them, then sites were down again. A nightmare.
HostGator is just UP. Always. I never received an alert from Google about sites being down in 1.5 years.
Had an issue recently, asked them on twitter. Turned out to be a problem with the registrar (forgot to update the info, not HostGator’s fault). They replied fast, pointed me to the source of the problem and I was able to fix it in minutes.
Prices. Be attentive, the prices on the website reflect a discount on the first invoice. They do promos from time to time, I used one of those and paid 3 years ahead. Happy so far!
P. S. Fun fact — their mascot’s name is Snappy, I was always sure his name was «HostGator».

The. Worst. Company. Ever.
I do not like leaving such negative reviews, but HostGator deserves less than 1 star. I am disgusted by their lack of customer care.
To make a long story short, I called in to cancel my web hosting service in October of 2014. I was told my account would be cancelled. It was not. I noticed that I continued to be billed monthly afterward. I have called in to HostGator of 100 times in the year of 2014 and 2015, and created numerous support tickets requesting cancellation and refund. In December of 2015, I decided to dispute the matter with my bank. My bank was only able to refund me 4 payments, as they are not able to refund past a certain amount of days.
HostGator has informed me that it is not their problem that they continued to debit my account for over a year after my cancellation. I have been advised by my bank to take legal action.
I am completely shocked at the lack of care and integrity of this company.

HostGator infected my websites with malware, then they try to force me to buy SiteLock — which is their anti-​malware service. Then, while my websites are down, they take over my domain names and monetize them displaying advertising and links. One of the most unethical business practices on the internet right now. Please be aware if you own any websites and you host with this HostGator company.

Looking at some of the earlier reviews here of Hostgator, I think many are exaggerating how bad Hostgator really is and I also think many of the reviewers don’t have much experience with technology. I couldn’t find enough valid reasoning to give Hostgator less than the amount of stars I’m giving.
I was with Hostgator for more than five years. I went with them because at the time I was setting up my website, they were running a couple of promotions that could save me a good amount on domain registration and hosting, and I was hearing many good things about them including their dedication to the environment. I went with their shared hosting package and was paying $ 15 a month because I figured it was all I would ever need. Unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, free SSL, etc. At first, my website was set up as a web store with purchases being made every week. Then a year or two later, I turned it into a Wordpress blog and took a few steps down on the Hostgator plan to get rid of unnecessary things. When this happened, Hostgator messed up my private registration and turned it off for no reason leaving my personal information to be exposed to the public. It then happened every year because Hostgator never sent me reminders to renew the private registration and would just turn it off without notification. In each of these instances, I had to contact support and file a ticket which took a day to process to get everything the way it should be. Note that I always paid my bill on time. I also started having problems with their e-​mail system for my domain. They told me it got hacked and it was sending spam out, but they also told me I had to fix it myself, so I changed all the addresses. How it happened, I have no idea. I left Hostgator a few years later when I just got tired of dealing with them. I could have left earlier, but moving sites and hosting is just that much of a hassle and is a big part of the reason I stayed with them for as long as I did. Now, I just go with Freenom domains and host the servers myself.
What brings the rating up is the customer service being available ²⁴⁄₇ and the fact that I never left a support session with an unanswered question no matter how dumb it was. What brings the rating down is the amount of things that Hostgator’s Terms of Service disallows on their shared hosting plan and requires an upgrade to a dedicated server or VPS, both of which are overpriced in my opinion. Also, Hostgator’s servers do not stay true to the speeds they advertise and I believe now that they’re throttled based on the amount of websites on a single server. I was certainly not getting gigabit speeds when accessing my site. In conclusion, I don’t think Hostgator is the worst because I’ve heard much worse stories about other web hosting services. I think Hostgator cares and will help, but you just have to initiate the help and notify them because they don’t see these things themselves (my guess is because they have more clients than they can handle). Support is good, the technology and actual service is mediocre. I’m not going to suggest any alternatives to Hostgator because it really comes down to what you need/​want and what you’re willing to pay, but that’s my opinion on Hostgator.

What a nightmare. They take up to 72 hours to install an SSL Cert. Any other hosting company takes 30 minutes to get that resolved. This is the laziest hosting company on the planet. I’ll be getting my last legacy account away from them. RUN FROM THIS COMPANY.

Hostgator is going bad, what started as reliable hosting company is turning into a nightmare. The support tickets are answered in 5 to 10 days, long wait on phone and now they are sending me emails accusing me of «abusing» their CPU without researching the issue or offering solutions. So I decided to share my reply to Hostgator:
I appreciate you sharing this issue with me. «Abuse» by definition is a deliberate act of breaking the rules and trust, I think you have miss chosen your words in this email because:
1– I never knew about CPU limits on our hosting account, this something that should be posted online, not in fine print so buyers can be aware of it.
2– The CPU log output is showing that the issue is limited to one of 10 sub-​domains which uses your Wordpress.
3– You identified the issue but never suggested any solutions beside sending me to do more vague research. I suspect that this issue may be caused by a Plugin since all other subdomains are on same platform and did not generate such an issue. Please tell me specifically what is causing your CPU «abuse»
I hope to hear back from you soon.
End of email
Hostgator is losing my business at end of the term and I recommend doing research before signing u with any hosting company. They hide important terms in their fine print, so read before you sign. I hope that Hostgator will respond to all the negative reviews and fix their service issues but mist importantly be transparent with their paying customers.

HostGator 2012: 5 stars
HostGator ever since being bought by EIG: 0 stars
Since the EIG buyout their server uptime has been atrocious. Massive outages every few months, and spotty failures every few days or so.
Like so many others on this page I can attest that their customer support is next to useless. Last time I tried a live chat I was on hold for an hour, only to be shunted into a support ticket. By the way this was an urgent, my-​server-​is-​down kind of problem. 14+ hours later, no response. Only after I took to complaining publicly on Twitter did they deign to «expedite» the ticket.
That sealed it — enough was enough — and I transferred all my sites and client sites to another host. I deleted all the accounts on my hosting manager, and after the last one had transferred I submitted a cancellation ticket. Well. 6 days later they hadn’t taken any action. Now I’ve taken to Twitter again, and they’re «trying to expedite» the cancellation request. It is, to say the least, suspicious that they couldn’t be bothered to notice my cancellation request until after they’d billed me another $ 50 for the next month. If they think I’m just going to roll over, though, they’re mistaken. I will continue calling them out on every social site I can find until I get that month refunded.
Unacceptable. Inexcusable. Avoid HostGator like the plague. Vote with your dollars and go somewhere else.
Two good options: Site5 if you need basic shared hosting; WiredTree if you need something more robust (VPS or dedicated). Both have been excellent so far.
Pro tip for those who decide to host with them anyway: if (when) they neglect your support ticket, go on Twitter and Facebook and complain. That seems to be the only way of accomplishing anything with these jokers.
I could go on, but propriety and decency mandate that I not use any of the other words that come to mind.

Worst hosting company ever! HOSTGATOR… YOU SUCK! Its been 3 days without a response to a ticket and every time I contact them they give me the same excuse. «we are short staffed»… lol. really? How can you be short staffed when you are losing hundreds of customers every day! Yes hostgator used to rock back in the day, now I’m moving everything to a new host. Its just annoying that I have to close 20 accounts and migrate to a new host but I’ll be happy when its all done. This was the last straw. someone needs to file a complaint with the BBB. Their customer service is horrid

Truly one of the very worst support cultures I’ve experienced since I began using computers in the mid 1980s.
AVOID HOSTGATOR AT ALL COST.
If you’re looking for WordPress hosting, do yourself a huge favor and first contact GoDaddy’s excellent phone support, contact Site5’s outstanding ²⁴⁄₇ chat support, then try to get through to HostGator’s terrible, bad-​attitude, robotron chat support.
GoDaddy will pick up the phone connecting you to a friendly knowledgeable empowered person within 1 minute who will see your problem through to completion.
will pick up your chat within 30 seconds, connecting you to a knowledgeable, empowered, friendly support person who will also see your problem all the way through or transfer you to a next level support person.
Trying to get Chat support from HostGator, you will wait at least 30 minutes. You will be connected to a person unable or unwilling to do other than recite company policy to you over and over again. They will NEVER take ownership of your issue. But they always seemed content to burn through hours of my time while not helping me.
If you’ve ever gone to the IT department of your company and smelled the socially inept support staff as they condescendingly let you know you’ve interrupted their online game … contacting HG support feels like that. Every. Time.
For example, hosting multiple WordPress sites on multiple domain names I was told that I needed separate email addresses for each cpanel login. Using Google apps for my email I am able to receive various email aliases to the same master account. However all emails sent or replied go out from the same master address. This is not a problem for thinking human beings.
But this email alias was an insurmountable problem (one of many) for the disconnected, impersonal, unempowered robotrons at HostGator support who eventually answer your call/​chat.
They had me in a Catch22.
Any changes I wanted made to an account associated with one of my alias emails always generated a vetting test email to my master email account to authorize my veracity. My replies to HostGator’s vetting test emails were always rejected as coming from an unauthorized email account. I could do nothing with those accounts. I couldn’t change DNS. I couldn’t backup and migrate to a different host. I couldn’t change the email to a non-​alias account. If I called, after a very long wait, the support rep couldn’t get past this «rejected» email. They never once offered nor were they agreeable to using a different authorization process, like, say my mother’s maiden name, or the last 4 digits of the credit card on file, or my social security number. They’d send an authorizing email to my alias, I would reply, and the robotic reply would reject it. STUCK. CATCH22.
After 3 days and untold hours unsuccessfully trying to cancel my account («you are not authorized»), on the FOURTH DAY I finally got results by shaming them on social media, both Facebook and Twitter.
I NEVER got that kind of speedy response when they knew nobody was watching. However, the speedy social media response was just as surly, just as robotic and just as unhelpful. Until I escalated their embarrassment, at which point they actually assigned a senior support person with some authority and flexibility and creativity, who ultimately called me and canceled my accounts.
AVOID HOSTGATOR.
I am not exaggerating when I say their entire support culture is broken and among the worst I’ve experienced in 30 years.
GoDaddy. Site5. There are so many choices for WordPress hosting.

Customer service has gone from excellent to pure puke. I have been using Hostgator for years and have loved them in the past.
Now EVERY customer service issue is a problem that drags on and is usually not resolved.
I’m in the process of leaving them. BUYER BEWARE

HostGator has DEFINITELY went down the toilet for a remarkable web-​hosting company and exceptional customer service. I purchased a SSL certificate for a client of mine’s online store. I have been battling with them from 7am this morning and the smart mouth chat tech keeps telling me that the admins are still working on it. I mean how many people does it take to install a SSL certificate when you’ve been given from 7am to well NOW?! Of course I’m sure they’re hard at work over there getting it done… Ha! That place is a JOKE. I would HIGHLY advise NOT to do business with them, because apparently you only have to have an IQ of 7 to qualify to work there.

Once upon a time, Hostgator was a remarkably great web-​hosting company, with an amazingly sharp and helpful customer service group. I am still currently with them… and it is going on 5 years. H O W E V E R, it seems as if, over night, they have become a HORRIBLE company.
As of the last few months, I have had several issues with my emails. It has been 5 days since I turned in yet another service-​ticket, but no one has bothered to respond or fix the problem. I cannot bare to stay on the never-​ending customer service hold; therefore, I am just hoping that they will get to it. That is all that I can do… as they are not very responsive.
Over the last few months, I have had several power outages (that lasted for over 8 hours)…with absolutely no apologies. or any «outage» messages on their website or on their customer service phone lines. And, when I twittered that there was an outage, they just removed the tweets.
They just do NOT seem to care about customer service.

This hosting provider has given me the most problems of all the providers I’ve used in 16 years. I have a two page non-​critical static website that I have hosted with them and one would think that this would easy breezy but nope, not with Hostgator it isn’t.
They do have live phone support which is a big plus because you will be needing it. Just get ready to listen to hold music for a very long time.

I do not recommend HostGator to anyone interested in web hosting services. I recommend all should steer clear of this company.
Ever since the company was purchased by Endurance International Group, its servers have become overprovisioned, speeds have crawled to a snails pace, and the company’s customer service has hit rock bottom. In the 2 years of having this service, HostGator had four major disruptions, including one which compromised customer credit card information.
Finally, while the company «guarantees» a refund, including pro-​rata, if one is dissatisfied with service at any time, do not expect to receive one. In my case, service was canceled in January 2014, but HostGator’s account services group did not process the cancellation until June of 2014. I never saw a dime returned.

I have had my website hacked. I have called Host Gator 3x now. Each on hold for 20 minutes before speaking with someone. Then poor live chat support. 15 min wait for live support.
My website has had very little issues in the past but when I need them — they are not reliable.
Terrible customer service.

I got a special deal over the Memorial Day weekend. It was supposed to be $ 4.47 a month for hosting. But I got charged $ 8.95 for the 2^nd month. The drop down on the offer and the offers advertisements said it was MONTHLY. The drop down said it was $ 4.47 monthly. But supposedly there was an asterisk that pointed somewhere else that said it was the first month only. Why put $ 4.47 monthly on the drop down selection if it isn’t!

Hostgator engages in deceptive advertising practices — read the entire TOS before signing up.
I started service ~2 months ago, but only had about an hour or two to dedicate to constructing the site. Last weekend I decided to actually build my site. I had been happy with Hostgator thus so I opted to change my plan from a monthly subscription to a yearly one. I decided to take advantage of their memorial day sale; a coupon code was automatically applied which halved the cost. I was excited and signed up without fully reading the TOS. Several days later, after I had fully constructed my website — I received an email informing me that I would have to pay full cost since only new members could use coupon codes. While technically this is true, this completely lacks integrity. My only options were to rebuild the site elsewhere or pay the additional cost.
My service rep, Christa R., was polite but unwilling to make amends. I payed the cost, but lost all respect for this company. I recommend avoiding this webhost.

The worst web host you can imagine. Let me elaborate on my two year experience:
1. My website was hacked and defaced — Host Gator would not take responsibility, they said it was probably my weak password — my password was 12 characters and totally uncrackable. I found out the next day on a blog that hundreds of hostgator sites were hacked. Blatant lies.
They also would not restore my site, I had to do it myself.
2. Took six weeks and nine phone calls to transfer three domains to HostGator.
(should have taken a hint at this point)
3. They refuse to protect there service from scammers. They locked my SQL database so site would not function properly. They said I had too much traffic. The traffic was website crawlers that were known spammers, professional ripoffs, Russian and Chinese malware scanners, etc. etc. etc. These are easily blocked by Web Hosts that give a S@it.
4. They «migrated» my website to another computer. My website started going offline every day. The access time of simple pages went up to 10 seconds!!!
After three months the site stayed on most days but browser access times were still five times as long as it was before they migrated my site. They claim its how my site is coded no matter how many times I show them data that it was fast before they moved it. They are apparently told to lie to customers. Complete ripoff mentality.
5. They sell you an «unlimited» service that is VERY limited. Example — you can only have 25 processes running at once. This amount includes email checks, visitors to the site, FTP usage, and any other access to the web host, make up 25 processes quick. Then, additional users trying to access the site are redirected to an error page.
6. Tech support ranges from bad to worse. In two years I had to make over 50, yes, 50 phone calls to tech support for one problem or another caused by Hostgator. The variability and uselessness of responses you get are ridiculous. I had three different techs tell me three different reasons for FTP failures that had nothing to do with solving the problem!
7. Unfortunately this is not the full list! I don’t think you should need more info to make a web host decision — it ain’t HostGator…

I’ve been with Hostgator for many years. I can’t count how many times I’ve called, created support tickets and engaged in live chats on a wide variety of website and web hosting issues. Never once have I been dissatisfied. I fear every time I make contact I will not get the incredible support I consistently get, but sure enough, they always come through. Providing tech support for website owners is absolutely critical, especially when running a website can be a highly complex endeavor.
To the management team at Hostgator: Whatever you do, whatever changes you make in the future, do not change the priority you place on excellent customer service and tech support. If you continue to provide the support I’ve come to expect, I will refer you to anyone and everyone who has a website.
In nearly 10 years I have never used another hosting company, and when you think about how many hosting companies there are, that’s an amazing fact.