Rating:
(3/5) 
Currently rated as #8
What we are looking at:
Items Reviewed: Price and Cost Effectiveness, Data
Center, Connectivity, Customer Service, & E-commerce;
General Impressions:
Pros:
- Cheap
- Unlimited Domains
- 24/7 Support
Cons:
- Pricey VPS
- Reseller focused
- Limited Ecommerce
- Phone Support hold times are excessive
Cost vs. Features & Support:
HostGator's prices are very good, especially if
you sign up for extended plans, and the amount
of bandwidth offered is also pretty high in the
industry. Once you get past the "theme" named plans,
they have a lot to offer. I'm still not sure what
you stay to people when you have a "Hatchling",
"Baby" or "Swamp" plan. Granted, most naming conventions
in this industry are fairly bland, but it's pretty
much expected. Their entry level plan is little
skimpy, but then that's why it is an entry level
plan. If you take the leap to the "Baby" plan,
you start getting the more juicy extras, like SSL,
Unlimited FTP accounts, MySQL databases, and unlimited
email accounts.
HostGator offers a good selection
of plans which means you have the security of a
long upgrade path. They even have fully dedicated
servers for those who really need power. They do
seem to have a focus on reseller services, which
are beyond the scope of this review, but we doubt
they do so to the detriment of their direct hosting
customers.
Servers and Connectivity:
HostGator is based out of the reasonably well-known
(in web hosting circles, at least) Planet datacenter
in Dallas, Texas. A fine facility, with high security
and backup capabilities, HostGator is connected
to 10 backbone providers, including Sprint, Level
3, Global Crossing, and Time Warner, to name a
few.
Ecommerce:
Nothing special here. HostGator provides the open-source
cart scripts available with their Fantastico
installs, osCommerce, Agora, ZenCart, and Cube
Cart, some of which are flavors of osCommerce
in the first place. They offer shared SSL, which
can be a cheap way to get the added security
of SSL on your storefront without the hassle
of a pricey personal cert, but in all, we can't
recommend a host like HostGator for any kind
of mission critical ecommerce work.
Customer Service:
Support options include an online knowledgebase, help desk ticketing system,
and Flash tutorials, as well as 24/7 phone and chat support. Our experience
with support was a little spotty, to say the least. HostGator, like any very
popular host, seems to be dealing with the growing pains of that popularity,
and nowhere is a host's growing pains more evident than in support. Overall
HostGator is a good deal, but consider it primarily for personal use and not
critical business needs.
