I tested it through a thorough research process to see if it lives up to its reputation, and I’m thrilled to say that HostGator exceeded my expectations.
HostGator pricing has six types of hosting, each with three pricing plans. With so many options—different plans, prices, discounts, features, and hosting types—it can be overwhelming to figure out which is the right fit for you.
That’s where I come in. In this article, I’ll break down all of HostGator’s hosting plans and pricing, highlight any additional costs you might encounter, and compare it to its competitors to help you make the best choice.
How does HostGator Pricing work?
You’ve probably noticed that HostGator pricing is super affordable. Wow! Hosting for just $3.95 per month? That’s amazing, right? But before you get too excited, there’s something important you should know—HostGator, like many hosting providers, offers special discounts for new users.
The prices on HostGator’s site are discounted to help you get started. These discounts apply for the first term of your plan. So, if you sign up for a 12-month plan, you’ll enjoy the lower rate for the first year. Sign up for two years, and you’ll get a discount for the first two years. Keep in mind that you’ll pay the full amount upfront when you first sign up.
Now, what happens after your initial term ends? Your plan will renew at the regular price—this is what you’ll pay without the new-user discount. For instance, the Hatchling plan starts at $3.95 per month, but after your first term, it renews at $9.99 per month.
This is a common practice with web hosts and can actually be a great way to snag a deal on your initial hosting plan. However, it’s important to stay aware of the regular price before diving into a plan. Doing so will help you avoid any surprise renewal rates down the road!
1. Shared web hosting
Shared hosting is the simplest form of hosting—it’s limited in features but incredibly affordable. The main advantage is the low cost because your site shares server resources with other sites. However, this shared setup has its downsides. If one of the other sites experiences a traffic surge and uses too many resources, your site could slow down or even crash. That’s why shared hosting is best suited for small, simple websites with low traffic.
In my research, HostGator stood out as the leader in shared hosting, earning an impressive 4.7 out of 5. It performed well across all categories, particularly in value for money, scoring 3.6 out of 5.
HostGator offers three shared hosting plans, priced between $3.75 and $6.25 per month for a 12-month term (with the new-user discount). Here’s a quick breakdown of the plans:
You might wonder about the difference between “unmetered” and “unlimited.” Here’s the deal:
Unmetered means you’re not charged for resource usage, but there are limits. It’s rare to exceed them, and HostGator will notify you if you’re nearing the cap. Unlimited has no limits—you can host as many domains as you want.
Another critical feature is free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which encrypts data to protect your site and visitors from hackers. This is essential because Google flags unsecured sites, discouraging visitors.
HostGator scores 4 out of 5 for shared hosting features in my research—a slight drop from its previous 4.4 rating before 2021. Why? Unlimited bandwidth and storage, once standout features, are now industry standards.
Here’s my take on the plans:
So, which plan should you choose?
For value, HostGator scored 3.6 out of 5 in shared hosting, placing it in fourth overall. HostGator is an excellent choice for shared hosting if reliable performance and affordability are your priorities.
2. Cloud hosting plans
HostGator pricing offers three cloud hosting plans, priced between $7.95 and $11.95 per month. Here’s what each plan includes: Â
The main drawback of the Hatchling plan is that you can only host one site, and it comes with limited memory. If you’re planning for growth, I recommend the Baby plan—it offers much more flexibility while keeping costs reasonable at $9.95 per month.
You might notice some overlap between these features and HostGator’s shared hosting plans. So, why is cloud hosting more expensive? The key is performance. With cloud hosting, your site can access multiple servers, improving reliability and speed.
While resources are still shared, you have more control over your usage, making resource management easier. The real difference lies in memory and CPU cores:
To sum it up:
The Baby plan perfectly balances cost and features for most people, giving your site room to grow without overpaying.
3. WordPress hosting
HostGator offers three WordPress hosting plans, ranging from $7.95 to $12.95 per month, depending on your needs:
Even though HostGator’s WordPress hosting score is slightly lower than its shared hosting score, its value for money improves, earning a 3.7 out of 5 in our research. Why? Because the WordPress hosting plans pack more features, justifying their higher prices.
The free migration service is a standout feature across all plans, making it easy to transfer an existing WordPress site to HostGator.
The Starter Plan is an excellent choice if you’re managing just one WordPress site. It’s affordable and includes essentials like free 1GB backups, a free domain name, and automatic updates to simplify your workflow. However, if your site regularly exceeds 100,000 visits or you manage multiple sites, you’ll need a more advanced option.
The Standard Plan is perfect for growing sites or multiple projects. It can handle twice the traffic of the Starter Plan and provides enough storage and flexibility for most WordPress users. Hosting up to two sites at $9.95/month makes this plan a solid middle-ground.
If you aim for significant growth or manage high-traffic websites, the Business Plan is your best bet. With the ability to handle up to 500,000 visitors monthly, it’s built for scaling up without compromising performance.
4. Reseller hosting
If you plan to launch your own hosting business, reseller hosting is the solution you need. This model allows you to buy hosting in bulk and then resell it to clients, generating income without the need to manage server maintenance.
HostGator provides the infrastructure and technology while you handle client support, services, and hosting. Reseller hosting is popular among web designers, freelancers, and aspiring web hosts, many of whom started with this model.
HostGator offers three reseller hosting plans, priced between $24.95 and $29.95 per month:
Due to their added features, these plans are more expensive than basic hosting plans. Be mindful of renewal costs, as the discounted rates can make the Silver plan seem comparable to the Copper plan, but the renewal prices are much higher.
The Aluminum plan is ideal for newcomers or freelancers with a small client base. It's also an excellent option for those needing multiple servers, as it’s often cheaper and more straightforward than buying several hosting packages.
The Copper plan offers a good balance of resources for a growing business with more clients. It has more storage and bandwidth, giving you room to scale.
The Silver plan is the best for businesses needing substantial resources, but be aware that it becomes quite pricey after the discount period ends, so ensure it fits your business needs before upgrading.
When reselling hosting, uptime is crucial—there’s no benefit to reselling unreliable services. HostGator guarantees 99.9% uptime, and research shows they maintain solid performance, earning a 4 out of 5 rating. If they fall short, they offer one month of credit to users and resellers.
Here's a quick overview of the technical features included with HostGator reseller plans:
Starting with the Aluminum plan is a good choice if you're unsure about your resource needs. HostGator allows easy upgrades, so you can start small and scale as your business grows.
5. VPS hosting
When shared hosting no longer meets your needs, VPS hosting is the next logical step. With VPS hosting, multiple sites still share a server, but fewer sites per server allow each one to have its own dedicated resources.
This type of hosting offers faster speeds, improved security, and more reliability than shared hosting, making it ideal for regular or medium-sized websites, especially for businesses that require more consistent performance. HostGator ranks highly in VPS hosting, earning a score of 4.6 out of 5 in our research.
HostGator offers three VPS hosting plans ranging from $29.95 to $49.95 per month:
While HostGator’s prices have decreased over time, they still aren’t as competitive as some other providers. For example, Bluehost’s plans maintain their discounted rates even after the initial period, whereas HostGator’s renewal prices are much higher. This led to HostGator receiving a value score of 3.1 out of 5, the lowest among its hosting options.
That said, HostGator offers a solid set of VPS features, including unlimited domains and backups, earning it a 4.3 out of 5 for VPS features. The main drawback is the value for money due to higher renewal costs.
The Snappy 2000 plan is an excellent starting point, providing substantial bandwidth for traffic spikes, along with decent memory and storage. The Snappy 4000 plan offers more storage and a bandwidth increase to 2TB, which would be beneficial for websites pushing the limits of the Snappy 2000 plan.
The Snappy 8000 plan is more expensive, but if you need extensive resources, including 3TB of bandwidth and added CPU power, it could be a good fit, though the high renewal costs may not justify the investment for all users.
All VPS plans come with full root access, allowing you to fully customize and manage your server settings to meet your specific needs.
6. Dedicated hosting
Dedicated hosting offers the highest level of performance, speed, and security by giving your site an entire server to itself. This type of hosting is ideal for large online stores, high-traffic sites, or businesses with strict security needs. While most sites don’t require such powerful hosting, it’s perfect for those that do.
HostGator ranks third for dedicated hosting with a score of 4.4 out of 5, and offers a generous 45-day money-back guarantee along with excellent customer support, which consistently scores 4.9 out of 5 across its services. However, its prices are relatively high compared to other options.
HostGator’s three dedicated hosting plans range from $109.97 to $139.99 per month:
The Value Server plan is a great starting point, offering a manageable set of features, including 8GB of RAM and four CPU cores, sufficient for most needs. The downside is that it uses HDD storage, which is slower than SSD storage found in higher-tier plans.
The Power Server plan is recommended for those who can afford $139.99 monthly. This plan allows you to choose between HDD and SSD storage, providing a faster performance option.
The Enterprise Server plan is designed for very large businesses with high resource needs, such as extensive e-commerce sites. With eight cores and 1TB SSD storage, it’s a powerful option, but the additional resources may be excessive unless you have significant traffic.
HostGator’s value-for-money score for dedicated hosting is 3.6 out of 5. While it offers excellent features and support, the higher prices mean you should choose the plan that best matches your needs to ensure good value.
7. Domain names
Some of HostGator’s plans, such as WordPress hosting, include a free domain name for the first year, which is a nice bonus. However, not all plans offer this benefit. Fortunately, you can purchase a domain directly from HostGator. Here's a breakdown of its domain pricing:
While these renewal prices are relatively high, buying your hosting and domain from the same provider can be convenient for managing everything in one place.
8. SSL Certificates
HostGator provides a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate with all its hosting plans, offering basic security for your website. However, if you need a higher level of protection, you can purchase premium SSL certificates directly through HostGator. The available options are:
These advanced SSL options are mainly intended for websites that require enhanced trust and security, such as online stores, but they are optional for most users.
9. Codeguard
CodeGuard is a backup and security service that helps protect your website by running daily automatic backups, notifying you of any unauthorized changes, and allowing you to restore your site to a previous version if needed.
Pricing starts at $2 per month for the initial term, then renews at $23.95 per year. You can add CodeGuard during checkout when signing up for a hosting plan. Be aware that this service is often pre-selected, so if you don't want these features, uncheck the box before purchasing.
Ready to use Hostgator web hosting platform?
Remember that the initial discount will eventually expire, so it's important to review renewal prices before committing. Additionally, be aware of potential extra costs at checkout, as HostGator offers various optional add-ons like domain names, backup services, and SEO tools. Always double-check your plan before finalizing your purchase.
Overall, we have a positive view of HostGator's pricing. With an impressive overall score of 4.7 out of 5, a value-for-money rating of 3.5, and being our top choice for shared hosting, HostGator stands out as a solid hosting provider. While its plans may not always be the cheapest, the quality of service makes it well worth the investment.
