How to Find the Best Hosting Provider for Your Needs – Our Personal Experience – Full Honest Hostgator Review! Do Not Buy a Plan until you read this!
Our brief Hostgator Review, was posted on TrustPilot you can check it out here. That includes Hostgator generic response!
In this post, we share with you our personal honest Hostgator review. Hostgator has been around since 2002 and we took out a shared hosting Business plan in 2013! They have a large number of servers and have been respected in that space for years. So of course you will find conflicting users reviews on the web! That’s to be expected for a provider of their size.
Some Background – Hostgator Review by User:
Hostgator was started by Brent Oxley CEO, in his university days! The company today has over 400,000 customers in over 190 countries, hosting over 8 million domains.
The Endurance International Group (EIG) bought Hostgator for $225 million in 2012 keeping Brent on as CEO! They also own FatCow, Bluehost, HosMosnter etc.
Hostgator is still based in Houston with an offshoot in Austin. Recently they bought up 2 small companies and merged them. Creating a Brazil office and site at http://www.hostgator.com.br plus an Indian subsidiary, site: http://hostgator.in. They have over 200 employees and growing steadily!
Hostgator’s name was built on offering ultra-competitive, budget, shared web hosting plans. These include: Hatchling, Baby and Business Plans – in order of user benefits, service options and support given. The most popular plan is the Baby Plan! Our choice was the Business Plan!
Hostgator User Review – Support & Customer Service
This is what originally attracted us to Hostgator. On the face of it, the support machine at Hostgator is quite impressive, despite their low-cost product pricing. Here’s what they offer:
- An online FAQ – in their knowledge base with full video tutorials covering a wide range of trainings and issues you could ever come across in domains and webhosting.
- Live chat support – 24/7
- Phone support Toll-free (US customers only)
- Email support
- A Separate Billing Portal & support.
- Customers can upgrade their accounts, inquire on technical matters, billing, Domain, and admin matters. They also have a user’s forum, and encourage customers to check Twitter for any updates @HGStatus!
Yet despite all the gold in China above, Hostgator’s customer service and stellar performance has progressively dropped over the past 2 years, and it seems we got in just when things were going down!
On investigation we noticed an increase in concerns from other users and even some downright complaints. Usually we take reviews with a pinch of salt esp, negative ones. BUT we started keeping an eye on things esp. since we wrote that article on Website tools!
Therefore, this post is to educate and open your eyes. If you are reading this and have a Hostgator hosting package…Please take your personal needs into consideration. Read to the end and then maybe rethink your plans.
Your blog is your online brand, protect it any way you can! AVOID the heartache!
Your blog is your online brand, protect it any way you can!
It’s not a rant, although it could be…Because seriously,
When did Hostgator Turn Mercenary and Unmindful of Customers? When did they lose the plot?
Back in the day,
We and lots of others really USED to love the Hostgator approach to customer service. You could contact them via chat and discuss with an agent who was knowledgeable about all geeky stuff on websites and coding! They would do their best to help you solve any issues. We never once left a chat without a solution.
Those days seem to be long gone.
When did Hostgator Turn Mercenary and Unmindful of Customers?
Honest Hostgator User Review – What the Heck’s going on Today?
In the last 12 months’ customer care, has steadily gone downhill, things changed and not for the better.
Don’t take our word for it, find out how Hostgator is holding up Vs other host services here, simply scroll to bottom. Even smaller hosting services are ranking better today! And its all down to poor Customer Experiences!
Here is what you get when you get in touch with them these days:
- By phone – perish the thought. They never pick up.
- On Live Chat, you wait for ages before an agent shows up online. I once waited 45 minutes, seriously. So, if internet data is an issue, you are toast.
- By email, you get a generic bot response. It always states that a ticket’s been created and you will be dealt with soonest, Once it took 3 days before I heard from them! We couldn’t access our cPanel due to an unauthorized password change! Plus a request for a review…! What the chickins…
TODAY, Hostgator agents seem to have been taken over by Aliens. Or they’ve been covered with the persona of their mascot animal an Alligator. It doesn’t care whom it gobbles up or hurts. It only cares for its belly…
They don’t seem to know what they are doing, no attention to detail. They make you wait for ages while they consult…whoever. Then literally drive you insane with “are you still there?” 2 secs after they get back to you. And you are trying to respond to their almost insulting questions like: did you clear your cache? If you take a minute the chat is abruptly ended…Remember it took you eons to get connected…what the gibbons is that!
Hostgator agents’ practical help seems to only extends as far as giving you a link to an article if you ask anything remotely technical.
That would be fine, no need to reinvent the wheel…BUT, the articles show info from their old site layout, that would confuse the heck out of a non-techie.
Their agents excel at trying to make you think you are at fault for any site issues, which usually were clearly Host related! One of our blogger friends Lori English has had a hard time with them. Her blog saw some hard days with Hostgator and their run around tactics too.
Hostgator admins, wasted hours of our time for days bandying us from one agent to another without really solving the numerous issues. Once our content went AWOL for a whole 3 days, losing us customers, audience, and rankings. No explanation from them other than “You’re responsible for your site security.”
Both the 505 and 404 error messages we kept getting were proven to be HostGator related (see one below)! Server outages that they refuse to accept or communicate to customers. Referring you to twitter for updates at @HGstatus….!!!
So, who in their normal senses would dash off to twitter to check if their web host had a problem as their first port of call? 2nd maybe? Okay a remote chance? We thought not!
Whatever happened to email communication?
Fix the problems Hostgator/EIG. You were once the best, you can still turn this round. Why change a winning horse?
Sadly for Hostgator, we won’t be there to see this. We made the fortunate decision to take our custom elsewhere.
The worst is we bought their Business Hosting Plan for 5 years for our sites. That was activated on 20th January 2017. Between then and 20 Feb 2017 we had no less than 4 outages.
Chats with Hostgator agents produced no results, they could not put a finger on what was going on with our data despite escalating the matter to their top geeks desk…This was from 2 specific sites that are Protected from Brute force attack by “Stopthehacker.com, Wordfence and iThemes pro.
We waited too long to leave for sure…
So, we requested for a refund of our funds and cancellation of the services. With a time-line of literally only 30 days into the renewed service, we are well within our rights to demand a refund.
Well would you believe, HostGator flatly refused to refund our cash. Their lame and downright lie of an excuse; You’re outside a 45 days’ refund window. We have no clue how they do their maths.
They also locked us out of our cPanel within 30 hours of notifying them of the decision to end our custom. Despite agreeing 72-hour window and stating we can use our hosting package until the end of our contract term!
WHAT? 5 more years of stress, outages, poor customer care. Errr No Thanks!
Keeping in mind they refused to refund our money, then locked us out in 30 hrs. THIS IS BROAD DAY LIGHT ROBBERY. We were forced to cajole/threaten them…okay, okey begged them :/ eishhh!
Yes, I Julie begged them to create and generate a backup of our cPanel database so it can be transferred to a new Host Service. 4 years of Hard work. Ranking, Sweat, Client Trust…This is priceless. We did what we could. No shame in it and the end justifies the means …right! 
With our New Host service SiteGround, we can smile again…phew! Super fast site loading, Excellent Customer Care, Attention to detail, Knowledgeable, some great techie geekery! And they are at the Top of the Hosting Ranks at time of publishing this post with 9.7 out of 10 five star ratings! 
On the other hand, Hostgator dropped to 6.7/10. They DO NOT GIVE A DAMN! Here is the thing, all the above can be rebuilt, apart from TRUST. And HostGator has lost Ours.
All your polite request for real practical help fall on deaf agents ears whose only aim is a paycheck!
Your pain, stress, frustrations, all that seems to mean nothing to them, NO APOLOGY and No Care. DO NOT Host with them if you know what’s good for your brand and website. Or until they scrub up their act!
We have done extensive research including a highly responded to Facebook Inquiry you can check it out here. We inquired from other bloggers, technical geeks and TrustPilot and have found our new Web Hosting provider.
They are the highest rated Hosting service today, according to TrustPilot. And you can Use banner below to see if they are the right fit for your brand. Check out their GrowBig Shared Hosting Plan via the Web Hosting tab!
Final words on Hostgator User review
Listen to your gut instinct, it’s always right. We ignored it in October 2015 and again last year. We have paid a steep price. Yet, we have taken it on the chin, learnt the lesson and share it here in a full, honest Hostgator user review. Lessons are broken down for you below:
- Never let your current host know you are leaving until you have generated and downloaded a full backup of your Home directory aka cPanel or a copy of your xml file if you have no access to cPanel.
- Check your Public_html file for any duplicate files and old backups, Delete them. They take up your disk space and could delay the move/transfer. (Ours couldn’t happen for 48 hours’ cos the file was heavier than allowed Hostgator back up space…So we couldn’t generate a backup) Panic stations is an understatement…!
- If no access to cPanel, ask host provider for a backup & database of your files with some excuse, like “something doesn’t seem right and you want to have one“. DO NOT let on your plans to Cancel the hosting until you get one!
- Always do research with sites like TrustPilot to ensure your current provider is still rated highly. If they are not, DO NOT renew with them, however attractive any offers they may make.
- Find a new host service, get them to generate a backup and upload a copy of your database asap.
- Go change your Domain Name Servers (DNS) with your domain provider to point to your new host service. Give them 24-48 hrs to propagate. Then check your sites and make sure everything is running smoothly. Then…
- Let the old host service know you are leaving and thank them for their service to you, never mind the reasons for leaving. Good energy, leave with good energy. We did.
- We are grateful that somehow, we had a backup of our database, call it Godly guidance!
- All the above saves you to never have to beg your host for a backup/database, worse still get locked out like we were. Pure unwarranted nastiness that! 🙁
- That’s it, Job done
Happy days!
Happy days!We, hope our experience and detailed, Hostgator user review helps someone else. Avoid the pain, time wastage and sheer panic we went through! This a rundown on our experience in the last 6 months with a Hostgator 5 year Business Plan! 
Well what’s your biggest take away?
Share your thoughts below, like, bookmark. And what are you waiting for, go make sure you have the best host for your online brand! implement. Consistency, persistence, focused action, get the best value for your dollar.
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As always You deserve more
Learn. Love. Live
Julie Syl & Pauli Kalungi
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Skype: Julie.Kalungi1
Email: julieatJuleskalpauli[dot]com
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I have been tryign to learn more about these servics but I think I have been fooled. So I want to learn more about SiteGround although I was looking more at Hostgator. Thanks for sharing with me.
Glad you foud some value Jack. Thanks for stopping by!
My experience isn’t quite this bad, but I can certainly see how it could happen. I’ve been using Hostgator since around 2008 until quite recently and we too had witnessed a gradual decrease in the quality of support and customer service. In the last two years there has been a steep drop off of services and methods of communication that were there, removed with no word or notification.
The Hostgator website is an outdated mess, a half broken technical forum which they closed users ability to post in when there were too many negative posts. Their 99.9% uptime guarantee is also somewhat of a joke as any downtime suddenly becomes ‘scheduled maintenance’ and so does not apparently quality as downtime – I’ve never seen another web host that regularly has two or three days of unannounced ‘scheduled maintenance’ which mean its customers sites are down.
Finally their removal of site back ups and virus scanning services(they now sell 3rd party services for that at extra cost), the ability to use support tickets (support ticket forms still being on the site but not actually sending as the service is discontinues) and to contact them by email. The Live chat service frequently has a que of several hours to contact a rep, sometimes it crashes or when the que countdown ends there is nobody on the other end – And as you say, when you do speak to someone it is very much pot luck as to whether they will have the knowledge and ability to be of any help at all.
Sadly Hostgator just seem to chase new customers, constantly offering new customers steep discounts, whilst neglecting and not servicing existing customers. Its a foolish and short sighted business policy as eventually the pool of new customers with be far outweighed by the pool of unhappy, ex-customers.
They really need to look at their business model and invest some of their profits into delivering the service they like to claim they do in their advertisements.
Hey Dudley,
You definitely nhave nailed the general problems we had with Hostgator while keeping our head in the sand hoping it was a glitch of being taken over by EIG….But alas. Its not.
We are glad you didnt go through the pains we did. and I hope you have moved your business where it is appreciated.
Thanks for your deep and detailed insights and cpontribution to this Hostgator review! 🙂
I’d heard negative things about Host Gator in the past. I appreciate you updating me about their current issues and lack of support. I always get so much value from your post. Thanks for sharing Julie.
I have had a very negative experience today. My first time using them and I regret it!!! Choose another service (any) if you are reading this. -David
Hey David,
We are sorry to hear about your experience with HostGator, The very reason we wrote this Post. SiteGround is a much better service check them out via the banner inside of this post! 🙁
Hey Demetri,
We kinda adopted the ostrich syndrome about HostGator until it started hurting our brand. Now we know not to ignore our gut!
After I saw what happened with you guys over the past few weeks, I would never Go Gator !
Hey Tara,
It was a huge lesson learnt and a couple hundred dollars…yet every lessons brings with it an upgrade and we got ours. 🙂
Good to see you here!
now i understand why my clients complained so much about their hosting. I used to think because most of them were not tech-savvy and unable to communicate properly with hostgator. I have been with them myself for years and have definately noticed a huge change in the service they provide for the WORSE! not doing that again! “Hostgator; You Are SNAPPED” – hehee
So soryy to hear your clients had problems Andy. Its time to Take action and advise them to move to a better host.
Yor Online brand is essential to your business growth, Look after it! 🙂 Thanks for yout time!
I have used HostGator for years and have recommended them to my end users because of the support and user-friendly articles … but just in the last month after referring them to a client learned that they no longer provide the use of temporary URLS during development (you must use a hosts file — not something I’d want to force on a typical client) AND just today I learned that email forwarding is not available for shared & reseller clients, only dedicated servers —- These are two HUGE features that I’ve depended on as a web designer over the last 20 years. I’m wondering if there are other features we no longer have access to that I just haven’t discovered… In any event, will be very hesitant to recommend HostGator from now on.
Hi Shelly,
Sorry to hear your clients have had a bad experience with Hostgator. We wouldnt have believed it 6 months ago.
There is a host of othere benefits that were cut back for Shared and reseller users. The Customer care literally fell off the cliff.
I would seriously reconsider keeping my brand with them. Your brand integrity is your badge of honour protect it with all you got.
~Julie Syl
I have blogger friends who use Host gator and also, I remember a hosting counselor website that this one is good for starters in blogging.
Of course hundreds of thousands use Hostgator for their blog hosting. And thats okay as long as it serves their purpose. But if there is a choice for better service, We will go for better service every time! 🙂
Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Hostgator. Didn’t know that BlueHost is owned by the same company. I heard BlueHost is a better bet when it comes to hosting. Thanks for sharing such an insight info.
Hey Sharon,
We have known that Bluehost is owned by Hostgator for a while, thats why we didnt consider it as an option even when things started going off. Now we hpe the users will get a good service. Coz its different CEOs 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Oh no! I believe it was a stressful experience. I am glad you changed your host and everything is good now.
Oh no! I believe it was a stressful experience. Good thing you changed your host and it’s better now.
It Was a Stressful time Hannah, but God is good and we are all set up including SSL. Love that!
The business plan sounds good. I’d probably go with the baby one for me (and love it!).
I wouldnt go with any Hostgator Plans today Rosey. But that’s our opinion 🙂
Hi Julie,
this post made the most-clicked list on the Blogger’s Pit Stop. Congratulations. Be looking for a feature on Friday.
Kathleen
Blogger’s Pit Stop
And how exciting is that Kathleen. We are Super chuffed to bits!
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about HostGator lately as well. It’s sad to see that they aren’t performing as well, especially when it comes to customer service. So many companies forget how important CS is to their customers.
Hey Cindy,
It sure is a pity because Hostgator was once the best bar none and held that title for years! That thye have allowed that to drop so bad is sad.
The customer is King!
Hi Julie,
I use A Small Orange.
Thanks for bringing your post to Blogger’s Pit Stop.
Janice, Pit Stop Crew
Thanks for sharing Janice,
We will add it to the list of servers to check out next year 🙂
Nicely done, honest customer review. Thanks for sharing this to us. Will surely help lots of bloggers too!
Hey Ron,
You are most welcome and thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Oh wow, what an ordeal you went through! Thank you for the heads-up!
It was an Ordeal indeed Czjai, thats for stopping by! Hope your is serving your needs!
Oh this is a great review! Its very helpful.
Thank you Chei,
Hope it helps out lots of people looking for hosting services sooner or later! 🙂
I used to have HostGator, but, like you, I noticed a drop in the customer service and an increase in down time. That concerned me and I switched.
Phew Glad you got out Dawn in time,
We hope every blogger we know does the same. Its not worth it straining your customer relations because of hosting servers down time.
Lesson learnt! 🙂
Sorry to hear about your experience with hostgator. There will always be companies that start out really well and just degrade as the years pass by.
Isnt it sad though Carol?
Why change a winning horse, esp, if you bought it coz it was winning, then you change its diet, the trainer, its training routine…you get the picture. Thats what hostgator did. Loosing out to SiteGround for sure!
It’s tough to find the right hosting company. A lot of them give you high expectations but end up disappointing you in the end. I’m sorry about your experience. I sure hope they do better in the future.
Hi Elizabeth
Indeed we hope they do better in future, minus our custom though 🙂 We found a better service with SiteGround and Highly recommend it!
[ Smiles ] I always recommend Bluehost for those with WordPress blogs.
Hostgator is for those who love stress!
Hmm Renard,
Bluehost is owned by the same company…just a matter of time, unless they see the writing on the wall!
lol…. been with them for a while myself
Sadly, I have heard this over and over from so many blog friends. It seems that though they were wonderful in the past, Host Gator has just really hit the skids and their customer service is just horrific. I’m sorry you had such a hard time when you decided to switch, but sure am glad you were able to get your backup and get switched to a better host!
Exactly Julie,
Lots of people have had a bad time with Hostgator, we pray they wake up and serve the very people who make them who they are. Too many bad reviews and they will be left with lots of empty servers! Glad we had a backup too! God is awesome!
Thanks for the heads up. I’m with host gator but it looks like I need to make a change. Thanks
Hi Kenny,
I hope yo are getting the benefits of the service you paid for. We paid a steep price for loyalty to Hostgator. So we will not be making that mistake again! Make sure you pay for annual hosting and check reviews before you renew every year!
I signed up for a different host and is satisfied with the service. I am sorry you had to go through all that stress with Host Gator. I hope you find a provider that meets your needs.
Hi AnneMarie,
Thanks for your concern. Yes we have already foind the best Host today as stated above And we are loving SiteGround Web Hosting. 🙂
Good reviews are important as it helps to convince me to try. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Mike for your support! 🙂
Indeed we too check out user reviews before we purchase anything and so here we go again 🙂
I have a friend who swears by Hostgator and has had success with their service. I had them with my first blog and their customer service was superb.
Fatima, How long ago was your First blog with them?
Since 2013 Customer care has gone increasingly down. This is Our Personal Experience so again different users different experiences 🙂
I have been using hostgator for a long time now and am comfortable with their service and customer support! Nice review Julie
Glad to hear you are happy with their service Menaka. Like We said at the start, there are Mixed reviews and we have shared our personal experience, to guide others in their decision in future. That’s the best we can do! 🙂
~JSYL
Pity about hostgator. They used to be high up the hosting rankings. Thanks for this unbiased review.
Hi Adewale,
It is a pity when The love of Money negates the love of service to the People! Thats has Hostgator has done.
Thanks for your time bro!
~JSYl
This is a fantastic, very detailed review. Thank you
I always look into reviews like this before using anything online. Thanks so much for sharing a very detailed review <3
Hey Keren,
Thanks for your Support and we hope this review does help someone out there!
~JSyl
Oh gosh, what a nightmare! I use TSO Hosting and their customer support has been impeccable. Kaz 🙂
You can say that again Ickle 🙂 And thanks for your support!
I’ve been looking into purchasing bluehost but blogging is still all very new to me so I haven’t got the first clue what the righg plan is for me! HostGator doesn’t cover England though right?
Hi Jenni,
We live in England and We DO NOT recommend Hostgator anymore. If you are blogging you already have a host, Make sure its not a generic one!
So much information, thank you this is very helpful
Glad you got value Claire 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
This post is really helpful and comprehensive! I’m currently with a host but I think my plan runs out next year so will definitely consider Hostgator 🙂
Lol Louise,
If you are looking for pain and poor support, then choose Hostgator….
A very insight article and I never knew the troubles people have with their host serves. I use a different one but it’s good to have another in mind should I need to change.
Hi Kirsty,
Yes indeed keep an eye on your Host and do check out its performance on the resources shared in this Hostgator Users Review!
Hello,
Well I had used hostgator an year ago. And I was quite satisfied with it but their support is kinda bad.
Thanks for review.
Their Support is Really bad Adam, Hope they keep your online brand safe! 🙂
I use Hostgator for one site and Bluehost for another. I have not had any problems, but I also have not tried to contact costumer support. Bluehost is cheaper, and I have been thinking of switching for that reason.
Well Michele,
HostGator and BlueHost are owned by the same company and their Customer care is getting as bad as each other!
Keep an eye on things and yes keep em separate! 🙂
Jules – OMG. I am sorry to hear about this experience with HostGator. It’s also shocking to discover from this post, that BlueHost is owned by the same company. Things that make you “hmm…”
Hi Earl,
We are sorry too, Lessons learnt and Shared. Yes Bluehost is owned by the EIG company and their customer care has not improved for it!
Indeed things that make you got hmmm! :/
~JSYL
So much detail thank you so much. It can be so difficult to really understand hosting and I know I have been pretty baffled by it normally. You’re right, the bad hosters out there really do need to get their act together.
Mainy
A bad host literally kills your online Brand Period Mainy, So make sure you get the best for your Brand! We learnt the hard lesson, dont let that be you too!
I use a different host but should I ever need to change, will definitely check in with you. 🙂
hey Claudette,
Glad you use a different host, and here is to hoping they stay true to you Sis 🙂
~JSyl