HostGator Review

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HostGator is one of the largest and most popular hosting companies currently online today.  They dominate in the "cheap hosting" services, but how cheap are they and do they provide anything more?

To first answer the "cheap hosting" question, they are quite competitive.  Of course, there are a handful of other hosting companies that offer sub-$5/month hosting, but HostGator definitely provides you with some bang for your buck.

• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited Databases
• Unlimited Sub-domains
• etc., etc. etc.

Not too many offer this.  Now the difference between the low rate and the higher packages focus on the number of domains you can have under one account.  The more pricey packages (and pricey, I am only talking about $12.95/month) allow for unlimited number of domains and they include some domain parking options.  Further, with the premiere package, you will also get your own dedicated IP address (this essentially means that you are not sharing an IP with other people you don't know). 

NOTE: If you are just starting and on a tight budget, a smaller plan would probably work, but keep in mind that if your website grows, having this dedicated IP will protect you from malicious activities that other webmasters may be doing on your shared IP.

So what does this all mean?  Well, you are getting a lot for what you pay for with HostGator. 

But that is not the reason why I recommend HostGator to most of my clients...

I always start my clients out with a Wordpress blog.  That is a personalized blogging website.  Installing blogs like Wordpress can take a bit of technical understanding but HostGator includes a script called Fantasico within its control panel that allows users to install this Wordpress script (and dozens of others including discussion forums, classified ads, help desks and more) with a few clicks of a mouse.  No technical experience required. 

I am also a big fan of "cpanel", which is the control panel used by HostGator.  It is very easy to manage and also requires no technical skills to create things like email addresses and additional users.  I personally find this hosting control panel easier to manage than GoDaddy's hosting panel.

My only criticism of HostGator is that the fees for domain names are a little bit higher than places like GoDaddy ($14.95 vs $9.95), but if you are new to hosting and websites, stick with pairing your domain name and hosting company (this is only a $5 difference per year). 

(You can always buy a domain at a place like GoDaddy and re-direct the website (domain) name to HostGator by redefining the DNS Server...but if you don't have a clue what I am talking about, just ignore this and by the domain with the hosting!)

Personally, this is a great place to start if you are looking for cheap hosting that is easy to manage.  (I even have friends that run websites that earn over $100k/year on HostGator exclusively!).  Also note that it is easy to upgrade to more advanced accounts like reseller accounts and dedicated servers with very minimal effort and down-time.  This allows for excellent scalability for your website(s) while being extremely affordable. 

(And note that with a Free TheWebReviewer Club membership, we provide you with videos on how to set up your Wordpress Blog with HostGator within 5 minutes!  Don't forgot to join!)

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