The CaymanHost Web Hosting Directory

Fellow blogger and internet marketer Josh Spaulding sounds off about his recent experiences with HostGator in this customer review.

OK, I know I told you I’d be reducing the number of rants that I publish on this blog. Well, since I’m about to start http://www.crackerjackseo.com/ (newly registered) I’ve decided to start ranting once again right here. So all my long, how-to’s etc. related to SEO will be published at crackerjackseo and all my other Internet marketing musings, including rants will reside here.

About 12 hours ago I ordered a dedicated server through HostGator. During the ordering process I chose PayPal as my payment option (I wasn’t asked for my PayPal email.

Order was complete, nothing was charged. A few minutes later I received a call from a HostGator rep telling me they need my PayPal email to get this going. No problem. I provided the email and was told my server would be up within 24 hours. I also replied to a ticket telling them my PayPal email just to be sure.

-PayPal email given to HostGator twice-

This morning I wake up and see an email from HostGator. I open it up and I see login details. The server is up and ready, right? Of course not.

They reinstated a reseller account I had over a year ago. Not that it matters, but that didn’t even work trying to login through the provided IP, UN and PW.

I call HostGator to see what’s up. I get some kid (sounded like he was about 16 y.o., who sounded mad at the world.) He very rudely said “You’ll just have to wait for your ticket to be replied to, Sir”

After hanging up I got a little P.O. and called back. This time I spoke with a helpful female agent, but after 15 minutes or so I was told I need to reorder the server because a PayPal email wasn’t sent. About that time I thought this was some kind of joke! I had given it to the guy who called me, I replied to the ticket with the PayPal email and I had given it to her. Yet, they were unable to charge me and fix this big mess.

-PayPal email given to HostGator for the 3rd time-

By the way, while I was on the phone with her I received another email from HostGator stating that I need to go to some URL to change my primary domain and I need to pay $5 for that to happen.

So, I figured I might as well just order and get this all over and done with (thinking they would take care of it right away.) I said “OK, I’ll just reorder.” She said OK, the people who set it up are gone right now, so they should get to this later today sometime. “When?” …”I don’t know”

Does HostGator even care whether they make a sale or not? I mean, I don’t care how much money I make, if I have a customer who is ready and willing to give me $200 EVERY MONTH I’m going to bend over backwards for them!

Now I’m in a predicament. It took me 2 weeks of looking at various dedicated server deals and nothing compared to what HostGator had to offer for the price. I don’t want to spend over 200/month for a server, but it looks like I’m going to have to.

The best deal in the world isn’t worth it if the support is the worst in the world!

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It is virtually impossible nowadays to miss the fact that Hostgator are one of the largest shared hosting providers out there. This makes writing a review of their services particularly difficult in the sense that there are a huge number of supporters and loyal customers together with a number of people who express dissatisfaction with the service. They are also heavily promoted because commissions for affiliates are generous.

Obviously, the bigger you get, the law of averages says that there are bound to be some users who will have a less than perfect experience and as with all hosting companies it must be borne in mind that users are sometimes the authors of their own problems when it comes to web hosting. In an attempt to give a balanced review of Hostgator we have tried to look at the supporters versus the naysayers in an even handed way.

Looking at service plans and prices, Hostgator have become popular because on a features to price ratio they stack up very well against the competition. There are four levels of shared hosting offered with cute names such as "Hatchling" and "Swamp" and they range in price from the $6.95 monthly to $14.95 with a semi dedicated server coming in at $74.95. The middle range plan, entitled "Baby" costs a very reasonable $9.95 per month and you certainly seem to be getting a fair bit for your money. All Hostgator’s plans offer C-Panel and Fantastico with a huge range of ready to install scripts (around 52 at the last count). At the "Baby" level you also get unlimited MySQL databases, PHP 4&5, 100GB of storage and 1000GB of data transfer – this all looks very impressive for the price. The uptime guarantee is 99.9% and all plans are "no contract" so in theory if you are in any way dissatisfied you can move with no strings attached. They claim 24/7 support which is pretty much a given these days but, on the face of the figures alone, the "Baby" plan offers a powerful package for the money. You can easily check the full packages at the Hostgator site which is very clear and easy to navigate, with an ’at a glance’ summary for potential customers.

If there are any downsides to using Hostgator they appear to be on the support side, and users often complain that they are a victim of their own success and that as they have grown some deterioration in service has appeared. By the same token, there are plenty of users willing to stand up and defend the host and claim a very high standard of support and this is a really difficult area to call. On the whole, it has to be said that there seem to be more supporters than those crying "foul". It is not a good sign that some general hosting forums are crowded with Hostgator users asking support questions – whether this is lack of knowledge on behalf of the users or genuine problems with the official channels is impossible to know with any certainty, but if it is indicative of support problems it’s something the company should address. To be fair, I have seen several incidents of customer complaints on an independent forum being addressed by the owner of the company himself through that forum, which suggests an awareness and willingness to talk that goes far beyond the normal official support channels in place, and has to be applauded.

However, a hosting company cannot be held accountable for the actions of its customers and on balance, Hostgator has become successful for a reason. Their pricing is competitive and their features comprehensive. The "Baby" plan offers a big bang for your buck and will probably be more than adequate for a very high number of users.

In the current marketplace they are certainly difficult to ignore and deserve a place on anyone’s shortlist. You can address any concerns you may have in a number of Web Hosting Forums where Hostgator are always a hot topic of discussion.

Overall a good no nonsense host offering value for money and, judging by positive feedback on the web, a good customer support infrastructure which occasionally suffers a hiccup but is generally satisfactory.

If you have something to add to this general review, your own experiences to share, we would love to read your comments about Hostgator .

Technorati Tags: Hosting Reviews , Hostgator Review , Hostgator Shared Hosting , Affordable Hosting , Web Hosts Reviewed , Hostgator

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