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Dreamhost Review

With its 97-day money-back guarantee and wide range of hosting packages, DreamHost is a solid entry in the Australian web-hosting market. Their uptime numbers hover around 99.96 percent, and with speeds of 719 ms, they are putting up some impressive numbers.

Is DreamHost the one you’ve been waiting for? If maybe, as long as you’re not looking for a Windows-based platform. Otherwise, there’s plenty to like about this veteran of the web-hosting scene.

Pros

Average of 99.96 percent uptime in recent months
Fast page loads
Unlimited bandwidth
Knowledgeable support team
Good WordPress hosting options
97day money-back guarantee

Cons

Access to customer support can seem limited
Website migrations often are available only on a pay basis

DreamHost has been in operation for approximately two decades. They offer a 100 percent uptime guarantee and 24/7 customer support. The company claims to be passionate about open-source software and WordPress. As the power behind 1.5 million websites, DreamHost is a popular choice for webmasters around the world.

Overview of DreamHost Web Hosting

DreamHost does try to take the complication and the guesswork out of building a website. They provide a custom control panel that is intuitively designed. No advanced-level knowledge is required here if you’re a first-time webmaster.

If you need to build a website, then DreamHost can help you here too. They have an easy-to-navigate web builder that features plenty of good-looking themes. People who prefer WordPress will be happy to find their favorite platform fully supported by DreamHost DreamHost is one of WordPress’s recommended web hosts.

Of course, website building is not DreamHost’s specialty. If you want a really out of the ordinary website, then you’ll want to check out some of the best website builders that are available.

When you choose DreamHost, you’ll always have the option of interacting with people who provide knowledgeable tech support. Just don’t expect to be able to call them on the phone because this option isn’t available.

With above-average speed and uptime, you can trust DreamHost to give your website the performance that it needs to succeed. Plus, you will discover numerous apps and plug-ins that will enhance the functionality of your website. Look for helpful addons like Joomla, Tumblr, Shopify, Drupal, and others.

DreamHost Web Hosting Pricing

This company offers plenty of choices for hosting. Whether your organization is large or small, you’ll find an option that suits your needs.

DreamHost Shared Hosting

DreamHost’s shared hosting plans may be purchased on a month-to-month, one-year or three-year basis. Of course, the three-year package will give you the biggest cost savings. If you’re just starting and think that three years is too much of a commitment, either of the shorter options would probably work out just fine and not cost an arm and a leg.

One thing to be aware of is that if you go with the month-to-month option, you will have to buy and register your domain name for about AU$9.99. With the longer-term options, the domain name is included for free.

As DreamHost’s website says, their shared hosting plans are an ideal place to start for the novice webmaster. They are simple, straightforward and affordable. The user interface is friendly and approachable, and there are numerous options for running a blog, a business website or even an online store. A range of customizable themes and compatible plug-ins make this a versatile but easy-to-use choice. The regular updates and 24/7 support are essential features.

DreamHost will migrate your existing WordPress website if you have one. Whether this is the case for you or not, you’ll appreciate the accessible admin panel, free domain name, free email addresses, free privacy protection, and the one-click installation. Backups are automated, and the free SSL certificate keeps your traffic safe and secure.

When you choose shared hosting with DreamHost, you get unlimited MySQL databases and access to numerous advanced tools. Among the features are secure shell access, a full Unix shell, access to raw log files and support for Python, Perl and Rails.

Currently, DreamHost offers two shared hosting plans.

Shared Starter

Starting at just AU$2.59 per month for the three-year subscription, this package includes one website with a free domain. Traffic is unlimited, and you get SSD storage along with the pre-installation of WordPress. If you like, you may add an email to this package for a nominal monthly amount. For reference, the month-to-month cost on this package is AU$4.95.

Shared Unlimited

The Unlimited plan starts at AU$5.95 per month for the introductory period of three years. After that, the price goes up to AU$7.95 per month. This package provides you with an unlimited number of websites, unlimited traffic and unlimited email addresses for your domain at no extra charge. If you elect to go with the month-to-month option, you’ll be charged AU$10.95 each month.

DreamHost VPS Hosting

VPS hosting by DreamHost is a step up from the shared hosting packages. Like other VPS plans, you get resources that are dedicated to your website alone. This means improved speed and performance, metrics that count on a growing website.

Despite the increased functionality, customers at this level still get an incredibly easy interface that it’s possible to have a website up and running in minutes.

If your website and its needs grow, you can scale up to more storage and RAM in seconds. With these VPS packages, you get everything you need including email, SSL, SSDs, privacy features, and unlimited domains. With unlimited bandwidth and a 100 percent uptime guarantee, your website is on the road to success. You even get unlimited MySQL databases and unlimited email accounts.

dreamhost vps

Currently, DreamHost offers four VPS plans. Each one can be purchased on a month-to-month, one-year or three-year basis.

VPS Basic

This one is for the website that’s just starting. It comes with one GB of RAM, 30 GB of SSD storage, unlimited websites and unlimited traffic. The monthly plan costs AU$15 per month. A one-year package costs AU$13.75 per month, and the three-year deal runs AU$10.

VPS Business

Designed for small businesses, these packages include two GB of RAM, 60 GB of SSD storage and the same unlimited options that are included in the Basic plan. Month-to-month, this package costs AU$30 per month. One-year plans bring the price down to AU$27.50 per month with three years costing AU$20 per month.

VPS Professional

This package boasts the same unlimited features as the previous two. However, it expands the RAM to four GB and the SSD storage to 120 GB. Running $60 on a month-to-month basis, the price for this package drops to $55 per month for one year and $40 per month for three years.

VPS Enterprise

This package is designed for websites that demand much more in the way of resources. Including eight GB of RAM and 240 GB of SSD storage, this $120 per month plan is a good deal for a growing business. Of course, signing up for one year brings the price down to $110 per month, while a three-year subscription costs $80 per month.

DreamHost Dedicated Hosting

Fully managed, dedicated server hosting from DreamHost is designed for the business website that requires wholly committed resources and upgraded security. Customers may choose from either monthly or yearly plans that offer state-of-the-art hardware and software.

Website performance is upgraded with these plans. DDoS protection and 2N+2 power redundancy offer peace of mind as does the 100 percent uptime guarantee. Despite all of the sophisticated capabilities that come with these packages, the interface remains user friendly.

Customers get complete root and shell access and the ability to power cycle or reboot their server whenever it’s necessary. Other features include Ubuntu Linux, OPcache, RAID 1 storage, Node.js, PHP7, Ruby, Python, Perl and much more.

DreamHost provides two packages for dedicated hosting.

Standard

Costing AU$169 per month or AU$149 per month for a full year, this package includes an Intel Xeon 4-Core 8-Thread server, four GB of RAM, one TB HDD and the other features already mentioned.

Enhanced

Monthly, this plan will cost $299. If you sign up for one year, you’ll pay AU$279 per month. This gets you an Intel Xeon 12-Core 24-Thread server with 16 GB of RAM and two TB HDD. Even for a website that’s experiencing serious growth, this should be plenty of power.

DreamHost WordPress Hosting

If you are strictly dedicated to WordPress websites, then you may want to check out DreamHost’s WordPress hosting. It’s worth noting that WordPress endorses DreamHost as a host for its platform, so you’ll likely find all of the customization and power that you need here.

All of the WordPress hosting plans include instant setup for WordPress websites, a free domain, and a user-friendly panel.

WordPress updates are automatic, and plenty of privacy protection is included. With free email hosting and an included SSL certificate, this is a straightforward and affordable option for the WordPress devotee.

DreamHost provides both shared and managed WordPress hosting. Additionally, you can go with a VPS option. The shared and VPS packages are the same as those reviewed above. This leaves the managed WordPress hosting as the only remaining service to be detailed.

WordPress Managed Hosting

Known as DreamPress, this hosting service is available in three tiers and on either a monthly or annual basis. The baseline DreamPress subscription allows for approximately 100,000 monthly visitors. It has unmetered bandwidth and 30 GB of SSD storage. This costs AU$19.95 per month or AU$16.95 per month for one year.

The upgraded DreamPress Plus package features unlimited CDN, and 60 GB of SSD storage for approximately 300,000 monthly visitors. Month-to-month, this plan costs $29.95, with a one-year subscription bringing the monthly price down to AU$24.95 per month.

DreamPress Pro is designed for websites with more than one million visitors each month. It has 120 GB of SSD storage and unlimited CDN. At AU$79.95 per month or AU$71.95 per month for one year, this is a relatively affordable package.

How Do DreamHost’s Plans Stack Up to the Competition?

DreamHost performs well when compared with other web hosts in Australia. However, it is worth noting that they do not offer any Windows-based hosting. This means that you must use Linux instead. That’s not a deal-breaker for some people, but for others it is.

Price-wise, it’s nice to see that the difference between DreamHost’s introductory costs and regular costs isn’t huge. You likely won’t experience unpleasant sticker shock when your promotional period ends and you start paying regular prices.

However, you may not like that free website migrations are not always available through DreamHost. If you have a website hosted elsewhere that you want to move to DreamHost, it may cost you.

DreamHost Customer Support

If you need help while using DreamHost, then you’ll be able to ask for it by email, online chat or a ticket-based system. However, you cannot contact them by phone, which can be a bit of a headache when you feel it would be more efficient to talk to someone. Nonetheless, the online chat feature seems to work well. Response times average less than one minute.

Also of note is DreamHost’s sizable Knowledge Base. If you have some common questions or concerns, you can probably find the answers that you need there.

The Upshot

While DreamHost doesn’t quite measure up to the best-of-the-best web hosts in Australia, it still promises pretty good value. Its uptime numbers and speed are looking good. Plus, it has an easy-to-use website builder and numerous options as far as hosting packages.

HostGator Web Hosting Pricing Review 2020

Should You Snap Up HostGator’s Plans?

HostGator is a popular hosting provider that aims to make hosting easy and affordable for its users.

We put it through our rigorous research process to see how well it lived up to its reputation, and it’s safe to say HostGator wowed us, coming in as the second best-hosting provider in our rankings, just behind Bluehost.

But, did HostGator’s prices manage to impress us as well?

HostGator offers six different types of hosting, and each hosting type provides three different price plans. That’s a lot to choose from – with so many plans, prices, discounts, features, and hosting types on offer, how are you meant to know which one is best for you?

HostGator Pricing: Quick Overview

HostGator plans to start at just $2.75 per month for shared hosting – it also offers VPS, WordPress, cloud, reseller, and dedicated hosting plans. Dedicated hosting is the most expensive, starting at $118.99 per month. These are discounted prices, so look out for renewal costs, plus any additional charges such as domains, CodeGuard backups, and other extras.

We’re here to help. This article will break down each of HostGator’s hosting plans and prices, take a good hard look at any extra costs you can expect, plus layout exactly how it measures up next to its competitors.

Further Information

Read our HostGator Review for a full look at HostGator’s performance in our research, from features to customer support
Compare the Best Web Hosting Providers in our in-depth review
Compare over 50 plans in our in-depth review of the Cheapest Web Hosting Providers

1. How Much Do HostGator Plans Cost?

HostGator’s pricing plans start with its shared hosting Hatchling plan, which costs just $2.75 per month for your first term, and renews at $6.95 per month after that. After that, prices increase as you work your way up through the plans and different hosting types.

Check out the table below for a full breakdown:

	Basic	Better	Best
Shared	$2.75	$3.95	$5.95
Cloud	$4.95	$6.57	$9.95
WordPress	$5.95	$7.95	$9.95
Reseller	$19.95	$24.95	$24.95
VPS	$29.95	$39.95	$49.95
Dedicated	$118.99	$138.99	$148.98

This is a summary overview of each hosting package, to give you an idea of how much each one costs. These prices reflect discounted plans for new users – we’ll cover that in more detail next, then dive into the details of HostGator’s different hosting types and their costs below.

Did You Spot a Price You Liked?

HostGator has price plans for all budgets – familiarize yourself with its hosting packages to find your perfect match.

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2. How HostGator Pricing Works

You’ll have noticed that HostGator’s prices are pretty affordable. Wow! Just $2.95 per month for hosting, you might be thinking, that’s amazing! What else do I need to know when it’s that cheap?!

Well, there is one important thing to know – HostGator, like most hosting providers, offers discounts for new users. These discount prices are the ones displayed on HostGator’s website because it’s a great way of getting started with your plan.

This discount lasts for your first term. That means if you sign up for a one-year plan, you get the first year at the discounted price; if you sign up for a two-year plan, you get the first two years at a discount. It’s also worth knowing you pay the total sum upfront when you first sign up.

So, what happens once your first term is over? Well, your plan will renew at the regular rate – this is how much the plan usually costs without the discount. For example, HostGator’s Hatchling plan costs $2.75, to begin with, but renews at $6.95 once your first term is over.

This is a common practice among web hosts and can work in your favor by giving you a great deal on your first hosting plan. However, it means you need to keep both eyes open and always check the regular price before jumping feet – or rather, credit-card – first into a plan.

This will help you avoid sky-high renewal prices later down the line!

Still, confused? Don’t worry – from now on we’ll be discussing both discount prices and regular prices so you know exactly what you’re signing up for!

You benefit the most from HostGator’s discounts if you sign up for a longer billing cycle. However, you’ve got lots of choices – HostGator provides a variety of subscription lengths:

1 month
3 months
6 months
12 months
24 months
36 months

If you’re happy to “lock-in” for a long time, then you save the most money by choosing a longer billing cycle – monthly plans may sound appealing because they’re less of a commitment, but they’re also more expensive in the long run.

HostGator displays prices for the 36-month billing cycle on its site. So, to go back to the Hatchling plan, you’ll only get the cheapest $2.75 price if you sign up for 36 months. That same plan will cost $10.95 if you choose the one, three, or six-month plans.

3. HostGator Shared Hosting Cost

Shared hosting is the most basic form of hosting – it’s very limited, but this also makes it extremely affordable. The main benefit of shared hosting is how cheap it is – your site shares a server with other sites, meaning resources are spread between all of you.

If other sites are using up too many of those shared resources, then your site suffers – for example, it could crash if another site gets a spike in traffic. This makes shared hosting best for very small, simple websites with low traffic.

HostGator’s Shared Hosting Plans

HostGator has three shared hosting plans, ranging from $2.75 to $5.95 per month (for a 36-month billing cycle and with the initial discount). Plans start at:

Hatchling plan: $2.75, renews at $6.95 per month
Baby plan: $3.95, renews at $9.95 per month
Business plan: $5.95, renews at $14.95 per month

HostGator’s shared hosting plans range from $2.75 to $5.95 per month, making it an affordable option for getting started online.

Here’s a closer look at how their features stack up – we’ll go into more detail underneath the table:

	Hatchling Plan	Baby Plan	Business Plan
Initial discount price	$2.75	$3.95	$5.95
Disk space	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
No. of domains	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free dedicated IP	❌	❌	✔️
Backup function	✔️	✔️	✔️
Free SSL	✔️	✔️	✔️

Looking at the features available, you might be wondering what the difference is between unmetered and unlimited. Let’s take a quick look to clear up any confusion.

Unmetered means you’re not charged for the number of resources you use – but there is still a limit on how much you can use. It’s very unlikely that your site will approach these limits, however, and HostGator will email you if it looks like you might exceed their limits.

Unlimited does mean there’s no limit – so you can as many domains as you like!

Another feature you’ll see a lot is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). This encrypts information passing between your visitors and your website, protecting data from hackers or leaks. Google warns visitors when they’re entering an unsecured site, so having SSL is an essential feature.

We only recommend the Hatchling plan for very small websites – as the name suggests, its features are best for sites that are just getting started online. You can only host one domain, and you can’t upgrade your SSL certificate for added protection.

The Baby plan is a good middle-ground for $3.95 per month – you can host an unlimited number of domains, and if you want to upgrade to private SSL then you can. This makes it a better choice if you’re running more than one website or need better security.

The Business plan has the most advanced features, giving your site more room to grow. It’s also the best plan if you’re running a small online store. You get a free upgrade to a Positive SSL (which offers a higher level of security than the basic version) and SEO tools to help people find your site online.

So, which plan should you choose? If you need to host more than one domain, the Baby plan is your best choice. If you want to run a small online store then you’ll need the Business plan. For simply hosting a single site that’s just getting started, the Hatchling plan will get you on your feet.

Is Shared Hosting Right For You?

Shared hosting is the cheapest package on offer – perfect if you’re just getting started. Take a closer look to see if it’s right for you!

Show Me HostGator’s Shared Plans

Further Information

Looking for cheap shared hosting? Your search ends here with our in-depth review of the 6 Best Cheap Shared Hosting Providers
Read our review of the 8 Best Shared Hosting Services to find the best quality shared hosting on the market

4. HostGator Cloud Web Hosting Cost

Cloud hosting is where your website’s data is stored across multiple virtual servers, instead of physical servers like normal shared hosting uses. This means that if one server fails, your site won’t go down because another server will automatically take over. Cloud hosting very scalable, reliable, and versatile.

If you need extremely flexible hosting to handle surges in traffic, then cloud hosting is a great choice – it’s usually favored by online stores that experience large traffic spikes as a result of sales and seasonal trends.

HostGator’s Cloud Hosting Plans

HostGator has three cloud hosting plans ranging from $4.95 to $9.95 per month:

Hatchling plan: $4.95, renews at $8.95 per month. You get a free domain name and SSL certificate, unmetered bandwidth, and can host one site.
Baby plan: $6.57, renews at $11.95 per month. You get the same features as the Hatchling plan but can host unlimited sites.
Business plan: $9.95, renews at $17.95 per month. You get the same features as the Baby plan, plus SEO tools and a better SSL certificate.

The biggest limitation on the cheapest Hatchling plan is that you can only host one website, and it has a small memory allowance. HostGator recommends its $6.57 per month Baby plan instead, which gives you more space for growth while keeping the price pretty reasonable.

HostGator’s cloud web hosting plans promise better speeds, reliability, and resources than its normal shared hosting. But what do you get for your money? The table below breaks down each plan’s features:

	Hatchling Plan	Baby Plan	Business Plan
Initial discount price	$4.95	$6.57	$9.95
Disk space	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
No. of domains	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free dedicated IP	❌	❌	✔️
Backup function	✔️	✔️	✔️
Free SSL	✔️	✔️	✔️
Memory	2GB	4GB	6GB
No. of CPU cores	2	4	6

You’ll notice a similarity between the features here and those provided on the shared hosting plan. So why the increase in price? Well, cloud hosting gives you better performance because you have access to multiple servers.

It’s worth knowing that resources are still shared out rather than being dedicated to your account – but, you’re much more in control of your resources and how much you’re using, making it easier to manage.

The main difference here is the addition of memory and CPU cores. The more memory you have, the better your site will perform in times of high traffic – we recommend the Baby plan to be safe unless your site is really small.

CPU stands for central processing unit and is the part of a computer that performs most of the important actions to keep things running smoothly.

Luckily, you don’t need to worry too much about what a CPU core is. You just need to know that the more CPU cores you have, the more data your system can handle, and the better performance your site will receive. Simply: the more cores you have, the better!

For most websites, between two and four CPU cores should be find – you’ll only need more than that if you’re running complex programs (like advanced gaming) through your website.

Overall, the Hatchling plan is fine for newbie sites with low traffic, but the $6.57 per month Baby plan is definitely worth paying for. It provides the tools to handle more traffic, giving your site room to grow. Most people won’t need the extras that come with the Business plan unless you’re running a complex website.

Do You Need Flexible Hosting?

Cloud hosting is ideal for sites that deal with traffic spikes, such as online stores. It’s twice as fast as shared hosting too!

Pick My Perfect Cloud Hosting Plan

Further Information

Are you after the best of the best? Read our review of the Best Cloud Hosting Providers to make sure you get a first-class service

5. HostGator WordPress Hosting Cost

Are there any WordPress fans out there? Chances are, you’ve used – or at least heard of – WordPress, seeing as it powers 34% of the internet! And what do all those WordPress sites need? You got it – they need hosting.

WordPress hosting caters to the specific needs that come with running a WordPress website. For example, it usually includes better security and protection, migration services, and updates to keep your WordPress site safe and running smoothly.

HostGator’s WordPress Hosting Plans

HostGator has three WordPress hosting plans – the cheapest starts at $5.95 per month, while the most expensive comes in at $9.95 per month:

Starter plan: $5.95, renews at $9.95 per month. Host one site, with free SSL and domain name, included. Supports up to 100k visits per month.
Standard plan: $7.95, renews at $15.95 per month. Host up to two sites, with free SSL and domain name included. Supports up to 200k visits per month.
Business plan: $9.95, renews at $22.95 per month. Host up to three sites, with free SSL and domain name included. Supports up to 500k visits per month.

Good to know… the price of your plan will be affected by the number of sites you want to host. For example, you can host five sites on the Business plan, but this puts the price up to $11.95 per month instead of the price shown above.

The plan you choose largely depends on the number of websites you have – for example, if you have more than one site then you’ll need at least the $7.95 per month Standard plan. Take a look at the table below to help you decide:

	Starter Plan	Standard Plan	Business Plan
Initial discount price	$5.95	$7.95	$9.95
Disk space	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Visits per month	100,000	200,000	500,000
No. of sites	1	2	3
Free domain	✔️	✔️	✔️
Free SSL	✔️	✔️	✔️
Free backups	✔️	✔️	✔️
Backup storage	1GB	2GB	3GB
Automatic malware removal	✔️	✔️	✔️
Automatic WordPress updates	✔️	✔️	✔️

All plans also include a free migration service for any users who need to transfer their existing WordPress site over to HostGator’s servers.

If you only have one WordPress website, then the $5.95 per month Starter plan has all the essential features you’ll need to succeed. Free backups up to 1GB, a free domain name, and automatic updates are all included to make your life as easy as possible.

If your site gets more than 100,000 visits on average per month, or you have multiple sites to host, you’ll need a more advanced plan.

The main benefits of the Standard plan are that it can handle twice the amount of traffic than the Starter plan, and doubles your backup storage as well. It’s a well-rounded plan that suits most regular WordPress sites, whether you’re scaling up or just ticking along steadily. You can host up to two websites on this plan – a good choice if you’re running multiple projects!

The Business plan sees a big jump in the number of visitors it can handle per month – up to 500,000! This makes it best if you’re gunning for big-time growth and need your plan to support large amounts of traffic.

HostGator includes all the most important features for all its users to enjoy, so your choice comes down to two main things:

The number of sites you need to host
How much traffic those sites generate per month

Base your decision on these factors, and you should end up with the perfect WordPress hosting plan for you!

Do You Need WordPress Hosting?

If so, this is the best hosting plan for you – great features, and affordable prices too! See if it’s got what you’ve been looking for.

Yes! Show Me HostGator’s WordPress Plans

Further Information

Wondering if you can get a better deal somewhere else? Check out our review of the Best Cheap WordPress Hosting to find out!
Read our comparison of the 8 Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers if you’re after a professional service

6. HostGator Reseller Hosting Cost

If you’re looking to set up your own hosting business, you’ll need reseller hosting. This is where you pay for hosting, and then resell it to your clients to make money. It’s a great way of starting a hosting business because you don’t have to pay for overheads such as server maintenance.

HostGator provides you with power and technology, and you provide your clients with hosting, services, support, and more. It’s a popular option with web designers, freelancers, and budding web hosts – reseller hosting is how a lot of big names in the hosting industry started!

HostGator’s Reseller Hosting Plans

HostGator has three reseller hosting plans, ranging from $19.95 to $24.95 per month:

Aluminum plan: $19.95, renews at $29.95 per month. You get 60GB disk space and 600GB bandwidth.
Copper plan: $24.95, renews at $41.95 per month. You get 90GB disk space and 900GB bandwidth.
Silver plan: $24.95, renews at $59.95 per month. You get 140GB disk space and 1400GB bandwidth.

These are a lot more expensive than the plans we’ve looked at so far because they include a lot more features. This is a case where you need to look carefully at renewal costs – the discount prices mean you can get the Silver plan for the same price as the Copper plan, but their renewal prices reflect their usual value.

Reseller hosting comes with pretty technical features – it goes without saying that if you just need hosting for your website, then this type of hosting isn’t for you.

	Aluminum Plan	Copper Plan	Silver Plan
Initial discount price	$19.95	$24.95	$24.95
Disk space	60GB	90GB	140GB
Bandwidth	600GB	900GB	1,400 GB
No. of domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free SSL	✔️	✔️	✔️
Free WHMCS software	✔️	✔️	✔️
Automatic backups	✔️	✔️	✔️
No. of MySQL databases	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
WHM control panel	✔️	✔️	✔️
cPanel control panel	✔️	✔️	✔️

The main difference between the plans is the amount of storage and bandwidth you get with each one – this is the easiest way to decide which plan is best for you.

Good to know… Always choose the plan that caters to your biggest needs. For example, even if you need 900GB bandwidth, but don’t need 90GB storage, you should still go with your upper limit and choose the Copper plan. Otherwise, you limit yourself from day one!

The cheapest Aluminum plan is best for those just starting, or freelancers selling to a small number of clients. It can also be a good fit for those who need multiple servers, as it can work out cheaper and more manageable than buying several web hosting packages.

For a standard-sized business selling to a larger handful of clients, the Copper plan should be a comfortable fit. It has more storage and bandwidth, leaving you room to grow your business.

For even more resources, the Silver plan is the obvious choice – however, it can get pretty expensive once the discount period is over, so make sure your business needs the extra features before upgrading.

In case you’re in the dark about a few of those technical features, here’s a quick overview:

WHMCS is a client management software that helps you manage your billing process
cPanel is a popular control panel where you manage your site and system settings – this is what your clients will be using to run the hosting you’ve sold them.
WHM (Web Hosting Manager) control panel lets you create cPanels for each of your clients. This is what you use to manage all your clients’ accounts.
MySQL is a database management system that makes it easy for you to add and manage content

The Aluminum plan is a good place to start if you’re unsure how many resources you need – although you may not want to lock into a long-term plan to start with. HostGator makes it free and easy to upgrade, so you can start with the lowest amount of storage and bandwidth and grow from there.

Starting Your Own Hosting Business?

Congratulations! Take the first step today by browsing HostGator’s reseller plans.

I Want to See HostGator’s Reseller Plans

Further Information

Make sure you choose the best host for the job with our review of the 5 Best Reseller Hosting Services.

7. HostGator VPS Hosting Cost

Usually, once you’ve outgrown shared hosting, the next step up is VPS hosting. This is a type of hosting where sites still share a server, but you share with fewer sites so that each one has its own set of resources. It’s a faster, safer, and more reliable type of hosting that delivers better performance than shared hosting.

This is best for regular or medium-sized sites that need more consistent hosting than shared plans can provide. If you’re running a business website, for example, then VPS hosting is a smart choice.

HostGator’s VPS Hosting Plans

HostGator has three VPS hosting plans to choose from, ranging from $29.95 to $49.95 per month:

Snappy 2000 plan: $29.95, renews at $89.95 per month. You get 2GB of RAM, 120GB disk space and 1.5TB bandwidth.
Snappy 4000 plan: $39.95, renews at $129.95 per month. You get 4GB of RAM, 165GB disk space and 2TB bandwidth.
Snappy 8000 plan: $49.95, renews at $159.95 per month. You get 8GB of RAM, 240GB disk space and 3TB bandwidth, plus an extra 2 CPU cores.

We’re not going to lie – these prices are pretty expensive compared to other providers on the market!

Why does HostGator charge so much for its VPS plans? Let’s take a look at the features you get to see if it’s worth your hard-earned cash:

	Snappy 2000 Plan	Snappy 4000 Plan	Snappy 8000 Plan
Initial discount price	$29.95	$39.95	$49.95
Disk space	120GB	165GB	240GB
Bandwidth	1.5TB	2TB	3TB
No. of domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free SSL	✔️	✔️	✔️
Free backups	✔️	✔️	✔️
Memory (RAM)	2GB	4GB	8GB
No. of CPU cores	2	2	4
Root access	✔️	✔️	✔️
Dedicated IP addresses	2	2	2

There’s nothing wrong with HostGator’s features – it gives you everything you’d need to successfully run your site. The only place it falls here is value for money, because of its expensive prices.

Luckily, the cheapest plan is a great starting point – you get a huge amount of bandwidth to allow for traffic spikes, plus a decent amount of memory and storage space to keep your site’s performance smooth.

The main reason for upgrading to the Snappy 4000 plan would be a need for more storage space, as the rest stays pretty much the same. Bandwidth nudges up to 2TB, but you’ll only feel the benefit of that if you were bursting out of your bandwidth on the cheapest plan.

As for the Snappy 8000 plan, it’s hard to recommend it knowing it costs $49.95 per month with a discount. Still, if you’re loving the reliability and power that comes with HostGator’s features and don’t mind shelling out, you’ll enjoy a massive 3TB bandwidth – that should handle as much traffic as you can throw at your site!

All plans come with full root access, which gives you access to your site’s server. This means you have total control over your site’s settings – you can customize your server to suit your specific needs.

Did You Spot a VPS Plan You Liked?

If you value great quality features, HostGator’s VPS plans are worth a closer look.

Yes! Show Me More About VPS Plans

Further Information

Read our review of the Best VPS Hosting Providers to see if HostGator makes the list
HostGator’s VPS plans aren’t the cheapest – for more affordable prices, read our review of the Best Cheap VPS Hosting Providers

8. HostGator Dedicated Hosting Cost

Dedicated hosting is the most advanced type of hosting – and the most expensive! This is where your site gets a whole server to itself, giving you the ultimate level of performance, speed, and security.

Most sites don’t need this extreme level of hosting, but it’s appropriate if you’re running a huge online store, a site with eye-popping levels of traffic, or have very sensitive security requirements.

HostGator’s Dedicated Hosting Plans

HostGator came out as the best provider for dedicated hosting in our research. It has three dedicated hosting plans, ranging from $118.99 to $148.98 per month:

Value Server plan: $118.99, renews at $189 per month. You get 4 CPU cores and 8GB RAM.
Power Server plan: $138.99, renews at $249 per month. You get 8 CPU cores and 16GB RAM.
Enterprise Server plan: $148.98, renews at $289 per month. You get 8 CPU cores and 30GB RAM.

As you can see, this is big hosting, designed for big websites with big budgets!

If you don’t have much technical knowledge, you could struggle to make the most of dedicated hosting – its features are advanced, and you’ll need some experience to get to grips with them. We recommend the managed hosting solution as it makes life much easier!

	Value Server Plan	Power Server Plan	Enterprise Server Plan
Initial discount price	$118.99	$138.99	$148.98
Disk space	1TB HDD	2TB HDD or 512GB SSD	1TB SSD
Bandwidth	Unmetered	Unmetered	Unmetered
Free SSL	✔️	✔️	✔️
Memory (RAM)	8GB	16GB	30GB
No. of CPU cores	4	8	8
Root access	✔️	✔️	✔️
Dedicated IP addresses	3	4	5

Good to know… you don’t get free backups with any of these plans – it’s offered as an optional extra, so you’ll likely want to add this when you sign up.

The $118.99 per month Value Server plan is a great starting point – it doesn’t swamp you with features, making it a manageable choice. 8GB RAM is plenty of memory, and four CPU cores should be enough to keep your site running smoothly.

The only downside of the cheapest plan is that it uses HDD (Hard Disk Drive) storage. This isn’t bad, but it won’t be as fast as the newer SSD (Solid State Drive) storage that comes with more advanced plans.

HostGator recommends the Power Server plan, and if you’ve got the budget to stretch to $138.99 per month, it’s a solid choice. You get to choose between HDD and SSD storage, for one thing, meaning you can choose the faster option if you want to.

Most users won’t need the Enterprise Server plan, and not right away – this plan is something to work towards. Eight cores and 1TB SSD storage would be wasted on “normal” websites – make sure you’re getting value for your money by picking the plan that’ll work hardest for you!

Do You Have a Super-Sized Site?

If so, you could need dedicated hosting! HostGator was the best-dedicated host in our research – see if its prices win you over!

Show Me HostGator’s Dedicated Plans

Further Information

Take a look at the Best Dedicated Server Hosting in our in-depth review of the top providers
Dedicated hosting is the most expensive type, but you can still get great value for money – we reveal the Best Cheap Dedicated Server Hosting in our detailed review

9. HostGator Hosting Plans vs Competitor Hosting Plans

We’ve looked at each of HostGator’s hosting plans in detail, so you should have a pretty good idea of which one you would choose for your site. But before doing that, you probably want to know if you could get a better deal elsewhere, right?

HostGator’s pricing matches up pretty well on the whole with its main competitors, InMotion and Bluehost. It’s not the cheapest, but overall it puts some appealing deals on the table. Across all hosting plans, here’s how these three top competitors range in price:

HostGator’s prices range from $2.75 to $289 per month
Bluehost’s prices range from $2.95 to $209.99 per month
InMotion’s prices range from $3.99 to $589.99 per month

HostGator sits fairly close to Bluehost in its overall pricing range, and you can see it offers much cheaper pricing than InMotion when it comes to their top-priced plans. But how do they compare on a plan-by-plan basis? Let’s take a look (all prices shown in the table are discount prices only):

	HostGator	Bluehost	InMotion
Shared	$2.75 – $5.95	$2.95 – $13.95	$3.99 – $13.99
Cloud	$4.95 – $9.95	N/A	$21.04 – $69.34
WordPress	$5.95 – $9.95	$2.95 – $49.95	$4.99 – $10.99
Reseller	$19.95 – $24.95	N/A	$15.39 – $89.94
VPS	$29.95 – $49.95	$18.99 – $59.99	$29.19 – $69.34
Dedicated	$118.99 – $148.98	$79.99 – $119.99	$105.69 – $519.49

While HostGator may not offer the cheapest prices on the market, it does tend to have a more affordable upper limit on its price plans.

HostGator offers better value for money than InMotion, and its shared plans give you better value than Bluehost’s. We’ve already seen that HostGator isn’t the best value choice for VPS hosting, but apart from that its plans are pretty well-matched with its competitors.

Has HostGator Won You Over?

It may not always be the cheapest option, but on the whole, HostGator’s very affordable – especially for shared hosting!

Yes! Show Me More of HostGator

Further Information

Did InMotion’s price catch your eye? If so, read our full InMotion Hosting Review to learn more about this top provider
Bluehost is famous for its WordPress hosting – find out why in our Bluehost Review
Bluehost offers pretty competitive prices – check out its plans in our Bluehost Pricing Review
HostGator and Bluehost are top rivals – see who wins in our Bluehost vs HostGator comparison

10. Other Costs to Think About

When you sign up for hosting, you’ll find there’s a whole range of other things you either should, could, or definitely must get. Some extras are even automatically selected when you get to the checkout – let’s take a look at what other costs you can expect from HostGator if you sign up.

1. Domain Names

Some of HostGator’s plans – its WordPress hosting, for instance – include a free domain name. This is a great bonus, but not all plans include a domain for free. Luckily, you can buy your domain name directly from HostGator – but how much does it cost?

HostGator’s domain prices work in a similar way to its hosting costs – in this case, the first year is discounted, and you then pay the regular price afterward. Here’s a look at some of its prices:

.com: $12.95 per year, renews at $17.99
.org: $12.95 per year, renews at $17.99
.website: $9.95 per year, renews at $15
.net: $12.95 per year, renews at $17.99
.me: $15 per year, renews at $19.95

These are pretty high renewal prices, but it does come with the benefit of having your hosting and domain name all in one place!

2. SSL Certificates

HostGator includes a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on all its hosting plans. This gives you basic protection, but if you want a more advanced level of security then you can buy premium SSL certificates through HostGator.

There are three SSLs to choose from:

Positive SSL: $19.99 per year (renews at $39.99 per year)
Multi-Domain SSL: $79.99 per year
Extended Validation SSL: $269.99 per year

You don’t have to buy one of these – it’s mostly for sites that need an extra level of trust and security, such as online stores.

Good to know… You can buy the Positive SSL at checkout when you sign up for hosting, but then you don’t get the starter discount.

3. CodeGuard

CodeGuard is a backup and security software that gives you protection against things going wrong. It runs daily, automatic backups for your site, lets you know of any unauthorized changes, and lets you restore your site to a previous version should anything not go to plan.

Pricing starts at $2 per month for your first term, then renews at $23.95 per year. You can add this as an extra at checkout when you sign up for a hosting plan. Heads up – it often comes already selected, so if you don’t want these features you’d better make sure this box isn’t ticked.

4. SiteLock Monitoring

This is a helpful feature that monitors your website daily and alerts you if your site gets hacked or injected with malicious code. Pretty scary stuff, right? That’s why HostGator lists it as a “highly recommended” add-on at checkout.

SiteLock monitoring costs $24.99 per year – this is added to your hosting plan and comes pre-selected by HostGator. Double-check to make sure whether it’s ticked or not to avoid any surprises at payment.

5. Other Extras

Other extras you might find at checkout include a professional email address, which costs $6 per month, and HostGator SEO Tools, which cost $35.40 per year. These don’t usually come automatically selected, so if you want them as add-ons simply tick the ones you want!

Good to know… HostGator’s 45-day money-back guarantee applies to its hosting plan and domain privacy. It doesn’t extend to any domain names you might have bought yourself. If your plan includes a free domain, HostGator deducts a $15 fee so you can keep your domain.

HostGator Pricing: Recap

We’ve covered the ins and outs of HostGator’s pricing plans, from the cheapest to the most expensive packages, how it compares with its top competitors, and flagged the extra costs you should look out for.

By now you should know whether HostGator’s hosting plans are right for you – and which one you want to take a closer look at. We’ve talked about a lot of different plans, though, so let’s have a quick recap of HostGator’s plans:

Shared hosting: $2.75 – $5.95
Cloud hosting: $4.95 – $9.95
WordPress hosting: $5.95 – $9.95
Reseller hosting: $19.95 – $24.95
VPS hosting: $29.95 – $49.95
Dedicated hosting: 118.99 – $148.98

Shared, WordPress, and VPS hosting are the most commonly chosen hosting types, but it depends on your individual needs – and your budget!

Remember that the initial discount won’t last forever, so always check the renewal prices before signing up. Watch out for additional costs at checkout, too – Hostgator offers tons of optional extras that you can pick and choose, such as domain names, backup services, and SEO tools – so be careful to review your plan before completing your purchase.

Our final verdict of HostGator’s pricing is a positive one. It’s an extremely strong hosting provider, so although its plans aren’t always the cheapest, you know you’re getting a great quality service for your money. It’s shared hosting especially offers great value for money.

Are You Ready to Pick Your HostGator Plan?

HostGator is the best all-around web host on the market, and it offers a great range of prices for all budgets. Choose yours today!

I’m Ready! Take me to HostGator

FAQs

Does HostGator offer any free trials?

Unfortunately not – hosting providers don’t provide free trials for their hosting plans. However, they do offer a money-back guarantee so that you can try out their hosting plans risk-free. HostGator has a 45-day money-back guarantee, which is pretty generous!

Can you cancel your HostGator account at any time?

Yes! If you cancel within HostGator’s 45-day money-back guarantee period, you’ll get a full refund of your hosting plan. If you cancel after that period, your plan will be canceled on the next renewal date, unless you specifically request your account to close earlier. It’s worth saying that canceling your plan doesn’t automatically cancel your domain name.

Do you get a free domain with HostGator?

Yes, but only on certain packages – so be careful and check before signing up. It all depends on the type of hosting you choose. For example, its WordPress and shared hosting plans provide a free domain, but its VPS plans don’t.

Bunch of Websites aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our research and obtain direct, personal insight. Analyses and graphics in this article are based on authentic sources cross-validated by our in-house experts.

We take great care to ensure the information we publish is reliable and accurate. However, WBE takes no responsibility for any inaccuracy in information supplied to us by users, research participants, or other entities.

Please note the insight contained within this article is for general information purposes only. We’re glad to answer any questions you may have about this article and its supporting research. For further information, please contact the Bunch of Websites directly via email at [email protected]

Namecheap Review

Namecheap is best known as a domain registrar, but its web hosting plans might catch your eye, too. A year of shared hosting for just $1.44 a month?

This only gets you 20GB storage, but that’s enough for many sites, and there are plenty of other highlights: unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name with privacy protection, a free website builder, easy installation of WordPress and hundreds of other popular apps, the industry-standard cPanel control panel, 24/7 support via live chat, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

There’s even support for hosting up to three websites, a real surprise (most starter plans restrict you to one.)

There are a few small catches. You get free PositiveSSL certificates for year one, for instance, and 50% off the renewal price for year two, but after that, you’ll have to pay extra. Right now, that’s only $8.88 a year, though, a minimal $0.74 extra a month.

The free domain name only applies to domains with the .website TLD, which probably isn’t what you were expecting.

That $1.44 price includes a 50% discount for the first year, too, and you’ll pay $2.88 after that.

Although the website says you get twice-weekly backups, the small print warns that this ‘isn’t guaranteed.’

You can sign up for Namecheap here

All plans give you the choice of hosting in the UK or US data center. That’s an unusual plus, although the UK hosting will cost you $1 a month extra.

Still, even when you factor all this in, Namecheap looks like great value. HostGator’s Hatchling plan gives you unmetered storage and unlimited email accounts, but it costs $5.95 a month on the annual plan and renews at $8.95.

If you’re concerned about those restrictions, paying $2.44 a month for the Stellar Plus plan ($4.88 from year two) comes with unmetered storage space and email accounts support hosting unlimited domains and include automatic daily backups. That’s still a very good deal.

Namecheap gets big thumbs up from us for its price transparency, too. Too many web hosts tell you ‘from $3 a month’ but ‘forget’ to explain how many years you have to sign up, or what other options you have. Namecheap displays its monthly and year prices, and renewal fees, all on the same simple page. If only every other web host could do the same.

WordPress

Namecheap’s managed WordPress hosting range, EasyWP, is a little short on features. Sure, WordPress comes preinstalled, but there’s no smart updating system, no staging environment, no bundled plugins or anything even faintly advanced.

The only significant benefits are in the infrastructure. EasyWP runs on Namecheap’s cloud platform, which should insulate you from the badly-behaved neighboring sites you’ll get with shared hosting, and the company claims it’s ‘3x faster than standard WordPress on traditional shared hosting.’

As with the shared hosting, the real highlight is the price. EasyWP Starter is $1 for the first month, then $3.88 billed monthly, or $1.86 a month on the annual plan, $2.49 on renewal. It’s a very basic product, just 10GB storage and support for around 50,000 visitors a month, but that’s likely to be enough for many sites.

If you need more, EasyWP Turbo supports 50GB storage and 200,000 visitors a month from $7.88 billed monthly ($5.74 annually), and EasyWP Supersonic includes 100GB storage and handles 500,000 visitors a month from $11.88 billed monthly, or $8.24 on the annual plan.

Ultra-low-cost alternatives include Accu Web Hosting’s WordPress Personal plan ($3.49 a month, paid annually.) It only supports around 30,000 monthly visitors, but you can host as many WordPress sites as you need, within that limit, and Accu Web Hosting has data centers in the US, Europe, Singapore, India, and Australia.

Servers

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plans improve your site speed and reliability by giving it guaranteed CPU time and RAM, avoiding the fights over resources that you’ll usually get with shared hosting.

Namecheap’s VPS range starts at just $11.74 a month on the annual plan for its 2 core, 2GB RAM, 40GB storage and 1TB bandwidth Pulsar package.

The Quasar plan ramps up your resources to 4 cores, 6GB RAM, 120GB storage and 3TB bandwidth, but still costs only $19.66, less than half the price you’ll pay with many competitors.

These aren’t quite the bargains they seem. They’re unmanaged plans, which means you’re left to manage low-level tasks like software updates and operating system updates. And there’s no cPanel to help you manage your sites, so you need to be very sure of your Linux skills (there’s no Windows hosting option.)

You could avoid all this by paying an extra $25 a month to get full VPS management. A $10 a month ‘Basic’ management plan includes some server monitoring, and Namecheap will bring your server back online if it fails. Unusually, there’s even a ‘pay as you go’ option where you pay a flat rate to Namecheap to handle particular tasks ($15 an hour to update your server, for instance.)

By the time you add management fees and maybe a cPanel license, you’ll likely be paying a similar price to many other managed VPS products. Namecheap’s plans are surprisingly configurable, though, and worth checking out if you’re an experienced user and know exactly what you need.

Namecheap’s dedicated servers follow much the same rules as the VPS range. Headline prices are low, for example, a 4 core 3.6GHz CPU, 8GB RAM, 1TB storage and 100TB bandwidth costing only $77.32 a month on the annual plan. But add cPanel and basic server management, say, and that bumps up to $122.32, closer to the price you’ll pay elsewhere. We like the configurability of the plans, but as with the VPS range, you must read the small print very carefully to be sure you understand what you’re getting.

Creating a site

Signing up with Namecheap is quick and easy. The company doesn’t waste your time by trying to sell you a long list of other products, or add some of these to your cart and hope you don’t notice. You get more control over how your plan is set up, too. If you don’t want your subscription to renew automatically, or for the company to even save your (card or PayPal) payment details, no problem – it’s your choice.

While others might leave you waiting for your account to be activated, Namecheap is a host in a hurry. A post-payment web page told us to wait a moment, and around 15 seconds, thanked us for our order and pointed us to a couple of useful ‘Getting Started’ guides (‘How to set up your Hosting account’ and ‘How do I upload my site’).

A couple of clicks takes you to Namecheap’s web dashboard, a stripped-back console where you’re able to manage your hosting plan, domains you might have registered and any other Namecheap products.

A couple more clicks and you’re at Namecheap’s cPanel setup. Unlike most of the competition, the company has taken the time to set this up properly, with its main features collected together at the top of the screen: Website Builder, Softaculous, SSL management, and integration with CodeGuard backups (an optional extra), Google Apps and more. No need for newbies to scrolling through the rest of the cPanel, because the core features they need are visible immediately.

If you want to install WordPress, for instance, launch Softaculous and you can get it done in a minute or two. (There are shopping carts, wikis and hundreds of other apps available, too.)

The drag-and-drop website builder ‘only’ has 206 basic templates, but they look good, and the simple editor enables extending your site with images, videos, social media content, maps, forms, calendars, countdowns and more.

CPanel’s regular File Manager makes it quick and easy to upload a static website and manage domains, email accounts, databases and more.

Experts can go further by setting up FTP or setting up SSH, enabling direct access from the command line.

Confused? No need to try to manually find the support site, as Namecheap’s knowledge base and live chat are both linked directly from cPanel.

It’s a capable set of tools, thoughtfully put together, with something for every level of user. And that’s good news, especially as you get all of this with even the most basic, $1.44 a month account.

Performance

Unexpected website issues are annoying at best, and can seriously damage your business in extreme cases, so your hosting company’s support system must deliver when you need it.

Namecheap’s support begins with a searchable knowledgebase. This is neatly organized into sensible categories and covers everything from beginner-type FAQs (‘how can I renew my domain?’) to more expert-level issues (‘managing DNSSEC for domains pointed to by custom DNS’).

Most of these articles are lengthy and detailed. Unusually, Namecheap customers can add comments to the support documents and see the messages left by others. This is often used to ask questions about some issues within the article – Namecheap staff then post replies, and having these answers publicly visible clarifies the document for everyone (Namecheap doesn’t appear to delete negative comments.)

There’s no phone support, but Namecheap does have live chat and a support ticket system. We tried this out with a simple question and had an accurate reply within 30 minutes. There’s no way to tell what might happen in more complicated, real-world situations, but Namecheap performed better than most.

The server speed tests weren’t bad, either, with Bitcatcha and other benchmarks regularly scoring our host’s performance as above average. That’s good news, especially for the price we paid.

Final verdict

Namecheap doesn’t have as many specialist plans as some hosts, but if you’re looking for general hosting – or can handle any site-building tasks yourself – it offers real value and some helpful extras.

namecheap

BlueHost Review

In 1996, Matt Heaton first began to think about the hosting company that would eventually become Bluehost. Along the way, Matt created two other web hosting companies before making Bluehost a reality in the year 2003. Bluehost defined and then redefined what it meant to be a hosting company.

The first iteration of Bluehost was 0catch.com. This was a free hosting service that quickly became popular. There was a limit to the number of features the company could offer its clients. In 2003, the company took on the Bluehost moniker and from there started to provide clients with shared hosting plans.

Bluehost became popular quickly in part because of its ability to offer affordable plans. They offered their hosting packages with content management system support. One of the most popular features of Bluehost was the ability to install WordPress with just one click.

Bluehost set up a system whereby they were able to offer shared hosting plans using different price points. This was unique because regardless of if you were an individual opening a blog or a large company that needed more resources, there was a plan that was available to suit your needs and budget. Bluehost led the way in changing what hosting companies meant when they marketed their storage or their bandwidth is unlimited. In reality, the services they offer are limited, with the term “unlimited” being used to refer to the amount of space or bandwidth that a conventional user would need if they were operating a typical website.

Overall we think Bluehost is a great choice. They offer high-quality web hosting at reasonable prices and provide a solid support for new signups.

Let’s jump into the review to better understand their pricing and plans.

A Little Bluehost History

Bluehost became popular for offering their clients unlimited storage. However, if a person “abused” this privilege by storing mass amounts of data that had nothing to do with their website, then a limit would be placed on them. The same is true of those who used their website as a mass emailing device or those who used their site as a way of uploading or downloading large amounts of audio or video files. The idea behind these flexible caps was to keep one user on a shared server from using so many resources that it was detrimental to other users on the same server.

In 2009, Bluehost once again changed the game when it comes to how hosting companies interact with their clients. It was in this year that they decided to start throttling the CPU usage for some of their users. This was done because some users were putting a high demand on CPU resources and negatively impacting the experience of other users on the server. Inevitably, when the research was done, it became clear that the majority of the throttle websites were uploading or downloading information that usually should not be on a shared hosting account.

Purchased by the Endurance International Group

In 2010, Bluehost was purchased by the Endurance International Group. This group was founded in 1997. Its headquarters are located in Burlington, Massachusetts. Endurance International Group has purchased several hosting businesses. They have the practice of allowing the companies they have acquired to continue to operate under their name. This means that when you are choosing between purchasing a service from Bluehost as opposed to another hosting company, you could be choosing between two companies that are owned by the same parent company.

Bluehost Is Still Independent

Bluehost is administered by Endurance International Group. However, they still operate independently. When you purchase a service from Bluehost, you are getting something that is uniquely from that company. The services offered reflect Bluehost’s long track record of being reliable, offering stellar customer service, providing low prices, and offering a variety of hosting options, including shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting.

Now that we have a little bit of history about the company, let’s take a few minutes and dive into some of the specifics about the services they offer and whether or not their services are right for you.

Things We like about Bluehost

When we put together these web hosting reviews, our goal is to give you an unbiased report. We try to transmit the information that reflects our personal experience and the personal experiences of our colleagues in interacting with this company. We are keenly interested in examining statistical data and presenting quantifiable metrics when determining the quality of a web host.

You can see our live Bluehost tracking here. Stats are updated 15-20 times per day. For more info check out our guide to best web hosting Australia.

99.9 Percent Uptime

Not too long ago, Bluehost did a major overhaul on their servers. One of the noticeable results from their servers is their improved uptime. It is almost perfect. It is greater than 99.99 percent.

For 10 months, Bluehost managed to only have five outages. This meant that for 7,296 hours of service, there were only nine minutes of downtime. A couple of years ago, they were hit with a DDOS attack that affected their uptime.

However, if you look at their service from between December 2017 and September 2018, you see that they only had two months where their service was not up 100 percent of the time. During those ten months, their service was up 99.99 percent of the time.

Their Pages Load Fast

If you were to look at Bluehost’s services in the early part of 2016, you would see that their speeds were abysmal. Their average speed was approximately 1500 ms. This meant that they did not rank among the top 10 fastest page loaders.

Jump forward to the year 2020 and you see a phenomenal improvement in their load times. Now, Bluehost has an average load time of 424 ms. This puts them in the top five fastest hosts we have reviewed.

Bluehost

When asked what led to this change, representatives of Bluehost said that this was part of their push to improve customer experience. To accomplish this goal they dedicated money and invested in their BlueRock server park. The results have spoken for themselves. Over 10 months, their fastest average speed was 399 ms and their slowest average speed was 467 ms. By any account, these are blazing speeds.

Low Introductory Price

bluehost

A couple of years ago, many people thought twice about using Bluehost. They felt that the service was too expensive and that it didn’t have that extra something that made the price worthwhile.

However, in 2020, Bluehost keeps impressing us. They have impressive load times and impressive uptimes. At the same time, they offer their service at a reasonable price. It is fair to say that they are one of the least expensive web hosts on the market.

They offer an introductory price of as low as $2.95 per month, depending on the promotional deals you can find. You will indeed be able to find less expensive hosting options. However, when you look at the price, their improved servers, and their customer service, we feel that they are well worth the value.

BH isn’t bad for your value but it doesn’t make our list of best cheap hosts.

Lots of Free Security Features

The news is full of reports of major cyber-attacks and data breaches. This is why we were happy to see that Bluehost has a good array of security options. They have several tools that are specifically designed to address common attacks and risks.

For example, you can fight spam using Spam Experts, Spam Hammer, and SpamAssassin (pretty awesome names).

Cloudflare can save you from a directed denial of service attack.

If you have any quality content on your site, chances are that someone is going to try to steal it from you. This is why Bluehost offers hotlink protection that makes it impossible for people to steal your images and content using hotlinking. There are filters that you can use to block out specific email accounts, and Bluehost offers you the opportunity to block IP addresses.

You can password protect directories, create blacklists for IP addresses, enable two-factor authentication, use token validation, and use a whole host of other valuable security features. Bluehost can keep you and visitors to your website safe.

One thing to keep in mind is that BH will charge you for privacy protection whereas companies like Namecheap will not. This can help you save $20-50 every year. Check out our guide to the best domain registrars for more.

Refund Policy

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Bluehost has a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you cancel your plan within the first 30 days, you would get a free refund. A word of caution, if you do not cancel within the first 30 days, you will not get a prorated refund for the time you have not used it. Also, remember that domain fees are nonrefundable.

Easy to Use

Bluehost has gone out of its way to make setting up your website and managing it easy for you. Their enhanced cPanel interface is as simple to use as it can be. By simply clicking on the appropriate icon, you can get where you need to go.

From cPanel, you can take care of things like email addresses and elements on your website from a central location. You can customize the layout of the control panel to meet your needs. You can edit things so that the features you most commonly use are the ones that are the most prominent.

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Recommended by WordPress.org

When you select a host for your website, you should take some time to learn the facts and figures about it. That being said, WordPress.org is the largest CMS on the planet. It runs millions of websites. If WordPress recommends a hosting provider, it is usually something that you should pay attention to.

WordPress recently made a list of their three favorite hosting providers. Bluehost featured prominently on that list.

These were just a few of the things that we have come to love about Bluehost. Another detail that is worth mentioning is their e-commerce features, which make it simple to set up an online store with Bluehost.

For more WordPress goodness, read our guide to the best WordPress hosts.

What We Do Not like about Bluehost

We want to present as honest a picture of Bluehost as we can. To this end, we are going to discuss some of the things we do not like about this hosting service.

Customer Service

Bluehost does a lot of things well, and we’ve seen an upward trend in the quality of the services that they offer. However, if you have a problem and you need to get in contact with their customer service, there is no guarantee as to what you are going to get.

Some customers call customer service and get phenomenal assistance. They have positive experiences. However, there are some complaints. Bluehost encourages its customers to contact them on the phone. However, many people have had issues getting through, even if they’ve called several times.

That being said when you compare Bluehost to some of the other cheap web hosts you’ll quickly see that their support is far from the worst. It just has a bit of room to improve.

If handholding support is what you’re looking for I’d say stick with Siteground.

You Have To Pay for Site Migrations

A good portion of hosting providers that we have looked at will happily move your site from its current location to its server. For them, it is a relatively simple procedure, and it means that you are going to be their customer for the next few years.

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For some reason, Bluehost does not see things this way. They charge $150 to do something on their service that most other services do for free. And if that’s not frustrating enough, they will only transfer a maximum of five sites and 20 email accounts.

If that bit of a money grab is not enough, they charge you $80 for a 45-minute introductory walk-through of their services. Most hosting providers would happily give you a free walk-through of their service.

Bluehost Pricing Explained

Bluehost offers five different hosting plans. They include:

Shared hosting
Dedicated hosting
WordPress hosting
VPS hosting
Cloud sites

For most people, the shared hosting plan is more than enough. When you are first starting, you do not know how much traffic your website is going to attract. Dedicated hosting is renting a physical server. WordPress hosting is hosting that’s been optimized for WordPress.

Here’s a breakdown of the price plans for each.

Shared Hosting (Best Starting Choice)

The “Basic” plan starts at $2.95 a month. Then it goes up to $7.99 per month after the introductory period is over. (best for new website owners)
The “Plus” plan is $10.99 per month. (best for long term sites or blogs)
The “Choice Plus” would run you $23.99 a month. (best if you want to make money with your website)

These prices are pretty good, but Bluehost offers several promo deals that allow you to get an even better price. With the “Basic” plan, you get one website, unlimited bandwidth, and 50 GB of space. You are given a free domain, with five parked domains as well as 25 sub-domains. You will also get 100 MB of storage in each of your five email accounts.

The “Plus” and “Choice Plus” plans give you unlimited websites, unlimited space, and unlimited bandwidth. You’re given one domain with unlimited subdomains and parked domains. The email accounts have unlimited storage and a few security benefits.

Bluehost offers a “Business Pro” plan. It is a little pricey for the average user, but it does offer several extra benefits, including a premium SSL, domain privacy, and a dedicated IP address.

VPS Hosting (For More Resources /Security)

The “Standard” package starts at $18.99 per month. It eventually jumps up to $29.99 per month.
The “Enhanced” package starts at $29.99 per month and eventually jumps to $59.99 per month.
The “Ultimate” package starts at $59.99 per month, eventually jumping up to $119.99 per month.

From what we have seen, these prices are pretty much what you should expect to pay for VPS hosting. The first two plans have a speed of two CPU cores. The last two plans have a speed of three or four cores respectively. You get 30 GB in the storage on the lowest tier and 120 GB in storage for the highest tier.

VPS hosting

RAM is two GB for the lowest tier and eight GB for the highest tier. You get one terabyte of bandwidth when you purchase the standard package, and that jumps to three terabytes of bandwidth with the ultimate level.

With each tier, you get one domain. With the standard package, you’re given one IP address. The enhanced and ultimate packages come with two IP addresses. All of the plans have 24/7 support and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Dedicated Hosting (For Businesses)

The “Standard” dedicating hosting package is going to start at $79.99 per month and will eventually go to $119.99 per month.
The “Enhanced” package will start at $99.99 per month. It will eventually go up to $159.99 per month.
The “Premium” package starts $119 per month and will eventually become $209 per month.

Both the “Standard” and the “Enhanced” plan comes with 4×2.5 GHz CPU. With the “Premium” plan, you get 4×3.3 GHz CPU. The storage ranges from 500 GB with the lowest plan to one terabyte mirrored with the highest plan. RAM for the lowest plan is four GB with the “Premium” tier giving 16 GB. With the “Standard” tier, you get five TB of bandwidth, and 15 TB of bandwidth at the “Premium” tier.

Each plan comes with one domain. The “Standard” plan comes with three IP addresses, the “Enhanced” plan comes with four, and the “Premium” plan comes with five. As with all of the plans that Bluehost offers, these also benefit from 24/7 support and a money-back guarantee.

See related – best-dedicated hosts

WordPress Hosting (Best for BlogS)

The “Basic” package starts at $2.95 a month if you get a 36-month subscription.
The “Plus” package starts at $5.45 a month if you get a 36-month subscription.
The “Choice Plus” package starts at $5.45 a month if you get a 36-month subscription.

The WordPress hosting plans offer the same technologies as the shared hosting plans we reviewed above. Read more about the best WordPress hosts here.

Bluehost Support

As we mentioned in our pros and cons section, Bluehost’s support is a mixed bag. It seems to depend a lot on the day you call and who you end up interacting with. Sometimes you will get your phone call answered right away and will find yourself interacting with a knowledgeable tech support customer assistant. At other times, your phone calls may not get answered or it may feel like individuals interacting with you have less of a clue about what’s going on than you do.

In addition to phone support, Bluehost offers a ton of support resources. This includes a knowledge base that has articles, guides, how-to instructions, and answers to their most frequently asked questions. This is a well-supported knowledge base, so there is a good chance that you will be able to find the answers to the questions that you have.

The “Education Resource” is a great way for users to become familiar with the different aspects of their site, including log in management, domain names, email, WordPress, etc.

If you have questions about anything else that you cannot find in the knowledge base, they invite their clients to call them using their 24/7 helpline.

The Verdict – We Like Bluehost

Bluehost is perfect for anyone who is starting. They are one of the oldest web hosts and have years of experience and a good reputation behind them. They offer cheaper pricing while simultaneously providing high-quality. They have several online resources that are designed to make the setup process easy.

There are several exciting features and extras offered to clients regardless of the price point. The diversity of available plans makes it easy for you to find the package that meets your budget and needs.

For the most part, our impression of Bluehost is a popular view. It would be nice if they would migrate your site for free and if their customer service was less hit and miss. However, we do think Bluehost is a great choice for web hosting and easily makes it onto our list of best web hosts.

Thanks for stopping by guys. Please feel free to leave a review below.

Hostinger Review

Hostinger is a web hosting company that is owned by its employees. It was founded in 2004 and originally had the name Hosting Media.

However, in 2011, once the company reached the milestone of having a million users, its name was changed to Hostinger.In 2007, Hostinger was a subsidiary of 000webhost.

The goal was to provide free web hosting around the world. Today, Hostinger has more than 25 million users worldwide, with subsidiaries that are in more than 178 countries. It serves as the parent company of 000webhost, Weblink, and Niagahoster.

It is estimated that 20,000 new clients sign up for this service each day. Hostinger boasts that they can allow their clients to create a website with complete freedom. In this review, we are going to look at some of those claims to see if this European host is any good.

Hostinger

What Is Hostinger Known For?

When talking about itself, Hostinger is direct and to the point. They don’t use glossy terms to describe their service. Instead, they say that they are all about cheap web hosting.

Let’s start with their pricing and hosting plans.

Hostinger offers three basic plans:

Single Shared hosting with discounts run around $1.45 a month
Premium Shared hosting with discounts run around $2.15 a month
Business Shared hosting with discounts run around $3.45 a month

Currently, they are running a deal that brings the price of their Single Shared hosting plan down to $.80 per month.

With their Business and Premium web hosting plans, personal free domains are included. Let’s take a closer look at each of their basic packages.

Single Shared Hosting (Best For Newbies)

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This is the least expensive plan available. You pay $1.45 each month for the first four years. If you continue to use the service after the first four years, the price of the service jumps to $7.99 per month.

This plan gives you:

100 GB bandwidth
One email account
An auto-installer
10 GB disc space
Easy website builder
One MySQL Database
One Website

This is Hostinger’s entry-level plan. It is not designed to have all of the features you will see in some of the other plans we are going to review. However, when you are paying just $1.45 each month or even less with discounts, you really cannot complain about the features being offered.

The plan only allows you to host one website. This is reflected in the resources that are allocated to you. Ten GB of disc space and 100 GB of bandwidth are enough to create an impressive sight. The overall package is relatively bare-bones. But if you just have one website and you are looking to run the site without too many bells and whistles, this is a nice option.

One issue that some had with this package is that it just offers one email. It’s not unusual for small businesses to have just one website, but they usually have a couple of email addresses that they use. If this is a kicker for you, check out the Premium Shared Hosting Plan.

Premium Shared Hosting

This is the mid-tier plan. For the first 48 months, you are going to pay $2.15 per month. After that, the price increases to $11.95 a month.

This plan offers:

Unlimited number of websites
Unlimited FTP users
Unlimited SSD disc space
Unlimited email accounts
Free domain name
Unlimited MySQL database
Easy website builder

With this plan, you are paying two times what you would pay with the previous plan. However, you are looking at a completely different package. This plan gives you access to just about all of the functionality and the power that Hostinger offers.

This has been made for people who have multiple sites and who are concerned about speed. With this package, you can have as many websites as you want, use as much disc space as you need, and chew up an unlimited amount of bandwidth. There is no limitation on the number of MySQL databases that you can have, and you can create an endless number of FTP accounts if you choose to.

The nice thing about this plan is that it has been optimized for WordPress. As a result, if you use the Premium plan for your WordPress site, you are going to get three times the speed as those who are stuck with the basic plan.

With this packet, you will also get a domain name included. There is no annual renewal fee. You also get a free SSL certificate. This helps to protect individuals who visit your site from the man in the middle attacks. It creates an overall safer browsing experience.

Business Web Hosting

This is the top-of-the-line plan that they offer. For the first 48 months, you will spend $3.45 per month. After that, the price increases to $15.95 per month.

This plan offers all of the perks of premium hosting plus:

5X WordPress optimized speed
Daily backups
2X processing power and memory
Free SSL certificate
Deluxe life support

For just a couple dollars more, you can enjoy the benefits of the Business Shared hosting package. This is the most comprehensive service that they offer. Everything that we reviewed in the Premium plan is included in the Business plan.

The major difference you are going to see is the RAM and CPU allocation. Both of these are doubled in the Business plan. This is going to have a major impact on the performance of your site. The Premium plan is already quick. By doubling the speed with the Business plan, your service is so fast you cannot help but be amazed.

If you are running your site on WordPress, then things get more interesting. Instead of a 3X speed boost, you get a 5X speed boosts. This means that unless your site is getting thousands of visitors every day, it is always going to run fast.

Something else that we like about the Business plan is that it includes automated backup functionality. You likely know that manually backing things up is a boring, long, and repetitive process. This is where a lot of people quit doing it after a while and then regret it later.

An additional perk of the Business plan is that you are given priority access to Hostinger’s tech support team. That means that when you connect to tech support, you jump ahead of everyone who is not using the Business plan. When your site is having problems, this feature alone makes the small increase in price worth it.

VPS Hosting

We want to briefly discuss the VPS hosting packages Hostinger offers. Hostinger’s VPS plan makes it possible for a webmaster to get good speeds, reliability, and a reasonable price. Their VPS plans start at around $4.95 a month and go up to $75 a month.

The specifications for each plan vary, but they offer between one GB and eight GB of RAM. The CPU range is between 2.4 GHz and 14 GHz.

cheaphosting

They are generous with the storage space. The lowest VPS plan has 20 GB of SSD storage. The highest level plan offers 160 GB of SSD space. Bandwidth for the lowest package is around 1,000 GB and goes up to 6,000 GB for the most expensive plan.

When we took an objective look at Hostinger’s pricing plans and what they offer for the price, we walked away with the impression of this being a cheap hosting company that offers a premium service. However, it is one thing to offer services at an inexpensive price. But how good is the service that they offer?

Uptime and Load Time

Very few things can get the blood boiling like trying to access a website and waiting patiently for it to load. Although the site’s load time is probably just a couple of seconds, in this world where we are accustomed to getting near-instant response times when we surf the web, waiting one or two seconds for a page to load can seem like an eternity. In most cases, the hosting company is to blame if the speed is slow.

We’ve been tracking Hostinger for the last year. You can see our live tracking here.

How does Hostinger stand up?

385ms Load Time

Hostinger has servers in the United States, Asia, and Europe. All of their servers are connected to a 1,000 Mbps connection line. These ensure maximum performance as well as stability. When you look at an average of Hostinger’s load times over 10 months, starting in December 2017 and ending in September 2018, it averages out to 385 ms. To put that in perspective, that is roughly the amount of time it takes your eyes to blink.

Uptime Score

Uptime is another factor to consider when determining whether or not a web host is worth the money. A web host could offer their services for five cents a month. But if their service is constantly down, you are paying for absolutely nothing. Think about it this way, how many times would you revisit a new website if the first three times you attempted the site was down? You would probably never go back because a site that’s constantly down saying a lot of negative things about the site’s owner.

When we looked at Hostinger for 10 months, we saw that they performed admirably. Still, there’s a lot of room for improvement. For 10 months, they had an uptime of 99.88 percent. That boils down to around one hour of downtime during a month.

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That is not great. Amazon had one hour of downtime during Amazon Prime Day in 2018. In just one hour, they may have lost more than $100 million in sales. Sure, your business is not Amazon. Still, losing one hour every month could hurt your bottom line.

Does this mean that we are not recommending Hostinger because of their downtime? No, not at all. We just want to give an objective opinion. Even with 99.88 percent uptime, Hostinger is still faster, almost 80 percent faster, than the industry average, which is around 890 ms.

Let’s take a few minutes and delve into some other features that Hostinger offers its clients.

Hostinger’s Features

One of Hostinger’s key selling points is the abundance of features it offers users. Whether or not all of these features are going to be useful for you will depend on what you intend to do with the service.

Free Website Builder and Free Domain Name

If you’re read our best website builder review you’ll know were big fans of site builders.

website-builder

Hostinger comes with a free website builder. The website builder has a lot of nice features. It comes with several popular templates that allow you to get your website up and running very quickly. To be honest, the website builder has a lot of functionality, but it does not come close to some of the more popular website builders that are available.

After you select your template, you can customize your entire web page right from Hostinger. You also get a free domain name when you purchase the Premium or Business web hosting package. There is no annual renewal fee. All of this is bundled in the price you pay for the monthly service. If you want to have more than one domain name, you will need to pay a little extra.

Free Web Hosting

As we mentioned at the outset, 000Webhost is owned by Hostinger. 000Webhost offers a super basic free web hosting plan. However, we want to emphasize that you get what you pay for. The hosting plan is free, but it is also slow and unreliable. If the project that you are working on is important to you, then this feature is not something that you will want. However, if you just want to mess around for a little bit, the free option is nice.

Upfront About Its Pricing

It is standard practice in the industry for hosting companies to use a few pricing tricks. Hostinger is no different, but they are honest about what they are doing. For example, their basic package for shared hosting is $1.45 a month. However, to get that price, you need to sign up for four years. Once those four years have transpired, you will need to pay $7.99 a month. If you have no problem using the same hosting company for four years, then this is great. If not, you might find it a bit disappointing.

Ease of Use

Hostinger’s user interface has been designed to be easy to use. You should be able to find everything that you need in just one location. This means that you can do things like:

Update billing info
Manage domains
Monitor emails

Hostinger does not use traditional cPanel. However, it has easy to understand icons that make it clear where you can find what you need. For those who are accustomed to cPanel, not using it may take some getting used to. However, if you are a beginner, the control panel that Hostinger offers is more than enough to keep your site up and running.

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Support

Having good customer support is a must with a web host. If your site is down and you cannot get in touch with the individuals responsible for customer support immediately, you could lose out on a bunch of money. Customer support with a service like Hostinger is even more important. As we have discussed, to get their cheaper prices, you need to get locked into a four-year deal.

We are pleased to say that in this area Hostinger does an amazing job. They hit all of the bases when it comes to customer support. They have a live chat and an integrated intercom. You can email them and get responses to your questions right away. Something else that is unique about Hostinger is that they offer their customer support in several languages.

You will find yourself waiting around one minute to connect to a chat support agent. Depending on the difficulty of the issue you are addressing, you should expect a fast reply. In addition to interacting directly with a tech support agent, you can use their huge knowledge base and tutorials to help you. You will find guides and information that will help you answer a lot of the questions you have on your own.

If there was anything we would want to improve the customer service aspect, it would be the fact that they do not offer over the phone assistance.

Conclusion

We have tried to present an unbiased view of Hostinger. As with all hosting companies, there are a few things that we would like to see them improve. However, from what we have seen, their overall service is quite good, especially for the price that they offer. In the past, it has been our experience that when you deal with hosting companies that focus on offering a cheap service, you get junk. However, Hostinger offers a premium service at an inexpensive price.

We are not going to tell you that Hostinger has the fastest service out there. As we mentioned in our review, they don’t. We are not going to tell you that Hostinger has the best uptime record because they don’t. However, the load speeds they offer and their uptime record puts them on par with several web hosting companies that charge a lot more.

Couple that with space and bandwidth that’s available on their Premium and Business plans and Hostinger becomes a company that is worth your consideration. If you are looking for an effective and cheap web host, this is the company for you. They offer a premium service that does not sacrifice quality for the price.

Have you used Hostinger in the past? Are you currently using them? Let us know about your experience in the comments section below.