Best HostGator Web Hosting Plan

Some voice from other Hostgator’s user perhaps? Thanks Phil for the guest articles – I hope you can benefit from this Hostgator review.

Guest Articles:Hostgator Hosting Review

In the circle of web hosting companies, Hostgator has emerged as one of the most popular company around. They achieve this because they deliver what they promise. It is as simple as that. Their customers are pleased with their service because they pick up the phone and solve their problems every time. Not only do they answer phone, they also reply email enquiries, respond to live chat as well. No wonder they get such high rating from their customers. When you have happy customers, it is hard to say no to success.

However, if you just glance through HostGator, you would not feel that this provider is something that you would be interested in. Their generic website is dull with a slogan which is also dull. It says ‘We eat up the competition’. It uses a cpanel and standard set up which is an average for web host companies.

This simplicity is the key to their success. They seem to be transparent and let you know everything about them. So, you won’t feel like there is a marketing ploy or any undisclosed terms about them. What you see is what you get. Their terms of service with HosGator are as simple as their order process. You can order your website with ease and it only takes up around 5 minutes. Their billing details are displayed so you can track it in every page of your order. Finally, you can pay via credit card, paypal or even debit card. All this features makes HostGator such a user friendly provider among its competition. Below is a review on the feature and performance on HostGator.

Hostgator’s Features Review

HostGator uses the Linux system. This means that they can only provide Linux hosting. Nevertheless, it is heard that they are planning to improve their service by adding windows system hosting in their services. They provide all their features in all their packages and this is what consumers need to build a serious website. For consumers who may need additional domains, their Baby and Swamp package allows unlimited domain add-ons. This gives you the ability to have multiple sites. HostGator uses cpanel, the best controlled panel available in the market. Furthermore, you will also get Fantastico script installer which let you open most of the open source scripts with just a few clicks. They also support PHP4 and PHP5, SSH, Cron jobs, Python, Ruby on Rails and so on. The packages also include sufficient POP3 accounts.

Hostgator’s Performance Review

All the websites hosted by Hostgator is placed in their Dual Xeon servers. These servers are located in their data center located in Dallas. The data center connects to 10 backbone providers providing 99.9% uptime with a standard industry guarantee. A test done on a website hosted by HostGator using a third party uptime monitor shows result that HostGator provides 99.98% uptime. This test was done from February2008 till the end of April. For more than 3 months, HostGator was able to provide unchallenged performance by other host companies. This is the proof that Hostgator has to say that they are the best in the field.

Article by Phil Anderson – experienced web writer.

For those who’re looking for web hosting, take advantage of Hostgator’s recent Halloween special promotion: Customers get 20% offer for every hosting account purchased.

At the time of writing, HostGator claims that they are world’s top 10 largest web hosting companies with more than 1,300,000 hosted domains. Also, the hosting company recently ranked 21st in Inc. Magazine Top 5000 fastest growth company.

I’m not surprise to see them launching out new promotion at this ‘heated’ moment. After all, isn’t now the best timing to trumpet their victory and win more market segment in hosting business?

I didn’t expect regional interest on United States based hosting company Hostgator is much higher in Singapore than in United States.

Much, much more higher.

From Google Insights, it seems that Hostgator related searches (such as Hostgator hosting, Hostgator coupons, and Hostgator reviews) are mainly coming from Asia countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and India. Singapore – a small nation with 4.5 millions population, topped the table for Hostgator’s regional interest for year 2008. (Google Insights data shown here)

Why is Hostgator much wanted in Singapore, and other Asia countries?

I was searching around Asia based forums and articles but couldn’t draw any solid conclusion on the question. However, I do come up with a few explanations based on my searches, Hostgator’s much interested in Asia countries might because of:

1. Load time factor vs website targeted audience

One, websites hosted in United States load faster for United States users.

Two, while globalization’s already reshuffling world’s economic standings; United States remain as the biggest spenders for online shopping.  Affiliate network (like CJ.com and ShareASale.com), Google Adsense, AdBrite – major e-commerce networks are based in United States.

Combining the factors above, it’s reasonable to believe that Asians who wish to start their home based business would focus on U.S. market and hosting with a U.S. based web host.

2. Hosting cost

Check this out, a Baby-Gator hosting package at Hostgator cost $7.95/mo for 600GB/6,000GB disk storage/bandwidth, unlimited addon domains; a standard hosting plan at Singapore based PozNet cost $9.5/mo (S$160/yr) for 350MB/35GB disk storage/bandwidth.

That’s right, you gotta pay extra for less features for Singapore hosting. The pricing is more or less the same with other Singapore based hosting, for example: Vodien cost $17/mo (S$24/mo) for 10GB/unlimited disk storage space/bandwidth; CyberSite cost $10.5/mo (S$15/mo) for 200MB/unlimited disk storage/bandwidth, HostSG cost $8.5 (S$12/mo) for 2GB/20GB disk storage/bandwidth.

So should you go with Hostgator if you’re from Singapore, or Malaysia, or Indonesia?

It’s obvious that hosting with Hostgator save you more money. Unless your website’s targeted audience are mainly local (for better loadtime); else I don’t see why you should limit your hosting choice within the local region.

$7.95/mo for 600GB/6,000GB disk storage/bandwidth, reliable web hosting server with long uptime, strong customer supports – I don’t see why you shouldn’t go with Hostgator – regardless which part of the globe you’re staying at.

The quick answer is ‘YES’. In fact, any ftp client or using the cPanel file manager will do.

How to upload files directly from Dreamweaver?

To upload files directly from Dreamweaver, you have to first configure the server settings in your Dreamweaver file manager. You can do this either by creating a new ‘FTP & RDS Server’ or creating a new ‘site’ that linked to your server via FTP.

Configuration for FTP & RDS Server

Working on the FTP & RDS Server environment allows you to work directly on the files at your server.

Any changes saved will be visible at your website immediately.

Setting up a new ‘FTP & RDS Server’ all you need is to fill in the necessary details like your host FTP address, folder that you wished to FTP, your login details, and the name you wish to put for the server.

Configuration at the ‘Site’ option

On the other hand, you can configure the FTP connection in Dreamweaver while setting up your site at the File Manager. Simply select ‘FTP’ on the remote server connection, fill in all the details like the host FTP address, folder that you wished to FTP as well as your login details and you’re ready to go.

A quick screen cap for your reference:

FTP at Hostgator is easy!

I hope this solved your doubts in FTP-ing files to Hostgator. Do leave your comment in case you have other related questions.

How popular is Hostgator when compare to iPower hosting and Hostmonster?

Well the answer is “not much different” according to Google Insights. A quick check on these three hosting companies for the past four years draw a conclusion that all three of these web hosts are interested by searchers more or less the same recently.

It’s obvious that iPower was leading in the beginning of year 2004 (as they were one of the pioneer); Hostgator and Hostmonster grew exponentially quick and hence, the search trend shown in the graphic below.

Where will Hostgator be in the next 2 years?

Summing up with Hostgator’s recent move in Going Green (using renewable energy to power their servers); I’m expecting the hosting company to continue its strong grow trend and leave the other two behind in one or two year time.