If you want to start your online business you may know by now that choosing a Hosting is a very important step. I could write a post only trying to have a lot of visits, with a title that doesn’t tell you anything in order for you to click on it, open the post and read it entirely. Then, only in the end, you could find the conclusion about our Hostgator review… But that’s not the way we do things in Freenancial Exposed. If you are looking only for the answer, I’ll tell you right now: Hostgator is the winner. But if you want to learn the important things about choosing a hosting without necessarily having to be an engineer, I recommend you to keep reading. Today I’m going to explain to you how we jumped into this conclusion after the analysis we made in this Hostgator review and the reasons why in this final battle of Hostgator vs Bluehost, Hostgator was the winner. Let’s go to the point [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation when you make a purchase through these links that appear along this post. Thanks!]
BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. PAID OR FREE HOSTING?
Our principles force us to build a self-sufficient business, this is to say that we’re going to invest in the business their very own income, that way it’ll grow and will become more “passive”. But everything has a limit. And hosting is clearly one of them.
WHAT IS FREE WEB HOSTING?
Sites like WordPress.org or Blogger that offer you their web hosting service, tend to proportionate an URL (the address for your blog or online business) that looks like this:
http://your_web_name.blogspot.comhttp://your_web_name.wordpress.org
As you may see, this would make your project look less “serious”. If you’re doing something amateur or new, you could take it, but since we’re convinced we’re going to make something big, we have to “play to win” and throw away that option. Probably you should too.
Not just because the name doesn’t look good, but because, logically, your chances to configure and create a website are much more restricted in comparison to when you use a paid hosting and install WordPress.
To be more specific in this post, and focus in the Hostgator review and its victorious fight against Bluehost, I’ll show you this Wikipedia page where you can know a lot more about WordPress, the blogging platform that triumphs over the 25% of the web. If you have any doubts you just have to ask and we’ll give you an answer.
WHY IS SO IMPORTANT TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT HOSTING?
Unfortunately, making the right choice is not that simple. We’ve been using Hostgator for a few months and we’re satisfied, although people say everyone is happy with their hosting until they have a problem with it, in our case is not like that. I’ll tell you why:
When we activated Hostgator we had a problem. The website was not visible when, at first, we finished the set-up. I tried to fix it and nothing happened… so I had to give it a shot to the big problem with hosting providers, their technical assistance. I’ll talk about this later, but just so you know now, it went very well.
IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE YOU CAN LIVE A NIGHTMARE
What’s important is that we’re not still part of that 80% of people who change their hosting service after the first year. Yes, you read right, 80%. That’s a lot!
I don’t know if you can imagine it, but is a real nightmare to migrate your website if you’re not an expert. Especially if you have content already published. Most hosting providers offer a service of migration assistance, but, believe me, you don’t want to migrate your website (use this as your mantra so you make the right choice).
HOSTGATOR REVIEW. 5 KEY ASPECTS TO ANALYZE
Let’s start with this Hostgator review, and let’s also compare it with Bluehost, taking into account the most important points of view when it comes to having a website that uses WordPress.
The way to do it will be always the same in each section. We’ll show you the importance of every aspect and the performance of both Hosting services.
1. SHARED HOSTING OR DEDICATED HOSTING:
In this section what you have to analyze is whether you’re going to need a Hosting where you share the same server with other clients (shared) or one just for you (either virtual or real).
If you’re a beginner like us, a shared one will be enough for you, is much more basic, easy to use, and overall, cheaper.
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Hostgator: INCLUDES the hosting option.
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Bluehost: INCLUDES the hosting option.
As shown, in this important matter, is a tie.
2. NECESSITY OF JUST A SITE, OR MULTISITE:
Maybe you haven’t thought about this one, but your website may need websites from other domains. For example, there are enterprises that separate the online store website from the blog website.
Sometimes you can develop a different market niche and maybe you want to have this freedom to build various websites in the same hosting.
PROS: Logically, if the Hosting provider offers this, the global price will be much more affordable.
CONS: You must take into account that, in matters of security, having all your websites in the same site server can lead someone to hack one of them, and could possibly infect the sites hosted there.
To be honest, I would suggest you look for a hosting that includes this option, but I’ll leave the decision in your hands depending on your project.
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Hostgator: INCLUDES the multisite feature.
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Bluehost: INCLUDES the multisite feature.
Both services tie again.
3. USE AND SET-UP DIFFICULTY:
It’s very important to count with a service easy to use, because probably you, just like us, are not a technician. Think about the number of tasks that need to be done like:
- Install WordPress.
- Create email accounts.
- Automatize back-up tasks if they’re not automatic yet.
- Manage upload and download of web files.
- Edit files when is necessary to sharpen the configuration.
- Check free space in your account.
- Etc.
You can’t also afford that, for each problem, you require the help of a professional, because that’ll be expensive.
Fortunately, most providers use a standard control panel, the c-Panel, a simpler way to manage everything. That’s why we need to check if our provider counts with this feature.
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Hostgator: INCLUDES the c-Panel option.
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Bluehost: INCLUDES the c-Panel option.
Both services are also tied in this matter, although actually, Hostgator‘s control area is a bit more beginner friendly and easy to use. Is not its greatest advantage, but considering the fact that the migration of the domain is free, and Bluehost charges $149,99, Hostgator is first in this race.
4. CUSTOMER SUPPORT AND SERVICE QUALITY
This is a key aspect. Possibly what makes a lot of people and enterprises to change their hosting is that they have a problem and the support service doesn’t help.
You must take into account the following aspects when you’re comparing technical assistance. The same way we’re doing in this Hostgator review battle between Hostgator vs Bluehost:
- A suitable response time, that means, as fast as possible. It’s important they work on weekends and holidays because based on Murphy’s law then it’s when you’re going to experience problems with your website (verified).
- An adequate Website Uptime. That is to say, that your website functions as long as possible without any server problem.
- Account BackUps. It’s a meaningful thing to be able to recover everything if there’s an accident or a malicious attack.
In reference to the response time of the customer support I can’t make a comparison, there is a wide range of user opinions, but what I can assure is that when I had the problem mentioned above, I contacted support via chat and they acted in a fast, focused and effective way. I did what they suggested and later the website was working perfectly.
After a lot of research to give you updated info, I found this article from Adam Williams, related to Website Uptime, that says:
I monitored two websites hosted on HostGator and BlueHost, using a tool called Pingdom. The results are these. Hostgator had just 1 outage of 1 minute in the last 7 days, whereas Bluehost had 11 outages of total 51 minutes.
So, clearly, according to that, this time the winner is Hostgator.
Regarding Back-Up service, Bluehost includes this service in its price, while Hostgator has an additional amount for this. Bluehost is ahead in this matter.
Having made the evaluation, we can conclude that in this section:
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Hostgator: wins in Uptime.
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Bluehost: wins in free Back-up
Since the additional price of Hostgator is minimum, I’ll consider Hostgator a bit ahead of Bluehost.
HOSTGATOR SUPPORT CONTACT PAGE – EASY TO USE AND WITH A FAST RESPONSE
5. EASY TO INSTALL THE NECESSARY PACKS
It is relevant that the provider includes auto-installers for the packages you find in the market, especially the ones related to WordPress, it is a great help that you have the installation in 1-Click., having 1-Click install system is a plus.
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Hostgator: counts with 1-click install system.
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Bluehost: counts with 1-click install system.
And again, it’s a tie.
THIS IS HOW HOSTGATOR HELPS YOU INSTALL WORDPRESS WITH “1-CLICK”
WHAT WAS THE REAL REASON WE CHOOSE HOSTGATOR?
As you may have confirmed, in this Hostgator review, we really thought Hostgator had a few advantages, but we were still in doubt… This is something you don’t want to make a mistake with, and without the hosting, you are not able to start your project, so we had to decide. How we did it?
We showed our analysis to a friend, an expert in this subject, and then we asked him what would you do considering the necessities of our project?
And he suggested us to choose Hostgator.
It’s incredible how, after the whole technical analysis and research, what was really important was the advice of someone we trust in.
And to be completely honest with you, that’s why I’ve thought that by telling you our analysis and how we made our decision I could help you to have a piece of good advice from someone you could trust in order to help you make your mind.
And if a tell you the truth, we’re really happy with Hostgator, but I could assure that Bluehost could be a good election for us too. This is a comparison between two of the highest level providers.
Now is your turn:
WHAT DID YOU CHOOSE FOR YOUR PROJECT? HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT OTHER ASPECTS TO CONSIDER?
And remember you can join our community of “freenancers”. Register to the Freenancial Exposed Newsletter here.
Luis “The freenancer”.
CREDITS: <a href=”https://www.vexels.com/vectors/preview/143436/magnifying-glass-cartoon”> Magnifying glass cartoon </a> | designed by Vexels ; hostgator.com
