\ud83d\udcda Table of contents<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we jump into the meat of our HostGator WordPress hosting review, it’s important that we make it clear this review will focus on the WordPress-specific cloud hosting plans<\/a>. If you subscribe to a different type of plan, your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s also worth noting that, overall, HostGator didn’t come out looking very good during our recent WordPress hosting survey<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s see how they do when we limit our evaluation to their WordPress cloud hosting<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n Considering that this is managed WordPress hosting<\/a>, we expect a lot of WordPress-specific features to be included. Here’s what we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n While HostGator does offer a few freebies to sweeten the deal for prospective customers, their WordPress-specific features are a bit on the light side. However, it’s worth noting that HostGator is one of the cheapest managed WordPress hosts around, which explains the lack of advanced features.<\/p>\n\n\n The second stop in our HostGator WordPress hosting review concerns support features. HostGator enables you to contact their staff of specialists via live chat, phone, direct mail, and even fax<\/em> (we’d love to know if anyone has ever taken them up on that option).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their support staff is available 24\/7, which we can attest to since we contacted them pretty late on both a Thursday and a Saturday. The first time we waited for approximately six minutes and the second time around the wait time went up to ten minutes. Both times, we found their support staff to be a bit tentative with their answers when it came to WordPress. However, they did point us towards the right resources to solve our imaginary questions.<\/p>\n\n\n HostGator’s WordPress cloud hosting claims to offer up to 2.5x faster speeds than the competition thanks to low-density servers and custom Content Delivery Networks (CDN)<\/a> solutions. Furthermore, they also enable their users to scale their cloud settings with a single click to deal with unexpected traffic spikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite being one of the largest providers of web hosting, HostGator only has data centers in two locations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re not about to blindly trust a web host’s speed claims without testing things out for ourselves. So, let’s do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We used a fresh WordPress installation with no frills for this test<\/a> and ran it with three different Pingdom servers. Here’s what we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The test results indicate that a wide variation in load time exists based on the geographic location from where the site is accessed – something that could be attributed to the location of HostGator’s datacenters. Let’s see if that hypothesis stands up to a tougher test.<\/p>\n\n\n Load Impact tests websites by simulating up to 25 or even 50 simultaneous connections over a period of five minutes – this enables us to check how a site does under pressure. For this test, we used the same basic site that we had set up for the Pingdom test. Here’s what we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are some of the best load times we’ve seen from any web host – and they were obtained during<\/em> a stress test (albeit a modest one). So, our hypothesis holds up. The variations in load time are due to geography and not inconsistent server performance.<\/p>\n\n\n As we mentioned earlier, HostGator is one of the cheapest options for managed WordPress hosting. There are the three plans<\/a> on the roster:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier, we touched upon the fact that HostGator is a bit light on WordPress-specific features. That remains true, but this provider also offers excellent value, which we believe offsets that shortcoming. Finally, keep in mind that while these prices were correct at the time of writing, HostGator may have modified them since.<\/p>\n\n\n We’ve covered a lot of information so far, so let’s take a few minutes to break down a few key takeaways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HostGator’s support staff is available around the clock and provides reasonable service despite not being exceptionally seasoned when it comes to WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They offer temporary scaling options, which are perfect for dealing with occasional traffic spikes without upgrading to a more expensive plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They will help you migrate your WordPress site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each plan comes with access to a global CDN and a free SSL certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their managed-WordPress hosting plans are a bit light on advanced WordPress-specific features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, we feel that HostGator has made impressive strides in improving their WordPress hosting services, and we’re excited to see if this trend continues over time.<\/p>\n\n\n Choosing the right web host is crucial for any site. While this particular web host has been associated with mediocre service in the past, our HostGator WordPress hosting review reveals a sharp turnaround.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n However, if you’re still wary about signing up with HostGator, then take a look at some of our other hosting reviews to see if you can find a better fit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The difference between regular and cloud hosting plans on HostGator<\/h2>\n\n\n
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HostGator WordPress hosting review – specific features \u2699\ufe0f<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Support options \ud83d\uddb1\ufe0f<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\nPerformance \u231b<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Pingdom<\/a> page speed test results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Basic load testing with Load Impact<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nPricing \ud83d\udcb8<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Overall pros \ud83d\udc4d and cons \ud83d\udc4e<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Pros<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Cons<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion \ud83e\uddd0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n