Hostgator is a top web hosting company founded by Brent Oxley. It has headquarters in Houston and Austin. It also operates several branches in different countries around the world including Canada, and Brazil. Hostgator has more than 500 employees.
There are many hosting providers that offer cheap VPS plans but they put many limitations. Unlike other cheap hosting providers, Hostgator offers high performance VPS hosting at a budget price. Hostgator is an expert hosting provider in the web hosting industry so you can be assured that you will get top quality hosting services.
Hostgator VPS is suitable for online business who want to carry out their online marketing campaign through email. Shared hosting plans limit the number of emails you can send per hour so you need to switch to VPS if you want to perform mass emailing. Hostgator VPS is also designed for small business who want to assign individual email account for all their employees. Shared hosting caps the number of POP and IMAP connections you can make but VPS does not put any limit.
Type of VPS Plans
Hostgator offers 5 different VPS plans including Snappy 500, Snappy 1000, Snappy 2000, Snappy 4000 and Snappy 8000. The basic plan, Snappy 500 features 0.5 Core, 25 GB hard disk space and 500 GB bandwidth. The best VPS package, Snappy 8000 features 4 Cores, 240 GB and 3 TB of monthly bandwidth. The price of the VPS hosting range from $19,99 per month to $159.99 per month. Despite that, they always have promotion from time to time so you can get a discount on the VPS.
Snappy 500 is an unmanaged plan so you won’t get a control panel. You will receive very limited technical support if you sign up for Snappy 500. Many premium features are also not included in the Snappy 500 plan. This plan is suitable for people who know how to use UNIX. You also need to know how to perform command.
Snappy 1000 is recommended for webmasters who don’t have experience in maintaining a server. Snappy 1000 is a managed plan that features access to control panel and full support from the customer support team. They can help you to perform server monitoring for an additional fee. Snappy 1000 offers enough disk spaces for hosting a large site. Snappy 2000 is the most popular plan.
Features
Each VPS plan features unlimited domains, subdomains, email accounts, MySQL databases, and FTP accounts. Webmasters will get 2 unique dedicated IP addresses. Hostgator allows you to completely customize the VPS plan as your website expand. You can add more resources into your current VPS plan with just a few clicks from the control panel.
There are 2 types of VPS plans to choose from including fully managed and semi managed plans. There is no control panel for the semi managed plan. However, you can get customer support for any issue you face with the hardware, and OS. The fully managed plan gets full customer support in all aspects of the server maintenance except installation of custom software and scripts.
All Hostgator VPS servers are powered on CenTOS linux (64 bit). With fully managed hosting, you will get full root access into the server. The root access gives you the ability install advanced software that is not available in the shared server. You can use the root access feature to do many things including set up rever DNS, and SIP server.
The cPanel and WHM control panel are optional for customers who opt for fully managed hosting, You can visit the cpanel and WHM demo to take a look at the user interface. If you choose semi managed plan, you will have to install the Apache web server.
Advantages of Hostgator VPS Hosting
Easily Upgrade Your VPS plan
The advantage of Hostgator VPS is that it allows webmaster to upgrade the package without having to sacrifice the uptime. Webmaster don’t have to backup their files and then restore them back when they upgrade their VPS plan with more resources. The staff will be responsible for managing the upgrade process. They will use automated script to implement the upgrade.
99.9% Uptime
Hostgator offers VPS hosting that guarantees 99.9% uptime. Hostgator uptime is backed by their 20Mbit network connection. You can request them to refund your hosting fee if you are able to show them that your server uptime is less than 99.9%. The proof must be calculated on the Apache web server. Hostgator’s uptime guarantee is reliable although it has experience two power outages in the past. Hostgator uptime guarantee can be found in clause 15 of the company TOS.
Data Center
Hostgator has two data centers. One data center is located in Houston, Texas. The other data center is situated at Provo, Utah. Both data centers are equipped with a fully redundant network that function as a backup in the event any issue arise. They have dedicated generators, heating and cooling units in place. System administrators are assigned to oversee the operation of the server for 24/7. The technical support team makes sure that all the issues are taken care of. It offers free IP Tables Firewall in the VPS. The IP Tables Firewall will protect your files from being accessed by other people.
Hostgator uses the latest model of the Dell servers that feature Nehlem class CPUs. This ensures the server operates at a top performance at all time. Hostgator offers Tier1 network providers such as AboveNet, ATT, and Comcat. It uses Apache server for optimal security environment. Hostgator VOS servers are powered with 32 core MAD Opteron 6376 processors. They offer free weekly offsite backups.
Green Hosting
Hostgator is a certified green host that offers eco friendly hosting. About 130% of Hostgator’s operation is powered on wind energy. Hostgator restores 1.3 unit of energy to the grid for every single unit of energy it consumes.
Freebies
Hostgator VPS customers will get many freebies including Site Builder, Reseller Club Domain reseller account, and free scripts. You can visit the Site Builder demo to see how you can use the free template to design your website. There is a collection of 4,500 templates for you to use for free. Besides, Hostgator also offer free website transfer, MySQL transfer and domain transfer.
Knowledgeable Customer Support
Hostgator offers 24/7 customer support through email, telephone and live chat. The fastest way to contact them is through live chat. As soon as you enter into live chat, a representative will be assigned to you. The average waiting time is shown in the live chat so that you know how long you have to wait until a representative is connected to you. Hostgator customer representatives are quite knowledgeable in the VPS products. They can give you accurate answers no matter what web hosting problem you are facing. The Support Portal provides tons of documentations and video tutorials on various areas of VPS hosting.
45 Days Money Back Guarantee
Hostgator is offering a 45 days money back guarantee with no question asked. Most web hosting companies only offer 30 days money back guarantee. You get a full refund if you are not interested in their hosting services,
Drawbacks of Hostgator VPS Hosting
Long Wait Time in the Live Chat
Hostgator used to offer one of the best live chat support compared to other web hosting company. Now, it is not the best anymore because of the long wait time. Hostgator customer support has dropped significantly after EIG acquired it. The wait time has increased to an average of 20 – 30 minutes. In the past, you can almost always connect to a representative as soon as you enter into the live chat session. However, Hostgator is taking this issue seriously and doing their best to get it resolved as soon as possible.
Give Not as Many Freebies as Other Web Hosting Providers
Hostgator only give you $100 Adwords voucher. Other web hosting companies offer more freebies such as Fotolia and Flickr credits. Hostgator should offer more freebies if they want to get more business.
Modify Customers’ Accounts Without Notifying Customers
Hostgator will make modifications on the customers’ accounts without providing notification in advanced. This is a great concern as it can have a negative impact on the clients’ business.
Lack of Foreign Language Support in the Control Panel
The WHM and Cpanel only support English. It only offers limited support for foreign languages. This makes it difficult for foreign customers to use the features in the control panel.
Links Become Broken Links For No Reason
There are a number of customers that complained that some of the links on their websites can become broken even though there is nothing wrong with the code of their websites.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Hostgator offers featured rich entry level VPS hosting that is affordable. They offer 5 different VPS plans so there should be enough options for you to choose from. Hostgator is a good deal for small businesses who are looking for an affordable VPS hosting plan that fit into their budgets. If you need it cheaper, you can always talk to their customer support. They would offer discount on the VPS plan to make it cheaper so that you can afford it.
