You have a great idea for a website or you already have a website but you choose a web hosting provider which does not have a good reputation for the hosting services. Such a case can be considered as building a house of twigs in a heavy storm. Web hosting is the soul of your website.
If the hosting service does not live up to the mark due to several issues including downtime, virus/malware attack, DDoS attack, poor customer support, etc. will result in a low ranking of your website.
Choosing the right web hosting company is not something that you should do by flipping the coin.
In this article, we will discuss different aspects of the web hosting services provided by SiteGround and HostGator so that you can make a firm decision while choosing your web host.
Both companies have their own pros and cons. HostGator is considered as one of the largest web hosting companies that provide cheap hosting with a lot of freebies while SiteGround is known for its high uptime, quick customer support, and high-end security measures.
We will compare the companies based on the following aspects:
- Features and Services
- Speed
- Pricing
- Uptime
- Customer Support
In this article, you will learn:
Comparison of the features and services provided by SiteGround and Hostgator
Both the companies provide a number of services which are very helpful while managing your website properly. We will discuss some of the most prominent services and features associated with different packages available with these companies.
SiteGround Features and Services:
Siteground is one of the most popular WordPress hosting platforms and the company provides many packages dedicated to those websites that run on WordPress. The company offers VPN, CDN, SSH certification and much more. There are a lot of features and services which you should compare before choosing any other service provider. These services are:
- Recommended by WordPress
- 24/7 customer support
- Ideal service provider for email hosting
- Website builder
- The company assures 99.99% uptime
- Free website transfer for new customers
- 1-click WordPress Installation
- SuperCacher comes with every package that has 4 versions of your website at any given time.
- Modern hardware
- cPanel and uptime monitoring
- CDN, Firewalls
- Fully managed by the team of experts
- Fully managed cloud hosting for VPS
- Reseller hosting
HostGator Features and Services:
On the other hand, HostGator has more than 10 years of experience which brings a lot on the plate. It is an EIG company. The packages come with a series of freebies which you can choose to try. There are some services and features which are definitely something to check about:
- Easy to use cPanel
- Custom website builder with drag and drop feature
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
- No contracts required
- Dedicated domain registration panel
- The company assures 99.99% uptime
- Unmetered hosting and bandwidth
- Prompt support system
- HostGator offers both Windows and Linux servers.
- You can choose between HDD or SDD which may make a huge difference in keeping your Webspace safe.
- Best possible data centers across the globe
- Both manage and unmanaged server options available
- Full root access for VPS and dedicated servers
- Very easy to setup WordPress based website
- Reseller hosting
Speed Comparison of HostGator and SiteGround
One of the most important aspects that you need to consider is the website speed. With more than 400k customers and 9 million domains in the Kitty, HostGator still does not shy away from providing better speed. The website loads in around 1.25 seconds on shared servers which on SiteGround it takes around 1.5 seconds. However, the comparison goes in favor of SiteGround when it comes to VPS and dedicated server.
Also read, how to speed up WordPress website?
Price Comparison Between SiteGround and HostGator
| SiteGround | HostGator |
|---|---|
| StartUp: $3.95 1 website 10 GB space 10,000 monthly visitors | Hatchling: $2.75 1 website Unmetered space Unmetered bandwidth |
| GrowBig: $5.95 Unlimited websites 20 GB space 25,000 visitors monthly | Baby: $3.95 Unlimited domains Unmetered space Unmetered bandwidth |
| GoGeek: $11.95 Unlimited websites 30 GB space 100,000 visitors monthly | Business: $5.95 Unlimited domains Unmetered space Unmetered bandwidth Free SEO tools Free dedicated IP Free SSL |
The table above shows that the price is much cheaper with HostGator but the main issue with the company is that they do not have fast servers in shared hosting. The response time is much letter in HostGator in comparison to SiteGround. So while it is cheaper, you should opt for SiteGround if website speed is one of your priorities.
Uptime of SiteGround and HostGator
For any website owner, it is very important to have the website up and running 24/7. As the businesses are going online and most of the customers want to learn online from your websites, it gives a very wrong impression if the site is non-responsive.
Both SiteGround and HostGator promise 99.9% uptime however HostGator trails behind to some extent because of slower response to downtime complaints. Also, SiteGround has its own backup system which becomes active as soon as the server predicts any problem that may occur and restore data much faster in comparison to other service providers.
SiteGround vs HostGator Customer Support
For any company, it is very important to ensure that each and every query is answered in record time. The customer service on the HostGator’s side sometimes goes a little problematic during the peak hours. The team takes more than 10 minutes to respond in some cases but giving the benefit of the doubt that they own more than 12000 servers, they still manage to solve the queries as soon as possible.
SiteGround is known for its quick response and highly qualified to answer all your queries in the fastest and most efficient way. The typical response time remains below 5 minutes. The chat system of SiteGround is completely flawless. Keeping all the aspects in mind we will still prefer the customer support from HostGator because of the non-complex structure.
Read Also: How to start a WordPress blog with SiteGround
Conclusion
SiteGround and HostGator are in the field of web hosting for quite some time. While SiteGround is officially supported by WordPress, HostGator still owns a bigger chunk of market share. When we compare the prices, SiteGround is on the expensive side but in terms of services, customer support, and features, SiteGround is the best hosting provider compared to HostGator.
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