Writer: Alexandra Anderson
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Cristian Lopez
Looking for a comprehensive HostGator VPS review that puts the well-known hosting brand’s servers to the test? You’ve come to the right spot!
We’ve long been fans of the company’s beginner-friendly and affordable shared hosting plans, but recent investments into a revamped cloud hosting platform, optimized WordPress hosting, and a custom-built website builder have shown that HostGator is placing a renewed focus on upgrading its infrastructure to compete at the higher levels of hosting services, as well.
If your website starts showing signs it’s outgrown shared hosting, such as slowed performance or excessive downtime, or if you’ve received exceeded bandwidth messages from your host, it may be time to consider a VPS. A quick Google search will tell you HostGator is an excellent choice. Here, we’ll share our experience with HostGator, as well as how the company’s VPS hosting compares to its competitors.
HostGator VPS Hosting Review: 4.7 Overall Rating
HostGator is known for its reliability
as a company that confidently ushers website owners through the ranks of shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting options as their businesses and websites grow. In the past, we’ve praised the hosting provider for providing top-of-the-line customer care throughout the site’s hosting lifecycle.
Not only is the HostGator brand a well-reputed and recognized name in the hosting industry, but the company is also backed by hosting giant Endurance International Group. This means mega support resources and a ton of in-house expertise for HostGator customers.
HostGator.com
Monthly Starting Price $34.99
- Full root access with fully or semi-managed options
- Redundant network with multiple layers of security
- FREE website, domain, MySQL, and script transfer
- RAID-10 storage for data protection
- Get up to 75% off when you sign up
- Get started on HostGator now.
HostGator has built a great reputation in the industry for its shared web hosting options. The company's VPS hosting solution, with optional cPanel support, provide a nice and easy introduction to those who are new to VPS hosting and know their needs require more than a typical shared plan. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes | 120 GB SSD - 240 GB SSD | 2 - 4 cores | 2 - 8 GB |
See other top-rated VPS hosts »
How Do HostGator’s Virtual Servers Compare with Those of Competitors?
HostGator is among the top-ranked VPS and cloud hosting providers in the world. Having tested the VPS plans of the best hosts, we can attest to its reputation for reliability. However, the host could do more in the way of advanced storage, performance, and security features. Compared with competitors, HostGator provides great entry-level VPS options, but advanced users will get more bang for their buck with the top-ranked VPS hosts:
Kamatera.com
Monthly Starting Price $4.00
- Cloud VPS that's more flexible and affordable
- Load balancer, firewall, and managed services
- Premium Intel CPUs with 300% more power
- Choose between monthly or hourly billing
- Sign up today for a 30-day FREE trial
- Get started on Kamatera now.
Backed by cutting-edge cloud computing technology, Kamatera adds instant and limitless scalability to the VPS hosting marketplace. Each cloud or virtual server is equipped with blazing-fast SSD storage and Intel Xeon Platinum CPUs. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 20 GB SSD - 4 TB SSD | 1 - 32 cores | 1 GB - 128 GB |
LiquidWeb.com
Monthly Starting Price $5.00
- High-speed hosting that's faster than AWS, Rackspace, and Digital Ocean
- FREE backups, CDN, and DDoS protection
- Up to 16 processors with all-SSD storage
- Choice between cPanel, Plesk, or InterWorx
- Real-time monitoring and 100% uptime guarantee
- Get started on Liquid Web now.
It's no secret by now that Liquid Web is known for best-in-class technology and reliability that exceeds expectations. The company's cloud VPS environments embody that reputation to its fullest — including managed WordPress and WooCommerce products. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes | 30 GB SSD - 150 GB SSD | 1 - 8 cores | 1 GB - 8 GB |
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.00
- Affordable VPS hosting with no hidden fees
- Try it FREE via 30-day money-back guarantee
- Full root access and API
- 10GB to 240GB SSD, Linux or Windows
- No throttling or traffic restrictions, ever
- Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
For an all-star player in the game of web hosting flexibility, look no further than the low-cost options from 1&1 IONOS. The company's vServers are a powerful VPS option that includes dedicated resources and unlimited traffic. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 minutes | 10 GB NVMe - 640 GB NVMe | 1 - 12 cores | 1 GB - 24 GB |
See all HostGator VPS alternatives »
HostGator Features: 4.6 Rating
You can expect all the VPS essentials to be covered in HostGator plans — custom configurations; hosting for unlimited domains, subdomains, and email accounts; and dedicated resources without the cost of a dedicated server. HostGator VPS packages are not teeming with data transfer and storage resources, but you can trust you won’t pay for more than you need.
- Custom installs and configurations
- 120GB to 240GB of storage
- State-of-the-art Intel hardware
- 2 IP addresses
- 2 or 4 cores
- Hosting for unlimited sub/domains
- 2GB to 8GB of RAM
- cPanel control panel
- 1.5TB to 3TB of bandwidth
- Fully redundant network
Of course, you can seamlessly scale up and down as demands fluctuate.
HostGator Pricing: 4.3 Rating
With virtual server plans starting at $34.99 a month, HostGator VPS pricing is competitive, and you can easily upgrade as your computing and storage demands scale. Customers get the choice of two or four cores with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM and two IP addresses.
HostGator provides scalable VPS options to meet virtually any size budget.
The bandwidth and storage allowances are somewhat modest compared with competitor plans, but most professional projects and tech startups will probably find HostGator VPS services to be cost-effective, especially if you’re migrating from shared server hosting.
HostGator VPS Performance: 4.7 Rating
HostGator server performance remains competitive with its sister hosts Bluehost, iPage, and FatCow. Its Utah- and Texas-based datacenter facilities are lined with Intel servers, feature a fully redundant network with HVAC units, and are equipped with backup generators to ensure interruption-free performance for your site(s).
HostGator would get more points in this category if the company were to add solid-state drives (SSDs), instant provisioning, application-specific caching, performance monitoring or speed boost optimizations. These features have become standard among speed-savvy hosting providers (a great example being the current trend toward SSD hosting), and HostGator is a little behind by not at least offering them as an upsell option.
HostGator VPS Reliability: 5.0 Rating
HostGator covers the reliability bases with state-of-the-art hardware, an attentive support team, and weekly off-site data backups, giving customers the utmost confidence in HostGator services. Whether you’re coming from another host or upgrading from one of HostGator’s shared hosting plans, the team offers free migration assistance, and the award-winning support staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
The 99.9% uptime guarantee is pretty standard across the industry, although up/downtime rates and uptime guarantees should not be treated as the sole measure of a host’s reliability. Nevertheless, you can expect to benefit from a redundant network with no single point of failure. HostGator partners with multiple bandwidth providers and equips its datacenters with backup power generators and Intel processors for maximum performance and protection for your precious server data.
Get 30% Off Your First Month of VPS Hosting with HostGator
Your website and business maturing to VPS needs is an exciting milestone in your company timeline. It’s an accomplishment to be proud of but one that can be daunting to navigate. For that reason, we encourage hosting customers to partner with a web host that’s known for easing the burden of such transitions.
HostGator makes the VPS upgrade a painless one by offering free migration assistance for cPanel users — and our visitors enjoy 30% off the first month of HostGator VPS hosting. It couldn’t be easier to get started, and this is really just the beginning for you and your business idea you’ve poured so much into. The scaling potential is infinite with server hosts like HostGator. Best of luck to you and your (hopefully) million-dollar idea(s)!
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