HostGator vs. WordPress (2021)

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Laura Bernheim Alexandra Leslie Hosting Expert
“We tested WordPress & HostGator — The winner is WordPress!”

You know how all squares are rectangles, but rectangles aren’t necessarily squares? That’s essentially where we find ourselves when comparing HostGator and WordPress. The former, like the vast majority of hosts, offers a one-click installation of WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system. WordPress does not provide hosting services, unless you opt to use one of its subdomains. Both organizations, however, emphasize afforability, usability, and creativity when it comes to helping users get online.

Updated: September 3, 2020
WordPress review
Overall Rating
5.0/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit WordPress »
HostGator review
Overall Rating
4.5/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit HostGator »
Advertiser Disclosure
Compare: Overall | Cheap Hosting | Dedicated | VPS | WordPress | Site Builder | Conclusion

Overall Hosting Comparison

WordPress review

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

WordPress, the #1 blogging platform and software that powers more than 26% of websites currently online, needs no introduction. The underlying software of WordPress.com, a browser-based website builder for newbie site owners to stretch their website design wings, can be downloaded and installed for free via WordPress.org.

Many of the top hosting providers make the software even easier to access, however, by offering single-click installations for WordPress. WordPress hosting front-runner, InMotion Hosting will preinstall the platform for you at checkout.

Once the platform is successfully set up, site owners can begin browsing the theme marketplace, previewing site content before publishing to the web. Find the perfect theme, incorporate any plugins you'd like to extend your site's functionality, and begin drafting your first post! Whether you're building a blog or an online store — hosting on a shared server or your very own VPS — you can have a new WordPress site online in less than an hour. It only has to take a few minutes, but we're no stranger to perfectionism.

You'll have the support of the open-source community in your corner, as the WordPress core code is actively maintained by a team of all-star contributing developers. And just about any question you could imagine having has probably been asked and answered somewhere on the web. It's a long-standing, fast-growing family of fans, and we at HostingAdvice welcome you to team WordPress!

Whether you're looking for shared, cloud-based, or dedicated server WordPress hosting, we recommend InMotion. Throughout our review of the WordPress platform, we'll use InMotion's pricing, storage allowances, uptime rates, and support standards to illustrate the ease and excellence of building a website with WordPress and a WP-friendly host.

Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
HostGator review

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

HostGator has been around for more than a decade and is well-respected for its large number of servers and consistent reliability. Known mostly as a shared hosting provider, HostGator still supplies decent dedicated and VPS options if you need your site to scale.

HostGator costs slightly more than some of the other budget-minded shared hosts, but that echoes the brand's reputation for strong infrastructure and helpful support. HostGator offers decent features in its basic shared hosting offerings, such as unlimited disk space, a nice control panel, and free website templates. Plus, you get the flexibility to add numerous add-ons for privacy, security, and productivity as you see fit.

Aimed primarily at the semi-technical user, HostGator's flexibility is its strong suit. Dedicated, VPS, and Windows hosting is available if that fits your needs, as well. Root access, SSH, and support for Ruby, Perl, Python, and other languages is available on all plans.

HostGator has nearly limitless options and control available for their servers, with the support and beginner-friendly tools that will appeal to the full range of customers.

  • Familiar and easy-to-use cPanel control panel
  • FREE drag-and-drop custom website builder
  • Unlimited disk space, email, and bandwidth
  • Flexible term lengths with no contract required
  • 62% off your first three years
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
45 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Cheap Hosting Comparison

WordPress review

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

WordPress hosting is incredibly cost-competitive. The software itself is free, and most shared hosts offer WordPress packages in the $2- to $5-per-month ballpark. It's easy to get started, as hosts will often offer single-click installations for WordPress, and then you can begin browsing the thousands of themes available in the Appearance section of the WordPress dashboard. Customize to your heart's desire, click "Publish," and voila! You've got yourself a self-hosted WordPress website.

Whether you're looking to build an online presence for your brick-and-mortar or a blog for your interior design musings, WordPress is the ideal space in which to spread your website-building wings. The additional free resources you'll have at your fingertips include plugins (add-on software that extends the functionality of the WordPress platform), eCommerce tools, and features to optimize your website for online search.

By partnering with a cheap shared hosting provider, you'll get more than shared space on a server. To remain cost-competitive, most hosts include additional freebies such as a complimentary domain name registration, unlimited storage and email, and a few hundred dollars' worth of paid search marketing credits.

InMotion Hosting does all of the above, which is one of the many reasons we recommend the host as a true value offering in WordPress hosting. Get started today and enjoy free SSD storage, one-click installations for other WordPress-compatible tools, and business-class hardware at an ultra-affordable monthly rate.

  • #1 site-building software is FREE
  • Install in 1 click with top hosts
  • FREE themes to customize your WordPress site
  • Works for eCommerce, blogging, galleries, and personal sites
  • Trusted by millions of website owners
  • Get started on WordPress with InMotion Hosting.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
HostGator review

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

#3 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

HostGator is a great compromise between performance and price. The company offers unlimited emails, MySQL databases, disk space, and bandwidth, plus one-click installs of popular open-source projects, in addition to a 99.9% uptime guarantee on its shared hosting plan.

HostGator’s price-to-performance perks also apply to its vast array of other hosting options, such as VPS, dedicated servers, and even reseller hosting. The company's many hosting options make HostGator a great choice for sites on the rise, in need of options for the future.

For those just getting started and looking for a good, cheap host, HostGator bundles some nice features that hosting newbies can appreciate.

The Hatchling Plan is perfect for users who just want to create one website, while upgrading to the HostGator Baby Plan unlocks unlimited bandwidth, domains, and email inboxes.

The web hosting company’s custom website builder comes with more than 4,500 drag-and-drop, mobile-friendly templates to help users launch their website, blog, or ecommerce store, while the familiar HostGator cPanel interface helps customers seamlessly manage domains, email, databases, and one-click software installations.

If you are looking for a solid web host, with a ton of flexibility, plenty of power, and great price points, you should consider making HostGator your web host of choice. Be sure to use a HostGator coupon to make sure you score the best deal!

  • Get 62% off by buying 36 months up front
  • Unmetered disk space & bandwidth
  • Unlimited email addresses & free SSL certificate
  • One-click WordPress install & free blog tools
  • Free 1-year domain registration on select plans
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
45 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

WordPress review

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

If you're a mid-sized to large-scale online business, or if security and compliance are of utmost concern, you may be considering a dedicated server for your hosting needs. Dedicated resources come at a premium, but leading WordPress host InMotion makes it worth your while.

Should you opt for one of InMotion's dedicated hosting plans for WordPress, the team will download and install the software for you. Begin writing your site from scratch or get a jumpstart on design with a professional-looking theme. Either way, the end result will be blazing-fast page load speeds backed by an always-on uptime guarantee (99.999%).

InMotion Hosting dedicated servers feature SSD storage, rebootless kernel updates, full root access, and around-the-clock server monitoring. Plans include plenty of RAM, IP addresses, storage, and processing power, so your WordPress site is equipped to scale alongside your business.

WordPress is a robust, comprehensive platform for designing, deploying, and maintaining an exquisite and performant online presence, and it has a loyal community of contributing developers and avid users to show for it. Follow the forums, confide in the WordPress Codex, and spend some time getting to know the nuances of this incredible interface. You won't be disappointed.

  • Robust blogging platform meets resource-capable dedicated servers
  • Ideal for fast-growing sites and enterprise
  • InMotion guarantees 99.99% uptime for your WordPress site
  • 1-click software installation for WordPress
  • FREE SSD storage
  • Get started on WordPress with InMotion Hosting.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
500 GB - 1.2 TB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
HostGator review

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#6 out of 10 in Dedicated Hosting reviews

Founded in 2002, HostGator is one of the largest web hosts with a long lineage of dedicated server hosting. With updated hardware, including Intel Xeon Quad-core processors and a boatload of RAM, HostGator balances performance, quality web hosting service, and competitive pricing.

As one of the few hosts to offer managed support and a Windows-based operating system, HostGator is an excellent fit for those seeking hassle-free ASP.NET support.

HostGator boasts a top-of-the-line, fully redundant network and datacenter, which dedicated hosting users should appreciate. The company also offers several dedicated IP addresses per HostGator server hosting account.

Finally, HostGator has a fantastic support team and 24/7 customer service available via phone, chat, or email. Combining that HostGator support with plenty of power, HostGator is a very respectable choice for a dedicated server host.

  • Linux or Windows servers available
  • HDD or SSD storage plus unmetered bandwidth
  • Fully redundant network and datacenter
  • SSH access and support for multiple languages
  • Managed or semi-managed solutions
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
512 GB SSD - 2 TB HDD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

VPS Hosting Comparison

WordPress review

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

Virtual private servers yield the utmost flexibility at a cost-effective price point. Some of the most performant and popular websites in the world are powered by VPS hosting, and the same can be said of the WordPress platform. From the New York Post and Fortune.com to Spotify and Beyonce.com, millions of websites run on WordPress. HostingAdvice is backed by a virtual server and managed via the WordPress platform. It's a match made in hosting heaven.

For your VPS and cloud hosting needs, we recommend InMotion Hosting for WordPress. The company touts enterprise-grade hardware, and solid-state drives come standard, accelerating performance with up to 20x faster page loads. With your choice of datacenter locations, East or West Coast, InMotion delivers all the flexibility, performance, and security the VPS niche can offer.

Once your virtual server is provisioned and WordPress is installed, you can choose to write your HTML from scratch or take a head start with one of thousands of themes. Extend your site's functionality with plugins for eCommerce, page caching, comment moderation, and other essentials for a modern web presence.

Backed by an active, open-source developer community, the WordPress interface is easy to befriend, and just about any question you have about bugs or updates has probably been answered in the Codex or community forums.

  • Instantly provision your VPS and install WordPress with 1 click
  • SSD speed gives your WordPress site a performance boost
  • WordPress is trusted as the #1 site builder platform
  • InMotion is trusted as the #1 WordPress VPS host
  • Tons of support available via your host and online forums
  • Get started on WordPress with InMotion Hosting.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
75 GB - 260 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer
HostGator review

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#9 out of 10 in VPS Hosting reviews

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.

Starting at low price points and boasting tons of support, HostGator makes transitioning to a VPS plan reasonable and doable. Each plan comes with two IP addresses and a bunch of storage, and recently expanded CPU and RAM offerings lend a ton of computing power.

If you're not sure a VPS hosting package is a good fit, take a look at the revamped HostGator cloud offerings, which offer additional scalability and redundancy at remarkable price points. For those managing multiple hosting accounts, be sure to consider a HostGator reseller hosting plan, as well.

HostGator’s strongest point comes from its state-of-the-art datacenter. Featuring a fully redundant network with no single point of failure and multiple bandwidth providers, uptime should almost never be a concern.

Founded in 2002, HostGator is one of the largest online web hosts. The company has more than 12,000 servers under management and award-winning support. If you are looking for a small VPS server or value the strength of a great network, give HostGator a shot.

  • 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.
Money Back Guarantee
45 days
Disk Space
120 GB - 240 GB
Domain Name
New or Transfer

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress review

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

Good news, website owners: The software that powers upward of 25% of websites is free and open for public enjoyment and customization! WordPress is ready for download at WordPress.org, and the team is actively maintaining its core code. So long as you stay current with your WP software versions and install plugins with caution, the site-building possibilities and benefits of WordPress are seemingly endless.

It should come as no surprise that many of the web's most trusted hosts have zeroed in on the popularity of WordPress, offering single-click installations for the software and WordPress-specific optimizations for performance, security, and support.

Once you get up and running with a WordPress host, you can choose from thousands of free and paid themes — premade website templates that expedite your site design process, allowing you to skip to the content and customization. For a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) experience, we recommend installing BoldGrid, a site builder tool that layers on top of the WordPress platform to create a drag-and-drop site builder environment. InMotion will install BoldGrid for you at checkout as well, making WordPress setup a non-issue.

Incorporating additional plugins, apps, and scripts extends the robust functionality of the WordPress interface. From calendar widgets to page caching for performance, there's essentially a plugin for every WordPress need. Integrating payment processing tools, such as Shopify and PayPal, converts your traditional site into a transaction-ready virtual marketplace. Cultivate a following with commenting apps, like Disqus, and link your social media accounts. What's more, WordPress hosts often throw in free paid search advertising credits to help you kickstart your marketing efforts.

WordPress remains the most popular platform for building a beautiful online presence from scratch. It's relied on by hosting novices and seasoned developers alike, and we're confident the software, matched with InMotion Hosting hardware, will deliver everything you need to establish and grow your next website.

Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE
HostGator review

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#4 out of 10 in WordPress Hosting reviews

HostGator is great for all things shared hosting, and application-specific services — such as the classic one-click-install WordPress hosting — are no exception. The team recently updated its already clean and intuitive HostGator cPanel dashboard, wherein users can find a myriad of free apps and scripts to install, including WordPress. You could quite realistically have a WP-powered site up and running in as little as an afternoon.

As is the case with many of our favorite shared WordPress hosting providers, including sister company Bluehost, HostGator offers unlimited emails, databases, disk storage, and bandwidth. The one downfall is the lack of the popular free domain perk, but domain names are easy to obtain for around $10 to $15 bucks with any registrar. You can also select, register, and pay for a domain directly from the HostGator signup page.

If you're serious about your WordPress hosting, we recommend HostGator's new(er) managed WordPress platform, which is optimized for performance with cloud resources, multiple layers of caching tools, and a complimentary CDN. Managed WordPress plan subscribers enjoy up to 2.5x faster page load speeds for their HostGator website or blog. If you're running a business WordPress site, this is an excellent investment.

Once your site is designed and ready for promotion, HostGator helps you kickstart your online marketing efforts with $100 in paid advertising credits. Attract blog readers, potential clients, or online shoppers browsing Google search results.

We wish you the best of luck in your blog or online business hosting endeavors. WordPress is a known favorite in the space, and HostGator has established itself as a trusted partner well worthy of your consideration.

  • Easy-to-set-up WordPress hosting on shared servers
  • Install WordPress with one click via cPanel dashboard
  • Unlimited email addresses hosted at your domain
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee means your blog stays online
  • $100 in Google Adwords credits to kickstart marketing
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
45 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

WordPress review

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

While WordPress is technically blogging software, it's been called a website builder, a content management system, and even an eCommerce platform — basically, a website-building multitool. Because it's open-sourced, the core code can be adapted to meet virtually any website need, and the wealth of plugins and WP-friendly apps built by third-party developers makes this platform a go-to for website owners around the world.

For added site-building functionality, we recommend downloading and installing BoldGrid, which functions on top of the WP interface to act as a drag-and-drop content management system. This is especially useful for first-time site owners or nervous hosting newbies. Basically, BoldGrid takes away the one dig against WordPress, its semi-steep learning curve, by transforming the backend environment into a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) website editor. Best of all, both WordPress and BoldGrid are 100% free, and the InMotion Hosting team will set up the platforms for you at checkout.

Once WordPress is installed and configured, you can begin designing one of two ways: Upload your own HTML files and style sheets and continue customizing in the backend, or choose from a library of thousands of premade website themes. Paired with the abundance of plugins for extensibility, the WordPress interface brings utmost flexibility from a site construction and customization point of view.

  • Intuitive, drag-and-drop site builder BoldGrid sits atop WordPress
  • Developed and supported by the InMotion Hosting team
  • Responsive themes so your WP site looks good on any device
  • FREE to download WordPress software
  • SEO-friendly end result
  • Get started on BoldGrid for WordPress now.
Money Back Guarantee
90 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
HostGator review

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#3 out of 10 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

Setting itself apart from the scores of competitors that rely on white-labeled website builder solutions, HostGator spent the time to painstakingly craft its own platform. Gator provides a frustration-free experience that pairs the simplicity of drag-and-drop design with the company’s powerful and respected web hosting services.

Signing up is a breeze, and HostGator gives customers an option to add a suite of social media marketing tools. Users are quickly ushered into a gallery of more than 200 modern, mobile-responsive, and visually impressive templates that can be sorted by categories like beauty and fashion, music and entertainment, real estate, business consultant, portfolios, and others. Gator covers blogs and ecommerce stores, even coming with a free domain name and SSL certificate.

Once you choose your basic look, Gator ushers you through a 15-second tour to show you the basic features of the editor — and it’s all you need. Clicking on any element opens a menu that gives you options to change styles, whether it’s a section’s complete design or something simple like font or color.

We especially appreciate how Gator’s drag-and-drop interface gives users pixel-perfect control while still suggesting guides and grids for appropriate spacing. Throughout the customization and design phase, users can seamlessly switch between desktop and mobile views to understand how your site will appear to all visitors.

Adding a blog or ecommerce store takes just a click. We wish Gator would suggest a select few designs that matched the current site’s template instead of the dozen or so options that reflect a wide range of categories, but we were impressed that the in-depth previews covered both the blog page and individual posts, for instance.

All in all, HostGator can be incredibly proud of its proprietary site builder — and customers can sit back and enjoy the confidence in having such a well-rounded tool at their design disposal.

  • Drag-and-drop design with the Gator™ site builder
  • Hundreds of mobile-friendly templates
  • FREE hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate
  • Easily add a blog, store, and social media
  • Analytics portal helps gauge site performance
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
45 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
Advertiser Disclosure

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WordPress vs. HostGator - Our Conclusion

Laura Bernheim Alexandra Leslie Hosting Expert
“We tested WordPress & HostGator — The winner is WordPress!”

We paired the WordPress platform with one of our favorite hosts, InMotion Hosting, for the sake of this comparison. However, HostGator and many others provide similar infrastructure, installations, and support to help you succeed with WordPress. It’s hard to go wrong with WordPress, the content management system that roughly 75 million other sites rely on to power their online hopes and dreams.

WordPress review
Overall Rating
5.0/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit WordPress »
HostGator review
Overall Rating
4.5/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit HostGator »

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