Hostinger vs. HostGator (2024)

Laura Bernheim

By: Laura Bernheim

Laura Bernheim

Laura Bernheim, Contributing Expert

Laura has spent more than 12 years crafting engaging and award-winning articles that share the passion behind organizations' products, people, and innovations. As a long-time HostingAdvice contributing expert, she combines a reputation for producing quality content with rich technical expertise to show experienced developers how to capitalize on emerging technologies and find better ways to work with established platforms. A professional journalist, Laura has contributed to The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, the Sun Sentinel, and the world's top hosting providers.

Lillian Castro

Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro, Senior Editor

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

Cristian Lopez

Reviewer: Cristian Lopez

Cristian Lopez

Cristian Lopez, Contributing Expert

Cristian Lopez uses his Business Marketing background from the University of Illinois at Chicago to create comfortable environments for customers, clients, and colleagues to share their thoughts and ideas openly. From interviewing tech leaders to conducting UX market research projects, Cristian knows the importance of storytelling — a key variable for innovation and inspiration. His goal at HostingAdvice is to wow readers on the ever-evolving nature of the tech industry and bring his audience the most reliable and exciting content on all things hosting.

Laura Bernheim Laura Bernheim Hosting Expert
“We tested Hostinger & HostGator — The winner is Hostinger!”

Hostinger and HostGator have earned badges of respect in the hosting community for years of reliable service. Wearing these badges with pride, the two hosts have continued to innovate and push for enhanced performance and security measures. Our competitors have many features in common, including budget-friendly shared hosting plans, high uptime, and supreme reliability. But we all know there are pros and cons to every provider. Let’s find out who deserves to win the title of the best host.

Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Hostinger »
Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit HostGator »

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Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

Behind a mission to make life easier for website developers and their customers, Hostinger provides fast, stable, and streamlined services at a price that is very hard to beat.

Founded in 2004, the bootstrapped company hit the 10 million websites mark a decade later, achieving ICANN accreditation and localizing services in 39 countries.

Now, Hostinger serves more than 2 million customers and sees an average of 20,000 new users sign up each day — roughly a new customer every five seconds.

The company's team of roughly 1,000 employees maintains several international offices and a strong force of remote workers to ensure Hostinger services and support are always running and responsive.

As such, Hostinger is able to offer around-the-clock live chat support and a 99.9% service uptime guarantee. The company concentrates on resource-rich shared hosting and scalable virtual servers.

The former boasts WordPress-friendly optimizations and an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder, along with daily or weekly backups and a free domain name for annual plans. Hostinger clearly aims to strike the perfect balance on price versus performance.

Instead of offering subpar services at the lowest price in the industry, the company equips its infrastructure with high-powered solid-state drives and recently even completed a self-imposed challenge to achieve a perfect score on Google PageSpeed Insights.

Finding NVMe SSDs and that level of performance at a price lower than most competitors is a striking victory for the company.

  • 24/7/365 ticket and live chat support
  • 99.9% network uptime guarantee
  • FREE domain, site builder, backups, SSL certificate, and AI tools
  • Unlimited bandwidth, databases, and email accounts
  • Speedy NVMe SSDs optimize performance
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - 200 GB NVMe SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

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 are 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
  • 74% off your first three years
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 5.0/5.0

#1 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

As the shared hosting market becomes increasingly saturated, unlimited storage, bandwidth, and email accounts have become surprisingly average.

Hostinger, however, extends the routine, expected metrics to greater lengths — the number of websites, databases, FTP users, subdomains, and parked domains are all unrestricted for most customers.

Hostinger clients who opt for the slightly more expensive (but still quite reasonable and remarkably affordable) Premium and Business hosting packages enjoy unlimited computing power and a free domain name registration, along with free backups.

Premium customers will see performance that measures up to two times faster than the company's cheapest shared hosting plan, while Business users benefit from speeds up to four times faster.

Those consumers will also receive daily backups (instead of weekly), deluxe support, a free SSL certificate, and twice the processing power and memory.

The company's lowest tier of shared hosting services, geared for small, single sites, gets below the $3-per-month benchmark.

While perfectly adequate for new projects, professional résumés, and new blogs, we recommend users sign up for one of the more upscale plans; room to grow is important, and the forward-thinking decision eliminates any potential hassles with upgrading services or migrating files.

Overall, we appreciate how Hostinger doesn't sacrifice performance and functionality when trying to appeal to budget-minded site owners.

The company's all-SSD infrastructure, combined with the inclusion of an easy-to-use site builder, maxed-out speed boosts, and options for a free SSL certificate and domain name, are sure to facilitate lasting and long-term hosting relationships.

  • Unlimited everything, from storage to databases
  • FREE site builder & WP performance upgrades
  • FREE daily or weekly backups
  • Custom control panel and auto-installation scripts
  • SSH access & unlimited FREE SSL certificates
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - 200 GB NVMe
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#9 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!

  • Host up to unlimited websites on a single plan
  • FREE SSL certificate included on all plans
  • Unlimited bandwidth & email addresses
  • 1-click WordPress installs & FREE blog tools
  • Get 74% OFF by buying 36 months upfront
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

N/A

Hostinger does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#5 out of 8 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

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#4 out of 9 in VPS Hosting reviews

Hostinger's laser focus on providing affordable hosting solutions shines brightest with the company's VPS packages. The company provides six different virtual server plans, including one that costs less than $5.

Regardless of which plan customers choose, both site owners and visitors will enjoy the all-NVMe SSD infrastructure that loads pages up to 30 times faster than many shared hosting services.

Although disk space, RAM, and bandwidth capacities are all a slight touch lower than those of many mainstream competitors, Hostinger's prices reflect the limitations.

Site administrators likely won't miss an extra 10GB of storage, but they're more likely to notice and appreciate the $5 or so per month they save on high-powered hosting.

A key distinction to be aware of, though, is the lack of managed services. Experienced developers should have no problems using the company's powerful control panel, however, and we have faith that the Hostinger support team is prepared to handle any task or challenge thrown its way.

Customers can manage computing resources through the admin portal, which enables admins to reboot servers or turn them on or off.

Users can quickly install or update operating systems or applications with just a few clicks, or view performance statistics or manage root access passwords.

Those who prefer cPanel can opt to manage backups and restores, among other components, in the familiar interface. Unlike Hostinger's shared hosting services, virtual server plans do not include a free domain registration. However, the ICANN-accredited registrar offers incredibly cheap domain registrations.

Addresses ending in .com and .net cost less than $10 per year, while .biz and .org domains are still a few dollars more affordable when registered through Hostinger, compared with most competitors. Domains with those extensions cost about $12 per year.

  • Cloud-based SSD storage for speed and reliability
  • Double your RAM with burst periods
  • FREE dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
  • Custom control panel for reboots and OS installs
  • HostingAdvice readers enjoy more than 50% off
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
50 GB NVMe - 400 GB NVMe
Domain Name
New or Transfer

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

#7 out of 9 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
30 days
Disk Space
120 GB SSD - 240 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#4 out of 9 in WordPress Hosting reviews

As much as we love WordPress, one of our biggest pet peeves is when hosting providers exploit the popularity of the world's most-used content management system by offering so-called WordPress hosting that, in reality, is exactly the same as the host's shared server plans.

Fortunately, Hostinger's ultra-fast infrastructure and easy access to SSL certificates and backups sets up the company to outperform the vast majority of the violators of our admittedly made-up rule.

One prime benefit to WordPress hosting with Hostinger is that customers can enjoy the same affordable rates for which the company offers shared hosting. For less than $3 per month, users will benefit from optimal hardware, unlimited features, and better-than-average security programs.

When setting up a new hosting account, users are asked if they want to install WordPress as soon as they log into the account management portal.

Hostinger does an exceptional job at streamlining the installation and setup process for even the least-experienced site owners.

In addition to the more performant storage on solid-state drives, Hostinger's top two shared plans come optimized for WordPress by increasing page load performance between three and five times more than the base package.

Also, the top-tier Business plan comes with twice the processing power and memory. Otherwise, site administrators can enjoy unlimited MySQL databases, phpMyAdmin, and the ideal InnoDB storage engine.

Although we'd like to see more features specific for WordPress, such as caching tools and automatic updates, Hostinger includes server security from BitNinja and SpamAssassin protection for email. Most WordPress users will be very well served by choosing Hostinger to house their website.

  • Officially endorsed by WordPress.org
  • 1-click WP install, PHP 7+, HTTP/2, and LiteSpeed
  • All-in-one security protections from BitNinja
  • No price markup for WordPress services
  • Daily backups, FREE SSL certificates, and AI Tools
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - 200 GB NVMe
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

#7 out of 9 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.

  • Managed WordPress hosting on shared servers
  • WordPress is preinstalled on all plans
  • Unlimited email addresses hosted at your domain
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee for your blog
  • $150 in Google Ads spend match credit
  • Get started on HostGator now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
20 GB SSD - 100 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#3 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

Whether you're taking your first foray into website hosting or are a developer looking to save some time, a strong website builder can dramatically streamline the creation process and enable users to launch a website in five minutes or less.

Fortunately for customers, Hostinger has invested heavily in crafting an impressive visual editor sure to appeal to users of all levels of experience. More than 2 million websites have been created through Hostinger's free tool.

The drag-and-drop interface can be launched in a single click from customers' hosting account management panel. Site owners can choose from hundreds of templates, which are organized into dozens of categories.

The overall designs might not be as flashy as the templates found on well-known site builders, including Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace, but users will have plenty of modern options from which to choose.

From there, the WYSIWYG platform intuitively guides users through various steps of adding and editing text, organizing navigational menus, and managing SEO settings.

While some drag-and-drop editors actually make adding and aligning elements surprisingly difficult, Hostinger assists users by having images, text boxes, and the like snap to a grid — ensuring your design has the greatest impact.

All in all, we have a soft spot for hosts that deploy in-house solutions for website builders, as opposed to those companies that white-label third-party products.

As with other Hostinger services, the company shows a refreshing dedication to providing top-notch services and experiences for their customers.

  • Drag-and-drop design from custom tools
  • FREE access to hundreds of specialized templates
  • Built-in eCommerce and payment processing
  • Easily switch among widescreen, desktop, tablet, and mobile previews
  • Support for 31 languages and 99.9% uptime
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - 200 GB NVMe SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

#4 out of 9 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
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB SSD - 40 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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Hostinger vs. HostGator - Our Conclusion

Laura Bernheim Laura Bernheim Hosting Expert
“We tested Hostinger & HostGator — The winner is Hostinger!”

Hostinger and HostGator put up a good fight with impressive speed, storage, and bandwidth. Either web host will provide a top-notch experience, but you may be better off choosing Hostinger if you’re in the market for something beginner-friendly and HostGator for more advanced web hosting options. Either way, you’re in good hands.

Overall Rating
4.8/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Hostinger »
Overall Rating
4.5/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit HostGator »

About The Author

Laura has spent more than 12 years crafting engaging and award-winning articles that share the passion behind organizations' products, people, and innovations. As a long-time HostingAdvice contributing expert, she combines a reputation for producing quality content with rich technical expertise to show experienced developers how to capitalize on emerging technologies and find better ways to work with established platforms. A professional journalist, Laura has contributed to The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, the Sun Sentinel, and the world's top hosting providers.
Laura Bernheim