Verdict record
hostgator.com
Prices verified November 2026. Renewal prices from HostGator's own hosting price chart help article; plan limits from its shared hosting page and account limits summary; intro prices from Toolradar (verified September 2026) and All About Cookies, because HostGator's page hides intro prices until checkout. Backup, migration and domain renewal figures from HostGator help articles. US prices. Several sources disagree, noted in the text.. Hosting prices change often, check the provider's own page before you buy.
HostGator is one of the best-known budget hosts in the US, and its headline price is $3.75 a month. That number is real, but it only holds for a 36-month prepay, and it only lasts one term.
This review works out what HostGator costs once the term ends, what you get on each plan, and where the extra charges come from.
I have not run a paid site on HostGator. Everything here comes from HostGator's own plan page, price chart and help center, plus independent test data from All About Cookies and Hosting Canada, named where used. I run my other sites on Hostinger, and I compare the two where it helps.
The short answer
HostGator is a fair pick if you want several small sites on one cPanel account and you are happy to prepay three years. Hatchling allows 10 sites, which is generous at this price.
It is a weaker pick if you care about backups, email, or a free move from your current host. Each of those is either thin or paid.
For most single-site small businesses, the 3-year and 5-year totals below put Hostinger ahead. Our Hostinger review covers that side.
HostGator plans and limits
HostGator sells four shared plans. All four are cPanel-based and come with a free domain for the first year.
| Plan | Websites | Storage | Monthly visits (est.) | Bandwidth | Courtesy backups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchling | 10 | 10 GB SSD | about 40,000 | Unmetered | Weekly |
| Baby | 20 | 20 GB SSD | about 50,000 | Unmetered | Weekly |
| Business | 50 | 50 GB SSD | about 200,000 | Unmetered | Weekly |
| Pro | 100 | 100 GB SSD | about 400,000 | Not listed | Not listed |
Site counts, storage and bandwidth come from HostGator's shared hosting page. Visit estimates come from All About Cookies, and HostGator treats them as guides, not hard caps.
One tracker, Toolradar, lists Hatchling at 1 website. HostGator's own plan page says 10, so I used 10.
The limits that matter more sit in the account limits summary. Every shared account gets a 25 percent CPU cap and 25 simultaneous processes.
Databases are capped at 20 on Hatchling, 40 on Baby and 100 on Business, with a 5 GB maximum per database. A busy WooCommerce store hits the CPU cap long before it fills 50 GB.
What HostGator really costs
HostGator hides its intro prices on the plan page until checkout. Toolradar and All About Cookies both list the 36-month rates as $3.75, $4.50, $6.25 and $13.95.
The renewal side is clearer, because HostGator publishes it. Its hosting price chart help article lists the regular rates by term.
| Plan | Intro (36 mo) | Renewal, 36 mo term | Renewal, 12 mo term | Month to month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchling | $3.75/mo | $395.61 ($10.99/mo) | $158.27 ($13.19/mo) | $17.59 |
| Baby | $4.50/mo | $593.61 ($16.49/mo) | $224.27 ($18.69/mo) | $24.19 |
| Business | $6.25/mo | $791.61 ($21.99/mo) | $290.27 ($24.19/mo) | $30.79 |
| Pro | $13.95/mo | $29.69/mo (Toolradar) | Not listed | Not listed |
Pro does not appear in HostGator's price chart, so its renewal is Toolradar's figure only.
The longer the renewal term, the lower the monthly rate, and month-to-month billing costs about 60 percent more than a 36-month renewal.
3-year and 5-year cost
Here is hosting alone, on the cheapest 36-month term, then renewed at HostGator's 36-month rate. The 5-year column counts the first 24 months of that renewal.
| Plan | First 36 months | Next 24 months | 5-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchling | $135.00 | $263.76 | $398.76 |
| Baby | $162.00 | $395.76 | $557.76 |
| Business | $225.00 | $527.76 | $752.76 |
For comparison, the same 5-year math in our Bluehost review comes to $383.40 for Bluehost Starter. Hostinger Premium comes to $275.40 on its 48-month term.
So HostGator is not the cheapest host in its own family. Bluehost, its sister brand, is about $15 cheaper at the entry tier over five years.
A realistic 3-year bill
Hosting is only part of the bill. Here is a Hatchling account for a small business that wants a domain, two mailboxes, daily backups and privacy.
| Cost item | 3-year total |
|---|---|
| Hatchling hosting, 36 months at $3.75 | $135.00 |
| .com renewal, years 2 and 3, at $23.99 | $47.98 |
| Professional Email, 2 users, 35 months at $2.99 each | $209.30 |
| Daily backup add-on, 36 months at $3.99 | $143.64 |
| Domain privacy, 3 years at $14.95 (All About Cookies) | $44.85 |
| Total | $580.77 |
The backup line uses the add-on's first-invoice price. HostGator's page says the add-on renews at a regular rate shown only in the control panel, so the real figure may be higher.
That $580.77 works out to about $16 a month. The headline $3.75 covers less than a quarter of it.
You can cut the bill. Skip privacy on Hatchling, use the 2 included mailboxes if 100 MB each is enough, and keep your own backups instead of the add-on.
Performance and uptime
Independent results on HostGator vary more than for most hosts I have looked at. The differences seem to come from test length and location.
All About Cookies ran a 5-day uptime check and recorded 100 percent, with a 103 ms average response time. Its speed test, averaged across Montreal, Dallas and Strasbourg, showed a 0.56-second Largest Contentful Paint.
Its Loader.io stress test averaged a 30 ms response with no failures. That review was last updated in February 2026.
Hosting Canada tracked HostGator with Pingdom from four Canadian cities over several months. It recorded 98.6 percent uptime in Montreal, 98.9 percent in Toronto, 97.5 percent in Vancouver and 98.09 percent in Winnipeg.
Its full-page load times ran from 1,658 ms in Winnipeg to 2,182 ms in Vancouver. That review was last updated in February 2025.
A 97.5 percent month would mean about 18 hours of downtime. I would not treat either result as the final word, but the range is wide enough to matter for a store.
On guarantees, a HostGator terms page says its 99.9 percent uptime guarantee applies to shared and reseller plans, with a credit requested by chat or phone. All About Cookies reports the shared guarantee as 99 percent. Check the live shared terms before you count on it.
Security and backups
Every shared plan lists free SSL from Let's Encrypt, malware scanning, a web application firewall and DDoS protection. Baby and above add what HostGator calls AI-powered malware detection and removal.
Business adds free domain privacy for the first year. On Hatchling and Baby, privacy is an extra $14.95 a year, per All About Cookies.
Backups are the weak spot. HostGator's help center says its courtesy backup runs once a week, on a random day, and each run overwrites the last.
It only covers shared accounts under 20 GB and 100,000 inodes. HostGator also states plainly that it is not liable for files or data on your account.
Getting that backup back costs money. HostGator's help center mentions a one-time fee for a restore request, and an earlier version of its backup policy page listed it at $49. Older pages and comparison sites cite $25.
Daily backups are a paid add-on. HostGator lists Standard Backup at $3.99 a month for 1 GB and Premium Backup at $8.99 a month for 5 GB, both on 12-month terms and both first-invoice prices.
If the site takes orders, pay for daily backups or run your own, and keep a copy off the server.
Migration: moving a site to HostGator
This is where HostGator differs most from Hostinger and SiteGround. HostGator's migration help article lists a one-time fee of $149.99 per website for standard migrations.
Free migration is tied to new VPS or Dedicated plans on a 12-month term, requested within 30 days of signup. Even then it is "as-is", with no configuration changes.
All About Cookies reports something kinder: one free WordPress migration within the first 30 days, plus $150 for each extra site. The two sources disagree, so ask in chat and get the answer in writing before you pay.
The migration also leaves things out. Email, DNS changes, cron jobs, FTP accounts and domain transfers are all excluded, and sites with malware are refused.
If you move the site yourself, cPanel makes it manageable. Export the files and database, import them on the new account, test on a temporary URL, then point DNS. Our domain transfer guide covers the domain side.
Do not cancel the old host until the new site is live and email works. HostGator's own guide gives the same warning.
HostGator's account limits summary lists 2 email accounts per shared plan, with 100 MB of storage each. It also caps sending at 500 emails an hour.
100 MB fills up fast. A busy inbox with attachments can reach it in a few months.
The upgrade is Professional Email. HostGator's plan page says the trial renews at $2.99 a month after the first billing cycle.
If you already pay for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, point your domain's MX records there and ignore the included mailboxes. Our best domain registrar with email guide compares those options.
Support
HostGator's contact page says its phone and chat agents are available 24/7/365. That is the official position.
Toolradar and All About Cookies both say Hatchling gets live chat only, with phone starting on Baby. All About Cookies also notes there is no email ticket support.
HostGator's own status page logged a chat and phone "long wait time" incident in September 2025, marked resolved. One incident does not prove a pattern, but it is on the record.
The help center is large and covers cPanel basics well. Most routine problems, such as DNS records, email setup and SSL, have a written guide.
Domains on HostGator
Every shared plan includes a free domain for the first year. After that, HostGator's TLD price list shows a .com renewing at $23.99 a year, a .net at $22.99 and a .org at $20.99.
That is high. Dedicated registrars renew a .com for around $10 to $11 a year.
There is also a catch on cancellation. If you cancel inside the first year, HostGator keeps a non-refundable $17.99 domain fee.
My suggestion is to register the domain at a separate registrar and point it at HostGator. Our best domain registrar for small business guide lists the cheapest renewals.
HostGator vs Hostinger vs Bluehost
| Factor | HostGator Hatchling | Bluehost Starter | Hostinger Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intro price | $3.75/mo (36 mo) | $3.99/mo (36 mo) | $2.99/mo (48 mo) |
| Renewal | $10.99/mo | $9.99/mo | $10.99/mo |
| Websites | 10 | 10 | 3 |
| Backups | Weekly, paid restore | Weekly | Weekly |
| Included email | 2 accounts, 100 MB | 1-month trial | 2 per site, first year |
| 5-year hosting total | $398.76 | $383.40 | $275.40 |
Bluehost and Hostinger figures come from our existing reviews of each, verified in October 2026. For a wider view, our list of web hosting companies covers 13 hosts.
Which HostGator plan to pick
Hatchling suits brochure sites and blogs under about 40,000 visits a month. Its 10 GB of storage and 20 databases are enough for several small WordPress installs.
Baby makes sense if you want 20 GB of room or phone support, if the third-party reports about Hatchling being chat-only are right. It costs $27 more than Hatchling over the first 36 months.
Business is the one to pick for a small store. You get 50 GB, 100 databases, a visit estimate near 200,000 a month, and first-year domain privacy, which saves $14.95.
Business renews at $21.99 a month, though. At that price, a managed host like Cloudways starts to compete, and our Cloudways review runs those numbers.
Pro at $13.95 is hard to justify for a small business. Its renewal near $29.69 sits close to entry VPS pricing.
Who HostGator is for
HostGator fits a person who runs several small sites, such as a few local service pages or hobby blogs, and wants them all on one cPanel login. Hatchling's 10-site limit is the selling point.
It also fits someone who knows cPanel already and wants a host that behaves like every other cPanel host. Nothing about it is unfamiliar.
Who should look elsewhere
Skip it if you run one site and want the lowest long-term cost. Hostinger Premium is about $123 cheaper over five years.
Skip it if your site takes orders and you want daily backups included. HostGator charges for those, and for the restore of the weekly copy.
Skip it if you need a free move from your current host. Paid migration at $149.99 per site wipes out the intro savings on a single small site.
Our best hosting for small business guide lays out the alternatives side by side.
My verdict
HostGator gives you a lot of room for the price: 10 sites on the entry plan, standard cPanel, and a published renewal rate. Those are real strengths.
The costs show up in places the sales page does not lead with. Weekly backups with a paid restore, $149.99 migrations, 100 MB mailboxes and a $23.99 domain renewal all add up.
If you buy it, prepay 36 months, register the domain elsewhere, and set up your own backups on day one. That is how to keep a $3.75 plan close to $3.75.
What held up
- Hatchling allows 10 websites and 10 GB SSD storage for $3.75/mo on a 36-month term
- Business includes 50 websites, 50 GB SSD storage, and free domain privacy for the first year
- 36-month renewals are fixed in HostGator's own price chart: $395.61 Hatchling, $593.61 Baby, $791.61 Business
- Free SSL, a web application firewall, DDoS protection, and malware scanning listed on every shared plan
- Standard cPanel, so moving away later uses the same tools every other cPanel host accepts
- 30-day full refund on hosting fees for new accounts
What to watch
- Renewal is about 2.9x the intro rate on Hatchling and 3.5x on Business
- Courtesy backups run weekly, keep one copy, skip accounts over 20 GB, and cost a fee to restore
- Migration of a shared site is listed at $149.99 per website in HostGator's help center
- The account limits page lists 2 email accounts with 100 MB of storage each
- A .com renews at $23.99 a year after the free first year, per HostGator's own TLD price list
- Independent uptime results range from 97.5% to 100%, depending on who measured and where
Frequently asked
How much does HostGator cost per month?
Hatchling is about $3.75 a month on a 36-month term, Baby about $4.50, and Business about $6.25, per Toolradar and All About Cookies. HostGator's own price chart lists the regular 36-month rates as $395.61, $593.61 and $791.61, which works out to $10.99, $16.49 and $21.99 a month.
Does HostGator renew at a higher price?
Yes. HostGator's terms say promotional rates apply to the initial term only and renew at the regular rate. On a 12-month renewal Hatchling is $158.27 a year, and on month-to-month billing it is $17.59 a month.
Does HostGator back up my site?
Weekly, as a courtesy, on a random day, for shared accounts under 20 GB and 100,000 inodes. Only one copy is kept, and HostGator says it is not liable for data on your account. Restoring that copy carries a one-time fee. Daily backups need the paid backup add-on, from $3.99 a month.
Is HostGator migration free?
Not for most shared hosting customers, according to HostGator's help center, which lists $149.99 per website. Free migration is tied to new VPS or Dedicated plans on a 12-month term, requested within 30 days. All About Cookies reports one free WordPress migration in the first 30 days, so ask in chat before you sign up.
How many email accounts does HostGator include?
HostGator's account limits summary lists 2 email accounts with 100 MB of storage on each shared plan, plus a 500-per-hour sending cap. Professional Email is sold separately and renews at $2.99 per month after its trial.
Does HostGator have phone support?
HostGator's contact page says phone and chat agents are available 24/7/365. Two third-party reviews say Hatchling gets live chat only and phone starts on Baby, so check your plan before relying on phone help.
What uptime does HostGator guarantee?
A HostGator terms page says its 99.9% uptime guarantee applies to shared and reseller plans, with a credit requested by chat or phone. All About Cookies reports the shared guarantee as 99%. The live shared terms are the source to trust.
Who owns HostGator?
Newfold Digital, the same parent company as Bluehost and Network Solutions. That is why the two hosts share similar pricing patterns, add-ons and renewal behavior.
Is HostGator good for an online store?
For a small WooCommerce store, Baby or Business is the realistic floor because of storage and the 25 percent CPU cap per account. Budget for daily backups too, since weekly courtesy backups are a thin safety net for order data.