111 users graded this
Date Added: 6/29/2009 Reviewer: windychris
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Grade HostGator ...
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HostGator is a hosting company that was founded in 2002 by CEO Brent Oxley and is one of the biggest hosting providers in the U.S, with over 5,000 under management. Their service is used by over 150,000 customers, and the company was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in America in 2008.
Whether you’re a hobbyist, a professional that manage clients, or an Internet marketer, you probably want reliable and affordable web hosting for a website. In this article, I’m going to go through all the important things in a hosting company and see if Host Gator can deliver on those benefits.
Let’s talk about what you get with their service. Host Gator runs under linux hosting and uses cPanel hosting, which is the best control panel and usually the industry standard provided by hosting companies. Their service comes with many tools to help webmasters such as the site builder web designer, the ability to back up your cPanel (incase anything goes wrong). They also support PHP 5, SSH, SSI, Cron jobs, Curl, Python, Ruby On Rails, Front Page and more. If you don’t know what these are, you can read through their features page for a quick explanation.
I was happy to see that you get the Fantastico script installer which will install many popular scripts with a few clicks. And speaking of scripts, you get unlimited MySQL Databases. This is very important for marketers that use many scripts for their sites. My previous web host allowed only three, and I was forced to pay additional fees to use more. I also found that the inclusion of Curl and Cron were incredibly helpful to me as I recently installed a few scripts that used those functions.
While they have a site builder to help you build your site, it’ll probably go unused as most people have their own preferred tool to build their sites. The support of FrontPage is great as you can simply upload your extensions to add pages to your site. For email features, you get unlimited POP3 accounts, the ability to access your mail online, a basic autoresponder (non sequential), spam assassin filtering and mail forwarding.
But what if you want to add forums, blogs and portals? HostGator supports many popular open source programs such as Wordpress, Drupal, phpnn, PHPnuke which can be installed with one click. Finally, you also get AWStats and Webalizer to view your web stats. These are pretty standard with most web hosts, and most people will use their own tools anyway.
But what kind of plans do they offer? The cheapest shared hosting plan is the Hatchling package. It costs $4.95 a month and comes with unlimited disk space and bandwidth. However, it is only limited to hosting 1 domain. This plan is probably the best choice for hobbyists.
The next is the Baby package. It has the same features of the Hatchling package, but you get unlimited domains. As an Internet marketer, you’ll probably have multiple domains for landing pages, a few personal websites, as well as sites for your business. I personally use this plan, and it is very economical at $7.95 a month.
The Business plan is the most expensive at $12.95 and comes with unlimited disk space, bandwidth and domains. You also get your own toll-free number, dedicated IP and private SSL making this a great package for marketers with ecommerce sites.
Let’s move on to performance. HostGators host their sites on high quality Dual Xeon Serves in Texas. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. From looking at independent studies, their uptime is closer to the 98% range. However, I have never personally experienced my site being down so far.
Next is the issue of customer service. I have to rave about HostGator’s customer service. You get toll free 24/7/365 support and their staff are well trained. They were very courteous, patient and committed into solving my problem when I got on the phone with them. I had a problem with installing a script, and the support helped me figure it out even though it took more than 20 minutes.
I found their ticket system better for the more technical questions as you can direct the questions to the proper department. Rather than getting a reply in 1-2 days like my previous web hosting providers, I’ve gotten responses as fast as 10 minutes, although it’ll usually takes longer than that. If you think your problem is unique, you can also head to their forums and ask for their help. I found the members of the forum helpful and quick to respond to my posts.
Overall, HostGator is probably the best web host I’ve used so far. I’ve used 5 different web hosting providers, and they were either too overpriced or had many limitations in terms of bandwidth, domains and limited features. What really makes a hosting company stand out, however, is the customer support, and I have never experienced support as greater than HostGator’s from any other company, hosting or not.
Another thing I like about this company is that they decided to go green and use wind powered energy for their shared and reseller servers. I think that companies like this that use up a lot of energy should take responsibility to be environmentally conscious. Their decision to go green made me lean more towards using their service than other quality web host providers. In final, I can’t recommend this company enough – their service is cheap, easy to use, quick, and their support is excellent.
| 56 of 57 users found this review helpful |
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29 User Comments
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Amazing Hosting Services  I have purchased hosting and servers from HostGator many times over the past months. I have used their web hosting and dedicated servers, both having great service. The servers are always up and I haven't had any issues with downtime what so ever. The dedicated servers are exceptional as well. I have used them for both hosting a MineCraft server and a Modern Warfare 3 server from them, and could easy have 18 people in an Modern Warfare 3 server at a time with great latency. The Minecraft server handled over 128 people before getting bogged down a bit. All in all, I highly recommend HostGator's service. They have great web hosting, dedicated servers, and most of all - support. I'm planning on soon hosting 2 more of my sites with them shortly!
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by Force on March 29, 2012 at 3:08 PM CST |
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Very Reliable I have been using HostGator for almost a year now and it has proven to be a very reliable and cost effective way for me to stay on top of things. When I first signed up, I was able to take advantage of a promo they were offering of $4.99/month for the first year. Almost a year later, my rate is going to revert to $7.99/month which was well within my budget. The total reliability of the service is pretty good as such their up-time is far better than the other services out there. The one thing I don't much care for is when they do go down for some reason, they are down longer than most. However, since this happens so rarely, I can live with the inconvenience for a short time. The customer service is outstanding. I had to contact them about one of my blogs and they were extremely helpful. They were able to pinpoint the problem and get me up and running in no time at all. They have a very knowledgeable staff and are very courteous. I would recommend and have recommend HostGator to my friends and business contacts. This is one services you cannot afford to bypass if you are looking for a beneficial and cost effective way of obtaining hosting for your website or blog. |
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by corvallis on February 25, 2012 at 10:09 PM CST Two products that I have proven work together are: http://bit.ly/ADwuSm and http://bit.ly/wXpXtu. I have been able to achieve a steady income by combining the two. |
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A slow start but boy have they come through... When I first transferred one of my blogs to Hostgator last year, I was a bit disappointed with the help from Customer Service, however, since then they have been awesome. I'm now transferring my largest blog over to Hostgator and am very satisfied with their service. |
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| 7 of 8 users found this comment helpful |
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by KarenKramer on August 22, 2009 at 8:56 PM CST Writer, Blogger and Social Media Butterfly
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Great Customer Service  I used Host Gator for a month. It only took 20 minutes from me making my payment to having my account being setup. First month was only 7.99 for hosting 1 domain. I had a few problems with the service, but it was mostly due to an error on my part. I e-mailed customer service and had someone call back within 24hrs to help me out. The person who helped me was very friendly and knew what they were talking about. Would recommend and will use for future business.
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| 8 of 8 users found this comment helpful |
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by Hermanos04 on August 22, 2009 at 2:31 PM CST |
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Hostgator is Awesome! I have had Hostgator for my second year now and I have to say I am very satisfied with my service. There is no down time on the servers and whenever I have problems with anything, support always knows how to fix the problem. Just about a week ago I had a problem with a blog of mine not being able to open, so I contacted support and they fixed it by going into the actual site and rewriting one of the scripts.
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| 10 of 10 users found this comment helpful |
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by bortix on August 22, 2009 at 2:30 PM CST |
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Hostgator is awesome After trying various webhosts and wasting a lot of money, HostGator gave me everything I was looking for. Simple, easy to use control panel, low costs, fast website. Very happy with Hostgator. |
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| 7 of 8 users found this comment helpful |
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by Darkfrost on August 22, 2009 at 2:29 PM CST |
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Been using Host Gator for 4 months... The price isn't so bad as I have to pay about $5 a month for my website for school. That price is unbeatable! I have never had a problem with my site being down and has been running great. Customer service has been great to me, as I have once called them with a problem about my account and payment. They were courteous and stuck with me until the situation was clear to me. I believe it's easy to navigate through and is user-friendly.
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| 8 of 8 users found this comment helpful |
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by mariiii on August 22, 2009 at 12:47 AM CST Make money online with help from: |
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One of the best, but .. I have been with HostGator for years and had several domains there as well as earned commissions from them. If you want a professional level hosting service, they are hard to beat. However, if you just want to host a few splash pages or simple websites, there are MUCH less expensive options available that offer as good or better features. The biggest misconception is you MUST have Cpanel and that is just a myth perpetrated by the big houses that have it. I get everything I need with a less expensive host and a free copy of FileZilla. |
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| 9 of 9 users found this comment helpful |
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by oldbuddy on August 21, 2009 at 11:50 AM CST If you like what you see, please rate and comment. |
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Great hosting provider, all the way to the customer retention service Two years ago, I tried their Hatchling plan by paying monthly because I prefer to test a company before I take a long term engagement with it. My account was setup within a few minutes. I installed Wordpress: site performance was excellent, no downtime. A few weeks later, I didn't have the time to blog as much as I wanted to, so I wanted to quit Hostgator. I filled their Cancel Form, and I thought that after a couple of confirmation emails my account would be canceled. Not the case. To my surprise, the customer retention service called me to make sure I wanted to cancel my account, and it was canceled on the spot. With many ways to keep in touch with them (I especially liked the live chat and forums), great support, plus fast and reliable hosting, I don't hesitate to recommend Hostgator. |
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| 11 of 11 users found this comment helpful |
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by dannyhilator on August 21, 2009 at 10:00 AM CST |
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Not My First Choice  First off, I found their pricing a little deceptive. I chose the $4.95 plan, and only found out when attempting to check out that this price was only good for a three year plan. I went ahead with the $8.95 plan. I have three domains thru GoDaddy and when I wanted to change the hosting to HostGator, I was told I could only host them if I had been with my present hosting site for 60 days. I ended up canceling my account as I had only been with GoDaddy hosting for a couple of weeks. Depending on the service I get with GoDaddy I might give them another look in a couple of months.
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| 9 of 9 users found this comment helpful |
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by simtech52 on August 20, 2009 at 8:56 AM CST Wealthy Affiliate-Learn to market from the best Affiliate Jump-Promote over 300 prducts from one site
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Hatchling Package Being new to the hosting world, I decided to choose HostGator and purchased the Hatchling package. I was surprised at how quickly my domain was up (within an hour) and have never had a problem with my site. Being a newbie, their sitebuilder software and templates made it easy for me to create my site with ease. The unlimited disk space and bandwidth is also awesome; no need to worry about those. With the few questions I did have, they were quickly answered by their 24/7 support in a timely manner. They have a summer special now... get 20% off initial order using code BEACH!
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| 9 of 9 users found this comment helpful |
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by wifi0122 on August 19, 2009 at 10:29 AM CST |
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Best hosting company I've been with so far... I've been with a couple of hosting companies and I have to say, Hostgator is the best I've been with to date. Three things really do it for me where they're concerned. First, I get to pay the hosting fees on a monthly basis, not one payment for the whole year. Financially, that really suits me. Second, their customer service rocks! I've found them to be ever so patient, friendly and professional when I've dealt with them. Lastly, they've gone green. Over the past couple of years, I've tried to be more environmentally conscious. Having a hosting company that's moving in the same direction is really good to know. In terms of hosting, I don't see myself going anywhere anytime soon. I really like Hostgator. I can't stress enough that their customer service is incredible. They make you feel valued. |
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| 11 of 11 users found this comment helpful |
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by MissEb on August 17, 2009 at 9:52 PM CST {Surveyosity.com: making money a survey at a time} |
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I love Host Gator! I've been using Host Gator for a few months now. I run all of my websites off one account with them, which is brilliant. Instead of paying 10 different bills a month, I simply pay host gator $10/month to run as many as websites as I like!I've never had any downtime with Host Gator. Every other host I have ever been with, there has always been downtime. With Host Gator, my websites have been online 24/7. I love the interface. It's easy to use and they offer great support! I've never had any issues with Host Gator and I don't expect to either! |
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| 11 of 11 users found this comment helpful |
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by AlexBrooks on August 16, 2009 at 11:31 PM CST |
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My Host of Choice I have been using Hostgator for almost a year now. I had decided to start a website last October & knew absolutely nothing at the time. I had never even done a freebie blog. After looking at information about what seemed like a million web hosts I chose HostGator. Not only were they one of the few that you can pay monthly on (no 1-3 year prepay), but they had a sitebuilder template I liked. Although that site is now in the process of being rebuilt, with better software, the sitebuilder got me up & running last year quick. I later upgraded my hosting to the baby package, which has unlimited domain hosting. I did try out GoDaddy hosting for a short while. It is a bit cheaper, but found it clumsy to navigate, so I stayed with Hostgator. I have had no problems with downtime, and the CPanel is very easy to use.
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| 11 of 11 users found this comment helpful |
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by red on August 16, 2009 at 11:05 PM CST Legit ways to earn online HowtoMakeMoneyontheInternet.info My homebase is at Blommi.com , and I can also be found at Yankee Kitchen & Saucy News |
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Host Gator I have had an account with Host Gator since February of this year. We just started our second 6 months with them. All I can say for sure is that every problem that I have had their support has been superb. Now I need to find somebody to show me or teach me the right way to use all of the wonderful things included in CPanel. |
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| 6 of 8 users found this comment helpful |
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by mcferrensw on August 12, 2009 at 7:55 AM CST |
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Reseller Hosting Is The Best As a web designer, the reseller hosting package has been a great way to make some extra money with my business. Although I started with a simple package, it only made sense to step it up a notch and go with a package that not only allowed me to host my sites, but also many other sites as well for just $24.95 per month, which allowed a decent profit on the sites I provide hosting for. The tools and templates that are provided with the hosting accounts are amazing. I was really surprised to find the long list of freebies that came with my hosting account. This is a great option for hosting, whether for a single site or (especially) for a reseller. |
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| 10 of 10 users found this comment helpful |
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by dovinea on August 11, 2009 at 12:23 PM CST 101 + FREE Opps To Make Money Online: www.makemoneyonlinehowtos.com |
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Not too bad, but could be better... HostGator has a pretty decent customer support team; however, they are a little bit slow at responding to things. Their service was pretty good though, so I can't complain much. I really like the fact that they do allow blog and forum hosting unlike some other low-cost hosts. I would, in fact, recommend this service to a friend. If you are looking for an affordable hosting package, and you are not in too much of a hurry, this service will be just right for you.
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| 8 of 8 users found this comment helpful |
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by jeadams7 on August 4, 2009 at 4:33 PM CST John E. Adams |
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Hostgator Provides Service and Value I recently transferred a domain to Hostgator and found the process remarkably simple and quick. The Hostgator site offers affordable hosting packages suitable for both home use and internet marketing and payment is straightforward through PayPal or a credit card. The costs and terms are clearly stated and if you make a mistake and miss a monthly payment, they send an email to remind you so that you can avoid a $10 late payment fee if you forgot to arrange regular monthly payments. The easy transfer of domains means that you can buy domains wherever they are cheapest, then have them hosted by Hostgator. Using the site is also reasonably straightforward even for beginners with online help available through the cpanel which also gives immediate access to the management tools for the domain to upload files and manage your site. You can also sign-up as an affiliate for free, choose a free marketing banner and receive an income for any referrals generated. Hostgator is a sensible choice for beginners and more experienced marketers. |
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| 12 of 12 users found this comment helpful |
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by ian on August 3, 2009 at 9:17 PM CST |
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Hostgator Is Really Awesome... I have only just recently signed up with Hostgator and so far I am really pleased I did. I have had several hosting accounts in the past with various companies, but I must say HG is my favorite out of them all. Personally I think they provide a great value for the money with their packages and their 24 hour support is very helpful, as I am often on my computer working away at random hours. Overall I give them an A+! |
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| 12 of 13 users found this comment helpful |
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by ayne468 on July 30, 2009 at 2:20 AM CST |
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Not great, just ok. A little sneaky. I used Hostgator for a year, and I must say that they are ok for a hosting company, not great and not bad either. I got into their hosting because of an offer which in my naiveté, I could not refuse. One month's hosting for $1 plus 155 Adsense Websites for free plus free setup. The come-on was the promise of tons of money from Adsense. How could I say no to an offer like that? It would pay for itself in no time at all, I reasoned. The first month was a breeze but for the following months, I was billed $9.95. I stayed on for a whole year and made use of their services to learn more about Internet marketing. I cannot say that their service was above the rest and I cannot fault them for the sneaky way that they got my business. But, I still see their $1-first month offer around the Internet and all I can say is, there are a lot of web hosting providers which can give you the same service for much less.
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| 12 of 12 users found this comment helpful |
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by worldlord on July 28, 2009 at 8:46 PM CST |
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If there was a scale of 1 to 10 If there was a scale of 1 to 10 I would give Host Gator an 11!I have 8 websites hosted with them. I do agree with the comment above that their domains are overpriced, but they make up for it in low hosting fees and unheard-of customer service! I have not found a script yet that can't be run on HostGator, and if you do have a problem getting one to run, they will fix whatever it is to make it run! If you are making your own website, they have over a 1000 professional looking templates for free! As a traffic exchange site owner, I have tried many different hosting companies. HostGator is the only host company I have found that can keep up with the fast paced server demands! So if you are a online marketing site owner, I feel you won't fined a better host company! |
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| 15 of 16 users found this comment helpful |
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by scottshv on July 24, 2009 at 3:31 PM CST |
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You really can't beat this host. I love hostgator. Not only do you get the everything unlimited, for cheap, but they allow you to get the same deal on a month to month basis, that the other companies make you pay a year up front for. Not only that, you can earn $125 per referral from their affiliate program. That's incredible. Highly Recommended. A++ |
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| 16 of 16 users found this comment helpful |
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by Mikeoyama on July 23, 2009 at 7:33 PM CST |
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I use host gator because I use HostGator for my Freebie site revolution incentive sites and really, I can't argue with their service because most other web hosts don't support the script for the freebie site rev script. Though I think their domain prices are a little higher than normal (but I don't shop around much so I am just comparing to Godaddy really), but their member area is easy to use, and I have not had a gripe with their customer support, so I give HostGator a thumbs up. |
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| 15 of 15 users found this comment helpful |
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by verycuriouse on July 20, 2009 at 8:32 PM CST see my blog on where to buy a cheap hdtv and also it helps tell you what is the best hdtv |
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Their services are ok... I have had some good experiances, and some bad experiances with Host Gater. I guess they give you what they offer, but their support is horrible. I am almost willing to say that I believe that there support knows little more about their services than the average customer. I have also seen blog posts claming that they give false reviews about themselves, as well as claims that they threaten individual users. I can no more prove this than the blogs can, so I recommend that you do not take that to heart. |
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| 13 of 18 users found this comment helpful |
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by Draygoes on July 20, 2009 at 12:09 PM CST |
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Worth the money! I'm currently using this service with the Baby package ($9.95/month). The setup went really fast (5-10 minutes) and the domain was registered within 2 hours or so, really fast. The control panel is very simple and has a lot of options. I was a bit insecure if the package would live up to my expectations but it did. I'm now running a site with Joomla and a forum and I haven't encountered any problems so far. HostGator has been great so far, I recommend them. |
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| 20 of 20 users found this comment helpful |
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by zisly on July 14, 2009 at 1:23 AM CST |
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Brilliant Cheap Accounts  HostGator has provided me with amazingly cheap accounts. I pay only £8 a month, but the first month was 1P due to their awesome vouchers. The account included Google AdWords which means the account has paid for itself. I run my family website through HostGator and have done for a long time. Thanks again HostGator! |
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| 19 of 21 users found this comment helpful |
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by jamesbrooks on July 13, 2009 at 8:29 PM CST |
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HostGator is #1. You haven't been around the hosting scene long if you haven't heard of HostGator. HostGator is one of the most well-priced hosting solutions that there is. They have a wide range of packages, each of which are priced extremely well for the many features that they include. For a wide range of needs, HostGator will most likely be able to fit the bill as a contender. I believe that anyone should check this website out. |
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| 25 of 25 users found this comment helpful |
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by Kentonbomb on July 13, 2009 at 6:22 PM CST |
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Limited HostGator experience On the recommendation of CopyNProfit, and as part of their program, I signed with HostGator. When I opted out of CopyNProfit, I was left with a site I no longer wished to use. I sent HostGator an email telling them so. The next month I got another bill, so I sent a second email requesting cancellation. I got yet another bill and again sent another email! Finally, I got notified that they were going to charge me an additional $10 for late payment - and this time, I sent a detailed email which did get an answer, but it did not address my question. I find it hard to agree with the good service comments above. I have not heard back since, this was about a week ago. |
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| 26 of 30 users found this comment helpful |
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by cocobolo on July 9, 2009 at 10:54 PM CST |
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Premier Hosting Service I use this service and find it to be very user friendly. It has all the tools necessary to host all your services. Service is always online to meet your every need. I highly recommend Hostgator.
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| 27 of 31 users found this comment helpful |
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by kitch on June 29, 2009 at 10:24 PM CST Looking for a review on a hot product. I review the hottest products on the market and let you know if it's worth buying. Check my blog out at:www.mycouchreviews.com |
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29 User Comments
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Have experience with "HostGator"? -Add a comment or review to share your personal experiences, which will help others who are interested in this service. -Earn up to 150 credits and an entry into our $1,000 Sweepstakes for every approved comment you submit. The posting of advertisements, profanity or personal attacks is prohibited. Click here to review our site terms of use. |
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