Host Gator Review and Coupon
It's a tricky business writing an online review of a web host.
Search for hosting reviews, and you'll find hundreds of reviews
lauding the merits of one webhost or another. Of course, these
are just fake reviews designed to get you to click on their
affiliate link and bring a little change into their pocket.
If I
wrote a scathing review of Host Gator, hardly anyone would complain. But the
minute you give a company a glowing review, you're accused of
fakery.
Unfortunately, I happen to like Host Gator. I have
personally used Host Gator for years, and because I am a full-time
Internet marketer and content writer, I deal with Host Gator
practically every day of the week. So, at least no one can
accuse me of having no experience with Host Gator.
Let's start
with the bad stuff.
Host Gator: Bad Points
Bare-Bones Approach
Host Gator assumes that you already know a bit about webhosting.
Yes, Gator does provide some nice Flash instructional videos, but
many of them are outdated and not very well organized. In
fact, there is really no cohesive learning program offered by Host
Gator. Piece together what you can from their scattered
tutorials or from your own pre-existing knowledge.
No Integrated Interface
After you sign up for hosting with Gator, you get dumped into
cPanel. cPanel is the most popular form of web hosting
interface on the planet. Go to any other web host and you will
probably end up with cPanel. But it's a real shock to your
system, as a newbie, to go from the warm, caring environment of the
sales pitch--into the harsh reality of cPanel. cPanel is not
intuitive. cPanel is not friendly. cPanel takes
practice. And yes, you will learn cPanel eventually, but I
could easily live in a world without cPanel.
Terrible Name Registrar
When I first signed up for Gator hosting years ago, I made the
mistake of using their domain registration service. At that
time, I was so naive that I thought that HostGator would actually be
registering the domain for me. Wrong. In reality, it is
a separate service called Registry Rocket, with the Host Gator name
branded on top of it. That doesn't bother me so much as the
fact that Registry Rocket is terrible. The prices are high,
and their interface is so difficult and impossible to use, that in
the Fall of 2006, I even lost a fairly lucrative domain registered
with Registry Rocket. It expired, and I got no notification
that expiration was impending.
You get no special advantage for using Host Gator's name
registration service. Zero. No deals. No bargains.
No integrated interface. Do not use Host Gator's name
registration service! Stay far, far away.
The solution for me was to
register domains
with GoDaddy and then transfer them over to my Host Gator
hosting account.
Host Gator: Good Points
Bare-Bones Approach
If you're paying attention, you know that this was one of my
earlier complaints. Yes, if you're a beginner, you'll have
quite a learning curve ahead of you. But if you have any
experience with web hosting, you will appreciate the simplistic,
stripped-down nature of
HostGator.
HostGator is all business. They step out of the way and let
you do your job.
Tons of Free Goodies
A while back, I wanted to set up a WordPress blog on my Host
Gator hosting. Naturally, I approached this with some fear and
dread, since I rarely set up server-side software. The last
time I set up software on the server (i.e., that's why it's called
"server side") is when I set up my
Build a Niche Store, which I found difficult.
But lo and behold,
Host Gator has
a section called Fantastico, with lots of freebies such as automatic
WordPress setup. All I had to do was press one button, as the
saying goes. It was as easy as that. A few weeks later,
WordPress came out with a new version. I figured that I might
have to wait a month or two until Host Gator set up the new version.
But that wasn't the case. Within days, they had the updated
version.
No Annoying Sales Pitches
Once you have a Gator hosting account, they leave you alone. They don't
try to upsell you on all kinds of annoying crap that you don't need.
Contrast this with GoDaddy. Every time you want to do anything
on GoDaddy, they pound you with yet another sales pitch. No
such worries with HostGator.
Awesome, Amazing Technical Support
Host Gator's technical support deserves special mention.
Here's why: most web hosts have terrible support. In
fact, most everybody has horrendous customer support. Host
Gator is an exception. Whenever I have a question, no matter
how dumb, I just get on their Live Chat service and ask the
question. As long as I am within business hours, I have never
waited more than 5 minutes for help to come on. In practically
every case, HostGator tech support was able to answer my question.
What if they don't know the answer? I have even had them
put me on hold for a few minutes while they went and asked someone
else.
Sure, there is a bit of lag time between questions. But
that's reality. These tech support people are usually juggling
lots of chats and phone inquiries. I can accept that.
So, in the end, it doesn't matter if you are a beginner.
Whatever gaps in your knowledge you might have can always be
answered by HostGator's tech support. They are very patient
and will even answer the dumbest questions.
Summary
Recommended. As an intermediate marketer, you will like
Host Gator's "business-only" approach. As a beginner, you may
have a bit of a learning curve ahead of you. But by the time
you get more experienced, you will be glad that you signed up for a
"real" web hosting account, rather than some bargain or freebie
garbage web host.