HostGator has a rating of 2.9 stars from 13,418 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about HostGator most frequently mention domain name, new interface, and credit card problems. HostGator ranks 2nd among Web Hosting sites.
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Avoid HostGator – Constant Downtime and Pushy Upselling Tactics
I've had a truly frustrating experience with HostGator. Our small business relies heavily on our website, and for months, we dealt with constant downtime and performance issues. Every time I contacted their tech support, I was met with the same response: instead of fixing the problem, they kept trying to push me toward upgrading to an outrageously expensive service plan costing hundreds of dollars a month.
It became clear that they had no interest in resolving the issues on our current plan—they just wanted more money. This felt like a deliberate ploy to squeeze more out of small businesses like ours.
Fed up, I decided to migrate my entire site to a new hosting provider. Since making the switch, everything has been running smoothly with zero downtime or problems. It's disappointing that HostGator, a company I trusted with our business, would resort to such tactics instead of providing reliable service.
If you're running a small business and need dependable hosting, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. HostGator is not worth the headaches or the extra expense.
Products used:
hosting
Date of experience: November 25, 2024
For the last decade or more, I had 8 companies hosted through hostgator. Over the years I sold or closed the companies, am down to one now.
I kept trying to downgrade to a lesser plan, it was tough. I canceled the auto renew and waited a year.
When I got the email about a year later letting me know the renewal was due, I contacted support, they happily downgraded my plan, I paid for three years hosting upfront.
Then hell broke loose.
I could not access my company's email addresses, and the website went down. Contacted support, to migrate the data, or turn it back on (I'm not a techy) Hostgaor asked $150 for each email address and $100 for the website - or vise versa. After downgrading my plan, Hostgator asked for around $600 in ransom fees, ethically I could not stomach that. I did not want to be associated with a company who treated their long term customers this poorly.
After several "chats" I finally asked the smart question, "if I go back to the higher plan, can I get my data back without paying the ransom." They said yes! So went back to the old plan... three weeks and many chats later, I got my email addresses/data/emails back and the website working again.
It is short-sighted to treat a decades long customer this poorly. After 6 weeks of hassel, Hostgator fueled my drive to switch hosting companies.
Products used:
Website Hosting, custom email addresses
Date of experience: December 19, 2024
I needed to call daily for updates. JD, with whom I spoke a few times, made commitments about fees being waived and work being done that he was not able to deliver on. I had to explain the problem to Hostgator many, many times by both email and phone. Everyone I interacted with was either unable or unwilling to help. I was eventually able to use online research and YouTube to get the information I needed to just do it myself.
Overall, a poor customer experience and plan to move my account prior to the next renewal.
See above- the issue required daily follow up to get updates on their committed timelines and resolutions.
The developer I initially worked with recommended it.
Date of experience: September 25, 2024
I transferd from wix to save money. I bought the domain name last April 2024, I had my original webpage redesigned and finally is ready to go live. The email to sign goes to my old email andI cannot get in it needs to be migrated and transferred. I'm not familiar with how all this works. So I call customer service sent ID and utility bill and I've been getting a difficult time with customer service saying that I have to resend paperwork and it went to the wrong department and send another kink. Then they changed to the new email and I still cannot get into the site. Now when calling in both emails are not coming up I refer by case number. I have about 20 of them. The email came back anoter name. Which happens to be the hacker...someone hacked into our account and made their contact primary. I had to show ownership and my business name. It's taking literally three weeks. When calling in they didn't believe me and they do now. I call everyday and now they say they got my paperwork and it's under review. I had to report to the FTC and Attorney General and BBB. I don't know how they got great reviews. It's the worst service ever and they take people money and just assume that someone will just move on. It's bad business practice. I'm licensed in 11 states if we ever did half of the unethical things this business gets away with. We're regulated. I don't know how these people get sway with tr e eating customers as badly as they do. And I don't know if rhe reviews given are fake!
Products used:
Domain purchase
Date of experience: October 14, 2024
I find it hard to navigate I had to pay like 3 different people to help me and they really didn't help at all.($1000's) I can't connect my word press. My sight has crashed more than once and people have to press like 3 different buttons just to buy something
I have been loyal and stayed with it but I'm really thinking about a change
The English barrier between everyone that I have spoken to is very difficult
And the chat is very time consuming
It was the cheapest at the time
Date of experience: September 24, 2024
Earlier the response was faster with Staff responding well. Now there is too much delay for any response
good. I wish they could respond faster
Recommended by mentor
Date of experience: October 6, 2024
You've increased your prices with no end. Your pricing is no longer competitive. I dont know why I'm paying more than i would withyour competitors. Actively looking to where I'll migrate to. The last increment did it for me.
It was priced competitively. It was the best option at the time.
Date of experience: September 14, 2024
I just wanted a LAMP site w/o any bells and whistles. I could not figure out how to get anything but a Wordpress site. I ended up logging on with ssh and deleting most of what was there so that I could put up the few pages that I needed. Also, it took quite a few iterations with support to get mail forwarding to work. That really should have worked out of the box. Apart from that, everything is working as expected.
Several iterations to get mail forwarding to work. I used chat. It sometimes took a very long time between responses. In the end we got the job done which is what matters. I'm not really complaining here, but you asked.
Bang for the buck.
Date of experience: September 9, 2024
The files and inodes on my site were growing uncontrollably. They grew so large that I could not log into After many calls and email exchanges, the involvement of a professional website developer, and ticket escallation, Hostgator finally fixed the problem of clearing cache files that were not accessable to me.
My site is now functioning normally and I was able to cancel the expensive hosting plan thast I purchased in a panic, whenm my site had grown so large.
It too many calls and emails for customer service to accept that the problem was on their end. The probem was eventually resolved.
The online documentation I was referred did not address my specific issue.
I did not choose, Hostgator. It was chosen by a previous webmaster for the site. I have just maintained.
Date of experience: September 24, 2024
After I type in my domain name, it usually takes about, on average, 8 to 20 seconds for my website to load up on my computer screen. It is much slower than I had expected. Right now, it is just me building the site, so it not a big problem. But later when I go public and get more visitors from the internet, I do not know what will happen. This has always been a concern (worry) to me.
Kevin Wang
They are OK.
I just run into it.
Date of experience: September 3, 2024
Site was down, so contacted hostgator who resolved my issue
able to resolve my issue quickly
Historical reason
Date of experience: October 17, 2024
Your employee was very polite and tried to be helpful. He said he was going to send me an email including the receipts that I needed. He did not do that. He never sent anything as a follow up. I rated him based on expecting him to follow through. I gave him a five star rating in every way but he actually never produced what he said he would. I was able based on the information he gave me to eventually provide myself with the info.
Stated above
Date of experience: September 5, 2024
I was not able to be helped but resolved it on my end. The support person had so much noise going on in the back ground (home noise) that it made it nearly impossible to hear or understand. She also struggled with trying to find a solution.
I actually moved my site away from HostGator
Date of experience: August 29, 2024
I put the site together myself. I need to update it, but it's a bit more expensive than I can afford at this time - at least much beyond the monthly fee.
Date of experience: September 20, 2024
I moved the domain ownership of my site from HostGator to CloudFlare, but left my hosting. The association of my domain to my site was disconnected without my approval and I had to reconnect it. Not happy.
Date of experience: September 5, 2024
Customer service rep was helpful in resolving my issue. I had called a few times and had gotten no results. Then in the last call, the agent was able to fully resolve my issue.
Been with you for years.
Date of experience: September 21, 2024
It is far from simple just to change your primary contact e-mail for your account, as I have discovered.
Date of experience: October 1, 2024
Nothing bad thanks a lot
Not sure what is the idea of this but I don't what to respond nothing else
Date of experience: October 7, 2024
The Dashboard of my WP website kept saying that PHP number must be above 7.3. After three or four calls to HostGator, each time a tech crew making changes to the PHP number, WP still showed the same warning. Finally, I tried myself to change the number by following the instructions on Cpanel. However, the choice didn't include the number 7.4 which I needed. So, I chose 8.1, the smallest in the list. That ended up messing up my site, and I panicked. WP support told me I needed contact Hostgator.
So, I did. Someone on the tec crew worked on the problem, and a few minutes later, my website came alive again! Thank you so much.
My adviser recommended.
Date of experience: August 29, 2024
All hosts have good and bad points. HostGator has been generally easy to use, and I have had no issues with reliability.
A referral.
Date of experience: October 3, 2024
I had many challenges with my account over the past 6 months. I did not receive emails to my account linked to my website for over 6 months! When I joined a support chat with Hostgator, I spent over 2 hours trying to resolve but unable to as the verification code the support person was sending was to the email that I was not receiving emails to. It was incredibly frustrating! Then I had to go through a process that took days to switch emails for verification providing my ID.
The customer service was friendly but unable to resolve my problem.
It was recommended to me by a reputable coaching organisation.
Date of experience: August 31, 2024
I didn't get a refund but I understood what the customer care agent said.
Date of experience: October 5, 2024
Support has helped us with any issues that show up. We are happy.
Support has always helped when we have problems with the website. They normally fix the issue with one call.
Date of experience: October 7, 2024
Easy to use, no hassle and very convenient, this is why i choose hostgator
Date of experience: October 7, 2024
Your services are better than last year. Mostly your support team taking time to solve issues but now from 2 months they are performing well
I called one time but 22 minutes they not attend my call and international call is expensive so I feel maybe need to hold more so I discount my call.
You can easily manage all cpanel under one main panel.
Also easy and user friendly.
Date of experience: September 28, 2024
HostGator (866-96-GATOR) is a leading provider of web hosting, VPS and dedicated servers. Discover why over 9,000,000 websites trust us for their hosting needs.
2002 - HostGator was founded by Brent Oxley, who was then a student at Florida Atlantic University.
2006 - HostGator had passed the 200,000 mark in registered domains, the company moved from the original office in Boca Raton, Florida to a new 20,000 square foot building in Houston, Texas and the company opened its first international office in Canada.
2008 - HostGator prepared for competition companies touting "unlimited" hosting services. Founder Brent Oxley was adamant about being able to back up an "unlimited" option prior to offering service named as such and increased staffing.
2010 - HostGator added an office in Austin, Texas.
2011 - HostGator started operations in India with a its office in Nashik, Maharashtra and a data center.
2012 - HostGator was acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG)
2021 - HostGator (All of EIG) was acquired by Clearlake Capitol Group and merged with Web.com and it's brands to become a part of Newfold Digtal.
The future - As we continue to grow as a company we are offering even more amazing services and world class customer support to meet all our needs, big and small. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with you!