Hosting.com vs HostGator
Hosting.com and HostGator compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Hosting.com scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
Hosting.comWins overall
The former A2 Hosting under World Host Group: stated cores and RAM, 30-day backups, staging from Pro, phone support
Newfold's Texas-born cPanel host: four shared tiers on a 36-month term with a free domain, Cloudflare CDN and staging
Hosting.com wins 3 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.7 vs 7.4).
How do the scores compare?
Hosting.com leads on 3 sub-scores, HostGator on 2. Higher is better.
| Hosting.com | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.5 (better) | 7.5 |
| Uptime | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Support | 6.0 | 7.0 (better) |
| Features | 8.5 (better) | 7.0 |
| Value | 7.0 (better) | 6.5 |
| Ease of use | 7.5 | 8.0 (better) |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Hosting.com | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.7 (better) | 7.4 |
| Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs HostingStep 243 d; methods differ | 99.99% (better) | 99.97% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs HostingStep; methods differ | 500 ms | 496 ms (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, HostGator is cheaper ($10.99/mo vs $13.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Hosting.com | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Starter | Hatchling |
| Intro price | $1.99/mo (better) | $3.75/mo |
| Renewal price | $13.99/mo | $10.99/mo (better) |
| Required term | 48 months | 36 months (better) |
| Websites | 5 | 10 |
| Storage | 15 GB | 10 GB |
| Money back | 30 days | 30 days |
What does each include?
| Hosting.com | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year | First year on every plan; $22.99 is deducted from a refund if you cancel within the year |
| Free SSL | Standard on Starter and Pro; premium certificate on Max | Let's Encrypt, auto-renewed |
| Daily backups | Stored off-server, restore to any point in the last 30 days | Not stated |
| Staging | 3 sites on Starter, 20 on Pro, 200 on Max | WordPress staging site on every plan |
| Free managed migration | Yes | Not stated |
| Web application firewall and malware removal | Yes | Not stated |
| Caching and hardware | LiteSpeed caching, tuned MySQL, AMD EPYC CPUs, NVMe storage | Not stated |
| AI website builder for WordPress | Yes | Not stated |
| OpenAPI and MCP server | On every plan; Claude skills pack and Node.js from Pro | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9% per month; 5% of the service fee credited per hour of unscheduled downtime, up to the full month, on request | The plan page says 99 percent; the terms we read contain no uptime clause or credit schedule |
| Service level agreement | Max plan only | Not stated |
| Phone support | +1 (734) 222-4678, 24/7/365 | Baby, Business and Pro; Hatchling is chat only |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Backups | Not stated | Weekly courtesy backups, restorable with one click; the terms call them a courtesy, so keep your own |
| Free migration | Not stated | A free site migration tool is listed on the plan cards; the comparison table on the same page says paid migration is available |
| Free CDN | Not stated | Cloudflare with Argo routing on every plan |
| Caching | Not stated | Static content caching and object caching on every plan; the feature list names an NGINX caching layer |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | SSH, WP-CLI, cron, PHP 8.2, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, unlimited MySQL and SFTP users |
| Resource limits | Not stated | No |
| Data center choice | Not stated | No |
| Security | Not stated | Malware scanning, AI-powered detection and removal from Baby up, web application firewall, DDoS protection, DDoS scrub center |
| Not stated | Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes with SpamAssassin; Pro Email is a paid product after a free trial |
Company facts
| Hosting.com | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | cPanel with the hosting.com panel on top | cPanel behind the HostGator customer portal |
| Data centers | 5 (better) | 1 |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, phone, email, knowledge-base | chat, phone, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2003 | 2002 |