Liquid Web vs HostGator
Liquid Web and HostGator compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Liquid Web scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
7.7 out of 10
Liquid WebWins overall
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
7.4 out of 10
Newfold's Texas-born cPanel host: four shared tiers on a 36-month term with a free domain, Cloudflare CDN and staging
Liquid Web wins 3 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.7 vs 7.4).
How do the scores compare?
Liquid Web leads on 3 sub-scores, HostGator on 1. Higher is better.
| Liquid Web | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 7.5 | 7.5 |
| Uptime | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Support | 8.0 (better) | 7.0 |
| 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?
| Liquid Web | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.7 (better) | 7.4 |
| Uptime (published)HostingStep 365 d vs HostingStep 243 d; methods differ | 99.99% (better) | 99.97% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs HostingStep; methods differ | 496 ms | 496 ms |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Liquid Web is cheaper ($9.00/mo vs $10.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Liquid Web | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Essentials WordPress | Hatchling |
| Intro price | $9.00/mo | $3.75/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $9.00/mo (better) | $10.99/mo |
| Required term | 1 months (better) | 36 months |
| Websites | 1 | 10 |
| Storage | 15 GB | 10 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 30 days (better) |
What does each include?
| Liquid Web | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | First year on every plan; $22.99 is deducted from a refund if you cancel within the year |
| Free SSL | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans | Let's Encrypt, auto-renewed |
| Backups | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS | Weekly courtesy backups, restorable with one click; the terms call them a courtesy, so keep your own |
| Free migration | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan | 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 | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed | Cloudflare with Argo routing on every plan |
| Caching | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan | Static content caching and object caching on every plan; the feature list names an NGINX caching layer |
| Staging | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials | WordPress staging site on every plan |
| Security | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite | Malware scanning, AI-powered detection and removal from Baby up, web application firewall, DDoS protection, DDoS scrub center |
| Resource limits | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth | No |
| Data center choice | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it | No |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime | The plan page says 99 percent; the terms we read contain no uptime clause or credit schedule |
| Managed VPS | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available | Not stated |
| Phone support | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket | Baby, Business and Pro; Hatchling is chat only |
| Windows hosting | On VPS and dedicated servers | No |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | SSH, WP-CLI, cron, PHP 8.2, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, unlimited MySQL and SFTP users |
| Not stated | Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes with SpamAssassin; Pro Email is a paid product after a free trial |
Company facts
| Liquid Web | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS | cPanel behind the HostGator customer portal |
| Data centers | 4 (better) | 1 |
| Support channels | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, phone, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 1997 | 2002 |