One of the major problem which we face while hosting our site is finding a reliable host. A bad host can create chaos for bloggers like us and that’s why it’s important to have a quality Web-host should be hosting our Site. Today, I’m going to share Hostgator Baby plan review, because it’s the same hosting where ShoutMeLoud is hosting and running smoothly.
I started my Blogging journey with Dreamhost, later on I moved to Knownhost and then Linode. With linode unamnaged VPS my experience was smooth but since it was unmanaged, I planned to move it to some managed hosting. Coming from VPS, my choice was VPS, but after talking to some other experienced bloggers, Instead of option for VPS, I moved ShoutMeLoud to Hostgator Baby plan.
I was curious to see, how’s the experience goes and how Hostgator is going to handle the load of my site but with Hostgator baby plan powerful servers with the combination of Super cache plugin, my site is still running (2012) smoothly.
Hostgator Baby plan : Overview
Hostgator shared hosting offers three sub plan: Hatchling, Baby and Business plan. Hatchling plan is single domain hosting, Baby plan is multiple domain hosting and Business plan has some additional features. If your requirement is for single domain hosting, you can always opt for Hatchling plan which is as good as other shared hosting plan but with limitation of 1 domain. Another popular plan is Hostgator reseller hosting plan where you get WHM and you can manage clients. Anyways, that is for some other time.
Hostgator Baby plan like other shared plan offers : cPanel, U/d Space, U/d Bandwidth, Free $100 Adwords Credit, WordPress compatible, Site builder, free setup, unlimited addon domains, Unlimited FTP, Unlimited databases, Ruby on Rails, SSH, PHP5, Fast CGI and what not.
For any healthy WordPress site, Baby plan offers everything. Earlier I worked with Dreamhost cPanel, which is a custom one and here Hostgator offers standard cPanel where you can see your server load and traffic from cPanel dashboard.
Quick Feature list
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited Storage
- Unlimited addon domain
- IP deny manager ( Security)
- Unlimited FTP
- Unlimited MySql database
- Hotlink protection (Security)
- 24*7 Customer Support
- 45 Days money back guarantee
- Ruby on rails
- Fantastico
- Cron Jobs
The list of features are endless and I thought they might be something to create Buzz about the Hostgator. but it’s not. I will add some screenshot of Hostgator cPanel Dashboard, which will make it more easy to understand what hostgator is offering you.
One thing I like the most is monitoring Running process and visits from inside the panel. This way we can control the performance of our blogs. Additionally, their Live chat support is available 24*7 and also telephonic support. You can call Hostgator at this number anytime: 1-866-96-GATOR
Also if you are one of those who likes to keep their Website free from errors, Error logs feature in cPanel is useful and you can also use hotlinking feature to stop others from stealing your images.
Hostgator Baby plan Pricing:
You can grab Hosting for following tenures:
1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 year and 3 years. By default they give 20% discount but you can head over to our Hostgator Discount page and grab 25% discount coupon, which will save huge.
1 year hosting with 25% discount coupon (ShoutMeLoud25) will cost you $89.55 instead of usual $119.40. Similarly you can buy 2 year or 3 year plan and enjoy more discount with above Baby plan discount code.
Summing up all shared hosting plans quickly:
- Hatchling : Perfect for single blog (4.95$/mo)
- Baby : Perfect for multiple Blogs ( 7.95$/mo)
- Business : Multiple Blogs + Private IP + Toll free Number (12.95$/mo)
Though I personally recommend baby hosting plan, because you can add on Private IP by paying 2$/month, and with there Live chat support, you will not be needing that Toll free number.
Signup for Hostgator (25% Discount Coupon for SML readers : ShoutMeLoud25)
So far, my experience with them is amazing and hope this review of baby plan will help you to decide which hosting you should opt for. My personal recommendation would be Baby or if you need a Private I.P (SEO purpose) with Toll free number, you can opt for Business plan.
- $7.4/Month
Subscribe Updates, Its FREE!
Article by Harsh Agrawal
Harsh has written 1206 articles.
If you like This post, you can follow ShoutMeLoud on Twitter. Subscribe to ShoutMeLoud feed via RSS or EMAIL to receive instant updates.
→ 
→ 
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Hostgator is one of the best hosting provider.I am using since 2007 for my multi sites.I am using Baby package and it is the best and cheap.
I heard so many great reviews about Hostgator, but I started with Dreamhost and it is also great. Though I also wanted to try other web hosting as well, so I set up with Hostgator baby plan and I’m glad to have them with me
Hmmm, list of features is really interesting. But your site will often go down even if you have only 5000-6000 pagevies/day. I have seen this problem with many Webmasters. So do chk before moving to hostgator.
Bas, That depend on many things :
Wordpress is resource hungry and if you have not optimized your WP blog, chances are wordpress blog will go down with even 2k-3K visits a day on any shared hosting.
I’m using Hostgator for 3 sites right now and by far I have not faced any problem.
hmm..interesting read.
I’ve no plans to move to other web hosting service, as I’m happy with my current webhosting. However, in the future, I might consider dreamhost as well as hostgator for webhosting options.
Harshad I have my personal experience with Dreamhost and Hostgator.Both the web hosting are worth considering..
Haven’t used host gator but for shared env’s i use bluehost – Havent had any problems with that so far EXCEPT for Ruby on Rails applications (go figure).
Ahad I never heard any bad review about bluehost also. Though you can match the features provided by both the web hosting and get one according to your need.
I use HostGator, and have been really happy. Never experienced down time!
It will be too early for me to comment on down time but from all other review I have got they are excellent with uptime and you have again voted for the same. Thanks for the input
Great review! We use several hosting companies, but Hostgator is our favorite. We are planning to eventually move all our sites over to Hostgator, but it is a lot of work and takes a bit of time. Hostgator is good about helping with the transfers too!
Thanks for your Input Doug. One more good thing about Hostgator is free blog migration service. Though only one migration is free and that too within one month.
Though when I was talking to live chat support, they offered my two blog migration if I buy there reseller plan. I find it too early to invest on something. So I went with baby one and I can say I’m a happy Host gator customer.
I’ve been using a HostGator dedicated server for over a year and I have no complaints. It’s been running very smooth and I have many sites on there including an ad tracking site that gets almost a hundred thousand hits a month and around twenty four thousand tracking link hits a day. It’s an older script that tends to put a strain on servers yet mine with HostGator handles it perfectly.
Some of the free hosting companies are worth trying but eventually you will face problems with them. I was using one such free hosting service and was relatively happy with it but because of some serious problems like delay in email notifications, timeout errors, inability to update wordpress from within the dashboard, etc i had to go for paid hosting.
One question:
If you are already having ur account with dreamhost then why u have paid for hostgator?
And I didnt get this line too hosting for Hostgator because going to start min eown webhosting company
.-= Atul ´s last blog ..Funny Lines =-.
Even I was using a Delhi based hosting company for my single blog.I faced a lot of troubles during last few months.Now I am on Hostgator.They are one of the best.I did not even face any down time and they done everything except updating name servers.I am happy by the experience.
Though the plans looks similar ,I guess the higher plans are hosted on more powerful servers . If you are using Hostgator monthly plans ,use code hgc25 . You will get Baby plan at .01$ for the first month. Monthly plans on Hostgator shared hosting doesn’t have a set up fee like that in Dreamhost or Bluehost .
.-= smartin ´s last blog ..I don™t have time to write this blog =-.
I’ve been with hosgator for almost a year now and each time I think of leaving cos of the cost, I remember HOW EXCELLENT their services have been and I just smile to myself and do away with the thought.
Hostgator is just amazing.
Hello Harsh i want to start only one wordpress blog with hostgator, should i go for Hatchling : Perfect for single blog (4.95$/mo)
OR not
Please guide me.
Thank you
Hi
if its only one wordpress blog its hatchling plan will be good enough to take care of your requirements.
If you wish you can use my aff. link http://www.shoutmeloud.com/recommended/Hostgator/
and coupon code ShoutMeLoud25 to get maximum discount.
Me too moved my blog to Hostgator in Sep,09 (opted for Baby plan). They are really awesome at work and 24×7 support. The best part is their Live chat support.
I surely recommend HostGator
I have been using HostGator for several months, and have been very happy with them. The great thing is that Hostgator Support by chat is available every day, 24/7. And they are actually helpful!
Yup! It’s still the best hosting with best support! One more thing i would like to tell you people is that if your WP blog gets hacked and someone deletes your database and you have no backup of your DB, its the hostgator which still provides you the backup of your DB but with nominal charges! They backup DBs of all of their hosted sites on every Monday night!
I have been using HostGator as a dedicated server client since 2006. I even resell hosting for a little over a $1/ per month (or 25/ year for 5GB diskspace and 25GB bandwidth, more than enough for blog starters. )
Now, my understanding with their shared clients is they have the branded Host Gator cpanel, but there are not many differences other than the change in the cpanel branding from shared to reseller, or even dedicated.
They have been great on support when anything comes up and tackle issues within the hour I submit a ticket. I am not sure if the ticket support is better for shared clients, but for those who are dedicated clients or looking to become a dedicated client with HostGator, I recommend it.
I have 3 times sought help with Host Gator live chat. It was different times of the day, and I had to wait in line for a few minutes. But I could at all times see how many people were there in front of me, and the waiting time did not really exceed even 3 minutes.
All those times, I spoke to a professional consultant and my problems were solved.
When there is a more serious issue that cannot be solved within one chat session, they have a ticket system which means that you exchange mails with their staff until your issue is solved.
Since I signed up in August 2009, I have never noticed my site being down.
It is also easy to register a domain with them. They accept both pay-pal and bank card payments. The domains though are a little more expensive than if you buy them e.g. at NameCheap.
Really satisfied. Highly recommend as a reliable hosting at a reasonable price.
Thanks for this information Harsh but can in I have a problem .My blog is hosted at the another hosting company that is so costaly to me .Now i want to change .Can I Host my site to this company wit all mysql data .How can i do this
Shayeri you can contact me via service page and I will help you with migration. Of-course this service will be free with a small catch
these days i heard may security issue from Go daddy …..many website host on Go daddy hacked by hackers….so i think hostgator is good option for hosting….i never heard and complaint of Hostgator…
Hi Harsh,
I planning to host my new site on Hostgator. I need your opinion about the domain registration.When I checked,Hostgator charging more(15$) for domain registration compared to other provider(includng shoutmydomain).
As per you, do I need to go with Hostgator domain registration or can I go with other domain registration ? and If I go with other domain registrar, Is it easy to configure that domain name along with hostgator hosting service
@Anoop
Yes, you asked the right question. It’s a good idea to buy domain from other places like Godaddy, ShoutMydomain and then change the name server to Hostgator. Which is very easy. When you sign up for hostgator, you will get two Name servers, and all you need to do is, login to your domain panel and update the name server, which is very easy to do…