HostGator.com: Overall Score - 9.8

HostGator Bio

HostGator opened its doors back in 2002, joining the ranks of the hardy businesses that opened post-internet bubble. Since then they have grown to host more than 400,000 websites across their web servers and continue to provide day and night support for its customers via their 24/7 800 number.

Server Hardware

The web servers at HostGator run on a server grade processor called Xeon. These CPU's are specially designed for heavy workloads and handling many tasks at once. HostGator computer run not one, but two of these processors per server, helping to keep sites nice and speedy, even if you happen to suffer a Digg effect (being listed on the homepage of Digg.com).

Support

Probably the best thing about HostGator is the quick response time at any time of the day. Their 800 number is up and running 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If you need to get help fast, this is the only way to go. For those who would rather communicate online, there are options to email, chat online, fax, or use their online help desk.

For those of you who would like to DIY (do it yourself), HostGator has logged the most frequent questions (e.g. How do I set up my email?) into a knowledgebase that is very easy to navigate. They have also created several helpful flash movie tutorials that will guide you through the basic maintenance tasks of running a website.

Reliability

Besides running solid hardware on their webservers, HostGator goes to the next level by guaranteeing 99.9% uptime for your website. If it drops below this number they will issue a full month of free hosting. It's important to note that the cheapest account at HostGator only has 99.5% uptime guarantee, but all other packages are 99.9%. It's for this reason that we recommend you do not sign up for anything less than a "Baby Gator" hosting package.

Data Center

Those expensive web server processors and support won't do any good if they lose power. Which is why all four of HostGator's data centers are equipped 1.5 MegaWatt or greater generators that will kick in if there are any rolling blackouts or downed power lines. The data centers are also equipped with huge AC units to keep the servers cool and running healthy.

The network that HostGator operates on is fully meshed and redundant, which means your site will always be accessible, even if one of the backbone providers has problems. HostGator used not 1, but 10 different backbone providers to create this redundant network.

Value for your Money

The only downside to HostGator is that they do not provide as much bandwidth and disk space as some of their competitors. Currenly, HostGator providers over 1,000 GB of bandwidth, which is around 10,000,000 page views for a site with an average page size of 100 kilobytes. Some other companies are offering up to 3,500 GB of bandwidth, but it's probably not going to be a problem to you if you can serve 10,000,000 page views versus 30,000,000 page views!