SiteGround vs. HostGator

Choosing the Best Hosting for Your Business Made Easy

What’s uuuuup?! It’s Mike here again, and today I’m going to compare two giants in the web hosting industry, SiteGround versus HostGator!

Both companies are awesome, and you can see that in my previous comparisons against Bluehost. They won in more than one category, and that alone speaks very well about their services.

However, today I’m going to let you know all about them, compare them extensively and help you to pick the perfect plan for your business!

Ok, time to cut the fluff and start with the fun!

Why HostGator and SiteGround?

Let’s summarize why they are good picks:

Now that this is clear, let’s check the plans and start this hot comparison!

The Plans:

Let’s analyze the plans of each company, because if you have read my previous versus, you would have noticed that I always compare their plans against each other.

Let’s start!

SiteGround:

HostGator:

Now that we have clear what plans each company has to offer, let’s start with the comparison!

Shared and Web Hosting Comparison: What is the Best Budget-friendly Option for You?

I really like cloud hosting, because it will make your website noticeably faster and offer you excellent features like more security, more reliability and overall a better performance.

Here you have what each company has to bring to the table in this category:

Now, here you can tell the difference: if you are looking for a budget-friendly cloud hosting solution, then answer is more than clear: go for HostGator. This company and SG cannot compete in this category for obvious reasons.

One of the main concerns regarding SiteGround’s cloud hosting plans is that you can get a dedicated server for pretty much the same price, and a dedi is much better in several aspects, especially if you want to customize it to your own needs.

However, I have to tell you from now that SiteGround does an excellent job at helping its customers with any sort of problem or technical difficulty you may have. Therefore, if you value fast and reliable customer support over the rest, then SG might be the perfect choice for you.

WordPress Hosting Versus: The Best Plan for the Most Popular CMS

WordPress hosting is very popular because the CMS is the most used in the entire world, because it is very easy to use and can be adapted as much as you like.

That is why many hosting companies design specific plans for users who wish to run this software in their sites, and here you have what SiteGround and HostGator bring to the table:

Now, here you have their plans in a nice side-to-side comparison, but let’s see what companies offers more value for your money!

Once again, I have to say that I prefer SG, because it offers more value, but I’m going to detail why.

First off, the fact that you get SSD storage is a good advantage, because as you know, it will make your websites faster. Furthermore, you can host unlimited sites in the GrowBig and GoGeek plans, whereas you get severely restricted with HostGator (max 3 sites with the Business plan).

But now, let’s analyze the main features that make me favor it over HG:

These are the technical reasons that make me prefer the plans by SG, especially the GoGeek, because for a low price you get a lot, exactly what you need to run any kind of website.

Of course, if you want to run a very big media outlet, a traffic-heavy e-com store or any site that needs lots of resources and receives a lot of traffic, then you will need a VPS hosting plan, or even better, a dedicated server.

Overall, that’s why I can vouch for SiteGround’s plans, and furthermore, everything is easy to install and use, so you can run your website despite being a total beginner!

But what about HostGator? Is it really that bad? First, I didn’t say that they were bad, only that my preference leans towards SG for the reasons I’ve exposed, but HG still does a good job:

I wish they were more specific with what they offer just like SiteGround that does an excellent job at explaining what they really offer.

VPS Hosting by HostGator: Do I Recommend It? – A Detailed Analysis

Unfortunately, SiteGround doesn’t offer VPS hosting, but HostGator does and I’m going to let you know if it is good or not with this detailed analysis!

As you can see, they include different types of hardware for each plan. There is the Snappy 500 and Snappy 1000 plan as well, but in my opinion, they are not enough, that is why I’ve just reviewed the Snappy 2000, 4000 and 8000.

You get full root access, which means that you can customize the VPS as much as you want and need. Furthermore, the servers support a rich variety of programming languages and software:

You have full control of your server to use it as you like, because you can easily allocate resources as you need and do all the adjustments you have to.

You can host an unlimited number of websites, which makes it perfect for those offering web hosting services to clients. If you are one of them, then you can use a VPS to do, in case you don’t want to bother with reseller hosting and want to keep your costs down.

A VPS is excellent if your websites receive tons of traffic, because you will have the resources necessary to withstand it.

However, I also need to point out the flaws: they don’t have SSD storage. That’s a turn off, because they would bring you more value if they offered it.

Another thing that I don’t like is that they don’t disclose the tech of their hardware. It’d be awesome if they did, because it would allow the more-technical users to know if they will get what they are looking for.

That’s what they bring to the table, so take note of that.

The customer service is good, but it could be better, at least that’s what I feel. There is always room for improvement, but in general HostGator offers solid VPS plans that will get your websites running in no time, so you should go for them!

In fact, in a previous comparison against GoDaddy, I picked it as the winner, because I had a better experience with them.

Now it is time to level up the game and compare the dedicated servers they both offer, because after VPS, that’s the next step!

Dedicated Server Versus: What Company Is The Best Choice?

As the name clearly tells, it is a server completely dedicated to your projects. All the resources in it are 100% destined to your needs.

Dedicated hosting is the next step after VPS because:

Therefore, if your project is big (or is expected to be) and you have the budget, then don’t chase the lowest price and instead go for something that will meet the requirements of what you need: a dedicated server.

Now, let’s go and analyze the features offered by each company:

Now that you know the principal differences between them, it is time to go deeper in the analysis. However, from here you can easily tell which is the better options in terms of budget, but as I said at the beginning, the price isn’t the most important factor here.

A CPU Tech War: What Company Brings You The Best?

Both use Intel, but as you can easily see, they use different versions… so which one is the best? Let’s discover it!

Whereas HostGator uses the same CPU in all of its plans – the Intel Xeon D-1541 – SiteGround brings different ones for each plan:

The Xeon E3 series are older than the Xeon D, and that’s a point in favor of HostGator, because a newer technology will, in most cases, provide a better performance.

The Intel Xeon D-1541 is an excellent CPU and HG has done an amazing job at equipping their servers with it. Here you have the reasons that support what I claim:

All in all, in this battle, I have to give the Xeon D-1541 a preference over the rest, because its solid performance has been proven over and over again.

What Do They Offer?

Now you know that HG offers the better CPU tech, but now it is time to explore other features, so you can pick the plan that better suits your needs. I will provide you everything you need to know in a list, and so far now, you can see that I’m a fan of listing everything!

What I like about SiteGround:

What I like about HostGator:

You get pretty much the same performance offered by a StartUp plan from the shared hosting, but for an even lower price, so you can resell it for more.

You could also resell hosting using your own dedicated server, or even a VPS, but it is more technical and you will have to take care of control and monitoring on your own. If you want more freedom, then the reselling hosting plans are perfect for you.

We’ve finished reviewing all the plans offered by both companies, so now it is time to review the “macro” aspects of each company, so you can get an overview on how much value they really offer.

Speed, Performance and Reliability: An Analysis of SiteGround and HostGator

From the comparisons I’ve already done, you should have seen that both companies are fairly efficient, reliable and fast.

However, let’s do a side-by-side comparison to overview all their features:

Now you can see what they offer in both departments, but if you want a more specific answer, then you can always check the comparisons above.

However, I have to favor SiteGround here, because especially when it comes to shared and WP hosting, they are your best choice. The same goes for dedicated hosting, depending on what you need.

HostGator would score more points if they supported PHP 7 and had HTTP/2 enabled servers, so it is a pity they don’t, because in such a competitive environment, even just two features can take clients away from them…

Security: How Protected Will Your Websites Be?

Speed without security is meaningless, because if your site is exposed to attacks and online threats, then you are putting your investment in serious risk, and that’s not a wise business move.

Instead of doing a side-by-side comparison, I will make it simpler for you by listing the key features that offer each company in this department.

SiteGround:

HostGator: