Not all web hosting providers are the same in terms of key technical parameters that you can set for your online project or even several ones. Even the smallest details can lead to completely different hosting choices.
Let’s look at the two key players in the market – HostGator and SiteGround. In this article, you will find out who will win the SiteGround vs HostGator battle.
In this SiteGround HostGator comparison, we look at important aspects such as features, pricing, performance, security, and support, weighing the pros and cons of each option compared. As a result, you will walk through each area to make a decision before signing up for one of these web hosting services.
HostGator vs SiteGround: Comparing the features
Both HostGator and SiteGround are respected and well established hosting companies in the global arena. In total, both are trusted by the owners of millions of domains – projects of various types and sizes.
When it comes to popular hosting services, HostGator vs SiteGround, you can’t help but have all the services you need to get your web projects up and running. This means that these are quite popular options for both beginners and advanced users.
Both companies offer a wide range of services, from basic shared hosting to cloud servers.
But still, SiteGround offers better services when compared to HostGator. It’s true that HostGator is a bigger company, but with SiteGround’s proprietary technology, it manages to deliver faster, more reliable hosting. SiteGround is especially respected for its fully managed hosting services.
Let’s look at the details in the table below to weigh up these two service providers:
| Feature | Siteground | HostGator |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting Types | Shared, WordPress, Cloud, WooCommerce, Reseller & Enterprise | Shared, WordPress, Windows, Cloud, VPS, Dedicated |
| Free Domain | No (you can register a new domain starting at $ 15.95 per year) | Yes (when subscribing for 12, 24 or 36 months and on certain plans) |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes |
| Disk Space | 10 – 40 GB | Unmetered |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Uptime | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Automatic Backups | Yes (daily) | Yes (daily) |
| Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel |
| Email Accounts | Free & unlimited | Free & unlimited |
| Free CDN | Yes | Yes |
| Free Site Migration | No | Yes |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 45 days |
| Server Locations | North America, Europe, Asia | North America |
| Extra features |
– free Weebly website builder with drag & drop function; – friendly site tools; – 100% renewable energy compliance |
– drag & drop intelligent website builder; – one-click app installation; – SEO tools |
| Read Reviews | Siteground review | Hostgator review |
| Choose Plans | Go to Siteground hosting | Go to Hostgator hosting |
So, we can summarize that SiteGround is the perfect base platform for hosting projects that just need high speed. Its innovative and empowering technologies provide high-speed solutions to improve site performance.
But at the same time, HostGator is not far behind in this Hostgator vs Siteground race. The service provides all the necessary tools to quickly start a project – from domain name registration and fully managed web hosting to creating websites with an intelligent website builder and SEO promotion.
SiteGround vs HostGator: Pricing
Sometimes, when choosing a hosting, the cost of services can be a key factor. Therefore, do not put off the pricing policy of these two opponents in our comparison.
Comparing the plans of both, we can conclude that HostGator is cheaper than SiteGround (on average, 2 times). By the way, this is not one of the cheap web hosting options for your project.
Also, both welcome new users with open arms, offering big discounts for the initial period. HostGator definitely beats SiteGround in this regard. Its starting prices start at $ 2.75 per month for shared hosting.
Please be aware that this promotional offer is available to new customers and is only valid during the Initial Term and not during subsequent periods or renewal periods.
Depending on the type of hosting, you can get 50% to 75% discounts when you first register with HostGator (and this is only possible with a subscription for at least 12 months).
The cheapest plan on SiteGround starts at $ 6.99 per month. And it is also offered at a special discounted price of $ 14.99 per month. That is, when you first sign up with SiteGround, you will receive 60% off your first bill for any of the hosting plans.
Considering SiteGround’s best selling price is around $ 24.99 / month for their GrowBig plan and $ 39.99 / month for GoGeek, 60% off any of them is a lot.
Here’s a detailed pricing policy for the hosting plans from these two service providers:
| Type of Hosting | SiteGround | HostGator |
|---|---|---|
| Shared | $6.99 – $14.99 /mo | $2.75 – $5.95 /mo |
| WordPress | $6.99 – $14.99 /mo | $5.95 – $9.95 /mo |
| VPS | — | $19.95 – $39.95 /mo |
| Dedicated | — | $89.98 – $139.99 /mo |
| Cloud | $80 – $240 /mo | $4.95 – $9.95 /mo |
| Read Reviews | Siteground review | Hostgator review |
| Choose Plans | Go to Siteground hosting | Go to Hostgator hosting |
Each of the above providers has a large selection of plans with great deals for everyone. If you’re interested in the battle of SiteGround vs HostGator for WordPress, then you’ll see that the prices are almost equal. The standard price for the most popular plan is $ 7.95 per month for SiteGround and $ 9.99 per month for HostGator.
Hostgator vs Siteground: Performance
When evaluating hosting performance, we, first of all, pay attention to site loading speed and uptime. Both companies offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee and high speed. But what is under the “hood”?
For example, SiteGround uses special speed acceleration technologies – Nginx and SuperCacher to speed up the loading of static and dynamic site content; Cloudflare CDN allows faster delivery of content to visitors by distributing it across multiple data centers in different regions.
High speed and performance of SiteGround, which is achieved, among other things, due to good optimization and the use of SSD-drives will not leave anyone indifferent.
According to information from HostGator, thanks to a highly efficient cloud architecture, distributed server load, CDN and multi-layered data caching, websites should also load quickly, which can not but please the user.
Siteground vs Hostgator: Security
Security of SiteGround is also at a high level. Due to free daily backups and with the help of special proprietary technologies the team has managed to isolate accounts on the shared server. So if one account gets infected, the rest are intact.
In reality, every account in SiteGround’s shared hosting environment runs in something akin to an isolated VPS environment. Hostgator in protecting user data provides multiple layers of network security and also has modern data centers with redundant capacities.
Hostgator vs Siteground: Support
Lack of proper customer support can lead to potential business losses. The customer support offered by SiteGround is probably the strongest point. They offer customer service via live chat, phone calls, and email.
Hostgator’s support is provided through a variety of channels as well: live chat, telephone, ticketing, and Twitter. For those who do not like to wait and like to solve the problem on their own, both have an extensive knowledge base on customer support.
Siteground vs Hostgator in All Categories
Ultimately, we can say that both SiteGround and HostGator offer very impressive specifications. And here it is important to make a choice solely based on the requirements of your project. Let’s look at the key parameters of both companies:
| SiteGround | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Features |
– Unlimited data transfer; – Drag and drop site builder; – Free CMS install; – Server customization, etc. |
– Free domain registration for 1 year – Free site transfers; – One-click WordPress installation; – Unmetered bandwidth and disk space, etc. |
| Plans & Pricing |
– Three tariff plans with 50% discount on first invoices in each; – 2x more expensive than HostGator, but affordable compared to other options; – 30-day money-back guarantee |
– Three plans for each type of hosting with introductory offers at reduced prices (up to 75%); – Lower prices even after renewing the plan; – 45-day money-back guarantee. |
| Performance |
– Uptime is 100% in most cases – Web page loading below 200ms; – various speed optimization programs to speed up the delivery of data from servers to screens (Google cache, NGINX +) |
– 99.9% uptime guarantee (if the downtime is below this value, you will receive a monthly loan to your account); – Page load time is well below the 2-second limit (below 50ms for US users) |
| Security |
– Proactive monitoring with its own software stack and anti-bot AI systems to help fend off aggressive attacks; – Using secure account isolation technology |
– Free SSL certificate is provided for shared and WordPress hosting packages; – Automated backups and SiteLock (antivirus and malware scanner) – paid features |
| Support |
– 24/7 live chat, phone support and tickets; – 30-day priority support (with GrowBig plan and above); – Strong knowledge base |
– 24/7 live chat, phone support, Twitter; – Huge archive of knowledge base articles to solve any problems yourself |
| Read Reviews | Siteground review | Hostgator review |
| Choose Plans | Go to Siteground hosting | Go to Hostgator hosting |
Hostgator vs Siteground: Which Hosting Provider Should you Choose?
If you are still in doubt about what to choose for your own benefit, you can rely on the choices and experiences of others. We interviewed different users and came to the following conclusions about who should choose what and why.
Who Should Choose Hostgator?
HostGator is a great starter hosting service for anyone looking for cheap hosting with a lot of advanced features. In fact, it has been the most frequently mentioned name among bloggers, journalists, and others who are interested in the easy and simple use of hosting for their own purposes.
Want to read some more information — Go to Hostgator review
Who Should Choose Siteground?
SiteGround is known among many users for offering the best speed and uptime thanks to unique in-house solutions. Their advanced, personalized AI security solutions protect servers from vulnerabilities and other threats in real-time.
In addition, it offers advanced migration capabilities to quickly scale from simple to expert level for any project. Therefore, if you are expecting more traffic to your site, choose SiteGround. This is why it helps many to sell online with ease.
Want to read some more information — Go to Siteground review
Final thoughts
Undoubtedly, both companies are exceptional web hosting providers. There is intense competition between them that lead to a wide range of available services. After comparing all the aspects of reliable hosting, we’d recommend SiteGround because of its excellent uptime, performance, security measures, and other beneficial features.
On the other hand, you can’t be limited to only this option. For example, if you’re on a tight budget, you can opt for Hostgator, which is available for $ 2.75 per month. However, you need to spend 3 years to get it at that price.
Overall, it also matters to be on your list because with HostGator you get tons of useful features like free migrations, unlimited bandwidth, and 24/7/365 support.
