HostGator Pricing Guide: 2025 Plans and Deals

HostGator’s pricing ranges from $3.75/mo for the absolute cheapest web hosting plan to $343.79 per month for the highest tier dedicated server plan. Within that wide range, there are a variety of hosting packages designed for all sorts of use cases. These include standard (shared) web hosting, WordPress hosting, ecommerce hosting, VPS, dedicated server, and reseller plans.

The shared, WordPress, and ecommerce plans include features such as free SSL and a free domain for the first year, while the VPS and dedicated server plans offer modern NVMe storage and a dedicated IP address. The downside is that after the promotional period ends, prices increase across the board, sometimes even more than triple the original contract amount.

Here we will take a closer look at the cost of HostGator’s main shared hosting plans. These plans overlap with their WordPress plans, so this can give you a good idea of how much both cost. We’ll also share some money-saving tips to help you decide which hosting option to choose.

How much does HostGator cost?

The lowest price you can expect to pay for HostGator’s shared web hosting is $3.75/mo, for the entry-level Hatchling plan. To unlock that price, you need a 36-month commitment. On the other end of the spectrum is the Pro Plan, which runs for $13.95/mo for the first month.

To give you an idea of how this range compares to the rest of the market, below are the cost ranges for similar shared web hosting plans from six popular alternatives:

• Hostinger: $2.99-$7.99/mo (48-month term)
• Namecheap: $3.58-$26.88/mo
• IONOS: $1.00-$12.00/mo (billed annually, first yr only)
• Siteground: $2.99-$7.99/mo
• InMotion: $3.49-$20.49/mo
• Hosting.com: $2.99-$6.99/mo

Please note that the bottom range reflects the promo price for a 1-year contract on the cheapest possible plan, while the top range shows the 1-month price for the most expensive plan. The one exception is Hostinger, which requires a 4-year contract to get the best price.

As you can see, in terms of pure dollar amount, HostGator tends to be more expensive than its competitors. Let’s examine what you actually get for your money, though:

HostGator price

	Hatchling Plan	Baby Plan	Business Plan	Pro Plan
Monthly cost	$3.75/mo	$4.50/mo	$6.25/mo	$13.95/mo
Number of websites	10	20	50	100
Storage	10 GB	20 GB	50 GB	100 GB
Malware protection	Free SSL, malware scanning, WAF, DDoS protection	Free SSL, malware scanning, WAF, DDoS protection	Free SSL, malware scanning + removal, WAF, DDoS protection	Free SSL, malware scanning + removal, WAF, DDoS protection
Domain privacy	$14.95/yr	$14.95/yr	1st yr free + $14.95/yr after	1st yr free + $14.95/yr after
Customer support	24/7 chat	24/7 chat + phone	24/7 chat + phone	24/7 chat + phone
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan	View plan

The three main differences between the four plans are:

• Number of sites you can build
• Storage space
• Website traffic limits

Beyond that, there are some minor feature differences. For example, the entry-level plan doesn’t offer phone support (only chat), and it doesn't let you add or park domains.

On the other end, the third and fourth tier plans give you free domain privacy for a year, whereas on tiers one and two, you have to pay for it right away.

However, on the whole, the vast majority of features are the same across all four plans:

What do you get with HostGator?

HostGator doesn’t give you everything you’d hope for in a web hosting service, but it does give you a lot. Some of the highlights are:

• Unmetered bandwidth: No limits on data transfer for your site's traffic
• Domain name: Free domain registration for the first year
• Cloudflare CDN: Free content delivery network with Argo Routing for faster global load times
• SSL certificate: Free Let's Encrypt SSL for secure HTTPS connections
• cPanel: Industry-standard control panel for easy site management
• Backups: Automated backups to protect your website data (frequency varies by plan)
• WordPress staging site: Test changes in a separate environment before pushing live
• Advanced developer tools: SSH access, WP-CLI, object caching, and static content caching

Which plan is right for your business?

Given that roughly 90-95% of the shared hosting features are the same, the main deciding factors for how you’re going to host your site with HostGator are going to come down to resource needs:

• How many websites you plan to build (or transfer): 10, 20, 50, or 100 sites
• How much storage space you need: 10 GB, 20 GB, 50 GB, or 100 GB
• How much monthly traffic you anticipate getting: 40K, 50K, 200K, or 400K visitors

Otherwise, you can also narrow down your decision by use case:

• Brick-and-mortar business needing a single website: If you don’t have an established presence online and your real-life customer base isn’t tens of thousands of people, then the entry-level Hatchling plan is perfect.
• Online business needing 1-10+ websites: What your business does and how popular it is already will determine which plan you need. In most cases, either the Hatchling or Baby plan will be sufficient.
• Power users and agencies: If you are managing, or plan to manage, a growing number of websites, including some with heavier anticipated traffic, the Business or Pro plan is the best choice.
• Developers: All four HostGator plans include cPanel and a full suite of dev tools, including unlimited MySQL, access to raw log files, SSH access, Rails, Python, and Perl support, and more. Therefore, any plan can be a great fit as long as it meets your resource use requirements.

Top alternatives

Earlier in the pricing section, we established that HostGator tends to be on the more expensive side when compared to other web hosting companies. If the cost of web hosting is a concern for you, then consider a HostGator alternative.

Three great options we’ve tested include:

• Bluehost: Even though Bluehost and HostGator share the same parent company, the pricing and offerings differ slightly. If you compare either the Hatchling plan (tier one) or the Business plan (tier three) to Bluehost’s Starter (tier one) and Business (tier two) plans, you’ll find similar features with cheaper long-term pricing. Bluehost also comes with NVMe storage, while HostGator has only older-generation SSD.
• Hostinger: If you don’t mind committing to a four-year contract, the entry-level Hostinger plan is only $2.99/mo (48-month term) and gives you 25 GB of storage (vs HostGator’s 10 GB), support for up to 25 websites (vs HostGator’s 10), and free website migration (something HostGator charges for).
• IONOS: Although HostGator’s entry-level plan is arguably a better deal, IONOS has better value with its tier two and tier three plans. For example, the tier three Plus plan is only $1.00/mo (billed annually, first yr only) and gives you unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited databases, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name for the first year, and daily backups.

FAQs

Bottom line: Is HostGator worth it?

HostGator is a decent web hosting provider and can be a good short-term option. However, after the promotional period ends, you’ll find that the renewal increases become unjustifiably high.

In my own experience, I finally decided to switch over to Namecheap when I received a 52.8% price hike from HostGator between billing cycles, with absolutely nothing to justify it.

My personal recommendation is to go with either Namecheap or IONOS. They both offer excellent shared hosting plans at better prices, as well as a variety of other hosting types.