HostGator vs SiteGround, WordPress Hosting Review

The hosting provider that you choose plays a great role when taking into consideration website speed and performance. No matter how well you optimize your theme, minify the JavaScript, enable browser caching, etc., your hosting provider will ultimately produce the results of your websites performance.

HostGator vs SiteGround Web Hosting

There are a few key differences between HostGator and SiteGround, such as speed, price, and server locations. HostGator having been established in 2002 just 2 years before SiteGround, currently hosts over 10 million domains where as SiteGround only hosts over 2 million. HostGator was acquired by Endurance International Group in 2012, which EIG does not have too good of a name for itself.

Both HostGator and SiteGround provide WordPress optimized hosting plans. However, HostGator WordPress hosting starting price is $5.95 for a 3 year term and $7.95 for a 1 year term, in comparison to SiteGround that has a starting price of $3.95 for 1, 2, or 3 year terms. Both companies’ starting hosting plan is for 1 website & free SSL certificate.

HostGator provides a free domain when you purchase hosting for 12 months or more with them, 150 GB storage, and up to 100k visit per month.

SiteGround does not provide a free domain with their hosting plans, and only provides 10 GB storage and approximately up to a 10k monthly visit limit.

Additional resource: Siteground vs Bluehost

EIG acquired HostGator

Endurance International Group owns over 60 hosting companies which includes HostGator, Bluehost, Site5, and many more. EIG is known to ruin the quality of hosting plans by aiming to get the most profit out of their services and that causes their servers to be overcrowded. Because of EIG having a bad reputation of itself, many that know of the company frown upon recommending a hosting plan with any hosting provider that is part of EIG.

In the chart below, you can see the google search trends to increase for SiteGround (BLUE) and decline for HostGator (RED) for the last 5 years.

HostGator vs SiteGround Performance

This is where SiteGround shines. SiteGround’s aim in providing its users top-level performance has led to them using SSD servers, latest software releases, and their own inbuilt caching system which they call SuperCacher. These features allow for SiteGround to provide the highest performing servers at low prices.

Performance also varies on the server-side language; SiteGround uses PHP 7.3, which is the latest version of PHP released in 2018, and HostGator uses PHP 7.0 released in 2015. Using the latest PHP version executes scripts much faster, thus helping in increasing site speed by using the latest PHP version.

HostGator vs SiteGround Pricing

EIG managed hosting companies are known to offer better deals at times, but keep in mind that these companies are able to offer better deals by putting too many people on the same server, causing it to not perform as well. In addition, to get HostGator’s WordPress Hosting option ($5.95/month), you need to sign up for a 3 year plan. After the promo price, HostGator hosting goes up to $9.95 per month.

Where as with SiteGround, the price of $3.95 does not go up whether you choose a 3 year or 1 year WordPress Hosting option. After the promo price, SiteGround’s monthly cost goes up to $11.95. SiteGround’s initial monthly cost for the 1 to 3 year term, depending on which you choose is cheaper than HostGator. However, after the initial period, since the price goes up to $11.95, makes it more expensive than HostGator.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you choose to support my blog posts by signing up using my affiliate links, I greatly appreciate your support! My hosting reviews are based on at least 3-4 quality resources, in the form of real people using the service, tweets, and online research. If you don’t want to use my affiliate link, but want to sign up for SiteGround or HostGator you can use the following links SiteGround | HostGator.

Which is better, HostGator or SiteGround?

HostGator’s WordPress hosting competes closely with SiteGround, leading to the website speed being very fast for both hosting companies. HostGator is a bit more expensive though, so for the same speed performance, it’s a no brainer that for the price value, SiteGround is better.

Server Uptime

Server uptime is very important to review when looking to purchase hosting from any hosting provider. In the case of SiteGround vs HostGator, both state that they guarantee 99.9% of server uptime. This is as close to perfection as it can get for any hosting provider. This server uptime guarantee is provided for both hosting companies for all plans, from the most basic to the most advanced.

Server Speed

Both HostGator and SiteGround provide great speed results; however, they do not take the same approach to maximize speed performance. HostGator uses a more hardware-based approach by adding more equipment and service layers to provide a better service and faster speeds. SiteGround on the other hand uses a custom made cache process referred to as SuperCacher to keep the website running at a brisk pace.

HostGator vs. SiteGround Overview

After having compared each hosting provider it’s evident that overall SiteGround takes the lead, but not by much. HostGator is still a great provider if you’re just getting started and keeping in mind that hosting providers under EIG don’t provide the best support and servers may not always perform well.

	SiteGround	HostGator
Popularity	Medium	High
Ease of use	Great	Great
Hosting features	A lot	A lot
Speed	Great	Good
Uptime	Great	Great
Server locations	6	2
Site migration	First included	First included
Scalability	Good	Good
Security	Secure	Secure
Support	Great	OK
Prices	Medium-high	Medium-low
Conclusion	SiteGround provides great speed performance, comes with a lot of hosting features, and 6 different server locations. However, they are more expensive than HostGator.	HostGator’s speed performance is a bit weaker and their support is not as great. Offers more storage on 2 server locations and lower prices.