HostGator

The pricing is a big feature for this hosting company

Every three years when the hosting contract is coming to an end, they offer a reduced fee to upgrade your server plan, which is more cost effective than renewing at the regular rate for whatever plan you're currently using.

The customer service workers are professional and friendly.

The technical support is very deficient. If you are going to be relying on your host for all things technical, HostGator isn't a great choice for you. They're professional and friendly, but when you actually run into an issue, it will be a challenge to resolve.

During the latest server upgrade HostGator was to handle the migration of all sites on our Windows based server over to the new Linux based server. While doing so, the technicians left open a gap for hackers to infiltrate the old server which was then partially encrypted with ransomeware. A half a dozen sites hadn't yet been fully migrated at that point. HostGator said nothing about not finishing the migration - we figured it out when specific sites weren't working properly. They then said it wasn't possible to migrate them. Fortunately, one of the business owners had the technical capability to migrate 4 of the 6, and then rebuilt the two that were lost.

Unless you have a solid technical background, you're going to be disappointed with HostGator. They often can't determine the cause of technical issues, or claim it's impossible to fix the issues. However, the business partner always ends up solving the issues.

HostGator has provided the business with affordable hosting.

HostGator has offered great financial incentives (through special pricing on contract renewals) for upgrading every three years, which means our sites have been hosted on increasingly better, faster servers, which improves customer satisfaction (no waiting on page load speeds).

HostGator's lack of quality tech support has meant the business owners have had to do more technical troubleshooting when there have been issues rather than focussing on some other aspect of the business.

HostGator provides the business with server hosting on a dedicated server.

The server is used to host the business websites and client sites, ranging in size from small charity groups to an international organization.

The server is also used as a staging area when developing new sites or new site features for clients who have their own hosting. That way the new features and changes can be fully tested prior to releasing to the clients.

I don't think the business has used HostGator in unexpected or innovative ways. It's server hosting, and we've used it for that purpose.

The biggest standout feature is the price point, which is why the business keeps using this provider.

The use of their servers won't change over time. The business has contracted with them to provide a server, and that's the extent of the need.

In the future, providing the rates continue being at the right price point, the business will likely continue to upgrade the servers every few years.