Hostgator Free Trial

HostGator is a top-rated website hosting provider that offers a broad spectrum of solutions for beginners and professionals alike – Shared Hosting, WordPress Hosting, Website Builder, Dedicated Hosting, and VPS Hosting. With a 99.9% uptime guarantee, easy WordPress installs, free domain for 1-year, and free SSL certificate, HostGator is the perfect web hosting provider for your online business.

A glimpse of HostGator web hosting plans and pricing

When you make a new start with a new hosting provider, you might be having some worries. Will they deliver high uptime as promised? Will you have enough storage space or the ability to backup your website data? Is it worth your money and time?

If you want to try HostGator web hosting, you can sign up for HostGator Free Trial hosting that will help you determine whether the plans are worth trying or not.

Do they really have a “Free Trial” offer?

Yes, they do! In this article, we will provide information about everything that you need to know about the HostGator Free Trial offer.

Can I Try HostGator for Free?

To be specific, HostGator does not offer a “free” trial, and it is nowhere mentioned on their website. However, they offer a host of promotions under which you can sign up for their hosting plan where you pay only $0.01/month and enjoy a full suite of benefits and features. So, it’s not exactly free but 1 cent is so minuscule an amount that it can almost be called free.

All the basic plans of HostGator are covered under this offer – Hatchling, Baby plan, and Business Plan – starting at just $0.01/month for the first 45 days of signing up with HostGator. You get sufficient time to determine whether the hosting is worth your time and money or not. And if you want to continue with the plan or upgrade to a premium plan, you can do it at any time.

HostGator’s 1-cent offer is not spam. However, there are specific criteria to join and use HostGator free trial hosting, they are mentioned below:

• The offer is applicable only for new users. If you already have an existing account on HostGator, you cannot use the free trial offer.
• The free trial offer is valid only for 45 days and if you do not opt-out of the plan, it will be renewed at the original price at the end of 45 days.
• The free trial offer is available for all shared hosting plans.

Before you pay for HostGator’s affordable shared hosting plans, you can join the free trial offer and test the effectiveness of these plans.

However, there is no mention of the free trial on HostGator’s website. The question arises – “How to get a HostGator free trial?” This is covered in the next section of the article.

How To Get HostGator Free Trial?

There are two ways in which you can get a HostGator free trial: 

#1 Activate the HostGator 1-Cent Offer

You can opt for HostGator’s 1-cent hosting offer in the form of a coupon when you sign up for a shared hosting plan. It allows you to enjoy all the features and benefits of HostGator shared hosting plans after paying $0.01/month. It is applicable for the first 45 days of signing up, after which the plan automatically gets renewed at the standard price.

Steps for activating this offer:

• Visit this page to use the 1-cent hosting offer.
• At the bottom of the page, you will find HostGator shared hosting plans – Hatchling, Baby, and Business. Have a look at the features and select a plan that you like. We recommend getting started with the basic Hatchling plan if you are hosting your website or blog for the first time.
• Once you choose a plan (Let’s say that you have chosen the Hatchling plan), you will be automatically directed to their checkout page. On the checkout page, you will need to fill up various fields with the relevant information.
• Here, you will need to get started with providing a domain name (if you have one) or register for a domain on HostGator. Remember, the hosting provider offers free domain only on the purchase of an annual plan. But in this case, you will pay for 1 month and therefore, you won’t get the domain for free.
• Under “Choose a Hosting Plan”, select the package type (here Hatchling) and mention 1 month in the “Billing Cycle” section
• Please note: The basic hosting package price will show here when you choose the Billing Cycle for 1 month. You can get the 1-cent offer like a coupon code at a later point in time.
• Uncheck all the addons under “Add Additional Services” because these are not available for free. Keeping the checkboxes ticked will make you pay more than $0.01 and won’t serve the purpose of a free trial.
• In the next section, you will get the option – “Enter a Coupon Code” Here, you will see that the coupon name “1CENT” is already given by default. In the “Amount Due” section, $0.01 will be shown as the amount due.
• Agree to HostGator Terms of Service, Auto-Renewal Terms, and Cancellation Policy and click on “Checkout Now”

#2 Get HostGator 45-Days Money Back Refund

Another smart way is to sign up for a HostGator 1-year or 3-years hosting plan and you can get attractive discounts, as low as $2.75/month for a 36-months plan. And if at any point, you are not satisfied with their hosting services, you can claim a refund within 45 days of signing up for the plan, HostGator offers a 45-days money-back guarantee during which you can use the features and benefits of a shared hosting plan, without actually paying a penny if you apply for a refund within 45 days.

Note that there are certain limitations or restrictions that apply to the 45-day money-back guarantee:

• The money-back guarantee offer is valid only for new users and for a billing account that is less than 45 days old.
• Refund of the package price is not applicable for administrative fees, dedicated servers, domain name registrations, or installation fees for custom software.
• $0.01 hosting accounts are not eligible for the refund.
• Refund is also not applicable if hosting package charges are paid through bank wire transfers, money orders, or check.
• If your hosting plan includes a free domain name, a standard fee of $17.99 for the domain name and any additional taxes will be deducted from the refund amount if you cancel the plan within 1 year of subscription

Here are the steps to cancel your HostGator web hosting plan and get the 45-days refund offer:

• To cancel the plan, you will have to sign in to your HostGator account and complete the online cancellation process form on your dashboard.
• You will get an automatic reply confirming that your cancellation request has been submitted.
• Within 48 hours of submitting a cancellation request, you will get an email validating the cancellation confirmation.
• Reply to this email and mention that you are due for a refund as you are on the money-back-guaranteed period. You can also mention this in the “Additional Comment” section while completing the cancellation form.
• You will receive an email from HostGator confirming the amount of the refund. This amount will be credited to your PayPal account or credit card within 15 days of receiving the email.

These are the two ways through which you can get yourself the HostGator hosting plans for almost free of cost. But which one should you opt for? Let’s understand this by discussing the pros and cons of each of them.

Pros & Cons of HostGator 1-Cent Hosting Offer

Advantages

• One of the biggest advantages is that you don’t have the headache of paying anything more than $0.01 while signing up for HostGator shared hosting plans.
• You can sign up for any shared hosting plan you want and enjoy all the features and benefits without the hefty monthly or annual cost.
• All $0.01 shared hosting plans include 24×7 technical support, unmetered bandwidth, and disk space, 45-day money-back guarantee, free SSL certificate, easy-to-use cPanel, unlimited email addresses, and free advertising credits – all these and much more only at $0.01/month for up to 45 days.
• There are no complications while canceling the plan or claiming a refund if you are not satisfied with the hosting plan. After 45 days, the plan will automatically get canceled or upgraded upon your approval

Disadvantages

• A limitation of this offer is that after 45 days, the plan will be priced automatically at standard 1-month pricing at no discounts. Attractive discounts are available only when you sign up for their 12-months or 36-months plan. But when you get the 1-cent offer, it is a 30-days program. If you choose to continue with the plan even after 45 days, you will need to pay a higher price than what you would have otherwise paid for a 12-months or 36-months package.
• Additionally, you will have the liability of paying every month. Otherwise, the hosting plan will get canceled and your website performance will be disrupted. There is no option to receive the renewal notice for the monthly automatic debit of your credit card or PayPal account. You will have to sign in to your account every month and check if the balance checks out.

Pros & Cons Of HostGator 45-Days Money Back Guarantee Offer

Advantages

• You get the best-discounted prices when you sign up for HostGator’s 12-months or 36-months hosting plans. There is no restriction on your choice of Billing Cycle when you sign up for a hosting plan. All plans are covered under HostGator’s 45-days money-back guarantee. Therefore, it is advisable to subscribe for their 1-year or 3-year packages that are available with huge discounts.

For instance, the basic Hatchling plan is now available at a 60.40% discount, i.e., @$2.75/month only when you sign up for their 3-year billing cycle. If you choose to continue with this plan, the average amount you’d pay every 3-year will be substantially lower than the monthly payments.

• Furthermore, you don’t have to make payments and renew your hosting account every month.
• You can sign up for any hosting plan, test the features and benefits and if you are not satisfied, you can easily cancel the plan within 45 days of signing up and get a refund. Thereby, you are using the plan for free unless there are other attributes attached that are not eligible for a refund.

Disadvantages

• A disadvantage is that you’d need to pay a hefty cost upfront when you sign up for a shared hosting plan, especially if you subscribe for a 36-months plan. Even if you get huge discounts, not all website owners can afford to pay $2.75 for 36 months that would be $99 as an initial cost
• If you have paid for additional services SiteLock Essentials, SEO tools, etc., or registered for a free domain, these may not be covered under your refund amount
• In case you exceed the 45 days time period, you will not get any refund upon cancellation

Conclusion – Which is the Best HostGator Offer for You?

Should you sign up for HostGator 1-cent hosting offer or get a 45-days money-back guarantee? Which is the best option for you?

Inability to enjoy attractive discounts on monthly payments (if you choose to continue using HostGator hosting plan) is one of the primary reasons why users do not want to sign up for the 1-cent offer. But it is a good option if you want to try HostGator plans before you sign up for their paid plans.

On the other hand, their money-back guarantee gives you the flexibility to cancel a hosting plan within 45 days of signing up and you can get a refund. So, it is like using the plan for free for up to 45 days and then you can choose to continue with the plan or cancel it. Typically, users subscribe for 1-year or 3-year plans that enable them to get attractive discounts and save more money on monthly payments.

The right offer for you will depend on your website hosting needs and budget. There is no denying the fact that HostGator is a reputable hosting provider with excellent features and benefits. You may consider signing up for their 3-months shared hosting plan at $2.75/month only. Hopefully, you can continue using this plan and you get more cost savings, high uptime, and many other amazing features.

We’d love to hear from you if you have got yourself any of the offers described in this article. If you want to share your views, post them in the comments section below.