Why HostGator Sucks?

Are you feeling frustrated being a HostGator customer? Do you think that HostGator sucks?

There was a time when it was a reliable host offering good hosting services. But that was before HostGator’s acquisition by EIG group in 2012.

After this change in ownership, the quality of its hosting services has badly deteriorated and its reputation has gone downhill.

However, there are some other issues as well that make HostGator a bad choice for your website. Let’s find them out in our next section.

Why does HostGator sucks? (6 Reasons)

Truly speaking, shared hosting has some inherent drawbacks so none of it is perfect. But HostGator has had too many issues and complaints that we cannot ignore.

We will be discussing some of these major HostGator problems in detail below:

Reason 1 – Bad Customer Service

HostGator doesn’t care for its customers and that shows in its bad customer service. Several factors contribute to its poor customer care, including:

Lack of Knowledge

HostGator does not provide adequate knowledge to its customer care executives, so the support team is unable to offer the right services to customers in need.

The customer care staff has no understanding of the host’s servers, Google crawlers, firewalls, or the latest web technologies. Junior team members are only aware of basic matters like WordPress, on-page SEO, and a little about cPanel.

Unfortunately, you also won’t find any means, not even a single email, on the official website to contact the senior team members. So you can expect only basic help from the HostGator customer care executives.

Long Waiting Time

HostGator has a long waiting time when it comes to customer support, with response times typically ranging between 3 to 5 days. Expect late replies to support tickets and emails after you purchase a HostGator plan.

The company has majorly focused on securing more clients and offering even an 80% discount on its plans. The speed with which it gained new customers might also be a reason for its poor customer service.

HostGator didn’t improve services even on more clients.

Another important thing to mention is their chat response time. If you pass through the waiting line and get hold of a HostGator executive in the chat, you’ll notice that each response takes about 10 minutes as each executive handles multiple customers at once.

Reason 2 – Unreliable Backup System

Unlike most of its competitors who automatically create daily backups plus a weekly backup, HostGator has an unreliable backup system with no daily backup schedule. It creates only weekly backups, that too, on a random day.

At any given time, you will only have a single backup copy since the host overwrites the previous one. Unfortunately, this backup can be over a week old.

Another problem with HostGator’s backup service relates to backup restoration. You cannot restore a backup yourself from your cPanel. Instead, you will have to raise a support ticket whenever you need to restore a backup.

Reason 3 – Lousy Upsells Attempts

Another reason why HostGator sucks is because of their lousy upsell attempts through various means, including live chats and emails.

The team will repeatedly try to sell you its third-party add-ons like CodeGuard and SiteLock. It also attempts to offer its “expert” services like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Web Design services.

The reason behind these lousy upsells is the commission that a HostGator representative receives on successfully selling you a new addon. It is pathetic to see that the hosting provider uses such cheap sales practices to extract money from its loyal customers.

Reason 4 – No Virus or Spam Protection

HostGator offers email services but has no virus or spam protection in place. So expect to receive viruses and a lot of spam if you utilize the host’s email services.

The protection is so weak that you might even get your email blacklisted without being at fault.

Reason 5 – Oversold Servers

The problem with shared hosting is having other website owners using the same server. And this problem worsens severely when a host oversells its servers. Unfortunately, HostGator is one such host.

The company assigns the same server to a lot of people. As a result, the server becomes overburdened with too many users utilizing its limited resources hence leading to slow server response time.

It affects your website performance with very few server resources to use.

Consider having a look at the picture below showing HostGator’s poor performance against the performance delivered by its competitors:

Reason 6 – Bad Reputation

After its acquisition, HostGator has gained a bad reputation for itself over the years.

Its existing customers are extremely disappointed with its services and cheap business practices. You will notice that the hosting provider has terrible reviews on Trustpilot and other major review sites.

Conclusion

HostGator was once a reliable service provider but not anymore. Its reputation has been on the decline since its acquisition by EIG Group in 2012.

The company is focusing on gaining more customers and earning money rather than providing good quality hosting.

It is best to stay away from HostGator since its existing customers are constantly complaining about its services. Look for a better host with a good reputation offering reliable hosting solutions.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Did HostGator increase their prices in 2023?

Yes, HostGator increased their prices in 2023. This price rise was very steep with average prices increasing by about 70%. The host didn’t even notify its customers about the change in advance.

Why is HostGator so slow?

HostGator is slow because the company assigns the same server to a lot of customers. A single user receives a very small portion of total server resources which leads to website performance issues.

Is HostGator better than GoDaddy?

Yes, HostGator is better than GoDaddy but you will find many other hosts that are far superior to HostGator.