Founded in 2002, HostGator is a Houston-based web hosting provider that started small but now hosts over 2.5 million websites throughout the globe. It offers shared, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting at affordable prices.
If you are planning to purchase hosting services from HostGator for your website, particularly the Baby Plan and you want to know more about it, you have come to the right place. Here is an in-depth HostGator baby plan review where we discuss its features, cons, suitability, and alternatives to help you determine if this plan is the right choice for your business or not.
What is the HostGator Baby Plan?
HostGator Baby Plan is one of the shared hosting plans offered by HostGator. Out of the 3 shared hosting plans available, HostGator recommends this one for the benefits it offers.
HostGator Baby Plan review features
To know more about the plan, let’s explore its key features here:
Host unlimited websites
The Baby Plan allows you to host unlimited websites from your hosting account. The smaller plan i.e. the HostGator Hatchling Plan only allows the hosting of a single website and might not be suitable for all since many website owners tend to operate more than one website.
Even if you are a beginner, building your first website, and plan to create multiple other websites later, Baby Plan will be beneficial for you. It will save you time, money, and effort in purchasing and managing multiple hosting accounts.
Unmetered Bandwidth and Disk Space
This plan comes with unmetered bandwidth so HostGator does not charge you for the amount of bandwidth you use. With unmetered bandwidth and disc space received under the Baby Plan, your website performance won’t be affected by the amount of traffic it gets or the quantity of data it transfers.
User-friendly Control Panel
A well-laid control panel helps you perform all your tasks quite easily. The HostGator Baby plan comes with an excellently organized cPanel that saves you time and increases your productivity. Whether you are a beginner or a pro at managing websites, you will find it super-easy yet powerful at the same time. This is how well it is organized:
One-click WordPress installs
The Baby Plan makes it easy for you to install WordPress. It just requires a single click to install WordPress and you are good to go!
Free SSL Certificate
An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate secures your site by encrypting communications between your website and its visitors. The Baby Plan comes with a free SSL certificate for your website that adds a padlock icon at the beginning of your domain name in the address bar to flag your site as secure.
Here is how HostGator explains the need for an SSL certificate for your website:
Budget-friendly
The Baby Plan is popular since it is budget-friendly. The smaller Hatchling plan costs you $2.75 per month while this Baby plan costs you just $3.50 per month. You don’t even need to pay a dollar more to host unlimited websites! If you have or plan to have multiple websites, Baby Plan will be an ideal choice for you.
Free domain
The plan provides you with a free domain when you make a long-term commitment to it. If you are planning to keep your website for at least the next 12 months and are going to renew your hosting anyway, why not get a free domain with HostGator’s Baby Plan?
This is what you see when you click for more information provided against the free domain feature of the HostGator Baby Plan:
Easy-to-use website builder
HostGator’s Baby Plan comes with a drag-and-drop website builder that is very easy to use. You can build a beautiful and fully functional website even as a beginner!
45-day money-back guarantee
HostGator offers a “no questions asked” 45-day money-back guarantee with its Baby Plan. So if you are unsatisfied with the hosting services, you can get your money back any time during the first 45 calendar days. It is important to mention here that this money-back guarantee only applies to the hosting services rendered by the company, all additional services like domain registration, addons, set up fees are not covered under its scope.
This is what you see when you click for more information provided against the 45-day money-back guarantee feature of the Baby Plan:
Along with the above, the HostGator Baby Plan also offers these useful features:
- Free website transfers
- Free domain transfers
- Unlimited email addresses
- Advanced email tools
- $150 Google Ads credit for you to spend
- $100 Microsoft Advertising credit
- Free MySQL transfer
- Unlimited subdomains
- Unlimited FTP accounts
- Unlimited addon/parked domains
- One-click install for over 75 open-source scripts
- 24/7 phone and live chat support
- 24/7 server monitoring
Cons of HostGator Baby Plan
No hosting plan can be perfect and will have both pros and cons. The Baby Plan is no different. Here are some cons of the Baby Plan:
High renewal prices
No doubt the introductory price of the plan is quite lucrative but its renewal price is very high. You will have to pay $11.95 per month when renewing the Baby Plan. Even if you renew it for the longest term available of 3 years, it will cost you $9.95 per month. It is a huge upshift from the signup price of $3.50 per month. But this price is average among all hosts.
You will find this information when you click on the price of the Baby Plan:
Discounted prices only with a long-term commitment
The Baby Plan will cost you $11.95 per month if you commit for a term shorter than a year. The best hosting discount is only available when you commit for at least 3 years. Only in this case, the hosting will cost you $3.50 per month. It is a huge drawback if you want to try the hosting services offered by HostGator for a month or so before making a long-term commitment.
Restrictions on free website transfers
HostGator’s Baby Plan comes with free website transfers but these are limited by the host.
- Firstly, these transfers are only available for the new HostGator hosting accounts or when you upgrade and need a new server thereof.
- Secondly, you have to perform your transfer within the first 30 days of signing up with the host. These limitations restrict you from taking full advantage of the free offer.
Here is what HostGator states about its free migration service feature:
Offer standard features as addons
Getting standard features for free under a hosting plan is what we all deserve. But the Baby Plan offers many standard server features as add-ons and charges extra money for them. These features include a Positive SSL certificate, site backup, professional email, SiteLock Monitoring, and SEO tools. If you add all these standard features to your cart when signing up for the Baby plan, you will have to pay an extra $16.27 per month over and above the hosting charges. This high amount just fails the whole purpose of signing up with the so-called “cost-effective” hosting plan.
HostGator Baby Plan prices
The price you pay for the Baby Plan depends on the duration of hosting you purchase. If you are new to HostGator and want to try the hosting services before paying for a long-term plan, you will have to pay $11.95 monthly. If you grab at least 1 year of hosting, the plan will cost you $5 per month. Committing upfront to 2 years of hosting will cost you $4.25 per month. The best price of the Baby Plan is $3.50 per month that comes with a 3-year commitment.
Baby Plan Renewal Prices
Since renewal prices also play an important role in deciding which hosting plan is the best for you, let us consider them as well. As discussed above, you will have to pay $11.95 per month when renewing the Baby Plan every month. Even if you buy the hosting for 1 year, it will cost you the same. A 2-year commitment to the plan will save you only a dollar a month and cost you $10.95 per month. A 3-year commitment will further save you a dollar a month and cost you $9.95 per month.
HostGator Add-ons
HostGator offers a variety of premium add-ons with its Baby Plan. Here is a quick introduction to each one:
SSL Certificate
Apart from the free SSL certificate, HostGator also offers a paid one called Positive SSL that comes with the TrustLogo Site Seal. It costs you $3.33 per month and is billed annually.
SiteLock Essentials
It is a website protection tool that prevents any malicious attacks or malware injections to your website. HostGator offers it at $1.99 per month at the beginning and $5.99 per month when you renew it.
Professional email from Google
The Baby Plan add-ons also include a professional email from Google Workspace. HostGator charges $6 per month for this add-on.
Website backup from CodeGuard
HostGator offers the very basic feature of creating website backups as a premium add-on. Powered by CodeGuard, this backup tool will create automatic backups of your website content daily and allows you to restore your site in a single click. It costs you $2 per month and is billed annually by the host.
HostGator SEO Tools
HostGator provides you with its SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools as a premium add-on. These tools help your website rank higher on Google and other search engines and provide useful insights for your website. It is available for $2.95 per month.
Who is this plan for? And how much traffic can it handle?
HostGator’s Baby Plan is suitable for bloggers, service providers, and small business owners. Though the Baby Plan bandwidth is unmetered, it typically handles 7k to 8k average visitors per day and can stretch to a maximum of 10k visitors per day. If you expect to receive more traffic than this, it is better to go for a VPS or Cloud hosting.
It is important to mention here that the host would not allow you to utilize 25% or more of the server resources for more than 90 seconds. If it happens, HostGator will send you an email to reduce your usage as it mentions in its terms of service.
Here is what you will find when you click for more information on the Unmetered Bandwidth feature provided against the Baby Plan.
Best alternatives to HostGator?
If you are unsure about investing in the HostGator Plan because of its cons, you can consider some of the best alternatives available in the hosting world. For all your shared hosting needs, DreamHost would be the best choice. The smallest shared hosting plan costs $2.59 per month.
DreamHost’s “Shared Unlimited” plan, costing $3.95 per month, is a great alternative to HostGator’s Baby Plan since it allows you to host unlimited websites and offer similar features.
Another alternative to HostGator is Cloudways for your managed cloud hosting needs. If you are looking for a faster and more powerful hosting plan that will handle heavy traffic, Cloudways is the best choice.
The plans start at just $10 per month and the host allows you to try its services for the first 3 days for free without asking for your credit card details!
Here is how you can choose your server size with Cloudways according to your current hosting needs:
Here is a glimpse of the free trial offer that doesn’t ask for your credit card details:
Conclusion
The HostGator Baby Plan has both positives and negatives. If you are a small business owner, blogger, service provider, or a newbie website owner, the Baby Plan might serve your purpose.
Don’t forget to match the features of the plan that we listed above with your current hosting needs before you sign up for it. And check out the alternatives provided above if you believe that the Baby Plan won’t be the right choice for you.
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