HostGator Baby vs Business Plan

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Reviewed by Durr E Adan

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HostGator is one of the best hosting providers on the internet. It offers various plans that you can choose from. Most people go with shared hosting. In shared hosting, you can choose from three plans, the hatchling plan, the baby plan, and the last one is the business plan.

It is easier to choose whether you want to go with a hatchling plan or a baby plan. The hatchling plan allows you to host only one website whereas the baby plan allows multiple websites. So, you can easily choose one of them.

However, the confusion begins when you have to choose between the baby plan and the business plan. Both of them (HostGator Baby and Business) provide unlimited storage, bandwidth, and also you can host unlimited websites.

The only difference is the number of features. The business plan provides more features compared to the baby plan. People are always confused between these two for various reasons.

We will be doing a full comparison of HostGator’s Baby Plan Vs Business Plan.

HostGator Baby Plan Vs Business Plan Review

shared hosting plan types
Before we get into the in-depth comparison of both plans. We will see the basic overview of both of them.

You will get unlimited storage space in both of them. Along with this, the bandwidth is also unmetered. So, you can have as many visitors as you want.

Till here, most of the things are common. The difference starts with the extra features that the business plan will offer. You will get free SSL certificates, a free dedicated IP address, and many other things in the business plan.

Therefore, if you are looking for these features, you should go with the business plan. Of course, there is a big price difference between both of these plans. The business plan will cost you $2 (monthly) more than the original plan (head over to the pricing section for more details).

baby and business plans

It is not possible to decide which is better in such a short overview, right? That’s what this article is for. You can continue with the in-depth comparison of the baby plan and business plan to decide which is better.

Let’s start with the features and then we will see the rest of the things. Not just this, we will also give you the best suggestion that you can go with. So, even if you know about the features and pricing and can’t decide, we will help you out.

First, Get Your Discount Offer

hostgator discount

It’s always wise to try the hosting services of any provider before making any long commitment. Luckily, HostGator offers a 45-days money-back guarantee that you can sign up for through the following link.

Features

There are limited features available in both plans. We will first see the features that are common in both of the plans.

  • Unlimited storage
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Unlimited websites
  • Unlimited subdomains
  • Free domain
  • Free SSL
  • Ad credits

These are the common features that you will get in both hosting plans.

hostgator hosting featuresAlong with this, HostGator offers many more features such as 45-days money-back guarantee, free emails, free website transfers, etc. All of them will apply to you no matter which plans you choose.

So, what’s the actual difference? The only difference is the extra features you will get. Here are the three extra features that a Business plan has and the baby plan doesn’t.

  • Free upgrade to Positive SSL
  • Dedicated IP Address
  • Free SEO tools

Positive SSL is an upgraded version of SSL. You will also get free SSL in the baby plan. However, the baby plan only has “Let’s Encrypt” SSL which is good for personal websites and blogs. On the other hand, if you have an eCommerce website or a website where you accept payment, you must go with Comodo positive SSL which is available for free in the business plan.

The SEO tools will be helpful if you are just starting. Most bloggers will prefer third-party SEO tools. So, the SEO tools feature isn’t the best thing you will get. You can still do the basic things. Some people don’t even use it.

Lastly, a dedicated IP is required by some people. It’s surely your choice.

hostgator business plan featuresPlease note that a couple of years back, HostGator also used to provide VoIP services in the business plan. Now, VoIP service is no longer applicable. So, you won’t get any such services.

Clearing Features Doubt

This section is especially for beginners who are choosing between the two plans.

Here you will get an explanation of the features and we will clear the most common doubts.

  • The positive SSL is free as long as you renew the hosting. So, if you renew the hosting for 5 years, you can also renew the positive SSL for 5 years FREE. You will have to renew it every year. It will not cost you extra but you will have to click on the renew button every year. However, if you don’t wish to click on the renew button every year, you can pay for it and keep SSL for multiple years without clicking on the renew button (of course, doing that will be stupidity).
  • In SEO tools, you will get the “Start” package. You can access it from the panel itself.

Here are the features that you will get in the “Start plan”.

hostgator seo tools start business planThe features are very limited. Especially, if you are using WordPress, you can even get these features for free. So, you shouldn’t consider this as an extra premium feature. You will surely get other things as we mentioned. Positive SSL is something that will increase security.

Now, the next thing that people wonder is about speed and performance. You might be thinking about whether the speed and the performance of both of these are different or not? Let’s check it out. The next section is all about speed and performance.

The Speed and Performance

People often think about whether the plan has any difference in speed and performance. The answer is no. When it comes to speed and performance, it will be almost the same.

There will be surely a small difference between the two plans. That’s not actually because of the plan but because of the addons.

The SSL certificate will give better performance. The same goes for a dedicated IP address too.

Further, if you check your website using the SEO tool, you will also optimize it for speed and other features. So, this will increase the speed of the website too.

Other than this, there is no difference when it comes to speed and performance.

You will get the standard performance that HostGator delivers. They give a 99.9% uptime guarantee. In most cases, it will be 100%. So, that’s not an issue at all. The website will be live almost all the time.

The performance is also quite good and there are no issues when it comes to performance.

Resource Limit

The next thing that you need to keep in mind is the resource limit. Many people are confused here. As you might know, shared hosting only allows you to use a limited number of resources. If you use more, the account will be marked.

People often care about inodes. There are a limited number of inodes. Once you exhaust the limit, you won’t be able to upload files in your file manager.

Unfortunately, you will get the same inodes limit in the business plan as you get in the baby plan. So, you can upload the same number of files in both of them.

Along with inodes, all the resources are also the same. You will not get more CPU usage or several concurrent processes in the business plan.

With that being said, we can conclude that the resource limit is also the same in both of them. Let’s get into the pricing section to know more about the pricing of both these plans. You can then decide according to your budget. As the price matters, it is important to know and see the pricing.

Pricing Comparison

Now that we talked about the features of the hosting. We will now see the pricing comparison of the two plans.

The baby plan starts at $4.50 a month. Of course, it is for the three-year plan.

Here are the pricing details for the baby plan.

  • It will cost you $4.50 if you go with a 3-years plan. The plan will renew at $14.99 a month (Claim 60% Discount).
  • It will cost you $15.99 a month and will renew at $15.99 a month if you go with a two years plan.
  • The one-year plan will cost you $4.50 a month and will renew at $14.99 a month.

hostgator baby plan billing cycles

Now, let’s see the same thing for the business plan too.

  • It will cost you $6.25 a month for a 3-year plan. The renewal of the plan will be $19.99 a month (Claim 60% Discount).
  • The two-year plan will cost you $20.99 a month with a renewal charge of $20.99 a month.
  • The most popular yearly plan will cost you $8.25 a month with a renewal rate of $21.99.

So, these are the prices of both plans. As you might have seen. If you see the top-view, the business plan won’t cost you much. However, if you look in-depth, it is costlier.

hostgator business plan billing cycles

There are three things you will get for free.

  • The dedicated IP address which is roughly around $4 a month
  • SSL certificates which are up to $150 a year
  • Of course, the SEO tools too.

Pricing is not the only thing that you need to see. The final result will depend on your requirements, features, and pricing.

We already saw features and pricing. So, now we will move on to whether you should go for it or not.

Related Article: HostGator Free Trial

HostGator Baby vs Business Plan: Which is better?

So, which is the best plan you can go with? Whether you should choose a baby plan or a business plan?

Well, as we saw earlier in this article both of them are the same when it comes to the number of websites and other things.

The main difference is in the SSL certificate. You will get Comodo positive SSL in the business plan. Moreover, you will also get Let’s Encrypt free SSL in the baby plan.

The positive SSL is recommended if you have an eCommerce website or a website with multiple transactions. Other than this, the basic SSL will do the job. Also, you can surely purchase the positive SSL as an addon.

Therefore, it depends on the websites you have.

If you have more blogs, the Baby plan will be perfect for you. Whereas, if you are handling huge clients and they have eCommerce websites (or transactional websites), you can go with the Business plan.

Honestly, you should only choose a business plan for positive SSL and a dedicated IP address. The SEO tools are surely not enough as per the pricing. So, don’t choose to go with the business plan for the tools.

Therefore, there is no proper recommendation on which is the best plan. It depends on your requirements.

Other than this, pricing is also a crucial part that you need to think about. Make sure you see the renewal price along with the initial price. No doubt, you can surely upgrade or downgrade your account at any time.

Related Article: Hatchling Plan vs Baby Plan.

Final Words

To conclude, this was a complete comparison between the HostGator baby vs business plan. You can choose to go with any plan as per your requirements.

As mentioned, if you have multiple websites where you are accepting payments, you can go with the business plan. Other than this, the baby plan will be perfect for others. Lastly, it is surely your choice.

If you have any concerns, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments section below of your questions, will be happy to answer them.

FAQ (frequently asked questions)

Does HostGator charge monthly?

Yes, you can go with a monthly plan or you can go with an annual plan. People prefer a 12-month plan as it will cost you less.

Can I upgrade my HostGator plan?

Of course, you can upgrade your HostGator plan anytime. You will just have to pay the difference when you are upgrading. So, if you upgrade from a baby plan to a business plan, you will just pay the difference.

Is HostGator free?

No, HostGator doesn’t offer a free plan. But you can surely take advantage of a 45-days money-back guarantee. They will refund your money if you don’t like their service.

Will the business plan in HostGator give more speed and resources?

No, the speed and the resource limit in the business plan are the same. You will not get more speed nor you will get more resources. The Inodes limit is also the same.

Will I get free SSL in the baby plan?

In the baby plan, you will get Let’s Encrypt SSL. Whereas, in the business plan, you will get Comodo Positive SSL. Positive SSL is better as compared to the free one.

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2 thoughts on “HostGator Baby vs Business Plan”

    • Hey Paolo,

      Email routing is available on HostGator for both plans as you can see from the following link.

      However, their Gateway isn’t that reliable, especially in a “shared hosting environment”, they tend to have some sending and receiving issues.

      So, If you are running a website for your business, we would recommend that you use a specialized third-party email service like Gsuite.

      Let us know if you have any more questions 🙂

      Reply

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