Generating web traffic and boosting conversions begin with creating a visually-appealing and highly functional website. However, that is just one side of the coin. To ensure your website or blog works efficiently, it is important to work with the best hosting provider.
However, there are hundreds of hosting services out there, offering attractive plans at affordable prices. This makes it complex to choose the right hosting provider that can help improve your digital presence.
A good hosting provider is one that enables your website to function efficiently with demanding web traffic and minimum downtime, provides excellent customer support and high-end security. In this article, we will review two of the most popular hosting services – Namecheap vs HostGator. So, let’s get started!
Namecheap: A Brief Overview
Predominately ruling the domain registration hosting industry, Namecheap also offers dependable web hosting services. The best thing about Namecheap is that you have a variety of hosting plans available at your disposal: shared web hosting, reseller hosting, WordPress hosting, private email hosting, and VPS hosting.
The web hosting plans offered by Namecheap provide features and benefits that can enhance the overall functionality and performance of your website or blog. Namecheap also integrates with several SSL and productivity apps, managed WordPress hosting tools, as well as site builders.
HostGator: A Brief Overview
HostGator is a popular web hosting provider that has been providing dedicated shared hosting plans since 2002. It is one of the most widely-used hosting services with more than 9 million domains hosted. HostGator offers a full suite of dedicated hosting, virtual private server (VPS) packages, reseller hosting, and high-end cloud servers.
Primarily, it provides shared hosting services for Windows and Linux, used by small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, it also offers dedicated hosting packages. HostGator is known for its high speed and uptime, security, user-friendliness, and low prices.
NameCheap Vs HostGator: Hosting plans Comparison
The number of domains you can host with Namecheap or HostGator will vary depending on the hosting plan you choose.
Below are the different shared web hosting plans that Namecheap offers and the number of websites you can host with the plan:
With its basic plan – Stellar – priced at just $1.58/month, Namecheap allows you to host up to 3 websites. The subsequent plans – Stellar Plus and Stellar Business – provide unlimited website hosting.
Furthermore, Namecheap’s shared or managed WordPress hosting plans give you the option to host non-WordPress websites as well, including custom-scripted websites. This is a good solution for website owners who are not sure whether or not to use WordPress and are more comfortable using cPanel or want better control over their website.
On the other hand, from HostGator comparison, they offer the following shared hosting plans that also describe the number of domains or websites you can host:
HostGator provides just single domain hosting in its basic Hatchling Plan, which is priced at $2.75/month.
Server Technology
NameCheap
When it comes to Namecheap’s server technology, many software versions are used on their servers. These include Apache, PHP, Perl, HTTP/2, cPanel, CodeGuard, Git, Node.js, MariaDB, Rails, Python, Ruby, ZendGuard Loader, and others. Bringing together the power of multiple modern technologies, Namecheap ensures an improved hosting experience, faster uptime, superior speed, and enhanced website performance.
HostGator
On the other hand, HostGator shared web hosting plans are powered by CentOS Linux x86. Windows shared web hosting accounts by HostGator run on Windows Server 2008 – 2012 R2.
Both are powerful technologies that promise high website performance and speed, improved security, and minimum downtime.
NameCheap Vs HostGator: Uptime Comparison
For all websites, it is of utmost importance to be “up” a majority of the time. And therefore, server uptime is one of the most vital factors to consider when choosing a hosting service.
HostGator
And HostGator is doing really well when it comes to uptime. Most of the time, they offer 99.9% uptime, ensuring the websites are running always with minimalist glitches. Another impressive aspect is that they also offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee. i.e., if your website ever experiences an uptime of less than 99.9%, you will be compensated with 1 month of credit on your account.
Namecheap
Surprisingly, Namecheap’s uptime averaged at 99.94% upon testing and this is really amazing for a relatively new provider in the web hosting industry. But Namecheap too provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee and for every hour of downtime the clients face, they will get one day of hosting for free.
An uptime of 99.94% boils down to around 6 hours of downtime per year, and this is not bad. But in comparison to HostGator, the former still has to go a long way to reach that near-perfect uptime of 99.9%.
Speed Comparison
While having your website up and running 24/7 is important, it is also crucial that the hosting servers respond fast to queries. As a matter of fact, a faster web host can make a huge difference between higher conversion rates and poor ones. Additionally, websites that have a high loading speed typically rank high on search engine result pages.
So, how does Namecheap vs HostGator perform in terms of page speed?
Upon research, it was found that Namecheap offers an average page speed of 708ms depending on the chosen data center.
HostGator
HostGator also has an average speed of 765ms. This isn’t much impressive for two top names in the field of hosting services. If a website takes more than 2 seconds to load, it can cause 40% of your website visitors to bounce back.
NameCheap Vs HostGator: Bandwidth Comparison
Namecheap – Unmetered bandwidth
HostGator – Unmetered bandwidth
By bandwidth, we mean the total amount of data that a website can transfer to the users in a particular span of time. The higher the bandwidth, the better because it means delivering an improved web experience to the users. Ideally, bandwidth is made available in Gigabytes; however, many popular web hosting providers also offer unlimited bandwidth.
Both Namecheap vs Hostgator offer “unmetered” bandwidth through all their shared web hosting plans. This means they provide a set amount of bandwidth that you can use as much as you want. You may experience a limited maximum server speed, but not the amount of data you can transfer through the servers.
Storage Comparison
The storage space your web hosting service offers is also an important factor to consider when choosing a hosting plan.
NameCheap Disk Space
With its Stellar package, Namecheap offers a disk space of 20GB SSD, followed by unmetered SSD and 50GB SSD for Stellar Plus and Stellar Business plans. Cloud storage is also not available with Namecheap, except with the Stellar Business plan.
HostGator Disk Space
On the other hand, you can enjoy unlimited storage with HostGator, allowing you to store, share, and do more with all your files.
NameCheap Vs HostGator: Security Comparison
When choosing a hosting service, security is one of the most crucial factors to consider. How secure is your business-critical information when hosted on the servers? Do you need to pay additional to buy security features? Can you back up your files and data?
NameCheap
Namecheap takes an amazing approach to security, offering 50 free PositiveSSL certificates for one year with all its shared hosting plans. And if you wish to add more security certificates to your website, it can be done through cPanel. Bi-weekly guaranteed backup, WhoIsGuard privacy protection, and two-factor authentication are other security features you will get for free.
Additional security features include VPN service to keep user location safe on public Wi-Fi networks, brute attack mechanism, reCAPTCHA, and Leech protect. Together, these features allow you to keep your data secure from hacking and third-party access.
HostGator
HostGator, on the other hand, only offers SSL certificates for free. You can benefit from other security features by paying additional fees during checkout. The CodeGuard Automatic Backup feature starts at $2 per month and provides 1GB automatic daily backup for up to five websites, files, and databases.
It provides protection against DDOS attacks, allows three restores per month, and comes with SiteLock security and network-level flood protection. However, all these features are not free and you need to pay for the same.
Ease Of Use Comparison
HostGator Interface
HostGator is one of the easiest and user-friendly web hosting providers in the web hosting industry today. The signup process is a breeze and the user interface is pretty amazing. Users can seamlessly manage their website via standard cPanel so that the transition from one platform to another becomes efficient. You can also have access to advanced databases and programmings like MySQL, SSH access, PHP, and much more. Installing and using whatever apps you want is also simpler with HostGator.
NameCheap Interface
Namecheap also has an uncluttered, clean, and highly efficient user interface, ensuring you an improved hosting experience. You can easily access all your features in one place – hosting management, domain management, billing information, and more. It also uses cPanel, making the entire experience seamless and effective.
NameCheap Vs HostGator: Pricing Comparison
Namecheap Prices
HostGator Prices
When we compared the basic plans of both hosting providers, we found that Namecheap offers 20GB SSD, 3 website hosting, free domain name registration, free SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, privacy protection, and free website builder at just $1.58/month.
On the contrary, in HostGator comparison, the basic plan charges $2.75/month for similar features and benefits
Website Migration Comparison
Do you wish to migrate your website from the current hosting company to a more reliable and secure one?
NameCheap
Namecheap offers free site migration, providing simple steps to transfer your website. You need to provide access to the cPanel of your website or blog that you want to migrate and everything else will be taken care of by the professionals.
HostGator
HostGator also provides a single free website transfer. It also has a free cPanel transfer plan and if you have a large website having multiple subdomains, the web hosting service has got you covered.
Customer Support
NameCheap
When it comes to customer support, Namecheap provides excellent technical support through all stages of website hosting, using additional features, making payments and for any issue that may arise ever while being subscribed to their shared hosting plans.
For customer inquiries, they have a fantastic support ticketing system that helps resolve problems with minimum downtime.
HostGator
However, getting through a technical expert at HostGator is an uninspiring experience. They promise to provide phone support, email or live chat. But their waiting time is unimpressive, often as high as 35 minutes.
Final Verdict: Namecheap vs HostGator
From the above comparative review between Namecheap vs HostGator, we can conclude that HostGator is the best choice overall when it comes to choosing one that is reliable and secure.
HostGator is a popular name with a wide audience base and excellent features, but Namecheap too does not lag behind and offers an incredible hosting experience. The final choice will depend on your hosting needs, the size of the website, and your budget.
If you can afford to choose between the two, then HostGator would be the best option for you.
We welcome your suggestions and views on this article. If you would like to add any information or if you need further explanation on any of the points mentioned in this article, we would be happy to help.
