HostGator Reviews

We migrated to HostGator a year ago (2023). 6 weeks ago a key component of our website began failing with no updates or changes. After a month battling HostGator's support, including a failed executive (4th level) escalation, we have given up and are migrating to another site. The failed component functions flawlessly on all 3 of the sites we evaluated. HostGator bluntly told us 'We are not a good fit for everyone. Go elsewhere." They never actually tried to find the cause of the failure.

BAD: what has happened to Hostgator? HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. I have been with them for 25 years plus. They were a TEXAS based operation with AMERICAN BASED CUSTOMER SERVICE. They were excellent. Since early this year.....They have doubled their rates from 12 .95 to 23.95 per month...so I wanted to understand why. Well now their Customer service is in the Philippines. You cannot speak to anyone in the US. I lived in the Philippines so I clearly understand the language barrier. I went through 4 people in 1.4 hours on the phone: ZIG/Bianca /Rica/Dexter who could barely speak English. I am seeking another hosting company. We as Americans want to support our own country. This is Horrible and I would not recommend them. Date of experience: March 27, 2024

Review: HostGator - A Hosting Nightmare. My recent encounter with HostGator's hosting service has left me deeply disappointed and convinced that they are nothing short of scammers. Here's the rundown of my ordeal: Upon discovering that my hosting plan had expired, I reached out to HostGator's customer support seeking assistance in retrieving my WordPress login credentials for data transfer purposes. Instead of offering help, I was met with a barrage of absurd demands and stonewalling tactics that left me incredulous. Despite my straightforward request for login details, HostGator insisted on charging me an exorbitant fee for the basic service of accessing my own data. When I contested this blatant attempt at extortion, they adamantly refused to provide any assistance unless I renewed my plan with them, effectively holding my data hostage for ransom.

Friendly; and the sales copy would comply with all of Google’s requirements”, (Explicitly stating the website would be needed for Google). At the time, I was comparing Fiverr with Hostgator; Fiverr was $1200 dollars less expensive. After being told by the sales rep: “we guarantee our work”, I paid 1,800 for a website from Host Gator, that was agreed to meet the requirements of being SEO friendly; sales copy written to comply with Google and professionally built. What I received did not fulfill our agreement; it was complete garbage! The site is not SEO friendly; was not written to meet Google’s requirements and had security issues because of outdated plugins, as well as outdated Themes.

I've been with HostGator for 3 years and one of my cards expired and I updated my card credit card but they didn't run the updated card. They ran the old card, lost my site my domain name and won't even refund me the money. Terrible company to work with.

I recently had a disappointing experience with HostGator that I feel compelled to share. Over the last couple of years, I've consistently faced issues with my domain, including losing access to it multiple times. Each incident required me to pay an additional redemption fee, adding unexpected costs and frustration to my experience.

The company deleted files that affected my site and wants me to pay for the restoration. Additionally, they refused to allow me to speak with a supervisor. It appears that the customer service process has changed. They charge for everything to make money instead of providing customer service.

HostGator's tech support has always been poor. Customers cannot contact tech support directly. Even if customer support promised to "escalate" the matter, it takes days for tech support to get back to us by email, and either they've closed the case prematurely or they ask us to repeat the information we gave customer support in the first place, adding several more days to down time. But, now they have also reduced their customer support to a robotic chat, internationally outsourced. They have eliminated phone support completely. Every time we now try to get help through the chat support, the poor support person comes back with the same empty promises and platitudes: "I understand your concern," "I've escalated this case," "24-48 hours," and it's still taken weeks — yes weeks — to resolve, causing loss of revenue for our business.

I signed up for a cheap website, tried it out, didn't like it, asked them to cancel it. So they say, "Yes it's cancelled." The next year I get billed for all kinds of crap, bunch of addons, all they did was cancel the annual plan. I says, "You told me it's cancelled, CANCEL IT ALL." So they assure me, "Ok this time it's cancelled." So now years after signing up, I get ANOTHER billing notice that they're charging me again. What part of cancel everything and bill me nothing is hard to understand? This seems like some kind of nickel and dime scam.

HostGator hosted my company website for a number of years. Then, inexplicably, my website got hacked and was filled with photographs of sushi and monster trucks (I'm not kidding!). I was in a panic. I called their customer service and all they did was try to sell me a very expensive security package. I was understandably very upset, told them I was no longer using their services and in 2019, I switched to WIX hosting service which necessitated me rebuilding my entire website. Two days ago I was billed $216 for an annual "Baby Plan" and have since learned that they've been billing me for four years even though I have not used their services. This is outright theft. Because it was on my business credit card and because I have 12 different domains for various creative projects, I didn't notice until this year.

I have been with HostGator for 3 years on the Business plan, they did some updates on there server and now my website keeps going down with a message stated: error connect time out. I have contacted their help desk more than 20 times with in the past 3 weeks, and my site still keeps going down then back up after 5 mins making my website unusable, I have lost a lot of business because of this. Their help desk and server team have told me they don't see anything wrong on their side. Troubleshooting steps taking on my end: I have disable all plugins, created a whole new WP site, rebuilt the database and nothing has worked. I will be move my website to a different hosting company.

HostGator is a complete scam. DO NOT & I REPEAT DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I ordered a dedicated server with HostGator & the representative that assisted me with my order did not sell me the correct dedicated server package that I had intended to order. I needed the WHM & cPanel along with the dedicated server. I put in a request not even 1 day later for a cancellation & a refund and was told I couldn't get a refund and I would be also charged hundreds more to do an upgrade. I'm so sick & tired of companies like this. The representative made the mistake and now me the buyer is being penalized for it. When does the GREED end? Stop giving companies like Hostgator your money.. DO NOT BUY A SINGLE PRODUCT FROM HOSTGATOR. You have been warned.

We have ourselves to blame when we select a VPS hosting provider that offers "70% off the first billing period" and makes it available for up to three years. Two and a half years later I can offer that, from the outset, HostGator was quick to take the money and grab the business. It was "migrate in haste--repent at your leisure" after that. The assigned IP address has been constantly on Ucelevel2 and 3 RBL blacklists. The server worked adequately for nearly two years, as it should, since we use only 30-50% of disc storage and run 10-30% of CPU capacity. The support is available via CHAT but not very knowledgeable. They introduced a custom Firewall that they cannot manage (they locked us out of our FTP ports for site updates that took WEEKS for them to resolve) among other things.

I have been with Hostgator for over 5 years and I Upgraded my package from the baby plan to a business plan. I am now experiencing issues with my site. I am not sure where the problem is but at least for the last 3 weeks I have been having issues. Prior to that I was getting a bad 503 Gateway off and on. I didn't know what that means so I decided to call up and have them check on it. I made updates to my site and made 7 pages and all those updates are completely missing. The guy on the phone said something about a corrupt server and they could only go back 1 week. That doesn't help much because my updates were done a week ago.

My domain is **, my website disappeared. After a long time finally someone answered the phone. She put me on hold and never came back. I have a website with Hostgator. For 4 days it has not worked. Several times I called Hostgator. After a wait time of 20-30 minutes somebody answers the call, I explain the problem. The rep asks some questions then she/he puts me on hold to do some research. After 20-30 minutes of wait I hang up. When I click on CHAT a list of instructions comes. Sometimes the call gets a reply that all the representatives are busy and to call later. One rep gave me an asinine answer "you need to call your website builder." I had to explain that Hostgator is my website supporter.

I had website and email services through HostGator. I went an entire week without incoming and outgoing emails. I called them so many times during that week. They tried to tell me the issue was with everything else but their service (i.e. internet provider, computer, blacklisted email, etc.). Every time I called, I was given a different explanation as to why the services were not working and it was not on their end. I was beyond frustrated. I transferred my domain to another company and immediately had emails/incoming and outgoing. My service has been great. Trying to reach Hostgator's customer service, they hang up on you, transfer you and hang up on you. Tell you they are putting you on hold and hang up on you. When I asked for a refund (because you pay for the entire year), they tell you it is past the refund window even though they did not render the services you paid for.

Because of their very high prices following first term discounts I decided to migrate my site elsewhere. It was fully paid and nothing owed at all. Spitefully, HostGator chose to literally delete my main domain, holding it hostage and trying to extort another 3 years service from me. They charge in advance and keep changing the settings so they can take money without notice (they lie about this). I still own the domain but have no access to it, and it has cost me in business losses. They literally laughed at me, saying ICANN and WHOIS won't do anything, and they refused to provide the corporate info for a lawsuit. The service is adequate, but customer service is terrible. A disgusting business practice, and if you look at BBB you'll see a warning because of a huge pattern of similar complaints. THe 1 star reviews here speak volumes too!

I had a few problems with Host Gator but I made sure to keep my case number from particularly of one phone call to HostGator customer service because it was one of the first times a supervisor lied about regulations of a company when I knew the regulation rules. My first phone call was about my server shutting down a day early. I needed to purchase an extension for my server and only had 1 day left so I was picking a company to be with based on price and need. The other company I chose was lower priced and better but I was willing to stay with HostGator to avoid the transfer work. When Hostgator could not give me a decent price, I declined the price they offered and shortly after the call, they shut down my site a full day early than when it said it was scheduled. I called to get it back up for the day, and they did but 1 hour later it went back down.

After several years of HostGator hosting my website; the site went down on may 2022. Hostgator told me they couldn't fix the website. It was old. I asked them to build a new one. They said they didn't build websites and advise me to look somewhere else. I told them to cancel the account. I did go to "godaddy" and they helped me with a new website. On october 17 2022 5 months after the website went down; HostGator charged my card for a renewal of hosting services $189.94 (code guard). Then on October 22 2022 they charged another $203.40 (hosting).

I made the mistake of not canceling my domain before charged. Been a customer for years with multiple domains and that does not seem to matter when asking them to refund my money. They have lost me as a customer and anyone who asks me for a recommendation for a company to use to register a domain...over $40!

Do not use or buy anything from these company. If you do so they will recharge you all of it without your knowledge or authorization on renewal. Make sure you take off the auto-renewal or they will rape your credit card.

We host with Hostgator.com many websites, recently our website went down, for the past for weeks we did not get any emails any calls back or any support after many calls, the tech support in the Philippines they are incompetent and always come with the same answer "sorry we can't solve the problem we will call the back office", "and will send email", today after 1 hour of not giving up, we got first email, having our website down is a disaster and no solution. Now we have 3 website down, this company should and need to close. They are reckless and careless and that is very bad for business.

Please if you care about your websites and services, Hostgator is the worst. I have had 7 sites crash and destroyed in one year. The hosting package they sold me was dedicated and cost 2400 yr.. The WHM is under a unsecured link, LOL what I was thinking??? I made a big mistake, learn from me.. I now working to move all to new server by the Dec.. 31.. Also in the packages the renewal saids 2023-12-31.. Today they tell me NO it renews 2022-12-23 for 2300 more.. Three locations and even a rep a week ago said that it show 2023 renewal.. Let me say this company is not very well run, or managed.

If you are planning on signing up for HostGator, don’t. Just don’t. No quality when it comes to customer service. You have to expect to call or chat 4-8 times before getting an issue resolved. I signed up with SEO, the account manager would miss our meetings more often than not. I would ask them where in the US to implement keywords. They tell you, "Yes I will do that." Then you find out after 2 months they did nothing. I think throwing my money on a roulette table would have been a better way to spend my money.

I was at first put off waiting on a return call, but Dan called me back and he was the greatest. He was perfect, I could understand him very well, he was slow talking and did everything, and I cannot say enough about his help and expertise. I am not a great computer person but with his help I am doing so much better. Hostgator.com Dan is a keeper.

Is this a joke? HostGator is an absolute, certified nightmare to deal with. Our site went down temporarily. We called technical support....19 times to be exact. We were not able to TALK with someone from technical support ONE TIME that was knowledgeable enough to help us. We asked multiple times for supervisors and Tier 2 technical support is only available by email. We were eventually able to reach Tier 2 tech support through email but they never sent us a complete enough message to respond to. They sent us multiple incomprehensible emails but each email they sent led to another follow-up question….and another 8-12 hour delay.

DO NOT...I repeat DO NOT use this hosting site. It's like pulling teeth and eyelashes when trying to get assistance from customer service. I'm on day 3 trying to get help with an error and I've been talking with customer service LITERALLY ALL DAY and still nothing resolved. I'm so pissed I put so much money in this hosting site.

If I could give a 0 STAR I would. I run a marketing firm, and one of the things we do is create hundreds of websites for our clients each year. We used many hosting providers so far and HostGator is the only one I have ever had issues with. They have the worst customer service. Every time I talked to a representative to fix an issue, I feel like I'm talking to a robot. For example, I contacted them 12 days ago because in the "business cloud hosting package" that I purchased a few months ago for a client, they advertised that the package comes with $50 worth of YOAST SEO plugin for free.

HostGator has been a nightmare from the very beginning. I purchased a 3 year package for 3 websites in April 2022. Within a month my primary website was down, it had never been down in the 22 years prior. Despite getting the package including SiteLock they did not put it on so it was infected with malware. I made many calls, given promises that it would be back up 24-72 hours. I would wait...nothing. Finally in June it was scrubbed of the malware and back up; I had to pay for it to be restored. August 30 it went down again. I have been calling and calling, over an hour each time. One representative told me that SiteLock was never put on and that there was nothing in the notes of my numerous calls. This is my business.

After the numerous problems they caused and would not fix, I moved my domains over to another company. I still, after over 2 years, get invoices from them to pay. They do not have any of my domains or hosting. You cannot cancel autopay, or your account without contacting them via phone or chat, which is unprofessional and shady. They have taken over 20 minutes already to simply CANCEL my account!

I am a volunteer at Code2GOD, a non-profit organization. We had a very bad experience with HostGator. Their hosting is very slow. Our websites experienced many drops, causing us damage. Moreover, the hosting was very slow, causing bad experience for the visitors. Whenever we've called them, we got random people on the other side, not coordinated with each other, and seemingly with low expertise. Sometimes we've hard strange noises in the background, giving us image of an unprofessional support. We are waiting for more than 3 weeks for a migration and nothing helps us. Not recommended!

Very bad service. Already 3 weeks and migration has not helped. When I call them, I get a guy in the Philippines working from the kitchen with children's noises all around. Unprofessional and no wonder they can't focus on technical issues. Scary. #**

My sites with HostGator go down EVERY DAY. 500 response codes. I have called and used chat and in many cases the agent reports "The server is down for maintenance, contact again in 2 hours if not working" and then disconnects the chat. Really? Server maintenance during the middle of a business day? On the phone I have spent hours and they cannot even access my accounts due to the errors. If you are considering using HostGator, STOP. Give your head a shake and move on to another company.

Host Gator cannot be trusted to follow through. We paid them for web site transfer and waited, as instructed, for an email from their customer service. After 2 weeks we tried to follow up but were told we had to go through a "verification" process that took several weeks to finish by chat and email. In the end, customer service emailed us to let us know they would not refund our money since it was slightly more than 45 days after we initially signed up. Do NOT trust these sites that require full payment prior to doing any work or service whatsoever. I will be posting this message on every review board I can find to warn folks about this unscrupulous company.

I have used HostGator for several years, and their service has only gotten worse. I have several domains with them. One of these domains was to expire in a month, so I manually extended it for a year. Apparently their auto-renewal was triggered, so two weeks later, they automatically extended this domain for 3 years, without so much as asking me. I never approved this renewal and at the time they processed it, my domain had over a year left. No apology, nothing. The funny (or unfunny) thing was, a year earlier, they DIDN'T even alert me when another domain expired that was set to auto renew. They are a giant mess. Stay away.

Their service is confused, one technical support guy can get something done and another one will tell you it's not even possible. If you ask for a refund they will go ahead and delete your sites but don't assume you will get unused time back. If it's over 45 days they won't give you the money back, they will keep the entire year's money and delete your website without even telling you. Unlimited websites means subdomains added in cpanel on one hosting plan which isn't made clear and it's a terrible system.

It's fairly cheap and high-quality hosting. Especially enjoyed building up a website with their cm system... I also received a free domain which I think is a nice addition to the service I am getting.

Host Gator offers the best service on the net. I was desperate with WIX2 years ago (great tool but no service) and they helped me a lot to set up my SiteMaps, they helped me to index my site astrologers.us, they helped me connect my domain, they answered all the questions I'd with Gator Site Builder, it's the only provider where they answer your chat in less than 2 minutes and help to the end, I personally don't know them, they're in the States and I'm in Denmark and although Site Builder lacks some features, I still use it because they help me a lot. My account with Gator. **

The worst hosting I have ever used! They don't understand what they are doing, they mess up your accounts and don't know how to fix them. Trying to talk to a manager is the worst experience I have had!!! I would look somewhere else if I were you. You will spend more time on the phone trying to fix your site than it will be online. Buyer beware.

Hostgator is the most incompetent hosting provider I have ever dealt with. I inherited their hosting from a client and had to request support which required to have their "escalation" team to resolve an issue. The process is extremely slow and as I write this it's been over a week and our site is still not functioning. This fix is extremely easy on their site but yet I don't understand why it's taking so long for them to take care of it. I called in over 10 times and always get a template response of "Our escalation will get back to you". Our issue is absolutely an emergency but Hostgator obviously don't give a damn to their customer's concerns. Our escalation case is #**.