It’s another one-on-one main event here at Web Hosting Craze, where you get a side-by-side comparison usually reserved by the likes of Consumer Reports and CNet. Today’s topic? The battle between HostMonster and HostGator – two predatory names in the world of web hosting that have established reputations as cheap, reliable hosting companies with plenty to offer. But whether or not one of them has more to offer will be the subject of today’s matchup – and will help determine your destiny. Sort of.
Features
We always begin our tale of the tape with our features – it’s important, like measuring a boxer’s arm length, and it will be one of the easiest ways for you to determine which hosting company is better. Unless, of course, the features are nearly identical. Let’s take a look at HostGator’s features as compared with HostMonster.
Feature |
HostGator |
HostMonster |
| Disk Space | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwith | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Add-on Domains | Nada | Unlimited |
| Money-back guarantee | 45 days | Uptime guarantee |
| Dedicated IP | No | Unspecified |
| Anonymous FTP | No | Unspecified |
| POP3 Email Accounts | Unlimited | “Support” Unlimited |
| Email Autoresponding | Yes | Yes |
| Mail Forwarding | Yes | Yes |
| MySQL Databases | Unlimited | Available |
| Google AdWords Credit | $100 | $75 |
| International Domain Names | Unspecified | Yes |
| CGI | Yes | Yes |
| PHP 5 | Yes | Yes |
| Spam Assassin Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24 hours/day | 24 hours/day |
| Python | Yes | Yes |
| Ruby on Rails | Yes | Yes |
| Flash | Unspecified | Yes |
As you can see, there’s very little HostGator can do that HostMonster can’t do, either. The features listed above are typical of many hosting companies, so it’s always the small details that you’ll want to pay attention to. For example, add-on domains are a big issue here: if you need them, HostMonster is clearly the vendor you’re going to want to visit. But let’s make sure the quality of pricing plans follows the quality of features before we go making any rash decisions.
Pricing
Commitment |
HostGator |
HostMonster |
| 1 Year | $6.95/month | $5.95/month |
| 2 Years | $5.95/month | $5.95/month |
| 3 Years | $4.95/month | $5.95/month |
| Monthly | $8.95 | Unspecified |
That’s right – $5.95/month is a nice healthy flat rate overall, and means you can go as short-term as you like within the confines of HostMonster’s pricing systems without paying too much in hosting fees. Why this pricing structure? It’s actually a deal that HostMonster has going right now; if you’re interested, now’s the time to act.
Customer Support
Customer support is always a big deal, and luckily both of these companies offer it 24 hours a day – not unusual in the world of web hosting, but certainly appreciated whenever it’s there and it’s good. HostMonster also lets you do a live chat with a customer representative without being a customer – they’ll probably try to sell you something, sure, but it’s the thought that counts.
Conclusions
Again, we have very similar web hosting sites that offer a lot of bang and demand little buck in return. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re given a choice between HostGator and HostMonster, but the little details do add up, particularly if you’re on the hunt for more features than your typical Internet newbie.
