HostGator, from Newfold Digital (formerly Endurance), is a web hosting service with WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting capabilities.
$2.75
per month
Network Solutions
Score 1.3 out of 10
N/A
Network Solutions is a website domain name registration service.
HostGator is cheap and will host your website and the users of your email. However, we did run into some issues over the years. They sold us SiteLock, which is supposed to be an extra layer of security. We had it for a while, when our site was hacked. When I called HostGator they said that the SiteLock plan we had wasn't the right one to protect you, so they tried to upsell me on more SiteLock. This was very frustrating, as our site was down due to hacking and we were seen as a sales opportunity instead of clients who needed help. It turned out during this time that the basic backup that was included with HostGator was not going to work to get us back up. The problem is that it backs up once per week, and overwrites whatever was there before. So, it had backed up after the hack. After that we decided to get their premium backup plan. HostGator is good if you only need the most basic of services, unless you are willing to pay for the add-ons, and you might not even be aware of the add-ons until there's a problem.
If you know what you are doing with free open source website building applications and need no help, Network Solutions is a good place to look. If you have an Etsy shop or SmugMug account and you want to have a domain name that points to those locations, Network Solutions Web Forwarding is a cost effective easy solution. If you need email for your domain name that is reliable, Network Solutions has a solid product
Tech support is responsive and helpful, but not without a special pin code. Since we need tech support infrequently when I do, I can never find that pin. It would be nice to have a quick client verification system.
Publishing updated pages are quick but could be faster by eliminating a couple of extraneous click.
From experience, they respond when they say they will - they say "24-48" hours but problems take weeks to resolve
I believe they don't put service reps in the position of lying to your customers - give them access to accurate information
Give access to senior level support instead of just having text service reps that don't have access to information or ability to actually fix anything.
Because we have in house technical support to compensate the lack of quality HostGator tech support, and because the price continues to be affordable the business is likely to continue using HostGator. They provide what the business needs and we have in house support to maintain it.
The backend for managing your domain is very easy to work thru once you learn where everything is and what it is for if you want to do it yourself. The company has toll free phone support 24/7 that can also make changes for you if you are away from your desktop or have an emergency situation where you can't make the change yourself. This is peace of mind knowing that there is help out there should you need it. You don't have to learn the backend if you want to have the Network Solutions customer support team help you. They are secure and won't make changes for anyone who calls, they authenticate you for your protection every time
While you will get support from HostGator, it seems to be a different level from 8-10 years ago. It may take 15-20 minutes to get someone on chat, and unless you follow up, I've found followup email support to take a couple of days. If you stick with it, though, you will get support, and I've never had a problem they couldn't help with.
For the most part I've had excellent interactions with the customer support team I've dealt with at Network Solutions. When I've needed help with something like Wordpress, it hasn't always worked out so well but you can pay their techs for 1 on 1 help with these offerings, you just won't have the support for free. I've often been talked to on upsells for services that I particularly didn't need and found the offers to be annoying when the agents kept pushing me on an upsell instead of addressing my issue. It's hit or miss on that, perhaps it depends on the department you speak with.
This is for web design purposes. In versatility, not as good as WordPress, but pretty close to Squarespace and Wix. In ease of use, much easier than WordPress, about the same as Squarespace and Wix. In the choice of design templates, as good as all three. The current client chose HostGator after we poured through hosting, email, and web design comparisons. She wanted all these services through the least number of vendors, and the price was right.
Network Solutions is on the higher side if not the top of normal domain registration costs while being at or near the bottom in terms of features and general experience using their management console. If you want to pay more and be spammed with ads every time you log in, be my guest, but there are plenty of better options. There are tons of registrars out there, but this is one of the many that I would not consider using again. Unfortunately, we often still have to deal with them when a client has an existing domain registered through Network Solutions, so we still often have to suffer through their consistently awful transfer process.
Renewing an SSL certificate should have been a simple process after I submitted the CSR, but Network solutions wasted multiple weeks of my time to complete this.
We currently have an issue with our hosted webpage, we cannot get the page to support multiple aliases utilizing Network Solutions.
Any A, MX, TXT, or CNAME record updates do tend to propagate fast than any other DNS registrar I have worked with.
