2014-03-06

In below, we have made a comprehensive comparison between the Linux shared hosting plans from Network Solutions and HostGator to make clear which is better in Linux hosting, although the 2 companies are 2 of the most reputed web hosts. This comparison is written from several aspects, including price, feature, reliability, performance and technical support.

Since 6 months ago, we have used the shared hosting plans from the 2 companies to host our several WordPress websites that are with the same size, and kept monitoring the websites closely. In addition, we have browsed more than 1,000 verified feedbacks on the Internet to learn how the customers think of the services they have got. Based on our personal experience and the real customer reviews, we have worked out the ratings as below.

Rating





Overall

Features

Loading Speed

Reliability

Technical Support

Price

$3.99/mo

$3.71/mo

How to Claim

networksolutions.com

hostgator.com

Plans & Price

Network Solutions has been in the industry for a fairly long term, powering more than 1 million websites around the world. This company has released 3 different advanced Linux shared hosting plans, named as Essential, Professional and Premium, which are priced at $2.99/mo, $3.99.mo and $39.95/mo. Each of the plans comes with a free domain name for 1 year.

Just as its competitor, HostGator offers 3 Linux shared hosting solutions to enable customers to choose the most appropriate one according to their current budget and needs. Named as Hatchling, Baby and Business, the regular price of the packages starts from $3.96/mo with a 20% discount by default. Now, the company is offering a 5% additional account for visitors who subscribe this service by activating the coupon BWH25Percent, with which the price is low to $3.71/mo. Moreover, 1 free domain name is included in the plans.

In addition to the compelling discount and free domain name, the company provides 45 days full money back guarantee and anytime prorated money back guarantee, which enables customers to ask for a full refund if they want to cancel their accounts in the first 45 days, and a prorated refund after this period. In this way, customers can put their money in safe.

HostGastor Coupon Code Activation

Feature

The hosting packages from the 2 companies share many similarities, such as unlimited monthly data transfer and 1 free domain name. In addition, all of them are integrated with a 1-click script installer to enable customers to install more than 100 popular CMS with a few clicks. However, the solutions also have many differences. The most significant one is that HostGator uses cPanel as control panel, while Network Solutions adopts the control panel developed by themselves, which is not as user-friendly as cPanel.

In below, we have made a comparison table to help our readers know the detailed feature information clearly. Note that Network Solutions Professional Plan and HostGator Hatchling Plan are selected due to their similar price.

Feature

Plan in Comparison

Professional Plan

Hatchling Plan

Bandwidth

Unlimited

Unlimited

Disk Space

500 GB

Unlimited

Free Domain

1

1

Email Accounts

2,500

Unlimited

cPanel

Shared SSL

PHP 5

MySQL Databases

50 (300 MB)

Unlimited

Python

Perl

Python

Ruby on Rails

How to Claim

Link Activation

Coupon: BWH25Percent

Reliability & Performance

As a reputed web host, Network Solutions has done much hard work to provide reliable hosting service for their customers. This company utilizes several first-rating data centers, all of which are equipped with hundreds of high performance servers, redundant power supply and high security. All of the top facilities enable this host to offer solid 99.92% uptime on average.

Because HostGator has collaborated with SoftLayer for many years, their customers are able to use some of the best infrastructures to power the hosted websites. In addition, this company utilizes multiple SoftLayer data centers, in which they use 100% factory-tested Dell servers and many industry-standard technologies to ensure all servers stay cool, secure and on-line all the time.

What’s more, the data centers are featured with redundant power supply, HVAC, fire detection/suppression systems. Besides, technicians and engineers are monitoring the data centers and servers 24×7, designed to resolve any sudden issue as soon as it arises to protect the hosted websites from any unexpected interruption. Therefore, customers of this company are always able to run websites with at least 99.98% uptime.

Read the following statistics chart to learn the real-time HostGator uptime of the past 30 days.

All the websites hosted with HostGator are accessible via a fully meshed and certified Cisco network and 9 other backbone fiber providers, so they run much faster than those hosted with its competitor. In addition, technicians and engineers of this provider are monitoring the network 24×7 to ensure customers are able to run websites in a fully redundant network environment.

Our monitoring result shows that the server response time of HostGator is 338ms in these months, while that of Network Solutions is 580ms. Learn the detailed server response time information of HostGator in the following statistics chart.

Technical Support

Both Network Solutions and HostGator allow their customers to contact them via phone call and email 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All the support staffs are professional and experienced, so that they are able to provide quick and effective assistance for customers to resolve problems. Beside, technicians and engineers have developed many useful articles and detailed video tutorials to teach customers how to deal with common issues independently.

In this respect, the difference is that besides 24×7 phone and email support, HostGator also provides 24×7 live chat support to enable customers who are unable to communicate with the support representative on phone fluently to get instant help to deal with their problems.

Conclusion

As a conclusion of this comparison, both Network Solutions and HostGator are reliable web hosts offering reliable and rich featured Linux hosting service. However, the service from the former company is not as fast and user-friendly as that from its competitor. Therefore, HostGator is better in Linux hosting and more suitable for hosting medium to large websites.

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