Cloudways vs HostGator – Which one is better for an eCommerce site?

Last Updated: March 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction

For an eCommerce site, web hosting can play a vital role. If you are looking for an eCommerce site, there are many options to choose from such as VPS or dedicated hosting, shared hosting, and managed WordPress hosting. Today we are going to talk about two competitive hosting Cloudways and HostGator. We are going to compare their feature, price, customer support, Long-term usability, free trial, and more.

Cloudways and HostGator them are big fishes of the industry. HostGator have started their business before Cloudways did. Cloudways get into business in 2009, but it never offers shared hosting like HostGator.

HostGator starts offering managed hosting in 2015, but Cloudways offers managed hosting since 2009. Cloudways offers managed hosting plans only. On the other hand, HostGator offers both shared and managed hosting. Shared hosting is not Ideal for an eCommerce site. Let’s have a deep drive between the two and choose the best one.

Creating account

Cloudways:

It is easy to join or register with cloud ways you can use either LinkedIn, git hub, google, or create a complete account with your email. You can have only 3 days of a free trial. So, you mustn’t need to pay for creating an account. You can upgrade after the free trial expired. We are going to talk about it in the pricing.

 

HostGator:

HostGator offers an opening account with existing Gmail, Facebook, or a completely new account using email. There is no free trial available user must have to choose a package to roll. So you need to pay to create an account on HostGator.

Server frame Cloudways vs Hostgator: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

Let’s start comparisons of server infrastructure. Cloudways own data servers instead of Cloudways partners with many large hosting providers.

There is five infrastructures

  1. Digital Ocean
  2. Linode
  3. VULTR
  4. AWS
  5. Google Cloud Platform

When you start a plan, you have to choose which one you wanted to go with. You can choose the server region as your requirements.

 

HostGator:

HostGator doesn’t have any international servers. Its servers are located in the only USA only. HostGator partners with Ace data centers in CyrusOne, Provo, Utah, etc. There is no option to choose the server for customers. So that’s a downside for HostGator.

Cloudways wins here. Cloudways is more flexible than HostGator.

Features comparison Cloudways vs HostGator

Hosting Features could be a deal or a deal-breaker for many customers. In the managed hosting platform, there is an aptitude for offering more features. For simplicity and feature-rich option, there is many customers are keen and attracted to have their sites in the managed hosting.

Cloudways:

 

HostGator:

 

Realtime Monitor: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

Cloudways offers a real-time monitor feature with which users can track server resources, ram, storage, incoming and outgoing traffic so users can remove bugs and optimize their sites. Users can have a look while making any changes to the site.

 

HostGator:

HostGator doesn’t provide such a feature. So, users have no view in real-time monitoring to their site. This is a nice feature to have, but HostGator is missing this one.

Freedom to choose: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

In the starting, it gives an option to choose among five servers.

HostGator:

HostGator doesn’t let the customer choose their sever.

Website Migration: That’s a tie.

If you already have a site to run then you must need to transfer data that are a complex and difficult process. Unlike other hosting companies out there, Both Cloudways and HostGator offer free 1 site migration. That feature saves customers time and money as well.

Domain Name: HostGator wins here.

If you are intended to start a new eCommerce site domain is one of the must-have things. You must have to register a domain name for your fresh site.

Cloudways:

Cloudways doesn’t offer any kind of domain registration at all.

HostGator:

HostGator offers free domain registration for the year. If you want to continue after a year you have to buy it. A free year of domain registration is really helpful for the beginner and cost-saving.

 

Control Panel: That’s a tie

Control panel refers to user experience. For WordPress eCommerce hosting panel could be difficult to navigate. But Cloudways and HostGator both have a simple and easy to navigate admin or control panel. That’s made it easy to use for anyone.

Site Staging: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

With the help of site staging its possible to visit or experience customers site before it goes live. Cloudways offers unlimited site staging. It’s a kind of real-time monitor. So, customers can have an early look at their site.

HostGator:

Unfortunately, HostGator doesn’t offer any site staging feature.

Team Collaboration: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

If you have a team who are work on the site. With help of team collaboration, you will able to work and communicate with your team easily and seamlessly. Users can add team members or clients to servers with easy control and access permission.

 

HostGator:

They don’t have this feature until now. Hope they include the feature in the future.

 

Flexibility: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

Cloudways is more flexible than HostGator. It offers many native and international servers with more variety of apps and plugins.

HostGator:

It is not as flexible in severs or app, plugins compare to Cloudways.

Security comparison Cloudways vs HostGator

Encryption:

Encryption is the front rank of any information security. By the blessings of encryption, if any data leaks or is stolen, it needs to be decryption and that’s not an easy task to deal with. So, the data remains safe and untouched. Encryption defends the eCommerce site from malware, the man in the middle attack, and hacking.

Both Cloudways and HostGator offers free SSL certificate. It comes with a free encryption tool. With SSL certificate companies assure their customer security.

Cloudways:

Security is a real concern about web hosting. There is an increasing number of Cyber Attacks and Cyber Crimes happening around the world. Cloud ways have o compromise in the security department. Because nowadays everyone knows the cost of a data leak. In the case of an eCommerce site, it has all the client’s address, phone number, email, and much more sensitive information. So a data breach would be a complete disaster. In the answer, Cloudways offers several features.

  • Two-step authentication
  • Free SSL Certificate that could enable easily from the menu.
  • Dedicated Firewalls
  • IP whitelisting
  • Free backups from entire site files with a single click restore feature.

Timely regular security patch, firmware, and software update.

 

HostGator:

Security is one of the most important issues in the case of e-commerce that’s a no brainer. HostGator has a site lock feature. Without any doubt, site look is a great security tool. HostGator also provided a free SSL certificate.

HostGator provide DDoS attack (fake traffic) that’s a reason, customers can’t visit the site. DDoS prevents fake traffic so your eCommerce site can be running smoothly as possible. That’s helped reduce site load time. Both have their feature of security. HostGator uses a third-party security provider. But Cloudways has a slight edge here.

 

Customer support Comparison- Cloudways vs HostGator: Cloudways wins here

Customer care is the place where a company’s service can shine. Both have dedicated expert team management working 24/7 and 365 days. They are always ready to help users to solve any problem as soon as possible. Both of them also offer tickets, telephone numbers, etc.

Cloudways:

 

HostGator:

 

Price and plans Comparison overview

Cloudways:

Cloudways offers free migration. Cloudways have only 3 days trial period as mentioned at the top. Cloudways has some different pricing systems sometimes it could be a little complex. They have pay you go method where users pay only how much they are using. There is a monthly package too. The monthly package starts at $10. Users can easily switch between packages so it adds a point to the e-commerce site they can choose according to their sites. There is a backup extra charge of $0.033 GB per server. Cloudways can also charge by a server, not per site.

Monthly price and plan policy

Short Overview:

$10 per Month

$22 per Month

$42 per Month

$80 per Month

Ram – 1 GB

Ram – 2 GB

Ram – 4 GB

Ram – 8 GB

Processor- Single core

Processor- Single core

Processor- Dual Core

Processor- Quad Core

Storage – 25 GB

Storage – 50 GB

Storage – 80 GB

Storage – 160 GB

Bandwidth – 1 TB

Bandwidth – 2 TB

Bandwidth – 4 TB

Bandwidth – 5 TB

Hourly Pricing and plan Policy:

Short overview:

$0.0139 per Hour

$0.0306 per Hour

$0.0583 per Hour

$0.01111 per Hour

Ram – 1 GB

Ram – 2 GB

Ram – 4 GB

Ram – 8 GB

Processor- Single core

Processor- Single core

Processor- Dual Core

Processor- Quad Core

Storage – 25 GB

Storage – 50 GB

Storage – 80 GB

Storage – 160 GB

Bandwidth – 1 TB

Bandwidth – 2 TB

Bandwidth – 4 TB

Bandwidth – 5 TB

HostGator:

HostGator doesn’t offer any free trial. Users have to purchase a package to get started. HostGator offers three different plans for a dedicated server.

  • Hatchling server plan
  • Baby server plan
  • Business server plan

Overview Of price and plans:

Offering

Hatchling Plan

At $2.08 per month

Baby plan

At $2.98 per month

Business plan

At $4.48 per month

website

1 domain

unlimited

unlimited

Free one-year domain

yes

yes

yes

Free hostotar site builder

yes

yes

yes

Bandwidth

Unmetered

Unmetered

Unmetered

45 days money back

GUARANTEE

yes

yes

yes

Free Email

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free SSL certificate

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free dedicated IP

   

Yes

Free positive SSL upgrade

   

Yes

Free script and MYSQL

transfer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free website and domain transfer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Value for Money: Cloudways wins here

Cloudways:

Value and pricing are very important for hosting. Among the pricing, the package is the best value offers are the starter one but for e large e-commerce site it’s not an ideal package choice. For a medium and large eCommerce site, most value comes from the most popular one. Primum one is for an extra-large eCommerce site.

HostGator:

For the long term in the first purchase, HostGator does have a value proving plan. But renewal cost is not convincing enough it suddenly double the expense. With non-additional improvements. So it’s safe to say HostGator provide value plan on 2 to 3 years of plans. For a short period, there are many out there offering better value for money.

Cloudways offers a unique pay as you go feature. Which no one doesn’t out there. Cloudways have a single month and pay as you go affordable pricing.

Performance: Cloudways vs HostGator- Cloudways wins here

Storage Options:

Cloudways:

Cloudways use SSD based storage device which is a lot faster than traditional HHD. That gives Cloudways a big advantage over HostGator for better site loading.

HostGator:

They still use HHD for most of their plans.

Overall:

Cloudways:

Cloudways provide top-notch level performance. The severs It provides such as Apache, Memcached, MY SQL are some of the best out there. So site page loading time reduces a lot and makes site loading in no time. This server makes the difference between shared hosting and many dedicated hosting. The average load 2.36 which is great without any consideration.

 

HostGator:

HostGator’s performance is good. HostGator maintains 99.94% uptime. It has a 2.97 load time which is no so bad. For a large site loading time could be a problem. Shared hosting can cause longer load time. Performance depends on your site size for better performance you should choose a plan which can run with it. Plan choosing can affect your site load performance.

Caches:

Both Cloudways and HostGator use multiple cache layers. Cloudways has a stack with Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, etc.

Pros and Cons: Cloudways vs HostGator

Cloudways:

Pros

Cons

Uptime:

Cloudways has great uptime 99.99% if not 100% all the time.

No email:

There is no email feature

Backup:

Cloudways has an automatic backup system on a daily or hourly.

No domain:

Cloudways does not provide any domain registration.

Pay as you go:

That’s a great offering by the Cloudways. That could be the only hosting company that is offering this. That’s an hourly basis.

No CDN:

There is no CDN included users have to pay for it. While other hosting offers CDN free.

CLoudways offers 1 USD per 25GB.

Server locations:

There is a lot to choose from. It depends on the providers. But you have easy control over it.

Support:

That could be an issue it is not bad but not the best out there. It offers only 15 min for a basic subscription.

Affiliate Program:

There is an affiliate program where you can earn and save some money.

Free Trial:

Cloudways offers only 3 days of the trial period. Which is not sufficient for all.

Five Different Cloud infrastructure:

Well, you have an option to choose from five different providers. Which is very competitive and useful.

 

Summary:

Cloudways standouts with its eCommerce potential. Cloudways offers a lightning speed site loading. Its offer five different server hosting provider. Customers have the rights to choose as their needs. They offer only 3 days of trial. That’s not sufficient for customers.

Easy to use admin panel. They offer lots of servers which means a long area low site loading experience. Faster load speed a plus for eCommerce sites. The pay as you go is a plan where users can save their money and resources that ensures a smooth experience. It has an affordable plan.

Cloudways offers tons of security features such as two-step verification, free SSL, IP whitening, etc. These features make Cloudways a safe hosting company. With SSD server storage eCommerce site page loads in seconds. Cloudways runs affiliate programs that save customers money sometimes help to earn some

HostGator:

Pros

Cons

Plenty of storage:

Every plan comes with unlimited storage.

Extra fees:

HostGator has some hidden and extra fees.

Unmetered Bandwith:

No limitation in bandwidth great for site traffic.

Support:

HostGator has a poor support system. Which is a problem for customers

Many programing language:

HostGator has many language support PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, etc.

Expensive:

HostGator has more costly plans. Many hosting companies offer cheap pricing compare to HostGator.

Free SSL certificate:

HostGator provides a free SSL certificate for better security.

Chunky User exprience:

HostGator site designs are slightly dated. That causes a chunky experience.

Drag and drop:

A handy feature for newbies. They can build a site easily

Backup:

Their backup system lies in payments.

Speed:

HostGator support a great speed and load time. But not as Cloudways.

Uptime:

Uptime of Hostgator is not bad. But they should have an eye on it.

Email:

They support email service that’s a plus.

Missing feature:

There doesn’t offer some key and advance feature.

Money-Back Guarantee:

They have 45 days money-back guarantee.

No eCommerce-tailored plans:

They do not have any eCommerce tailored plans.

Summary:

HostGator is one of the biggest site hosting companies. This is one of the feature-rich hosting platforms. It offers safe and secure hosting. Their uptime is not the best but they should try to improve it. Their pricing has some extra and hidden costs which are not so good news for customers.

They charge extra for email, backup systems. But they offer unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth that’s a great feature to have. They have poor supports and they can’t offer the customers enough time. HostGator has an unbelievable 45 days money-back guarantee.

Which one is better between Cloudways and HostGator?

There is some alternative to them out there, but you have to choose one of them which one it will be?

Cloudways the winner.

Let’s have a look,

For an eCommerce site hosting loading time is one of the key features here, Cloudways offers faster site load time to HostGator. Cloudways offers SSD for storage that’s why the site load in no time. Cloudways and HostGator both have 24/7 365 days of support claim but HostGator has a downfall here Its support is poor compare to Cloudways. Cloudways support is not the best out there, but it’s better than HostGator.

Cloudways have better value compare to HostGator. It offers affordable price plans. Cloudways offers a monthly cost of $10 and HostGator offers $10.95 per month, so Cloudways is a cheaper option. Cloudways have a unique price plan pay as you go in this plan users has to pay based on their user. It saves users resources and money. Cloudways do not offer free email you have to pay for it.

Let’s talk about security Both have an excellent secure server and site builder, but Cloudways has a slight edge it offers two-step authentication and IP whitening. Both of them offer free SSL certificate. Cloudways always update firmware and security patches.

Cloudways have more servers than HostGator. More server means less traffic on site. For an eCommerce site faster load and uptime is a blessing. Cloudways have their servers around the world so it would be easier to get into your site from anywhere at a less loading time.

HostGator will be suite able for small and hobby eCommerce site. It is not good enough to run a large and heavy site on it. It lacking many key features and support for customers. Its page load time is more than 1 sec.

On the other hand, Cloudways site load time is very fast. Cloudways Is much bigger than HostGator. HostGator does not have any reliable reviews. So it hard to choose HostGator.

Cloudways Trust plot Rating:

4.8 /5

HostGator Trust plot Rating:

2.5/5

With all in mind, It’s hard to recommend HostGator. We recommend the Cloudways over the Hostgator. Cloudways is the option to go. In terms of features, pricing, support, site loading performance, uptime, and based on user reviews and rating. User review and rating is one of the basic decisions makes it means a lot about any service. It helps customers to choose the right option. So, That’s our call to Cloudways.