GreenGeeks vs HostGator – One is Better for WordPress 2024

GreenGeeks and HostGator might seem similar, but that is not the case. Both hosts offer a variety of web hosting solutions and affordable, feature-rich packages. But only one host offers you better value for your money, and in this case, it’s GreenGeeks.

To properly compare GreenGeeks and HostGator, I’ve tested both hosting providers across multiple categories including pricing, features, performance, and support. I found out that unlike HostGator, all of GreenGeeks’s shared and WordPress hosting packages are powered by SSD drives and renew at a cheaper rate.

Click here to see GreenGeeks’ best plans1, or read on to see which of these two hosting services is right for you.

Plans and Pricing

GreenGeeks Is Cheaper AND Gives You Better Value for Money

At first glance, both hosts seem to offer cheap to moderate prices for their shared and WordPress hosting plans, but things take a slightly different turn at the checkout process.

For example, GreenGeeks charges more than HostGator for its monthly shared and WordPress hosting subscriptions, due to its high setup fees. But GreenGeeks is cheaper than HostGator if you subscribe to one of the long-term plans (setup fees are included). These plans also renew at a cheaper fixed rate (depending on the package) compared to HostGator.

It’s also worth noting that GreenGeeks charges the same prices for shared and WordPress hosting, while HostGator’s WordPress plans are more expensive than its shared hosting packages.

Both GreenGeeks and HostGator offer free website migration and a free domain name with their plans. HostGator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, whereas GreenGeeks offers the usual 30 days. HostGator also offers $100 credit for Google Adwords.

HostGator may offer better discounts, but GreenGeeks offers cheaper package renewal rates, making it the better choice for long-term hosting. That’s why GreenGeeks wins the pricing round.

Features

GreenGeeks Offers Better Managed WordPress Plans

Both hosts offer similar features with their WordPress hosting packages, including unlimited email accounts, unlimited disk space, free SSL, and unlimited bandwidth. However, there are a few differences that set them apart.

For instance, GreenGeeks and HostGator each offer three WordPress hosting plans, but you can host an unlimited number of websites with GreenGeeks’s Pro and Premium plans, while HostGator’s Standard and Business plans are limited to two and three hosted websites, respectively.

Unlike HostGator, GreenGeeks offers user-friendly WordPress staging tools, so you can test your website before you publish.

Here’s a head-to-head feature comparison table:

The winner? With daily backups and WordPress staging tools, GreenGeeks outshines HostGator and wins this round.

Performance

HostGator Is Faster Than GreenGeeks

Both GreenGeeks and HostGator have 99.9% uptime guarantees and when tested, they actually showed results that exceeded these numbers. GreenGeeks has servers in the US, Canada, and Europe, but HostGator has servers in the US only.

In addition, GreenGeeks’ plans come with a free CDN (Content Delivery Network) which acts as a global network of servers boosting the overall website loading speeds. HostGator doesn’t offer a free CDN.

Security

GreenGeeks Is More Security-Focused Than HostGator

GreenGeeks and HostGator offer free SSL certificates with their hosting services. However, HostGator offers the standard Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, while GreenGeeks offers a Let’s Encrypt Wildcard SSL certificate, which is more advanced, as it secures both your primary domain name and your subdomains as well.

Both providers secure their servers with DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) protection. HostGator secures your website’s data with its default remote weekly backups, but GreenGeeks offers free automatic daily website backups, which is much more secure and efficient.

GreenGeeks is the clear winner in this round, thanks to its advanced security measures and free daily backups.

Support

HostGator’s Customer Support Is Slower and Less Helpful

Both GreenGeeks and HostGator have information-packed websites that include comprehensive knowledge base sections covering important topics. HostGator offers a few useful video tutorials, but GreenGeeks doesn’t.

GreenGeeks offers support via live chat (24/7), email (24/7), phone (business days), and ticket support. The live chat support is highly responsive and very knowledgeable.

HostGator provides customer support 24/7 via live chat and phone. While fax is also an option for contacting them, it’s not commonly used nowadays. Unlike GreenGeeks, where you can quickly reach a live chat representative, getting through to one with HostGator takes approximately 10 minutes, and their level of expertise might not be as high.

The winner? GreenGeeks. It offers more responsive and more practical customer support options.

GreenGeeks Offers Better Features, Security, and Support

It was a close match between GreenGeeks and HostGator. Both offer a wide range of feature-packed hosting solutions at attractive prices. Even though HostGator’s performance is better than GreenGeeks, GreenGeeks outperformed HostGator in every other category, making it the winner of this comparison.

If you’re not sure either of these hosts is right for you, check out our list of the best web hosting services.

FAQ

Is GreenGeeks the best host?

There’s no doubt that GreenGeeks is a capable hosting provider that has a solid infrastructure, different hosting solutions, great support, and a wide range of features making it suitable for small to medium-sized websites and businesses. However, it isn’t the best player in the market. Before you make any final decisions, I recommend checking out the top 10  web hosting services.

Does HostGator use SSD?

HostGator doesn’t use SSD with all hosting packages. You can only get SSD storage with Power (512 GB SSD) and Enterprise (1 TB SSD) plans for dedicated servers. On the other hand, if you need cheap and fast SSD hosting, see our list of the best SSD hosting services.

Does GreenGeeks offer VPS hosting?

Yes. GreenGeeks offers three managed VPS packages (2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB) with SSD storage ranging between 50 GB and 150 GB, 4 to 6 vCPU cores, 10 TB data transfer, free SSL, and cPanel. If you want to explore cheap and reliable VPS hosting options, I recommend these VPS  hosting services.

Does HostGator offer a free domain?

Yes. HostGator offers a free domain (.com, .net, or .org) with its shared, cloud, or WordPress hosting plans, if you sign up for a long-term plan. The company doesn’t offer a free domain with any other hosting type and your domain renews at HostGator’s regular rate after the first year.

If your domain name of choice is taken, don’t miss our guide to choosing a domain name.