#1—Choose Hostgator Because Its Price Is So Low

Right now, you can open a Hostgator account for only $3.96 a month. That’s an incredible deal compared to most hosting plans which cost $10 a month or more.

There’s only one major limitation on the $4 a month plan—you can only host one domain. That’s not actually a problem for anyone just getting started with WordPress hosting. One domain is plenty enough for a full featured blog.

And, if you do need extra domains, the Hostgator upgrade only costs an extra couple dollars a month and gives you access to unlimited domain hosting.

#2—One-Click WordPress Install

Have you ever read the full WordPress install instructions? I have. You need to install database software and a scripting language, then create a new database, configure the scripting language, fill the database, and (optionally) create a “cron” job—all before you can even start using WordPress.

Hostgator gets rid of all of this hassle. Immediately after you activate your Hostgator account, you can use the one-click WordPress installer. All you need to do is type in your email address and wait a few moments for your WordPress blog to install. Then you can customize it and start blogging.

#3—Let Hostgator Transfer Your Old Blog

Are you coming from WordPress.com or another hosting company? Hostgator has a great offer for you: they’ll transfer all of your old posts to your new Hostgator WordPress blog.

How much does it cost to let Hostgator do all the work? Nothing. Hostgator will transfer your old blog to your new site for free.

All you need to do is click a few buttons and give Hostgator the login info to your old site.

#4—Why Trust Hostgator?

I used to host my main website with a tiny little startup company. I got great service in the beginning, but then things went downhill. Finally, one day without any notice, my website disappeared. Thankfully, I had backups—or I would’ve lost everything.

Hostgator isn’t that kind of fly-by-night operation. They currently host over five million domain names and make over 18 million dollars a year—which is a strong incentive to stay in business.

Hostgator didn’t become one of the world’s biggest webhosts by disappointing customers. In fact, see the next section for one way they help ensure your happiness.

#5—A 45-Day Money-Back Guarantee

I think Hostgator is a great host for WordPress-based blogs, but what if you don’t like them? It’s a little unfair of me to recommend something when it’s your money on the line.

Happily, your money isn’t on the line. Give Hostgator a try today—if you aren’t entirely happy by this time next month, they’ll refund all of the money you paid them for hosting.

The refund procedure is simple too—you submit a free support ticket and the money will be refunded to your credit card usually within a single business day.

#6—Install Your Own Plugins

One of the drags of using a free hosted WordPress blog on WordPress.com or most other places is that you can’t install custom plugins. But your $4 a month Hostgator account doesn’t have that problem.

Many plugins can be installed on your Hostgator WordPress blog with a single click. Other plugins might require filling out a few forms. Even the most complicated plugins that require you to access the database can be installed thanks to Hostgator giving you full database access through phpMyAdmin.

#7—Unlimited Disk Space And Bandwidth

Another problem with a lot of free WordPress hosting is the limitation on storage space. You might be limited to 10,000 comments. That sounds like a lot, but popular blogs can get 10,000 comments in a month or less.

Also, you’re probably not allowed to store many images on your free hosted WordPress blog.

None of this is a problem on Hostgator where you have unlimited storage and bandwidth. Create a photo blog, let comments run wild, or do whatever you want without worrying about artificial limits.

#8—Log Manager

Most people I know these days track their website statistics using Google Analytics, but they don’t realize that Google can never track one of the most important pieces of data—what’s wrong with your website.

If someone tries to visit a non-existent page on your website, your webserver returns a special code and makes an entry in its log. Google analytics can’t track missing Web pages, so the only way you can discover that something is wrong with your website is by checking the logs.

At Hostgator, checking your logs couldn’t be easier. They include a program to help you analyze your logs plus access to the raw logs so you can get to the source of any problems.

#9—Not Limited To WordPress

Although this post focuses on WordPress, Hostgator also gives you the opportunity to try other great software, including the excellent Joomla and Drupal Content Management Systems (CMSes) and also the WikiMedia software used by Wikipedia and Wikileaks.

I’ve used wikis and the Drupal CMS to do things that weren’t suitable for a blog—such as running my family website off of Drupal and organizing events between my friends on my wiki.

Hostgator makes installing this extra software just as easy as installing WordPress. You use the same one-click installer.

#10—Free 24-Hour Tech Support

Perhaps the best thing about Hostgator is their free 24-hour tech support. Your website will probably never go down—Hostgator has a 99% uptime record—but if something does happen, you’re only a few minutes away from letting someone know about the problem.

Remember that Hostgator runs over 5 million domains. Something keeps all of those users from jumping ship, and it isn’t just Hostgator’s low-cost. If Hostgator didn’t offer hosting that worked and great tech support, there’s no way they’d be as successful at WordPress hosting as they are today.