In some markets, only a side-by-side comparison of two separate vendors really seems to provide the information you need to make a properly-informed financial decision. Luckily, the two web hosts we’re featuring today aren’t exactly bank-breakers; but even though $5/month or so isn’t enough to make you fret about web hosting prices, you’ll always want to be on the lookout for that one hosting company that does it all right.

Are HostGator and Just Host worthy contenders? It’s time to find out.

For more, read HostGator Review and JustHost Review

Features

It’s time for the head-to-head matchup – the tale of the tape, if you will. As you’ll see in the table below, we’re weighing the features of Just Host and Host Gator based on their similar, minimum-cost pricing plans – and the details of those prices will be available in the next section.

The above comparison provides a lot of similarities in features, but with a few key differences. It’s a classic case of knowing that if the prices are similar, there’s probably one site you’re going to prefer over the other if all you care about are the features. So let’s take a look at those prices and see how well they really do match up.

Pricing

No, that’s not me making an error – these are the exact same pricing plans for the features you saw listed above. I’d say that takes out one variable in your decision, no? One note about Just Host’s pricing, however: they weren’t as upfront about them as HostGator was. I had to start registering with Just Host to find out I wouldn’t get their tiniest fee without a longer commitment.

Customer Support

The customer support won’t be a problem for either of these companies – you can reach them by phone, you can reach customer support 24 hours a day, and you’ll be able to find someone who, of course, speaks English. We have to give the edge in refunds and money-back guarantees to Just Host, which will refund the remainder of your term if you decide to cancel your account, and will give you a free month’s worth of hosting if you don’t have 99.9% uptime on your web site. Maybe it’s time to root for 99.8% uptime.

Conclusions

These are pretty comparable hosting companies – either one would be a worthy recommendation and either one would be a fine choice. But I have to give the edge to Just Host based simply on the sheer amount of features allowed and the add-ons they’re willing to provide right off the bat. But HostGator still belongs in the discussion.

You hear about a lot of hosting companies here on Clickfire, and it’s not just because we’re on an immortal quest to discover the best one for your readers. Well, okay, that’s exactly what we’re doing – and part of that quest means not only reviewing the individual companies themselves, but pitting them against each other in hand-to-hand combat and comparing their features directly.

Sites like HostMonster and Just Host are why we do this thing in the first place – they’re quality hosting sites that offer a lot of bargain for the dollar, which means you end up keeping things simpler on your end while they’re busy trying to keep you stocked with features and services.

These are two of the better hosting sites I’ve personally come across, and a quick glance at the features and pricing should convince you of the same. Let’s take a closer look – table style.

For more, read HostMonster Review and Just Host Review

Features

What’s the main difference between the two hosting companies here? Surprisingly, very little. The big issues – disk space, band with, add-on domains and the like – are both “unlimited” whether you decide to go with Just Host or HostMonster. That’s good news. But we aren’t satisfied with looking at just a few variables, so here’s some extra information to wrap your mind around:

It’s one of the most comparable matchups we’ve had here at Clickfire, which means the rest of the battle will have to be settled via steel cage match. Or, you know, looking at their pricing options, I guess.

Pricing

Conclusions there? Well, dang it, the sites are still pretty comparable. Just get the Just Host 2-or-3-year plan and you’re locked in at the stable HostMonster prices. (By the way, if your interest is piqued with all of this HostMonster talk, be sure to check out our Hostmonster Review here at Clickfire.) We do like the lower price of the lower-commitment 1-year HostMonster plan, but that’s just a slight advantage, and not something to write home about.

Separating the Two

If we know all of these features and prices are pretty much the same, how do you really separate the two host companies? Well, a few issues that you’ll likely have to discover on a personal level, such as:

• Customer service quality
• Uptime percentage
• Ease of billing

These are only things you can really discover once you’re a customer at either HostMonster or Just Host (speaking of which, Just Host has also been reviewed at Clickfire). Which means that, sadly, we can’t give you a definitive answer here. But, hey, sometimes it’s nice to know that there’s not only one good option for your hosting needs. If only every buying experience we had online was like that these days.

Features

We always begin our tale of the tape with our features – it’s important, like measuring a boxer’s arm length, and it will be one of the easiest ways for you to determine which hosting company is better. Unless, of course, the features are nearly identical. Let’s take a look at HostGator’s features as compared with HostMonster.

As you can see, there’s very little HostGator can do that HostMonster can’t do, either. The features listed above are typical of many hosting companies, so it’s always the small details that you’ll want to pay attention to. For example, add-on domains are a big issue here: if you need them, HostMonster is clearly the vendor you’re going to want to visit. But let’s make sure the quality of pricing plans follows the quality of features before we go making any rash decisions.

Pricing

That’s right – $5.95/month is a nice healthy flat rate overall, and means you can go as short-term as you like within the confines of HostMonster’s pricing systems without paying too much in hosting fees. Why this pricing structure? It’s actually a deal that HostMonster has going right now; if you’re interested, now’s the time to act.

Customer Support

Customer support is always a big deal, and luckily both of these companies offer it 24 hours a day – not unusual in the world of web hosting, but certainly appreciated whenever it’s there and it’s good. HostMonster also lets you do a live chat with a customer representative without being a customer – they’ll probably try to sell you something, sure, but it’s the thought that counts.

Conclusions

Again, we have very similar web hosting sites that offer a lot of bang and demand little buck in return. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re given a choice between HostGator and HostMonster, but the little details do add up, particularly if you’re on the hunt for more features than your typical Internet newbie. If you’re already surfing Clickfire, we like the chances of that.

So after all that hype, how do they really compare? It’s time to turn to one of our favorite reviewing tools: the Table of Truth.

Comparing Features

The first Table of Truth deals with the big issues – bandwith, domain add-ons, customer support. These are the kinds of things users are looking out for and want to know if they’ll be receiving it before they place an order with any one company. Suffice it to say, it can be a big deal to a lot of people, and if you’re shelling out your own money for a .com acre of your own, you might just be one of those people.

As you can see, BlueHost (by the way – check our our newest Bluehost review here at Clickfire) spends a lot of time in either the “unspecified” or “unlimited” category, suggesting it has a lot of potential as a hit-or-miss hosting provider. But a simpler explanation might be that BlueHost isn’t as good at posting up a lot of its features as it could be, especially considering how much they’ve already got to brag about, keeping up with Just Host in a number of categories that no one else I’ve recently reviewed has been able to.

Pricing

How about the issue of cold, hard cash? Let’s take a look.

You’ve got to hand it to BlueHost for keeping things simple – there’s no incentive to committing to more or less time with them because the price remains the same. At least as far as their current offerings are concerned. Just Host gets an edge because you can save a few bucks by going with a longer-term commitment, but the edge is small because I dislike long-term commitments (Not all long-term commitments, ladies).

Note: Prices above don’t include coupons or discounts. Check the web hosting reviews to see if coupons or price cuts are available. We try to list the best and most current discounts in the list and on the Clickfire review pages.

Conclusion

What are we to conclude of these well-matched and entirely-similar hosting providers? Well, there’s simply very few ways you can go wrong if your choice is down to BlueHost vs. Just Host. Both of the companies provide plenty of bang for the buck, unlimited real estate, and generally won’t charge you an arm and a leg for their services. You want more for your money? Start gambling.

FatCow gives you a fat, happy cow that lets you know that using his service will be good for the environment. BlueHost gives you no mascot at all, offering a straightforward, no-nonsense offering of solid web hosting at a competitive price. Which one really has the best offering?

Features

For the scrupulous web hosting shopper, features can easily make or break a deal. Knowing when, and for what, one web host will work and another won’t can be the key to running a successful website. The table below highlights a few main areas where the features of the two web hosts differ:

Don’t misunderstand, FatCow does provide a fair amount of information about what it can and can’t do, but it simply doesn’t state as much information as BlueHost does.

FatCow offers more ad coupons, more MySQL databases, and they are definitely greener than BlueHost, who clearly opts to be blue instead. BlueHost clearly supports PostgreSQL and shell access, both potentially very big deals, while FatCow may or may not support them. On average, BlueHost is clearly in the lead when it comes to features.

Pricing

FatCow prides itself on having a single and simple price point and calls the rest of the web hosts “complicated” for offering a variety of options at different feature levels. Well, FatCow, it would seem that BlueHost agrees with you, because they only offer a single price point as well. As ClickFire’s BlueHost review shows, BlueHost used to offer multiple price points, but later switched to a single price plan. Here are the prices for FatCow and BlueHost, both of which only offer unlimited storage and bandwidth plans:

Thanks to a recent price drop from FatCow (from a previous $99/year), they are now cheaper than BlueHost while still managing to run off of 100% wind power. It is worth noting, however, that both FatCow and BlueHost do not offer any plans that last less than a year, but FatCow openly offers a 30 day money back guarantee just in case you are not satisfied with their service. BlueHost does not seem to offer any such money back guarantee at the time I’m writing this BlueHost versus FatCow article.

Note: Hosting providers are very competitive. Check the web hosting reviews to see if coupons or price cuts are available. We try to list the best and most current specials in the list and on the review pages.

Terms of Service

If BlueHost has a long terms of service agreement, FatCow has a colossal one. But neither of them have anything really unusual in them. Both of them explain that their unlimited services are not without limits. If you’re confused, let me explain: for both web hosts, you can’t use their services as an unlimited storage area for personal backups, the content you upload needs to be for the site you are running. You can’t create a download portal because they are very resource intensive and typically edge on illegal, depending on the content being offered for download. Also, if you use so many resources that it is slowing down other users, your per second bandwidth and resource usage will be temporarily capped, and if you constantly use too many resources, your account can be deactivated. These are almost universally true among all “unlimited” web hosting offers.

So, in short, despite length differences, their terms of service are approximately equal for the typical web hosting customer.

Type of Control Panel

If you’re looking for a control panel that you already know, you’re probably looking for cPanel. In short, BlueHost uses cPanel, FatCow does not. In long, however, while BlueHost does use the real cPanel, FatCow uses a control panel that is very similar to cPanel, so much so that you really just need to figure out the name differences between the two, then you’ll feel right at home.

However, FatCow loses a significant number of points due to the occasional full-screen advertisement you’ll get when accessing your control panel. This is bordering on unacceptable for a paid service like web hosting.

Customer Support

Customer support can be a hot-button issue for many webmasters who find themselves with unusual problems while trying to run their websites. If you’re an expert, then perhaps this isn’t important to you, but even then there are sometimes settings that only customer support can change.

Both companies offer USA based customer support, so there are no worries about misunderstandings due to accents or poor language skills. However, FatCow falls short in that they use scripted answers that they do not deviate from, even when the scripted answers are not answering the question. Check out the FatCow review to see an example of how these scripted answers can fail.

The Bottom Line

For basic web hosting, both are just fine. If you want to be green and don’t need too many fancy features or programming languages, then go with FatCow and save around 50 cents a month. If you want to be sure to have the features you need, or might need in the future, BlueHost seems to be the better choice.

Winner:

http://www.bluehost.com

Back to:

• BlueHost Review
• FatCow Review

A cow versus a gator? Well, this should be a mascot themed battle to remember. HostGator has a wide variety of prices, plans, and features, all at a wide variety of prices. FatCow believes that all of that is too complicated, and offers one plan at a low price, but missing some features.

For this HostGator versus FatCow battle, the cheapest version of HostGator’s plans, the Baby Plan, will be used.

Features

Features can really define a service. The table below shows the key differences between the two services. Keep in mind that additional domains can be added to HostGator by paying for a more expensive plan, but this review is targeted towards entry level.

FatCow provides more domains and more ad coupons, as well as clearly supporting backup power supplies. But, when you look at supported programming features, HostGator comes out ahead on multiple fronts.

Pricing

No matter what features are available, sometimes it comes down to what you can and cannot afford. For HostGator, the monthly price varies based on how long you commit to using their service, though their 45 day money back guarantee always applies. FatCow offers the same price at all time lengths, except that you can’t sign up for less than a year of hosting.

If you only need one domain, HostGator is literally always cheaper. If you need multiple domains, HostGator is more expensive unless you commit to a full three years, in which case HostGator becomes a little cheaper than FatCow. Occasionally, FatCow offers promos that can get pricing lower than HostGator, though. At the time of this writing, FatCow offers Clickfire visitors a 1 year plan for $56 (comes to 4.67/mo) and a 2 year plan for $88 (comes to $3.67 per mo).

When you also consider the number of programming features that HostGator clearly supports, HostGator is easily the better option when it comes to price and flexibility.

Terms of Service

Of course, as is with all “unlimited’ web hosting plans, there are actually limits, they just aren’t in terms of megabytes or gigabytes. HostGator’s terms of service are quite clear as to what the limits actually are. Using more than 25% of the system resources for more than 90 seconds and you can’t have more than 250,000 files of any kind. If you wish to take advantage of the backup system, you cannot have more than 20 Gbs of data stored. Most of this is easy to follow, but it can be difficult to know the amount of server resources you are using at any given moment.

FatCow’s terms of service are much more general. They let you know that they reserve the right to determine when you are abusing your unlimited bandwidth or storage capacity, and to take action if they feel that you are.

Having clear guidelines that you can’t exceed seems much butter than not knowing if you are nearing the limits or not. HostGator exceeds FatCow in this area.

Control Panel

HostGator uses cPanel, the most familiar control panel among webmasters. Simple, straightforward, and has the usual features like Fantastico. FatCow really has all of the same features in their control panel, but without the usual names. Once you figure out the equivalent names, it is also very familiar.

But FatCow has one fatal flaw when it comes to their control panel. Every once in a while, FatCow will serve a full-page advertisement. It’s easy enough to skip, but it just doesn’t seem right to put full page ads on a paid service like web hosting.

Customer Support

Customer support is important even when you’re an expert webmaster. The simple fact is that there are sometimes settings that only the host can actually change. In these scenarios, every user will need to contact customer support to get the problem resolved. For those who are not experts, customer support is even more important because there will be far more reasons to contact customer support if you’re initially learning about how to be a good webmaster.

FatCow provides support in proper English with excellent wording, but their answers are overly scripted. So much so that they occasionally do not actually answer the original question. For an example of this evasive scripted answers see ClickFire’s FatCow review. Thankfully, the provided knowledgebase is often extensive enough to compensate for it.

HostGator, in stark contrast, doesn’t always word their answers as cleanly in English, but they are much more flexible in their answers, and you can usually get the answer you need from the person you are chatting with. For an excellent example of HostGator’s flexibility, check out the HostGator review.

In the end, HostGator actually answers the questions while FatCow doesn’t always manage to do so. HostGator wins this category as well.

The Bottom Line

When it comes down to it, unless you really feel the need to be green, or you have to save as much money as possible on a yearly contract while supporting more than one domain, it’s hard to justify going with FatCow as opposed to HostGator. For a single domain, HostGator offers better features, better support, and lower prices.

Overall winner: HostGator

Features

Their features are collectively similar, both of them offering the basics. There are, however, a few differences here and there between the two. Here is a list of differences in their features. As you look through the list, keep in mind that very every difference, there are 2 to 3 similarities between the two. So, even though this list might look long, it’s not actually THAT long. Also, keep in mind that this is only a comparison of each of their respective cheapest offerings, and that the differences tend to get even smaller as their respective prices go up.

Just a note: unspecified does not necessarily mean that they do not support it, it simply means that they make no claim to support it on their site. It does, however, mean that there is a chance that they do not support it. Furthermore, bolded items are more likely to be important compared to the other items.

As you can see, at least at the base level, IX Web Hosting definitely has a wider breadth of features. However, as our HostGator Review points out, they have all the essentials of a shared web host.

IX Web Hosting earns 1 point for having more features.

Pricing

To get detailed pricing for IX Web Hosting, you actually have to start the ordering process. This is annoying, but you can always start the order process and quit it once you find the information you need. It’s much easier to see HostGator’s prices, which is good, but doesn’t necessarily make them the best. Let’s see what the prices come out to:

It looks like IX Web Hosting wins for any long-term commitment. However, something important to note is that they are currently in a promotional period right now that shaves off $3.00 a month for the longer terms. So, the 3 year plan could increase back to $250.20 at any time, which would make HostGator the cheapest. They don’t provide all of their normal rates right now, so it’s unfortunately not possible to determine how expensive their 12 month option normally is.

Both IX Web Hosting and HostGator earn 1 point for being a better deal… sometimes.

Terms of Service

HostGator’s Terms of Service seems more strict than IX Web Hosting’s does. For example, it includes a fairly long list of topics that their customers aren’t allowed to host on their websites, including a few things that seem relatively harmless like investment sites and even some online games (RPG’s, a.k.a. Role Playing Games, and MUD’s, a.k.a. Multi-User Dungeon games, for example). They also have very strict guidelines about how much of the server’s resources you can use. For example, using more than 25% of a server’s resources for more than 90 seconds at a time can get your account suspended or banned, which is problematic since it’s impossible to actually know how much of the server’s resources you are using.

HostGator loses 1 point for being so strict.

Control Panel

Almost every shared web host uses cPanel as their Control Panel of choice. HostGator is no different, and they use a fairly standard cPanel configuration, complete with Fantastico, which is great for quickly installing a number of things (like WordPress). IX Web Hosting does not use cPanel, though. Our IX Web Hosting Review states that IX Web Hosting uses a variation of H-Sphere, which is old and kinda tacky, but performs all the essential functions in a straightforward manner. But, if you want a familiar Control Panel, IX Web Hosting is likely lacking in that area.

Familiar:

Unfamilar:

HostGator earns 1 point for being familiar.

Customer Support

Both HostGator and IX Web Hosting have excellent customer support. They both provide support 24 hours a day through multiple avenues, they answer questions clearly and quickly, and there’s not really anything to complain about. However, IX Web Hosting does get a slight 1-up for having a call center in the USA, ensuring that you can understand what is being said when you call them. So, in this area, IX Web Hosting does better… but barely.

IX Web Hosting earns 1 point for having a US-based call center.

The Final Score

IX Web Hosting: 3

HostGator: 1

It would appear that, as it stands right now, IX Web Hosting is the winner. Lower prices, more features, and their terms of service aren’t quite as strict. However, they may only be a clear winner while their promotion is going. Once that promotion wears off, they won’t have lower prices, and that could make the comparison that much more difficult. For now, though, I can personally recommend IX Web Hosting over HostGator.

–March 2010, Steve Miller

Visit HostGator or IX Web Hosting

Features

BlueHost and IX Web Hosting claim many of the same features. From 24/7 tech support to “unlimited” storage and bandwidth, many of these features are top notch and very desirable. There are a few areas they differ in, though. For example, BlueHost allows up to 100 MySQL databases with no specified maximum size, whereas IX Web Hosting limits you to 50 MySQL databases and a 1GB maximum size at it’s lowest plan. By going for more expensive plans, you can increase IX Web Hosting’s limit to unlimited MySQL databases, but it still caps the size at 10GB. Granted, it’s actually pretty hard to use up 1GB in MySQL databases, and all that much harder to use up 10GB, but a cap versus no cap is hard to ignore.

Below is a table listing all of the differences in features based on the websites of each company:

This may look like a lot of differences, but for each one of these differences, there are 4 similarities. Both sides have details that are unspecified, and while this doesn’t mean they don’t have that feature, it seems likely that it’s the case. Either they don’t have it, or they didn’t consider it important enough to list. Either way, it’s not the best of signs.

Still, there aren’t many differences in the features between the two. They both offer a large variety of free scripts, from multimedia to blogging and even e-commerce, and all of the usual features you would expect from good hosts. Nonetheless, it seems that BlueHost just barely squeaks ahead of IX Web Hosting in terms of raw features.

Pricing

Finding a detailed pricing list for either of these two isn’t as simple as it should be. In both cases, you have to start the order process in order to see prices for their different plans, as long as you want to see more detail than the cheapest monthly price you can get through that particular web host. The true cost, including setup fees, for both hosts are as follows:

IX Web Hosting proves to be cheaper than BlueHost at every step of the way. That being said, IX Web Hosting forces you to commit to a year of hosting in order to get a decent deal, but then again, BlueHost doesn’t even offer anything under a year’s worth of hosting. So, IX Web Hosting certainly wins this round.

Terms of Service

Reading the terms of service closely on both companies will reveal a few things about their services.

First, the “unlimited” parameters I mentions earlier are not truly unlimited. How could they be? With tons of users on a single server, they can’t all have unlimited access to the limited resources available. IX Web Hosting actually gives some sort of upper bound you can watch out for in terms of size, though. IX Web Hosting, deep in their terms of service, says that the maximum number of files one user is allowed to have is 100,000 if they are using a Windows based server (not available on the lowest plan) or 300,000 files if a Linux server is chosen instead. BlueHost does not give such specifics for storage, and neither web host provides specifications for the true maximum bandwidth allowed.

However, both state that they reserve the right to limit individual users in both storage and bandwidth as they see fit to maintain a certain level of quality among all users. This is both good news and bad news. Good because nobody else can hog all the resources on a server and push a smaller site out of operation temporarily, but bad because you don’t necessarily know when you’ll need more resources or how much of the available resources you are using at any given moment.

Control Panel

BlueHost uses the industry standard cPanel, with minimal customization. Those who have used another host will likely be familiar with cPanel since almost every web host uses it. But IX Web Hosting does not. Instead, they use a variation of H-Sphere, which our IX Web Hosting review shows is very capable and not difficult to use. But, if you’re really looking for familiarity in a control panel, BlueHost might be better for you.

VERSUS

Customer Support

Both companies offered pretty impressive customer support. They were reasonably quick to respond, seemed knowledgeable, and they both have 3 ways to contact support: phone support, LiveChat, and a ticketing system. The only real difference between the two is that IX Web Hosting proudly boasts of a call center that is located in the US, which is very appreciated. So, in that sense, IX Web Hosting wins by a little bit. However, we do have a detailed account of how good the BlueHost support performs in our BlueHost Reviews here and here as well if you’d like to see firsthand how good theirs is.

The Bottom Line

If what you’re after is the best possible features, then your safest bet is to go with BlueHost. However, if you’re goal is to get a bunch of excellent features at an impressive price, then IX Web Hosting might be for you, especially since they offer a lot of the same features that BlueHost does, but at a much lower price.

www.ixwebhosting.com or www.blueHost.com

HostICan is now a part of Jumpline, Inc.

HostICan is excited to announce that Jumpline, Inc. has acquired HostICan and its hosting operations! With the acquisition finalized, we would like to take this opportunity to give you a little background on Jumpline and introduce you to the “Customer Manager” system.

About Jumpline, Inc.

Founded in 1997, Jumpline is a well established, privately owned web hosting company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. As a leader in the web hosting industry Jumpline provides top-end hosting solutions to over 150,000 business and personal websites. Learn more.

About Customer Manager

HostICan customers will have immediate access to the NEW Customer Manager. The Customer Manager, which replaces the previous HostICan billing and support systems, is a complete customer management system. The Customer Manager which is also know as the CM, provides customers the ability to manage all aspects of their account. Within the CM customers can view and pay invoices, submit support tickets, order new products or services, and update contact information.

To help answer questions you may have related to the CM, we have created a list of Frequently Asked Questions. If you still have questions after reviewing the FAQ’s please do not hesitate to give us a call at 1-888-207-0243 or 1-614-859-1171 and we’d be glad to help! Thank you for your time, we look forward to servicing your hosting needs now and well into the future!

HOSTICAN, a Jumpline company

HostGator (review), now based in Houston, started operations in 2002 as a Florida based company. A 1,300 mile drive northeast takes you to the home of HostICan (review), a company that was born in 2003 in Glen Allen, Virginia. While HostGator strives to “eat up the competition,” HostICan is busy providing “Unmetered Bandwidth.” The two hosts occupy similar areas of the hosting market. This review comparing HostGator and HostICan will look at the details of each in order to allow you to make an informed decision to select the right host.

Both HostGator and HostICan offer shared and dedicated hosting. HostGator also provides reseller hosting and HostICan provides Virtual Private hosting. The offerings of each host are summarized below:

HostGator
Shared: Linux (and Windows was coming soon at time of writing)
Reseller: Linux
Dedicated: Linux (Red Hat and CentOS) and Windows
Control Panel: cPanel for Linux, Plesk for Windows

HostICan
Shared: Linux
Virtual Private Servers: Linux and Windows
Dedicated: Linux and Windows
Control Panel: cPanel for Linux, Plesk for Windows
Merchant Accounts

If you are in need of a specific type of hosting the above information is helpful in deciding which host to choose. For example, if there is an interest in reseller hosting, the choice must be HostGator because HostICan does not provide this service.

Bandwidth

One of the main things that sets HostICan apart from their competition is that they offer unlimited bandwidth on their second tier plans. They offer two tiers of hosting plans in each hosting category: The first tier is limited bandwidth, and the second is the unlimited. HostGator only offers unlimited bandwidth on their highest shared hosting plan, but not on any other plans. Therefore if unlimited bandwidth is of value on VPS or dedicated plans, HostICan may be the choice to make. Unlimited bandwidth from HostICan can only be used for website related content, so the bandwidth cannot be used to host a download site. HostGator does not allow torrents.

Support

Support provided can often set two hosts apart. In the case of HostGator and HostICan, both hosts provide 24/7 support via toll-free numbers and email. Live chat is available from HostGator around the clock, but is provided by HostICan only during certain hours. Take a look at each host’s respective reviews individually for more information regarding the quality of support each host provides.

Money Back Guarantees

There are other important concerns when comparing hosts such as uptime and money-back guarantees. Both HostGator and HostICan guarantee 99.9% uptime. HostGator “eats up” the competition with their money-back guarantee of 45 days while HostICan provides the industry standard of 30 days. Both hosts also offer rewarding affiliate programs.

Conclusion

When choosing between HostGator and HostICan it will likely come down to what services each offers as they are both quality hosts. The specific numbers for price, disk space and bandwidth change often so check them out right before you are about to buy and see where each hosts stands for what you are looking for. If you need virtual private hosting, the choice has to be HostICan, but if you need reseller hosting you have to go with HostGator. Although you are bound to be satisfied with either host, the details can often be the difference between simply being satisfied and being happy with a host.

WWW.HOSTGATOR.COM vs WWW.HOSTICAN.COM (Jumpline)

HostGator (review) is a cPanel shared, reseller, and dedicated host based in Houston, Texas. The company hails from South Florida (hence the gator part) and moved to Houston in September 2006. HostGator is fiercely independent and uncommonly straight forward with its business and business practices. Their servers are leased from The Planet and are located in Texas.

1&1 Internet (review) claims to be the world’s largest and fastest growing web host. The German company is owned by United Internet AG, a conglomerate that serves as an ISP to more than two million German customers. The company’s newest datacenter is in Kansas City and they own or operate 4 others. 1&1 offers a lot of services ranging form exchange hosting to dedicated servers.

Which company you go with should primarily depend on what you’re looking for. 1&1 doesn’t offer cPanel and HostGator does exclusively. HostGator doesn’t offer SharePoint or Exchange hosting, but 1&1 does. The differences in services, addons, and incentives between the two hosting companies are huge – and change frequently.

Here is an overview of the services offered by each host:

HostGator:

• Domain registration
• Shared hosting (Linux only. Windows coming soon.)
• Reseller hosting (Linux only)
• Dedicated hosting (Managed. Linux only. Windows coming soon.)

1&1 Internet:

• Domain registration
• Email hosting (Exchange and regular)
• Shared web hosting (Linux and Windows)
• VPS hosting (Linux and Windows)
• Dedicated hosting (Managed and unmanaged. Linux and Windows)
• Eshops
• SharePoint

The pricing and plans from both of these web hosts are competitive. You’ll get more space and bandwidth than you could ever need for a reasonable amount of money. Like most web hosting companies, 1&1 and HostGator encourage you to signup for months and years in advance by offering discounts. They guarantee their uptime (99.9% at HostGator; 99.99% at 1&1).

One thing to keep in mind is the size of each host. 1&1 has over 3,000 employees. HostGator’s head count is around 150. There is going to be more personal attention with HostGator and you have a chance of talking to the same representatives. HostGator is largest enough where you don’t have to worry about it disappearing, but it is not huge like 1&1.

Both companies provide 24/7 support via the phone and over their respective helpdesks. Both 1&1 and HostGator have good reputations as reliable hosting companies that back their services. Both hosts offer sitebuilders with their shared hosting plans. HostGator offers a 45 day money back guarantee; 1&1 offers a 90 day money back guarantee.

So which is the best hosting service for you, 1&1 or HostGator? If you’re looking for a keep it simple type web host that offers good service at a reasonable price, go with HostGator. If you want more bells and whistles in terms of marketing and software extras or if you have requirements beyond standard web hosting, you probably want to go with 1&1.

Visit HostGator or 1&1