How To Buy Web Hosting From Hostgator
To start a website or a blog you need web hosting. In this post, I go over how to buy hosting from Hostgator step by step.
I’ll also be providing you with a Hostgator promo code that will get you up to 60% off your Hostgator hosting purchase + a free domain for annual plans and $4.99 for non-annual plans. By the end of this post, you will know how to purchase hosting from Hostgator.
Reasons To Buy Hosting From Hostgator
Before we get into the step-by-step guide on how to buy hosting from Hostgator I first want to quickly go over reasons why purchasing hosting from Hostgator is an excellent choice.
Hostgator has competitive pricing. You can get Hostgator hosting for as low as $2.75 a month. Hostgator offers a 45-day money-back guarantee and has a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
I personally use Hostgator for this blog and any other sites that I create. I’ve had excellent service and always had a good experience with their technical support team. I highly recommend you choose Hostgator as your hosting provider.
Video Tutorial: How To Buy Hosting From Hostgator
How To Buy Hosting From Hostgator
The first step in buying web hosting with Hostgator is to visit Hostgator by clicking here. You will now be on the Hostgator home page.
You will see where it says powerful web hosting. Click the orange learn more button to move on to the next step in this how to buy hosting from Hostgator guide.
You will now on a page that shows three different plans consisting of the hatchling, baby, and business plan.
The hatchling plan is a good plan if you only have one website and are just starting out. You can always scale up to a different plan at a later date if you need too.
The baby plan is the most popular plan as it allows you to have unlimited websites.
The business plan comes with a free upgrade to a positive SSL certificate, free dedicated IP, and a free Hostgator add-on Hostgator SEO tools.
When you decide on the plan, you would like to go with click the yellow buy now button to continue with our how to buy hosting from Hostgator guide.
Next, you want to choose a domain name by typing the domain name that you would like to have.
Over on the right, you can select the domain extension you would like to use. For example, .com, .net, .org etc. I recommend going with a .com if you can as this is the most popular domain extension today.
If the domain name is unavailable, Hostgator will let you know. It will show other domain extensions your domain name is available with. You can also try adding another word in with the domain like the or a hyphen.
If you already own your own domain name from another domain provider like Godaddy or Namecheap you will click the I already own this domain and enter the domain name that you own. Once you do that it will say added.
Related: how to register domain name from Namecheap.
If you don’t already have your own domain name once you select your domain name scroll down and you will see an area where you can select if you want domain privacy on your domain or not.
I highly recommend you go with domain privacy. It will protect your personal information and you won’t have to deal with telemarketers trying to sell you their services constantly on the phone or get spam email.
Here’s how your information will be protected if you choose to go with domain privacy. Hostgator’s information they have set up will show instead of yours.
If you do have your own domain name, I want to mention that you’ll need to change your Hostgator nameservers to point to Hostgator from the domain registrar company you got your domain name from.
Need help finding your Hostgator nameservers? Check out our helpful guide.
Check out our step-by-step guide on how to point a Namecheap domain to Hostgator.
Check out our step-by-step guide on how to point a Godaddy domain to Hostgator.
Next, you want to choose your hosting plan. Click on package type and select the plan that you would like if it already isn’t selected by default.
Next, you want to choose the billing cycle for your Hostgator hosting purchase. The wonderful folks over at Hostgator have provided me with an exclusive 60% off coupon discount so you can get hosting at a cheaper rate than what is listed here.
The promo code is cupid60. Scroll down to section 5 where it says to enter a coupon code. You will see a coupon code that is already there. This coupon code gives you the maximum discount if you choose to host your site for 24 or 36 months.
If you are purchasing your Hostgator hosting for one month, three months, six months, or twelve months the promo code cupid60 will give you the maximum discount.
Let me show you so you can compare. Here’s the pricing with the pre-populated promo code.
Here’s the pricing with the promo code cupid60.
Use whichever promo code gives you the greatest discount. After you’ve decided on the right promo code and have chosen your billing cycle you want to enter the username you want and a security pin.
The username will be what you use when logging into Hostgator, and the security pin is used if you contact Hostgator customer service.
Next, in this how to buy hosting from Hostgator guide you want to enter your billing information and how you would like to pay. You can pay via card or PayPal.
You now want to select or unselect any additional services that you would like to have or exclude.
Hostgator Sitelock protects your site from hackers. If you are going to be using WordPress for your site, there are free alternatives in the form of plugins that you could use that work just as great as Sitelock Security. Entirely up to you though.
Professional email from Google. This is unnecessary as Hostgator already provides you with free email hosting. I recommend you unselect this.
Hostgator Codeguard will backup your website daily in case something happens and your site goes down or gets a bug. This addon will let you restore your site to a previous version before the trouble started with a click of a button.
Codeguard can be good to have as you never know when something might happen. If you are going to be using WordPress, there are free plugins that will back up your site and let you restore it as well.
Next, you will be at the enter a coupon code. You should have already picked out the coupon code that you wanted to use. Below this, you will see review order details.
Just make sure it looks good. Scroll down and select you have read and agreed to the terms and conditions and click checkout now.
You’ll now be directed to a payment confirmation page, and Hostgator is now setting up your account. This will only take a few seconds to minutes.
At this time Hostgator is also going to email you your Hostgator receipt and your Hostgator CPanel login details. Once you get the login details, click the link in the email to log in to the Hostgator CPanel.
The last thing I want to go over in this how to buy hosting from Hostgator guide is an introduction to the Hostgator CPanel. Once you are logged in the Hostgator CPanel will look like this.
Over on the left side menu click on website essentials and then you’ll click on Site Builder and CMS. You will see website builder, WordPress, and One-Click Installs.
If you want to use Hostgator’s website builder click on website builder to continue in creating your site. If you’re going to use WordPress, click the WordPress option.
If you want to use another website builder like Magento, Drupal, etc. Click this option to select which one you want to use.
You should now successfully have purchased hosting from Hostgator.
Looking to start a WordPress blog with Hostgator? Check out the step-by-step guide.
Need to add more than one domain to your Hostgator hosting account? Check out our how to add addon domain in Hostgator guide.
Check out our post on how to change primary domain in Hostgator.
Check out a related post on signing up with Hostgator.
Related: how to buy web hosting from Bluehost.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed and found this step by step guide on how to buy hosting from Hostgator helpful.
Let us know in the comments below if you were successful! We would love to hear from you.
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