Krystal vs HostGator

HostGator - a quick history

HostGator has been in the industry for a long time, being formed in similar circumstances to Krystal (created in 2002, by a student). However, its story has taken a very different trajectory.

In 2012, after ten years as an independent, HostGator was acquired by Endurance International Group (EIG) for $225m.

Since being acquired, HostGator has experienced issue after issue stemming from an apparent drop in standards, including: a pattern of complaints regarding billing, customer service and uptime issues, a false advertising lawsuit and an avoidable hack that exposed 5 million client passwords.

Why choose Krystal over HostGator?

Ethics

HostGator is another (see also: GoDaddy) large hosting company that uses what many might call underhand tactics, including “dark patterns” in their websites and apps designed to trick you into making purchasing decisions.

For example, HostGator partners with other EIG-owned firms such as SiteLock and sends sneaky sales emails designed to trick you into spending money on their services. Sitelock was owned by Unitedweb, which is owned by EIG, who also owns Bluehost, Web.com, Asmallorange and over 80 different brands. HostGator auto-ticks the ‘highly recommended’ SiteLock addon in the sign up process and labels its additional price as a ‘discount’ in your basket total. At the time of writing, HostGator is auto-ticking the ‘highly recommended’ SiteLock addon in the sign up process and labelling its additional price as a ‘discount’ in your basket total. It seems designed to force you to make a conscious decision NOT to pay for it when what its offering is included free of charge at Krystal.

We believe this kind of sneakiness isn’t fair or transparent and we’d like to see HostGator/EIG stop. Learn more about dark patterns and then check out HostGator’s site to see how many you can spot!

Renewal shock

Ever noticed those all-powerful asterisks next to HostGator prices?

That’s right, all prices on HostGator’s hosting pages use the old trick of ‘introductory offers’. Seemingly low prices coupled with inflated renewals and ‘optional extras’ to entice clients in and then squeeze them for more profit. You get drawn in by the advertised price, then pressured into buying additional features that we believe should come included. Once your contract comes to an end, you’re stung for a hugely inflated renewal. And guess what? Your renewal will be for the same term length again - but at the regular (expensive) rates. What seems like a reasonably priced 3-year contract could transform into a hefty financial burden that’s hard to shake off.

The advertised ‘low’ prices are usually for long-term contracts too. But what happens if you want to try out a business hosting plan for 6 months to see if it was right for you? The actual monthly price ends up over 400% higher than the original advertised plan price on the page. Ouch! At Krystal we start with monthly pricing and then discount it if you pick a 1 or 2 year term. And we don’t employ confusing introductory pricing so you know where you stand.

Features

HostGator charges for a number of ‘extras’ that Krystal includes for free. For example, Krystal offers free website migrations for all plans. HostGator offers free content migrations within 30 days and after that for a fee. The number of sites you can migrate for free with HostGator also varies depending on which plan you’re paying for.

SSH access is only available to HostGator users on shared and dedicated plans. In contrast, all Krystal plans come with a free staging environment and SSH access.

HostGator doesn’t guarantee PCI compliance either, placing responsibility for it firmly in the hands of its clients. Krystal’s Business Hosting is guaranteed 100% PCI-DSS compliant, making it the smart choice for e-commerce businesses.

Security

The security included with HostGator plans is considered relatively weak, wth advanced security features only included on high-performance plans. It includes free SSL certificates and a server-level firewall but other tools are paid-for addons. This has the potential to lead to multiple security vulnerabilities. At Krystal we spare no expense when it comes to security and offer the latest and greatest security technology as standard. We also offer domain privacy for free - something other hosts charge for.

Most plans only include weekly backups. If you want daily backups, you’ll need to handle them yourself.