Comparison & Experience With Both of 1&1 Hosting vs. HostGator (Part II)

Comparison & Experience With Both of 1&1 Hosting vs. HostGator (Part II)

Performance

A web host’s primary purpose is to serve up your website files as quickly and as reliably as possible whenever a visitor navigates to your URL. All reputable hosts guarantee 99.9% uptime (in other words, you may have about 1 hour of downtime per year). Both HostGator and 1&1 claim that their internal metrics match those numbers.

There’s always going to be a lot of anecdotal evidence either way. Customers for 1&1 often claim that they have had significant downtime. A lot of HostGator customers experienced a day’s worth of downtime when they switched data centers in August 2013 (my sites weren’t affected, but numerous others were).

It’s tough to make judgments on future uptime based on the past for all web hosts – since even Google and Amazon do go occasionally. So, I’d say that both are going to give you solid uptime (but always make sure you keep your own backups), and look at things that you can measure – like delivering your files quickly.

There are a lot of variables that go into how quickly your website can load – but the factor that you can specifically look at to gauge host performance is time to first byte (TTFB) – again, there are a lot of other factors, but this is the only one you can distinguish from website setup. This is a measurement of how long the server takes to acknowledge the request and start returning files.

In other words, if you walked up to a counter and asked someone to go into the back of the store to grab a package, TTFB would be how long they just stood there before running into the back of the store.

Additionally, “Speed Index” is a metric that gauges all the other factors. In this case they are apple to apple comparison since I have identical WordPress setups going on. Again by that metric, HostGator has significantly better performance than 1&1 hosting.



If we were to compare 1&1 hosting vs. HostGator on performance alone – it would be no contest. But performance and features don’t matter unless you can actually use them, which is why for all of my hosting reviews I like to look at usability as well.

Usability

All hosting accounts have a “backend” setup where you go to manage your server account – sort of like how you use Windows 7 or OSX to manage your personal computer.

HostGator uses cPanel, which is the standard across the industry. It’s cluttered and not pretty, but it is straightforward and fairly easy to find what you are looking for, especially since they put all the information on the main page. Additionally, since it’s mostly standard across a lot of hosting companies, it’s easy to find help and support around the internet for it. Here’s what it looks like.

1&1 hosting, however, uses a custom backend to manage their hosting accounts. In theory, this would be great because they can customize it exactly to meet the needs of their customers…but it turns into a bit of a usability disaster. It is admittedly prettier than HostGator. However, several key settings (like DNS information) are buried while others (such as Global PHP settings are emphasized. Here’s what it looks like…

Even though there are a lot of overall usability issues with 1&1, my 3 specific issues are:

1. They hide the DNS information behind Domain Transfers. It’s a pretty overt attempt to upsell their domain services and encourage customers to transfer the registration of their domain to 1&1. Instead, they should easily provide the DNS information to allow customers with domains elsewhere to still use 1&1 hosting.

In contrast to HostGator – DNS information (and FTP) information is something you receive in your signup email and is on the main dashboard of the hosting account.
HostGator Email Receipt

Most hosting companies sent this info .1&1 does not

2. 1&1 hosting’s main market is first-time website owners and small business owners, but their backend setup makes app setup (such as WordPress) very hard, and more technical than it should be. HostGator uses the QuickInstall which is an actual 2 step process, whereas 1&1 puts their WordPress install within an App Center, and uses a more technical 5 step process.

3. Error messages are a frequent appearance on 1&1 hosting. And they are often for very mundane actions…like hitting the back button.

Additionally, many other basic functions such as installing databases fail much more often than HostGator.

Overall, even though HostGator’s backend is not pretty – but it’s usable and very functional. 1&1 has lots of usability issues that make it a frustrating choice for me – but especially for any first time hosting account customer. Major points to HostGator.

Customer Service

HostGator both cover the spectrum of phone, email, chat, forum, and knowledgebase support. I’ve had good experiences with HostGator for several years – even though I have not had to contact support all that often. I’ve averaged about 2 to 4 minute phone waits, and chat is usually instantly available.

1&1 hosting support has typically been fine, but not quite good. Their support is fast (usually under a minute wait) and cordial, but not super knowledgeable. They seem to view support as a cost center rather than a marketing & retention channel. My most recent experience was trying to get a database installation error fixed.

The support was fast and cordial, but she simply tried to solve the issue by re-creating it herself. She had to put me on hold to bring in the technical supervisor (apparently they have line customer service which is supported by a handful tech people).

The hold was taking a while, so I asked to be contacted by email once the issue was resolved. It was fixed and I was emailed just 5 minutes later. Again, it was fine – and much better than other many other hosts, but not quite to the level of HostGator’s good, but consistent support.


Conclusion

Typically, I different companies offer a better or worse fit depending on your goals. For 1&1 Hosting vs. HostGator – I’d say the following:
If you are looking for super-cheap hosting and don’t mind tight limitations, then 1&1’s starter plan might be a good fit for you (see their promotions here).
Otherwise, I’d say that 1&1 hosting is a big brand with great prices and lots of features, but really can’t match HostGator in any other category for overall value.
If you are looking for longer-term hosting at a good price point with good performance, solid usability, and useful features – you should check out HostGator’s plans here. You can also use the coupon code swampland25 to receive 25% off at signup.