Last Updated | August 2022

HostGator is one of the biggest names in the web hosting industry. It’s extremely popular around the globe for offering fast hosting and quality service for great prices. HostGator is famous for its incredible website builder, commonly known as the “Gator.”

Gator is a super user-friendly website builder which can help even non-tech savvy people create their perfect website. The website builder is the most affordable option for beginners; that has substantial uptime and magnificent features that will enable users to create an original website.

Overview Of HostGator Website Builder

HostGator has been in this industry for more than two decades and has built an excellent reputation. Thanks to their dedication and hard work, they became one of the largest hosting providers worldwide. This fantastic company has also given us Gator, HostGator’s own website builder.
Gator has a drag-and-drop editor, hundreds of templates, and tons of features to help anyone create a unique and functioning website. The intelligent builder even includes a LogoMaker and a lot of free stuff.

A few years ago, creating a website was not an easy process, and it required coding experience. How times have changed! Thanks to Gator, everyone, even people who are just starting this business, can create the website of their dreams. Starting a website has never been easier because your website is just a few clicks ahead.

What’s the most challenging part when creating a website with Gator? Probably choosing the right template because Gator offers hundreds!

Who Should Use HostGator Website Builder?

After reading many customer reviews, I was eager to start my journey. I have read so many positive things about Gator that I couldn’t wait to start exploring its features to create a perfect HostGator Website Builder review.

The website builder is an excellent way to start a website and enter the online world quickly. The drag-and-drop editor will make you create your perfect website in only minutes.

So who is this website builder perfect for? It is probably for everyone who looks for an easy and affordable solution that will enable them to have their website. Gator is also the ideal website builder for:

• Online stores: Gators has eCommerce functionality and excellent business and marketing tools. The only downside is that some eCommerce features are limited to the cheapest plan.
• Business Websites: While Gator gives beginners the perfect opportunity to start their website, experienced people in this business find the basic features.
• Blogs: Gator’s blogging interface is simple and will allow you to customize your blog posts. Gators is an excellent and affordable option for people who want to try blogging.

Gator might be easy to use, but it lacks design flexibility. You can try this website builder to create your portfolio, but be aware that it doesn’t offer much flexibility.

This is my first time trying Gator, so I’m pretty excited to discover what kind of website I can build and how easy or difficult it will be. Join me in my journey of learning the perks of Gator while I create the ultimate HostGator Website Builder review.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Cons:

HostGator Rating: Breakdown

Ease Of Use (Is It Easy To Use HostGator Website Builder)?

HostGator website builder is famous for being the perfect website building for beginners. If you go through several customer reviews, you’ll see that Gator is user-friendly and will enable you to create your website from scratch for a couple of minutes.

You first need to choose a plan. As always, I’ll purchase the most affordable one. Once you click on Buy now, you have to select a billing cycle, sign up for a new domain, or already connect your previous domain with Gator. You can sign up with Google and Facebook.

Next, you have to choose a payment method. If you decide to pay with a credit card, type in your card information and your billing address.

Once the purchase is confirmed, you can create your website based on your needs.

To create a website, you have two options:

• Express: Use the automatic editor that will enable you to create a mobile-friendly site fast
• Traditional: by using the drag and drop editor to create a more detailed editing

If you go with the Express option, you first need to pick what your site is about. You have several available options, and if you don’t see the option you want, you can type it in yourself.

You then have to give your site a name and choose your cover image.

You can also add your logo, and if you don’t already have one, you can use HostGator’s logo maker. Then you have to pick a font, choose your site colors, the contrasting style, brand colors, navigation style, and lastly, add your contact info. HostGator website builder will use the contact info to set up your contact forms, maps, etc.

As you can see, signing up is pretty straightforward, and in only a couple of minutes, you’ll be able to create a website. If you go with the traditional way, the drag-and-drop editor will allow you to drag anything from the side plan into your website. This tool will also enable you to position anything where you want it.

When it comes to text, you’ll be able to change fonts, switch colors and resize with ease. The same goes for images as well; you can resize them, manage them and even add extra features like videos, social media posts, etc.

HostGator website builder gets a score of 9.8 for ease of use because it is the most user-friendly website builder. Everything is straightforward, and even the non-tech-savvy people can navigate the platform perfectly.

HostGator Website Builder Value For Money – Pricing & Plans

HostGator website builder is not your typical builder. It will automatically create your site in an optimized layout, and you’ll be able to run your website in minutes. There are three available website builder plans that HostGator website builders were on 50% off at the moment. The plan prices range from $3.84/month to $9.22/month.

Express Start is the most affordable among the plans, and you’ll get essential tools that will help you create a website. If you’re planning to create an online store, you’ll be allowed to have only three products in the store. Also, you would have to pay a 3% eCommerce transaction fee. The reality is that you can get enough tools and features to make and run a portfolio or personal website for that price.

If you’re planning on running a small business, the Express site plan is a great option. It’s slightly better than the Express start plan, and it has options for appointments and booking that the basic plans lack. Also, you’ll be able to add ten products to your online store. Another awesome thing about this plain is that you; ‘ll be getting priority customer support.

If you’re willing to spend more, Express stores are the ultimate solution for small businesses. It offers all the features of the two cheapest plans, plus it has an unlimited number of products on the online store. You’ll also be getting advanced shipping management and no eCommerce transaction fee for the price.

Templates (Design Flexibility)

HostGator website builder contains more than 200 professional templates. The templates are divided into categories:

• Architecture & real Estate
• Beauty and fashion
• Blog
• Business & Consultant
• Computer & Technology
• Contruction & Trade
• Design & Creative
• Hotels & Travel
• Lifestyle
• Music& Entertainment
• Online Store
• Pet & Animals  and many more

If you don’t want to waste time searching through the categories, you can use the Search button and instantly find what you’re looking for. Before choosing a template, you have the option to preview it to get an idea of what your website will look like.

Once the template is set, you’ll be able to design your website as you like it and add sections, pages, and elements. You can change the style of the template, attach links, add some background images, etc. You can even create a blog and add it to your website.

Here are some examples of the templates that the website builder provides.

The most popular template is the blog template, which you can use to create your own customized personal blog. There are 18 templates available, which can be customized and transformed to perfectly fit your needs.

The newest addition in the template section is the Design&Photography template, where you can create your portfolio. You can easily attach your photography and design images and even create a contact form where visitors can contact you for collaborations.

Although more than 200 professional templates are available, the templates are pretty basic, and some even lack creativity. This is why the HostGator website builder got a score of 8.9.

Features and Tools

HostGator website builder is an excellent, intelligent builder that will enable you to have a functional website in minutes. I’ve gone through many HostGator website builder customer reviews, and customers praised the features offered. Let’s dive into the unique features and tools provided by the Gator.

1. Global Presence

HostGator has been on the hosting market for more than two-decade. Their dedication and hard work made them one of the most popular web hosting providers globally. Their website builder is slowly but surely gaining popularity as well. The famous brand is globally known and spread across multiple counties globally. HostGator and their renowned Gator can be found in the USA, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia,  Malaysia, Singapore, and Turkey. If you have a legacy account abroad, you can also access HostGator and Gator in Africa and Russia.

2. Security

If you want to run a website successfully, you need to pay extra attention to security. Most user experts show that security is the customer’s number one priority. HostGator website builder has a free SSL certificate in all three available plans. The SSL certificates will provide security for your website’s domains and subdomains by encrypting the communication between the visitors of your website and the server.

3. Domain Names

HostGator website builder provides free domain registration. Unfortunately, you have to purchase a 12,24 or 36-month plan to get a free domain name. This offer applies to the domains available at purchasing and is not available under any other hosting plans. After one year, your domain will renew at the regular rate.

4. Social Media Integration

Thanks to the social media integration, the HostGator website builder will help you attract more traffic to your website. You don’t need only SEO tools to boost your traffic; you can also use social media. You can embed content from the most popular social media directly into your site and keep your online presence connected. The website builder can be directly connected with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

5. App Market

The App market contains many valuable add-ons created by developers, which you can use with your site builder account. By adding apps, you can increase or automate your tools. For business, you have the priority support add-on, which will enable you to get help faster to keep your business running smoothly.

If your website is oriented toward marketing, you can get the Bing Ad Credit, getting you $100 in search advertising when you spend $25 on Microsoft advertising.

When it comes to security, you can view and restore the previous versions of your site with the help of the Save History add-on.

6. Mobile App

HostGator website builder contains a mobile version of your website that you can edit and customize separately from your desktop site. Once you enter the mobile editing interface, you can edit your website. The downside is that the mobile version lacks some tools, but you’ll be able to hide elements, change the spacing of page elements, alignment, etc. You’ll also be able to customize the sections and background and even make some changes in your online store if you have one.

7. Blog

Most HostGator website builder reviews claim that this website builder is the perfect solution for bloggers. My expert review confirms this. This website builder has excellent blogging tools to help you create your perfect personal blog. There are various blogging templates with modern designs that will come in handy. You can create a post, add tags to your post, edit the post’s URL, etc. You’ll also be allowed to add links and headings and add inline videos and images. Pin your blog posts so that they’ll remain at the top of your blog or feature a pot to be highlighted in your posts timeline. You’ll have complete control over your posts so that you can customize them in any way you want it.

8. Logo Maker

If you want to succeed in this business, you need a logo. Your logo is the first thing your customers will see, and it’s the emblem of your brand. You don’t have to spend tons of money hiring a professional graphic designer to create your logo because you can do it yourself with the help of the HostGator website builder’s logo maker.

Once you type in your brand name and slogan, you can customize the name and slogan, colors, the font size, letter spacing, line height, change the logo’s shape, add symbols, etc. Everything is customizable so that you can create your desired brand logo.

9. Business Features

HostGator’s website builder is not only for personal use but also for small businesses. You’ll be able to create an excellent website for your small business and get your business running smoothly. What’s great about this website builder is that it offers many top-notch features to help your business thrive.

1. Marketing

If you want your website to succeed, it needs an excellent marketing tool. This primarily implies to online shop owners. You can’t build a good brand without proper marketing and make a decent income. The online marketing tools provided by the HostGator website builder are designed primarily to help people thrive in this business.

You’ll be able to set up a professional email once you’re done with creating your HostGator website builder website. Having a professional website will ensure your customer is serious about doing business.

Your customized website created by HostGator website builder can be directly connected with the most popular social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This will bring in more traffic to your site and enable your site to grow.

2. Selling Online

HostGator website builder offers eCommerce. You’ll be able to create and run your online store super quickly and make an income. You’ll be able to sell your products online and index your site with leading search engines. Your online store can be done in 5 simple steps:

1. Type in your business information because it’ll be used on invoices, taxes, and customer communications. You have to type in your company’s name, country, state, street name, city, postal code, and phone number and choose a currency your online store will use.
2. The second step is to set up your payment method. HostGator website builder advises you to use PayPal to process the payments easily. They recommend PayPal because it will allow your online store to accept credit cards, and the fees start at 2.59% plus 49 cents per transaction.
3.  The next thing you have to do is add a shipping charge. HostGator website builder will automatically calculate and charge the taxes to your customers based on location.
4. It’s time to add your product. With the plan I purchased, I’m allowed to add only three items in the store. You can add your items manually, move them from another platform or insert a CSV file. Name the product or service you’re selling and describe it. You also have advanced feature sections where you can add discounts, discount codes, integrate shipping, etc.
5. Lastly, to wrap things up, you can create your storefront.

Creating an online store is simple, and it will not take a lot of your time. Depending on how many items you want to list in your store, you can upgrade your plan. The eCommerce offered by HostGator website builder is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. This is probably the most affordable way to start your online store that will function properly.

3. SEO

Gator also included SEO tools in all three of the available plans. The SEO tools can be used on the home, menu, about, and contact page at the store and product. Create an SEO that optimizes page title and description to improve the page’s appearance in search results. It’s super simple to edit your post and make it more SEO friendly, and another awesome thing is that you can also edit the site’s URL.

4. Email Marketing

I’ve gone over countless HostGator website builder reviews, and what I learned was that the email marketing provided by the company is excellent. You’ll be able to send emails to create campaigns in announcements, blog posts, events, newsletters, product shares, sales, and postcards. You can make your email pop by choosing the same template as your website or another template from the provided list. You can edit the campaign as you want it; add a banner, button, discount, logo, event, feedback, etc. If you lack campaign ideas, don’t worry. HostGator website builder also has a special section called Campaign ideas, where you can get excellent ideas on how to build an outstanding campaign.

5. Bookings

Another excellent marketing tool is Bookings. This free tool will enable all your clients to make an appointment with you. Through this section, you can manage your schedule from anywhere, offer promotions and multiple services, set up automated email responses, and automatically book appointments.

You have two options available to add online booking:

• Create a standalone booking page

This option is for users who don’t have a website with HostGator website builder. You can easily set up a standalone booking page. This page is a mini-website that can be linked from anywhere

• Embed our booking tool

You can use the booking tool created by HostGator website builder for customers to book appointments directly from your website.

Performance

The reality is that website builders are not very fast in general. Before doing this HostGator website builder brand review, I had high expectations about their performance. Why? Probably because HostGator is one of the best and fastest hosting providers globally, I couldn’t expect less from a service created by the best. You can’t be successful in this market for more than two decades without providing top performance.

Our team of experts tested the performance of the Gator, so let’s move forward without the Hostgator website builder brand review to find out.

1. Speed Page

As I expected, the HostGator website builder is pretty fast for a builder. Our test showed that the performance is 97%, which is pretty great. The site can be loaded in just a second, and your site can become interactive for less than a second. Also, we didn’t see any huge problems with the site optimizations. Overall, the Gator is not only a great website builder but also a fast one.

2. Uptime and Response time

We testes the Gator’s uptime in two weeks. Our testing demonstrated that the Gator is a stable website builder. During the two-week test period, the builder didn’t go down once.

Help and Customer Support

When I do expert reviews, one of the things I pay most attention to is customer support. Customers will never purchase from a company again if that company has lousy customer support, and many customers review back this info up.
Before we wrap this HostGator website builder review, let’s see what kind of support we can get. If you experience any issues with their service, you can contact HostGator through email, live chat, and phone number.

If you decide to call them, you need to know that their tech support teams are available from Monday to Friday to 10 pm. You can also use the live chat option to get a quick response. If you prefer emailing, send HostGator an email explaining your issue, and you’ll get an answer as soon as possible.

Another great option to get an answer to your question is through the HostGator website builder’s Knowledge base. This knowledge base is different from the HostGator knowledge base, and it contains information only about the website builder. Their rich Knowledge base has getting started guides, valuable articles, and a FAQ section.

I always test the live chat to see if they’re fast, as you’ve probably noticed. So I clicked on the live chat button and typed in a random question. I patiently waited for a response, and it arrived in less than two minutes.

HostGator Website Builder Example Sites

The website builder has been used by thousands of users worldwide, so let’s look at some of the websites created by the HostGator website builder.

GourmetGiftBaskets.com ( gift basket online store)

The Gourmet Gift Baskets is a website that sells baked goods, beer gifts, and charcuterie gifts. All the products are presented with an image displayed on the eCommerce online store. The website has a minimalistic design, but the colorful images give a nice pop of color.

Jennings Landscape Construction (Landscaping website)

Jennings Landscape Construction is a landscaping website where the company lists all the landscaping services they offer. The website is pretty basic, containing only the Home, Services, and About us buttons. Nevertheless, it’s an excellent website for promoting landscaping services.

Arboles Animal Clinic ( Pet website and online pharmacy shop)

This is a website for an animal clinic that provides information about the available services. The website also operates as an online pharmacy, where clients can order their pet medications. The site offers many services, and it’s a perfect example of how an informational website can function as a shop.

HostGator Website Builder Summary

Created by the globally known HostGator, the Gator is an excellent website builder that offers more than 200 professional templates. This website builder is the perfect tool to help you create the best personal website, portfolio, online shop, and even a small business.

Although most claim that the tools are pretty basic, the reality is that the basic tool will get the job done perfectly. You can easily create your website from scratch, even if you don’t have previous experience. The platform is user-friendly, and you can easily navigate it.
If you desire to own an online shop, you can also create it with the help of HostGator’s website builder. Depending on the plan you purchase, you’ll be able to sell 3, 10, or an unlimited number of products.

You don’t have a logo and don’t have money to hire a professional? Don’t worry, HostGator website builder is here for you. With a few simple clicks, you’ll be able to create your logo for free.

The HostGator website builder is the perfect package for beginners and small businesses that want to have a running website. It has all the tools to customize and create a website that perfectly fits your needs. The features might be basic, but it’s a great deal for the price. Also, if you need more tools and features, you can always upgrade your plan anytime you want. Not to mention that this website builder is one of the fastest website builders around.

HostGator Website Builder User Reviews

Being a product of one of the most significant hosting companies in the world, the Gator has been reviewed by hundreds of users. The user reviews are mixed, although the positive reviews outweigh the negatives.

Most users were satisfied with the HostGator website builder because it’s simple to use, and some especially liked the fact that you can automatically make their website. The dashboard is pretty straightforward and user-friendly. You’ll know just what to do if you follow the instructions carefully. Users also appreciate that everything is customizable to fit their needs perfectly, from fonts, templates, and images, to buttons, links,

Another advantage of this website builder is that it helps users create their blog and online shop. The process is also straightforward, and all you need to do is follow a few steps. Most of all, users love that this website builder is reliable and provides excellent speed and uptime. And, of course, in almost any user review I read, I have to mention that everyone praised customer support, especially the one through the phone.

Now, let’s discuss what made users unhappy. Although the initial price is pretty affordable, they were disappointed that the renewal price is higher. Also, users consider this website builder to be pretty basic. So when it comes to the design, people had somewhat mixed feelings.