HostGator vs Unbounce: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

HostGator and Unbounce both offer unique strengths, catering to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  HostGator (Overall Grade: 6.2/10)
  
  is a versatile website builder and hosting platform, ideal for users looking for an all-in-one solution. It excels in providing a wide range of customizable templates and robust hosting services. HostGator is particularly suitable for small to medium-sized businesses and individuals who need a straightforward, user-friendly platform to create and manage their websites. However, it may fall short for users seeking advanced ecommerce features or more sophisticated design capabilities.
• 
  Unbounce (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)
  
  stands out for its focus on creating high-converting landing pages, popups, and sticky bars. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and a variety of templates designed to optimize conversion rates. Unbounce is particularly favored by marketers and businesses looking to enhance their digital marketing campaigns and capture leads effectively. While it may not offer the same breadth of features as HostGator for general website building, its specialized tools make it a powerful choice for targeted marketing efforts.

	Overall grade: 6.2	Overall grade: 6.4
Design functionalities & templates	7.9	7.8
Ease of use	8.0	8.2
Ecommerce	6.3	4.8
Website Editors	7.3	7.5
Product testing options	2.6	6.6
Price	6.2	7.0
Hosting quality	8.0	3.9
Website speed optimization	6.2	5.6
Plugins and integrations	7.3	6.8
Marketing features	6.9	7.4
Customer support	7.3	7.7
Security	7.4	8.4
AI capabilities	2.6	7.5
User Management	3.2	7.2

Best for ecommerce

6.3

4.8

Verdict

: HostGator is more suitable for users looking to build a comprehensive online store, while Unbounce excels in creating high-converting landing pages with ecommerce integrations.

• 
  HostGator
  
  : HostGator’s website builder is designed for users who want to create a full-fledged online store. It offers a variety of ecommerce features, including secure online payments, unlimited products, and multi-channel inventory management. However, it has limitations on lower-tier plans, which might restrict smaller businesses. HostGator’s ecommerce score is 6.3.
• 
  Unbounce
  
  : Unbounce is tailored for creating and optimizing landing pages, making it ideal for businesses focused on conversion rates. It integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Ecwid, but lacks the comprehensive ecommerce features found in HostGator. Unbounce’s ecommerce score is 4.8.

Best for informational & business websites

7.4

5.9

• 
  HostGator
  
  : HostGator excels in providing a user-friendly website builder with a variety of customizable templates suitable for different types of websites, including business sites. Its drag-and-drop interface and extensive template collection make it easy for users to create professional-looking websites without technical expertise. HostGator also offers robust hosting services and 24/7 customer support, making it a reliable choice for maintaining an online presence. With a score of 7.4, HostGator is well-suited for informational business websites.
• 
  Unbounce
  
  : Unbounce is designed specifically for creating high-converting landing pages, popups, and sticky bars. While it offers a user-friendly interface and a range of templates, its focus on conversion optimization makes it less ideal for general informational business websites. Unbounce integrates well with marketing tools and analytics platforms, making it a strong choice for marketers. However, with a score of 5.9, it falls short in comparison to HostGator for creating and managing informational business websites.

Detailed comparison

7.9

7.8

🏆

Winner: HostGator.

Although both builders offer a variety of templates and design flexibility, HostGator edges out Unbounce with a slightly higher score.

HostGator website builder provides a substantial variety of design templates, catering to different user needs and preferences. It offers over 200 different mobile-friendly themes. Additionally, there’s a separate collection of 4,500 templates available for free download to users hosting their sites on HostGator servers, which are not interchangeable with the site builder’s own templates. This vast collection ensures that users have a wide range of design options to choose from, whether they seek simplicity for a professional presence or more intricate designs for complex websites.

On the other hand, Unbounce provides a gallery of over 100 high-converting templates for landing pages, popups, and sticky bars. These templates are designed with conversion in mind, incorporating knowledge and insights gained from Unbounce’s experience in optimizing landing pages. Users have the flexibility to choose from these ready-to-use templates or start with a blank canvas to create their own designs using Unbounce’s drag-and-drop builder.

Unbounce Themes

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8.0

8.2

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. With a score of 8.2, Unbounce slightly edges out HostGator, which scored 8.0. Unbounce is praised for its intuitive drag-and-drop builder and a wide selection of templates, making it easy for users to design and customize landing pages. HostGator, on the other hand, is also user-friendly and facilitates fast website creation, but it may not be ideal for complex websites or larger businesses due to its basic themes and limited advanced tools.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce offers a rich collection of learning resources designed to help users maximize their platform’s capabilities, including a comprehensive Help Centre, the Unprompted Podcast for marketing insights, and a Video Library for visual learning. HostGator also offers a range of learning resources and features, but it does not have as extensive a collection as Unbounce.

6.3

4.8

HostGator and Unbounce offer different ecommerce capabilities. HostGator’s website builder includes ecommerce features, allowing users to create an online store where they can sell products and services directly from their website. The ecommerce functionality includes features such as product management, inventory tracking, secure payment gateways, and options for shipping and tax calculations. However, on lower Express Start and Express Site plans there’s a significant limit on the number of products: 3 and 10 respectively, and unlimited number of products on higher Express Store plan.

Ecommerce themes and templates	7.0	2.0
Product page customization	6.5	3.0
Payment processing and commissions	6.0	6.5
POS capabilities	5.0	0.0
Payment gateways	5.5	7.0
Product numbers	4.5	0.0
Additional ecommerce features	6.5	4.5

HostGator ecommerce features:

• Secure Online Payments
• Unlimited Products
• Product Search & Filtering
• Wishlists & Gift Cards
• Multi-Channel Inventory Management
• Shipping Labels

Unbounce ecommerce features:

• Shopify, Ecwid, or and other ecommerce solutions integration

Ecommerce themes & templates

When it comes to ecommerce themes and templates, HostGator’s website builder caters to eCommerce needs by offering a broad selection of free templates, all designed with mobile responsiveness in mind. These templates are equipped with essential eCommerce features such as product catalogs and payment processing options. The platform is user-friendly, enabling users to effortlessly create professional-looking online stores tailored to their specific requirements, all without the need for any coding knowledge. Unbounce primarily focuses on building landing pages, and does not have ecommerce specific templates.

Product page customization

In terms of product page customization, HostGator Website Builder offers basic features for customizing product pages, enabling users to add products with details such as name, price, description, and images. It supports product variants and categorization to enhance customer navigation. Advanced settings include inventory management, discount options, and the ability to set products as shippable or downloadable. Unbounce does have the possibility to create or customize product pages, it’s primarily focused on building landing pages, with the possibility to integrate with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify or Ecwid.

Payment processing

For payment processing, HostGator Website Builder integrates with PayPal as a payment gateway for processing transactions. The platform charges 3% transaction fee on Express Store and Express Site plans, no transaction fees are charged on higher Express Store plan. Unbounce supports payment processing through an integration with Stripe, allowing users to create landing pages that can handle transactions directly, with Stripe facilitating global payments in over 135 currencies. Unbounce itself does not mention charging additional fees for transactions, implying that fees are subject to Stripe’s own pricing structure. The platform is focused on optimizing online conversions and does not offer Point of Sale (POS) capabilities, as its core features are designed for enhancing digital experiences such as landing pages and pop-ups.

7.3

7.5

🏆

Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce, with a score of 7.5, offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, enabling users to design and customize landing pages without the need for coding skills. It offers a variety of templates, widgets, and elements such as forms and buttons, alongside options for integrating custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for advanced customization. The platform supports responsive design, ensuring landing pages perform well across all devices, and includes features for A/B testing and dynamic text replacement to optimize conversion rates. Additionally, it allows for the integration of various marketing tools and platforms, enhancing the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns.

HostGator’s website builder, scoring 7.3, offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, enabling users to easily create and customize their websites without needing any coding knowledge. It provides a wide range of templates that are fully customizable, allowing for the personalization of layouts, colors, and fonts to match the user’s brand identity. Additionally, the editor supports the integration of various multimedia elements like images, videos, and social media links, enhancing the visual appeal and functionality of the website. Users can also access advanced features such as eCommerce tools for online stores, SEO settings to improve search engine visibility, and mobile-responsive design to ensure the website looks great on all devices.

Mobile editor/app

4.0

0

🏆

Winner: HostGator

. Neither HostGator nor Unbounce offer a dedicated mobile editor app. However, HostGator allows for some small changes using a mobile browser, while Unbounce does not offer any mobile editing capabilities. Therefore, HostGator is the winner in this category, offering a slight edge in terms of mobile editing capabilities.

2.6

6.6

Overall Result

:

Unbounce Wins

. Unbounce scores 6.6, significantly higher than HostGator’s 2.6. Unbounce offers a 14-day free trial, during which users can test all premium features, although billing information is required. HostGator, on the other hand, does not offer a free or trial version, but allows testing of all features within a 30-day refundable period.

Free Plan	No	No
Trial Duration	No	14 days
Testing Premium Features	Within 30-day refundable period	During 14-day free trial
Money Back Guarantee	30-day (with exceptions)	No

6.2

7.0

Unbounce’s plans are more expensive than HostGator’s, but they offer more advanced features and cater to larger businesses and agencies.

	Offerings	Offerings
$10-$14	Express Start ($12.95/month): Includes hosting, basic analytics dashboard, 3 email campaigns per month, up to 3 products. Value for price: 6.0	No offering at this amount.
$14-$20	Express Site ($14.98/month): Offers hosting, advanced analytics dashboard, 5 email campaigns per month, up to 10 products. Value for price: 7.0	No offering at this amount.
$20-$30	Express Store ($26.98/month): Comprehensive plan including hosting, advanced analytics dashboard, 10 email campaigns per month, unlimited products. Value for price: 8.5	No offering at this amount.
$90-$100	No offering at this amount.	Build ($99.00/month): Provides tools for building and launching high-converting landing pages, unlimited pages, popups, sticky bars, a form builder, free hosting, AI copywriting, custom scripts, 1,000+ integrations, support for 1 root domain with unlimited subdomains, catering up to 20,000 monthly unique visitors. Value for price: 6.5
$100-$200	No offering at this amount.	Experiment ($149.00/month): Includes everything in the Build plan plus unlimited A/B tests, advanced reporting, dynamic text replacement, support for 2 root domains, and up to 30,000 monthly unique visitors. Value for price: 7.5
$200-$300	No offering at this amount.	Optimize ($249.00/month): Adds to the Experiment plan with AI traffic optimization, visitor behavior insights, advanced targeting, supports 3 root domains, and caters to up to 50,000 monthly unique visitors. Value for price: 8.0
$600+	No offering at this amount.	Concierge (Starting at $649/month): Offers everything in the Optimize plan plus dedicated support, implementation services, client and user management, flexible add-on plans for scaling, starting with 5 root domains and 100,000 monthly unique visitors, with options to scale. Value for Price: 9.0

8.0

3.9

🏆

Winner: HostGator

HostGator offers a variety of hosting types including shared, managed WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting, with unlimited storage and bandwidth. It also provides an uptime guarantee of 99.9% and has data centers in multiple locations. Unbounce, on the other hand, does not specify the type of hosting it provides and does not disclose the locations of its data centers, which results in a lower hosting quality score.

Do they offer hosting?	Yes, offers four main types of hosting: shared, managed WordPress, VPS, and dedicated hosting, with unlimited storage and bandwidth. The platform has automatic backup service which runs once a week on a random day.	Yes, however the platform does not specify the type of hosting it provides
Data Centers:	4 data centers: US(Texas, Utah), India(Mumbai), China(Hong Kong)	Unbounce does not disclose the locations of its data centers
Type of hosting:	Shared, Managed WordPress, VPS, Dedicated	The platform does not specify the type of hosting it provides
Uptime:	99.9%	99.96%
Uptime Guarantee:	Yes, 99.9%	No

6.2

5.6

🏆 Winner: HostGator

Both HostGator and Unbounce have strategies in place for website speed optimization, but HostGator takes the lead with a higher website speed optimization score and a clear focus on improving Core Web Vitals.

Focus	Browser Caching, CDN	Image optimization, Caching, Speed Booster
Performance Tools	Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights	Google PageSpeed Insights Integration
Key Strategies	Browser Caching, CDN	Image optimization, Caching, Speed Booster
Load Times	Varies widely, depending on optimization, website complexity and the chosen hosting plan	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Page Speed Scores Range	Varies widely, depending on optimization, website complexity and the chosen hosting plan	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Core Web Vitals Improvement	Emphasis on LCP, FID, CLS improvements	No information provided

HostGator, a well-known web hosting company, also offers a powerful website builder tool. It focuses on browser caching and CDN for speed optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary widely, depending on the optimization, website complexity, and the chosen hosting plan. HostGator provides guidance on understanding and improving Core Web Vitals (CWV) for websites, with an emphasis on LCP, FID, and CLS improvements.

On the other hand, Unbounce, a website builder specifically designed for creating custom landing pages, popups, and sticky bars, focuses on image optimization, caching, and Speed Booster for speed optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on optimization and website complexity. However, Unbounce does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

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7.3

6.8

🏆 Winner: HostGator.

With a score of 7.3, HostGator offers a wide range of plugins, known as apps, accessible via their app market. These apps cater to diverse needs such as advertising, website analytics, integrating social media, managing appointments, and conducting email marketing. Unbounce, scoring 6.8, also offers a wide array of apps and integrations to enhance the functionality of landing pages, all of which are free to install. However, HostGator’s broader range of functionalities gives it the edge.

Unbounce Applications

6.9

7.4

🏆

Overall Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce stands out for its strong focus on optimizing conversion rates and its ability to integrate with numerous marketing tools and analytics platforms. HostGator, on the other hand, offers a solid range of features but falls short in comparison to Unbounce’s specialized solutions for enhancing campaigns across search ads, social media, and email marketing.

SEO Tools
Email Marketing	✓ (on higher plans)	✓ (with integration of third-party services)
Blogging
Social Media Integration
Analytics and Reporting	✓ (Google Analytics integration on higher plans)
Ads and Promotions	✓ (Google Ads and Bing Ads integration)	✓ (Unbounce landing pages can be used for ad campaigns)

7.3

7.7

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. In the HostGator vs Unbounce comparison, Unbounce takes the lead with a customer support score of 7.7, slightly higher than HostGator’s 7.3. Unbounce offers a variety of support options, including live chat, email, and phone support, available Monday to Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM PST. Additionally, Unbounce provides 24/7 support through their Help Centre, Community, and Chat Bot, ensuring users have continuous access to assistance.

HostGator, on the other hand, provides 24/7 support through email, phone, and live chat, catering to the global needs of their customers. While HostGator’s support is comprehensive and readily available, Unbounce’s dedicated enterprise-level support and personalized training sessions for optimizing campaign performance give it an edge in this category.

7.4

8.4

🏆

Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce takes the lead in security with a score of 8.4, compared to HostGator’s 7.4. Unbounce’s commitment to high security standards is evident in its PCI Level 4 Merchant status, adherence to GDPR, and robust disaster recovery strategies. The platform employs a secure, multi-tenant environment with strict access controls and daily data backups to safeguard customer information.

HostGator, while offering solid security features such as SiteLock for malware scanning and custom firewall rules, places more responsibility on website owners for aspects such as password security and updating applications. This may not be ideal for users looking for a more hands-off approach to website security.

2.6

7.5

Personalized Design		Unbounce’s Smart Builder offers personalized templates and design recommendations
SEO Optimization
Customer Behavior Analysis		Unbounce’s Smart Traffic directs visitors to the most appropriate landing page variant
Sales Predictions
Inventory Management
Content Generation		Unbounce’s Smart Copy helps users generate, remix, and expand content

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce’s AI capabilities, particularly through its Smart Builder, Smart Copy, and Smart Traffic, are highly user-friendly and innovative. It excels in offering personalized website design suggestions, content generation, and directing visitors to the most appropriate landing page variant.

HostGator, with a score of 2.6, has relatively basic AI capabilities and lacks AI ecommerce features and AI content generation features. While HostGator’s AI is in its early stages, it is more basic compared to Unbounce’s advanced AI.

3.2

7.2

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce offers a more comprehensive user management system compared to HostGator.

• HostGator mentions the possibility to have multiple users for its hosting solutions, however, there’s no mention whether the mentioned users have the permission to edit the websites built with their website builder.
• Unbounce offers one staff account on its basic plan, with the option to expand up to 15 accounts on the premium plan. It also provides customizable permissions, enabling you to restrict or grant access based on roles such as viewer, author, and administrator.

Unbounce User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

SSL Certificate
Custom Domain
Free Custom Domain Included
International Domains
Mobile Responsive
Page Speed
Website Builder Mobile App
Convert a Website To An App
Website Analytics
Multilingual Sites
Multiple Users

User Feedback

HostGator

244 reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars

Unbounce

359 reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars

HostGator’s website builder receives mixed reviews from users, highlighting both its strengths and areas for improvement. Users appreciate the platform for its ease of use, making it accessible even for novices to build professional-looking websites, and for its range of web services that facilitate website creation and management, including domain registration and SSL certificates. However, concerns are raised regarding its customer support, which is often described as slow or unresponsive, potentially impacting users requiring timely assistance. Additionally, some users find the pricing structure to be high, particularly for small-scale developers or those needing only basic services.

The reviews for Unbounce reveal a mixed sentiment among users. On the positive side, many appreciate its user-friendly, drag-and-drop page builder, which facilitates the quick creation and editing of landing pages without the need for technical expertise. Users find it beneficial for A/B testing, integrating with CRMs, and swiftly turning around marketing content. However, there are notable concerns, particularly with a case of unexpected switch to an annual plan without consent and refusal to refund, indicating potential issues with customer service and billing practices. Additionally, some users mention technical limitations, such as responsiveness issues and the absence of global elements for content updates across multiple pages, which can hinder efficiency.

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