I secretly test hosts every month for speed, reliability, and support. Here’s a comparison between HostGator and MDDHosting with real proof of their performance.
Contents
HostGator Hosting Plan
I have purchased a hosting plan on HostGator and set up a typical web site. I use that example website to run these tests. Learn more about how I test.
Here is the plan information I chose:
| Plan Name | Hatchling |
|---|---|
| Cost | $8.95/month |
| Disk Space | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9% |
| Money Back Guarantee | 45 days |
| Notes | Site was ready within minutes after I purchased. |
MDDHosting Hosting Plan
MDDHosting is small but prides themselves in providing high quality services and support. They've been around since 2007 and currently host over 12,000 domains. Their data center is located in Denver, Colorado.
I have purchased a hosting plan on MDDHosting and set up a typical web site. I use that example website to run these tests. Learn more about how I test.
Here is the plan information I chose:
| Plan Name | Basic |
|---|---|
| Cost | $7.50/month |
| Disk Space | 5GB |
| Bandwidth | 250GB |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9% |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30 days |
| Notes | Site was ready within minutes after I purchased. |
Page Speed Test Results
This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better. Learn more about the Page Speed Test.
HostGator performs great in the Speed Test, with an average result of 2.7 seconds. It's best result was 2.00 s but it has been as bad as 15.02 s. HostGator most recent result on Jan 4 was 2.00 s. Back in the day HostGator used to share a datacenter with SoftLayer - and they were lightning fast. Now that they made everyone transition to their own datacenter (after the EIG buyout), page speed has been worse, although not as bad as some other hosts here.
MDDHosting performs great in the Speed Test, with an average result of 2.93 seconds. It's best result was 2.00 s but it has been as bad as 74.96 s. MDDHosting most recent result on Jan 4 was 2.00 s. I had heard great things about MDDHosting, and I thought their speed would be on par, but it has proven to have some hiccups. Lately they've been alright, but back in October I was seeing load times of 10+ seconds - wow that's poor! Yet, they are one of the few hosts that has all their server settings optimized.
Let’s see how HostGator and MDDHosting compare in detail for their page speed stats:
Uptime Test Results
This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better. Learn more about the Uptime Test.
HostGator performs above average in the Uptime Test, with an average result of 99.97 percent. It's best result was 100.000 % but it has been as bad as 97.000 %. HostGator most recent result on Mar 16 was 100.000 %. Back in 2013 HostGator had several outages that lasted days. While I wasn't recording detailed stats at the time, I can vouch that it was a miserable experience. Many blame the lack of reliability on their new data center, which they made everyone move to after they were bought out by EIG. To be honest, HostGator's downhill performance was the reason I created this site (I was too annoyed by them to let them get away with it).
MDDHosting performs miserably in the Uptime Test, with an average result of 99.88 percent. It's best result was 100.000 % but it has been as bad as 64.583 %. MDDHosting most recent result on Mar 16 was 100.000 %. MDD has pretty average uptime reliability. Some hosts are more stable. Some are way worse. MDDHosting falls in the middle.MDDHosting does knock my socks off when it comes to their tech support. The longest I've ever had to wait for a response was 11 minutes. That's incredible. They must have a full staff working round the clock! Nice job, MDD.
Let’s see how HostGator and MDDHosting compare in detail for their uptime stats:
Support Response Test Results
This test measures how quickly the host’s support team responds to your request. Lower is better. Learn more about the Support Response Test.
HostGator performs miserably in the Support Response Time Test, with an average result of 53.4 hours. It's best result was 0.30 h but it has been as bad as 168.00 h. HostGator most recent result on Mar 22 was 0.30 h. HostGator's tech support had proven to be pretty slow - you can count on them taking about a day to respond to you. Things used to be faster before they were bought out by EIG.
MDDHosting performs incredibly in the Support Response Time Test, with an average result of 0.11 hours. It's best result was 0.10 h but it has been as bad as 0.20 h. MDDHosting most recent result on Mar 22 was 0.10 h.
Let’s see how HostGator and MDDHosting compare in detail for their uptime stats: