Resolved Thanks! - OK, I'm taking the HostGator plunge. Which Plan should I choose? HELP! ;)

Definitely go for the Business plan...

The reason is you get unlimited space and bandwidth.

On the reseller account (why I have tried) bandwidth is always capped and you will probably experience a site going down if it gets popular.

There is also more admin hassle on the reseller account.

The only slight advantage of the reseller is you want to give someone a password to one of your sites but not the entire portfolio. But I just plan things so I never need to do that.

Unless you intend to actually resell then don't use the reseller.

LOL...

Business plan = 1 vote
Reseller plan = 1 vote

If I get the reseller plan I could use it to sell domains and charge the buyer for hosting correct?

Thanks,
Have a Great Day!
Michael

i have the business plan and i love it. unlimited sites, with cpanel and their support is good.

Michael,

Plan for the future re traffic/bandwidth. If you get appreciable traffic,
are planning for more sites, and continue to promote then you'd be
better off in the long-run with the business account.

Ken

I just asked HostGator if their Business plan actually has unlimited bandwidth and this is the reply I received:
I also asked them this:
So bandwidth wouldn't be a problem later for me using the business plan?
and they replied this:
Have a Great Day!
Michael

If your goal is just to develop sites on a massive scale and aren't particularly interested in selling hosting to anyone, then go with the Business plan. If you do decide to sell hosting later on down the road, you could always choose to pick up the Reseller plan then. All you'd really need is about 3-4 customers to cover your monthly cost for the Reseller plan.

I just wrote a fairly long blog post a yesterday about how to choose
hosting. It all applies to Hostgator and similar C-panel hosts.

Definitely try to get clear on how you intend to grow with your hosting.

The Quick and Easy How To Get Your Website Online and Begin Making Money

I'm going to make another suggestion, the $7.95/mo Baby Plan. Do you really need a dedicated SSL and IP? Probably not, so why pay $60 per year for it?

You'll not notice the difference between the baby and business plans.

Although I am no fan of hostgator I will say go with the reseller plan. If you have to use them as a host you should have a cpanel for each site. Add on domains sound like a good idea, until you start dealing with installing scripts on a bunch of them.

I have done installs on loads of hosting companies servers, using pretty much every type of hosting plan you can think of. Add on domains are always the biggest headache. Even something as simple as adding a blog on one site can be a major pain in the rear if you have 20 or so add on domains on one account.


EDIT::::

If bandwidth is an issue for you then you might be better off going with a dedicated server instead of a normal hosting plan. It costs a little more but you can get higher bandwidth limits with dedicated hosting. No one offers true unlimited bandwidth, and no matter what host or plan you have if you get enough traffic you will eventually go over your limit. The advantage of the higher plans is that you can usually just contact the host and buy an extra block of bandwidth for the month to cover for a temp jump in traffic.

I agree with Kay too, reseller for me. I have the Platinum which allows a total for your sites of 500G per month. So you could assign e.g. 50 sites 10G each per month, you can also keep an eye on traffic for each and vary the amount each site has available.

Bobby

Hosting problems are rarely about bandwidth. They are about cpu and Ram usage.
If you're running many sites get a VPS.


Andrew

Michael,

The business plan includes a toll free number you can use for your business. If that's an attractive option for your business, I'd be heading in that direction.

Dennis

Michael,

I have been with HG for a couple of years now and love the service. Support has been great, though you may have to plow past the front line to an admin, but you can do it for something serious.

I have the baby plan and am using about 15 domains with out issue. Like Gary said above, setting up scripts, etc. with the add on domains is fairly simple.

As far as the unlimited bandwidth, you have more of a problem with resource usage than bandwidth and even then HG is very accommodating to correct any problems. Worst that happens is they have you move up to the next level of hosting, but hopefully if you have to do that, it will be for the money you are raking in.

Nice thing is you can always step up if needed. Just call them and say 'take care of it'.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

John

I have about 7 sites and i am with hostgator business plan.
You told you have four sites. So don't pay more for reseller plan if you dont have a lot and lot of traffic.

I don't host with hostgator. If someone complains of spam, I hear others complain that they shoot first and ask questions later.

I have had reseller hosting for many years now, without actually reselling except to a few friends. I find an advantage to having separate accounts and being able to move them easily. (I'll tell you how to work it if you ask.)
I am gearing up to become a small reseller, finally, but I learned a lot oloing the way as I worked with the reseller account.
My accounts are identical to HostGator. I started with HostGator and moved on. They were just too slow to upgrade the resources vs cost. I see they finally made the adjustments. One thing I can say about Hostgator is they were always on the ball and very friendly when there was anything I needed to address with them. They did things they didn't need to do to help out.
There are some programs and scripts that will not run under Godaddy. If you read their TOS, you will see that if they shut you down for spamming, etc (at their exclusive decision), you wave your right to recover anything you may have otherwise owned while with them, including the right to any of your domain names or material stored on their servers. They recently revised them so they clarify that they don't own intellectual rights to your writing, etc. But they won't let you download anything including your documents, web design, etc. When it comes to your defense, you have the burden of proof that you didn't commit the offense and they are judge, jury and executioner.

After having had problems with a different service, I long ago decided to separate my domain names from my web hosting services.

It is obviously up to you to decide what to do, but I hope this gives you information to make an informed decision.

Good luck
Buck

PS, I don't know how it is I read the title wrong.... You are going with HostGator. Great company and their domain service is through eNom so you are very well off with them. I don't know how I got GD in all this.

Sorry.

If your not going to go with me then at least get a VPS

Also, with the reseller, good flexibility if you ever want to sell that domain (own cpanel). As an add-on, pain in the arse!

You need an unlimited plan. I love hostgator.

Thanks everyone for your inputs.

I've chosen the baby hosting plan + an IP address for these sites.
Total cost for the first month: $1.67 Damn I feel dirty...lol

I didn't need a Toll-Free number or an SSL for these sites right now.
Total monthly cost will be $9.95. I was payng 24.95 to host the sites before so...

I used a coupon code that gave me the first month for $.01 and I'm really
not sure why the additional IP address was only $1.66??? Should have
been $2 a month extra from what I read on the site???

Here is the coupon code if you need it: hgc25

My reasoning was the fact that I don't do much with them at this time anyway and
figured that the hosting costs will be at less than half of what I've been
paying the past few years. Plus I can always upgrade if I need to.

Today I asked HostGator to move my cpanel from thridsphere to it's new home.
All I can say is that if this is the way they do business then I made a good choice.

I like the fact that I asked for them to transfer my sites and they did it flawlessly with
in 5 hours of my request. I have checked most of the sites and their functions including
databases and other scripts all seem to be working well.

Someone in this thread asked me to report back with what I choose so that
is what I am now doing.

Hopefully HG will be as good of a host as TPH to me for many years to come.
Only Time will tell.

Have a Great Day!
Michael
PS. Thanks again for your inputs!