About a year and a half ago, we opened up a web hosting account with Hostgator.com. Offering Hatchling, Baby, Swamp, and Semi Dedicated plans, Hostgator offers an affordable plan for just about any size business.

At that time, I owned and operated a single website, which was hosted by Yahoo. Although, due to major competition, Yahoo has brought their prices down considerably, I had been paying a pretty penney for the features that I required. It was my desire to build and grow multiple sites, that inevitably forced me to look for an alternative hosting plan.

I searched for a hosting company that would allow me to pay for one plan only, yet build multiple sites and host multiple domains for one flat fee. I really don't recall how I happened upon Hostgator, but I now can't imagine life without this little reptile!

The unbelievably low price of $6.95/monthly (paid yearly) of the Hatchling plan popped right out of the screen at me. But in reviewing the features, I noticed that only a single domain was permitted. But hey, for just $3.00 more ($9.95) per month, I could host unlimited domains and sites under the Baby plan! Sign me up! Right now!

Hostgator's customer service is unsurpassed. Whenever I have an issue or question, I simply access Hostgator's Live Support (available 24X7!), and an operator responds immediately. I've never had to wait for a response, and if the first level support is incapable of answering my question, I simply access their online ticket system.

Saving the best for last, I am compelled to rave about the ease of use of the cpanel, including the mail systems, file manager, and many, many other built-in features. And without Fantastico . . . I never would have become the Drupal addict that I am today!

Fantastico is a feature of CPanel, which allows you to install free scripts on your website with the click of a button. The following scripts are available:

Blogs
b2evolution
Nucleus
pMachine Free
WordPress

Content Management
Drupal Our absolute favorite!
Geeklog
Joomla Used to be our absolute favorite!
Mambo Open Source
PHP-Nuke
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
TYPO3
Xoops

Customer Relationship
Crafty Syntax Live Help
Help Center Live
osTicket
PerlDesk
PHP Support Tickets
Support Logic Helpdesk
Support Services Manager

Discussion Boards
phpBB2
SMF

E-Commerce
CubeCart
OS Commerce
Zen Cart

F.A.Q.
FAQMasterFlex

Guestbooks
ViPER Guestbook

Hosting Billing
AccountLab Plus
phpCOIN

Image Galleries
4Images Gallery
Coppermine Photo Gallery
Gallery

Mailing Lists
PHPlist

Polls and Surveys
Advanced Poll
phpESP
PHPSurveyor

Project Management
dotProject
PHProjekt

Site Builders
Soholaunch Pro Edition
Templates Express

Wiki
TikiWiki
PhpWiki

Other Scripts
Dew-NewPHPLinks
Moodle
Noahs Classifieds
Open-Realty
phpAdsNew
PHPauction
phpFormGenerator
WebCalendar

Extras
Language
Side menu appearance
Email notifications
Installations overview

Sound overwhelming? Believe me, I thought so, at first. Consider this . . . You may only install one or two of the Fantastico scripts. But once you do, you'll never go back to web hosting that doesn't offer Fantastico!

We are an affiliate for HostGator, which means that if you click on any Hostgator links within this document, then proceed to sign up for service, we will receive a small percentage of their profit. But, rest assured, it is the affordable prices, invaluable features, and the superb customer service that provoke us to recommend Hostgator. . . hands down!