Do you have a majority of the audience from the UK? It makes you wonder, can I use HostGator in the UK? This guide is to answer all your questions regarding HostGator for the United Kingdom.
Let’s begin the guide and start answering your questions.
Can I use HostGator in the UK?
Technically, you can definitely use HostGator in the UK even if the hosting company is based in the US. There are no restrictions on the country for Hostgator. However, you need to understand that HostGator doesn’t have any physical servers in the United Kingdom.
So, if you have the majority of visitors from the UK, it’s not recommended to use the host with US data centers. Instead, you can go with the service that has data centers in the UK.
When the data center is near the visitor’s locations, it makes it easier for the server to serve the website in the least time possible. So, if the visitor is from the UK, and the data center is also in the same location, the website loads faster as compared to servers in other countries.
Therefore, at HostingAdvices UK, we highly recommend our readers choose the location that is nearest to their audience.
HostGator is not recommended in case you want a different data center because they don’t allow you to select/change data center location. During the sign-up process, they assign you a data center and it’s not changeable.
Therefore, you are left with no option but to assume that your data center is from one of the locations in the United States.
Talking about operating and managing your website from the UK, anyone from any country in the globe can operate websites hosted on HostGator.
So, if you’re from the UK, and you have a majority audience from the US, you can surely use HostGator to serve your US readers. It gives better speed to your visitors as the data centers are also in the US.
Does HostGator work in Europe?
Yes, HostGator works in Europe. HostGator doesn’t have any servers in the entire European region.
So, you will have to integrate a CDN (such as Cloudflare) to serve visitors from Europe too. A CDN will serve the cached version of the website from the nearest location to the visitors (that includes multiple European regions).
Cloudflare CDN is great if you have visitors across the globe. Suppose you have the majority of the audience from a specific country or continent. In that case, it’s recommended to go with the hosting service that has a data center in a specific country.
So, it’s safe to say that HostGator can be used in Europe. However, you can prefer the servers that are specific to Europe.
The same argument we made in the UK location applies to the entire Europe too.
Does HostGator support .uk domains?
Yes, you can buy .uk as well as .co.uk domain names from HostGator.
The .uk domain will cost you $7.99 for the first year while the .co.uk domain will cost you $11.99 for the first year. The regular rate for a .com domain at HostGator is $12.99 for the first year.
You don’t necessarily need to buy web hosting from HostGator. You can just get the domain name and buy hosting from another company.
It’s always recommended to get a TLD (Top-level Domain), you can get some of the cheapest domain extensions if you are just starting a side project.
HostGator UK Speed
We made an argument saying that HostGator is not recommended for UK audiences as they don’t have a data center in the UK. But, what if you still go with HostGator? Well, in that case, there will be a big difference in speed.
At HostingAdvices UK, our team always ensures that we provide the best relevant information for our readers. People usually just see the overall performance of HostGator. However, that’s not how you should treat your website.
Instead, you should see how fast the website loads from a location in the United Kingdom. A website might load in 200 ms from the US, while it may take more than 500 ms to load from the UK.
So, to test HostGator UK speed, I created an empty WordPress website and ran some tests on Pingdom. Here are the results.
It’s pretty good but not the best. Considering an empty website on WordPress, you can expect roughly 200 ms load time instead of 600+. Considering the page size was only around 200 KB, the website should have loaded much faster.
The performance grade shown (B grade) is good only if there are enough elements that take time to load. However, for an empty website, you should aim for an A grade with much faster speed than this.
That’s why it’s important to find the locations of your servers near to the location of yours. If the same servers were located in the UK, the speed would be much faster.
Conclusion
To conclude, you can surely use HostGator in the UK or any other country you want. However, it’s recommended to select the nearest data center of your target visitors to ensure maximum loading time.
Since HostGator doesn’t have any servers in the UK, it’s recommended to go with other hosting services if your majority audience comes from the UK.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Is HostGator US based?
Yes, HostGator is a US-based hosting company with headquarters in Houston, Texas. They have most of the data centers in the US.
Can I use HostGator in the UK?
Yes, you can use HostGator in the UK. However, we don’t recommend going with it as they don’t have a UK data center.
Can I use Hostinger in the UK?
You can use Hostinger in the UK or any other country.