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Host Reviews

Tense and full of jumpscares, Host deals with themes such as social anxiety and the fear of isolation. It was a terrifying watch during the height of the pandemic but still lands its punch to this day.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2024

...in a genre that’s challenging enough itself with various forms (see also the brilliantly written and shocking 2018 masterpiece Searching), Host took advantage of a global pandemic in a delicious way.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Host is an innovative, timely, and terrifying Zoom-based horror film that mines classic found footage tropes for fresh new scares and uses technological and logistical limitations to its advantage.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2022

Host isn't more than a haunted house in a virtual mosaic where none of the characters asks herself what would happen if they left the chat and let the psychic, which doesn't seem that professional to boot, deal with the problem. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Nov 23, 2022

A highly effective chiller that warrants multiple viewings as you find yourself scanning every inch of the frame for hidden dangers... the scariest film to be released during Lockdown.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 12, 2022

Host may go down as a rare anthropological document of what life was like for a relatively brief (and also excruciatingly long) period of time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 17, 2022

Cinema made by fans for fans... devastatingly identifiable. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Nov 15, 2021

Host has no fat and makes great use of personal screens' negative space and the social dynamics that unfold on Zoom.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2021

It's deeply clever, playing off familiar aspects of video call technology and not at all skimping on the stunts.

Full Review | Oct 22, 2021

There will be a lot of people saying they could have done it better, and if so, I'll happily watch their movie too if it's this effective.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

Sinisterly unsettling, expertly playing with where we are looking when

Full Review | Jul 8, 2021

Host is still an effective horror movie though and worth a watch if you enjoy watching movies alone on your computer.

Full Review | May 25, 2021

There is no way one can imagine how Rob Savage would serve us the dose of pure evil over the internet but when he does, it doesn't feel implausible for a single instance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2021

An up-to-the-minute relevant horror film that all-too-accurately captures COVID anxiety. One of the best horror films of the year.

Full Review | Mar 30, 2021

The meticulous nature of Savage, writers Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, and the cast makes this one of the best supernatural horror films I've seen to date.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Feb 19, 2021

Rather than doing the obvious thing and making the virus the monster, Host shows us how the social isolation exacerbated by the pandemic can make any traumatic experience all the more horrifying.

Full Review | Feb 18, 2021

By adapting to current world events and the popular technology that goes with it, Host further proves how crucial found footage is in capturing social fears.

Full Review | Original Score: 9.5/10 | Feb 16, 2021

What Host does is continue the tradition of found footage not just in the world of lockdown but also within an advancing age of interactive technology used day to day.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 14, 2021

Six friends hold a séance via a video conference and inadvertently admit something unknown into their meeting. Genius contemporary horror from Rob Savage and friends.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 10, 2021

An effective shocker for our quarantine times.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 7, 2021

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‘Host’ Review: A Zoom Séance Channels Spirits and Melancholy

In this horror movie, an angry ghost rages on a Zoom call, and speaks to a moment of uncertainty.

Share full article

By Kyle Turner

If the future of filmmaking is remote and socially distanced, a Zoom séance isn’t such a bad place to start. Rob Savage, the director and co-writer of “Host,” finds a surprising amount of ingenuity in mining the horror of yet another quarantine conference call.

Streaming on Shudder, the film makes easy observations about how the pandemic has changed the most mundane activities, but perhaps contains even greater insight. As Haley (Haley Bishop) gathers a group of friends to speak with a medium (Seylan Baxter), the unleashing of an angry demon seems to speak to a collective id.

Savage makes common Zoom call interruptions, like strange noises and glitchy video, play double duty as both red herrings and supernatural disturbances. But while the unhappy ghost wreaks havoc, the yearning for collective activity simmers beneath the film’s lo-fi aesthetic.

Channeling the spirits of the dead, on the internet no less, becomes a useful analogy for mourning the recent past. As we sit at home with the devices that promised us limitless possibilities in our hands, “Host” identifies the uncomfortable in-between state we exist in, operating ghostlike. One can relate to the fury the poltergeist unleashes, thrashing apartment objects about.

Though not as dynamic as “Unfriended,” another “desktop movie,” “Host” observes uncannily the supernatural, ephemeral, and material worlds colliding together, gesturing toward an uncertain future. This concise, entertaining spin on the ghost story proposes that maybe the modern world is a haunted house now.

Host Not rated. Running time: 56 minutes. Watch on Shudder.

Host Review

31 Jul 2020

As we’ve all learned in lockdown, Zoom calls can be pretty hellish. It’s not connection issues or a family quiz stretching on for eternity that’s the problem in Rob Savage’s Host , however: shot remotely during the coronavirus crisis, this Shudder Original horror is a seance story for the Stay At Home generation, pitting six quarantined friends against a demonic presence who invades their houses after a Zoom conference goes spectacularly wrong. The good news is that the time you accidentally turned your camera on during a check-in with your boss, revealing yourself to be still in your pyjamas at four in the afternoon, covered in Doritos crumbs and regret, will suddenly seem small-fry compared to the remote-video-call catastrophe here. The bad news is, you might not sleep for weeks after it.

The film wastes no time in introducing you to its convincing cast of characters: a group of university friends who, presumably bored of baking banana bread, decide to pass the time by summoning the dead instead. There’s laughter before you’re sent leaping behind the sofa: Host takes its time setting up the gang’s friendships and lockdown situations, even squeezing in a joke about etiquette in the pandemic era (you used to have to cough to cover up a fart; now it’s the other way round, one character bemoans). When Scottish spiritualist Seylan (Seylan Baxter) joins them to begin the seance, a drinking game involving a shot every time Seylan says “astral plane” leaves some in fits of giggles as the door to the spirit-world is creaked open. Turns out, the spirit-world by and large prefers not having the piss taken out of it, and responds in due course.

For every element that borders on cliché, though, there’s another that’s brave and new.

Host was in some ways inevitable. Over the last few years, “desktop movies” – films like Unfriended and Aneesh Chaganty’s elegant thriller Searching – have told feature-length stories entirely through computer screens, with characters hopping between apps to communicate and solve mysteries. Until this year, the genre has been something of a curio: a comment on and reflection of our screen-obsessed culture, usually bordering on gimmickry. The pandemic, and all its accompanying safety challenges for filmmakers, especially those on a tighter budget, may well make desktop movies into a booming new part of our post-corona movie landscape.

What wasn’t inevitable, however, was the level of ingenuity packed into Savage’s own lean, mean desktop film. There are story beats we’ve seen before, of course: strange sounds and bumps in the night, characters and viewers straining alike to determine which are real and which are run-of-the-mill interruptions you often hear on video calls. One character’s decision to throw flour around her flat to reveal the footsteps of an invisible intruder might ring familiar, too. (Some might call this the most unrealistic part of the film; doesn’t she know how hard it is to get flour on your Sainsbury’s shop in lockdown?!?)

For every element that borders on cliché, though, there’s another that’s brave and new. Zoom’s ability to create your own background is smartly weaponised by the director, before a moment involving the app’s face filter function that’s as traumatising as it is innovative. Host is not hugely sophisticated, but it doesn’t need to be: instead, it pummels its way through 56 visceral minutes of jolts and jump scares that will have you zooming for your nearest light switch. The first proper film of our age of coronavirus is here, and it’s a devilishly original success: a pandemic-era Poltergeist that points to a bright future for both Savage and remotely shot cinema.

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‘Host’: Why Rob Savage’s Quarantine Horror Film Is About More Than a Virus

By Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich

When lockdown began, British director Rob Savage intended to make the best of his isolation — digging out classics by the likes of Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and all the rest. Ten minutes into the latter’s 1972 epic Solaris , though, Savage gave up and turned on Halloween 4 .

“I wanted something that was a bit removed [from reality],” he tells Rolling Stone . “A fun roller-coaster that you can watch and forget about what’s going on for a bit.”

The urge is understandable; as months pass by in quarantine, sometimes we just want to watch something scarier than what’s outside our window — especially when, like Savage, you live in a metropolis like London whose denizens have forsaken masks and social distancing out of sheer boredom. A horror director by trade, though, it wasn’t long before Savage felt the need to bend his current reality into an even greater nightmare.

After playing a Zoom prank on friends in which he was attacked by an attic-dwelling zombie — which then went viral — the director teamed up with writers Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd to write a movie for the pandemic age. The result was Host , a Shudder original film in which a group of friends (Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward and Edward Linard) gather over Zoom to conduct a seance during quarantine. (All actors use their real names in the film.) Things go predictably awry, giving viewers a nightmare-inducing look at loneliness in the pandemic age — a time when most of our social interactions come courtesy of our laptop camera.

Since its July 30th premiere, Host has become a runaway hit, scoring a coveted 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and nabbing glowing reviews from even the most hardened of horror fans. Like found footage classics Paranormal Activity (2207) and Unfriended (2014) before it, Savage’s film melds technology, human foibles and the supernatual to stunning effect. It’s also one of the only horror movies that’s better on a laptop.

Rolling Stone spoke with the director — over Zoom, of course — about quarantine, demons and just how he managed to film an entire horror movie on a conference call app.

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I heard the movie idea came from a prank you played on your friends. Can you elaborate? Basically everyone in the movie and [the folks] behind the scenes were just the people that I was hanging out with anyway on Zoom when lockdown began. We were doing Netflix parties and Zoom Happy Hours and all that good stuff. Before lockdown started, I had just moved into this new apartment and I had genuinely been hearing weird noises coming from my attic — like footsteps above my bedroom. It was the one room that I hadn’t checked out. I figured, OK, I probably should check it out just in case it’s like an ax murderer living up there.

So I went up and [there] wasn’t an ax murderer living there, but it was like creepy as shit. It reminded me of the scene from this great Spanish found-footage movie, Rec , where somebody gets their face eaten off by a zombie in an attic. So I was like, “OK, maybe I can do something with this.”

I built this weird contraption out of cardboard that allowed me to basically prop my phone right in front of my laptop and fill my screen without anybody being able to see the transition. I got all my friends on a Zoom call, told them I was hearing noises in my attic, and that I needed them there for emotional support while I went up there. I sneakily started filming my screen and played them the scene from Rec when I got to the attic so, for a brief moment, they thought that a zombie kid had jumped out and into my face.

I cut it together, put it on Twitter and it ended up kind of blowing up. Lots of TV companies started calling and being like, “Is there a longer version of this?” My friend Jed Shepherd texted me two words: “Zoom seance.”

I’ve been hearing strange noises from my attic, so I called a few friends and went to investigate… pic.twitter.com/CxmJAf44ob — Rob Savage (@DirRobSavage) April 21, 2020

Why did you decide to work with Shudder on this one? They were the only company that really got on board with how we wanted to make it — the fact that we wanted this to be out super quick for people in lockdown. All the other companies basically just wanted to copy and paste the normal structure of making a movie. It was never going to work that way. It was always going to have to be something where we figured out how it worked as we went along. Shudder let us find the movie as we went.

You didn’t have a script, right? I think we had like a 17-page outline, just like a beat sheet. But we were shooting it chronologically. A lot of that was just figuring out what the movie was as we went along. The contract we made with Shudder — I tried to barter them down to as low a runtime as possible just in case we couldn’t get any decent footage, you know? They agreed that it could be anywhere between two hours and a half an hour.

We’d start filming, we’d try a gag where somebody was dragged across the room or cupboards would pop open or something like that. And it would work in these lo-fi ways. As soon as we saw something working, we go, “Oh fuck, maybe this next scene would be cool if we did that.” It ended up being a much bigger movie than we’d initially planned. And that’s the benefit of shooting it chronologically. We were kind of able to write it as we went along.

How did you physically film the movie — in terms of social distancing and all that? We started filming at the point where the U.K. was starting to open up, but 90% of it was just the actors basically being one-person productions. At the very beginning of the process, we made a big list of cool people that we knew who were in lockdown or furloughed who could probably help us out. One of the people we knew lived in this house with a bunch of stunt performers, a stunt coordinator and a stunt rigger — basically everyone you need to safely and legally do a whole number of crazy stunts. We sent those guys costumes so they could double all of the different actors. Then we found different aspects of their house that looked similar to the characters’. There’s a lot of trick edits where someone will turn a corner and suddenly she’ll be played by a stunt performer in their house.

In the film, the friends end up conjuring a demon when the Jemma character pretends to talk to a dead friend of hers as a joke. Why did you decide to use a demon and not a ghost? I kind of wanted to subvert people’s expectations a little bit, because I think on paper, [the movie] sounds like a really shit idea. A Paranormal Activity ripoff where, you know, maybe a door moves a couple of inches — and that’s the scare. I thought people would probably have quite low expectations about what we could pull off. So I wanted almost like the first two thirds to feel like Paranormal Activity . It’s more about slow-building dread and these little scares where the demon is invisible.

Then, in the final third, I wanted to show that the thing is getting more powerful. This thing has a face now. I wanted to make the audience feel like they don’t quite have a roadmap for where that last 20 minutes is going. You kind of give the audience a frame for how to watch your movie. So it was kind of about getting people to lean in and look for little details and then throwing a demon in their face.

Our demon, James Swanson, plays a lot of demons. He has just a great physicality to him; he’s basically a contortionist. He was isolating with his mum in the middle of Devonshire or something like that. And so we basically had to find bits of his house that looked like other characters’ houses so I could do kind of trick edits to make it seem like he was in the same space with them. His mum filmed him on a mobile phone. If you watch the behind the scenes, he’s the loveliest, most polite man; he’s totally not demonic. Just hearing his mum directing behind the camera — it’s very cute.

Had any of you done seances before this? I’ve done a ton of seances. I joined a spiritualist church for like six months [as horror movie research]. We actually hired a real medium to come on Zoom and do a seance with all of the actors, and a lot of stuff that happened in the first half of the movie actually happened in the seance. Like the medium who was on our original Zoom call, her internet cut out and we had to call her up. She had to tell us how to shut down the seance, which I’m sure we ballsed up. It’s probably still open, sorry. The ghosts can probably get to you now.

The actress Seylan Baxter, who played the medium, wasn’t a real medium, was she? We did actually pretend to the cast that she was a real medium just to really freak them out. I said to all the actors, “We’re saying these words, we’re lighting candles. We’re calling out the spirits in essence, we are basically staging a seance every day and making this movie. So I thought it’d be better if we had a real medium here just to keep things safe in case anything goes south.”

Literally, at the end of every day, we’d pretend to shut the seance down so everyone could sleep at night. Later on, when all the shit starts going down, I stopped bringing the actress in to shut it down. I just said we couldn’t get in touch with her. So the cast got really freaked out. It was a little mean in retrospect, but it worked a treat.

This is technically the first horror movie made and released in quarantine. Why did you decide to focus on a haunted house trope rather than the virus? We just felt that it was a bit icky [to focus on the virus]. We were very adamant that it was not a pandemic movie. It was a lockdown movie. It was more about isolation. We wanted to play on was this idea that video conferencing gives you the impression that you’re with people, but actually you get these stark reminders that you’re not, that you never are. You’re very separate. And you’re very isolated. When the characters start to see their friends in trouble, they’re basically just passengers along for the ride and having to watch at a distance. That was more the thing we were interested in.

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4 out of 5 stars
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Time Out says

This lockdown video conferencing horror film manages to be even more terrifying that an actual Zoom call

Until someone makes a film about a haunted sourdough starter, this ingenious horror movie will remain the zeitgeistiest thing to emerge from lockdown. Major props to director Rob Savage and his cobbled-together cast and crew for whipping up something this fresh and freaky while the rest of us were busy trying to keep up with Joe Wicks on YouTube.

The premise has a group of uni mates catching up on Zoom, laughing, in-joking, doing shots and grousing about being stuck inside quarantining as they wait for the star attraction to turn up. She turns out to be a medium who promises to connect them with spirits. She forgets to tell them that taking the piss during the seance could have very grim consequences. They take the piss. It has very grim consequences.

Host wears its debt to found-footage horrors like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity on its sleeve, while briskly reworking the formula into a laptop-based horror with big jumps and relatable bits where the wifi craps out. The meat of it unfolds within the familiar parameters of a 45-minute Zoom call, but there’s enough creepy atmospherics and nastiness crammed in to leave you drained when the call ends. If you’re after a film to scare you witless and teach you the ins and outs of video conferencing, look no further. Streaming in the UK now and in cinemas Fri Dec 4 .

Cast and crew

Director: Rob Savage
Screenwriter: Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage, Jed Shepherd
Haley Bishop
Jemma Moore
Emma Louise Webb
Radina Drandova
Caroline Ward

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Den of Geek

Host Explained: How it was Made, Easter Eggs and all Your Questions Answered

Shudder’s lockdown horror, Host, is fast becoming the defining movie of 2020 - director Rob Savage breaks it down

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Massive spoilers for Shudder original HOST to follow.

Productions are shut down, movie theatres are barely open, we’re fast running out of new things to watch. Then Rob Savage and his talented team of mates make Host in 12 weeks and all bets are off.

This is the new horror phenomenon from Shudder , a film based entirely around a Zoom call where a group of friends do an online seance and accidentally invite something terrifying into their houses. It runs at a brief 56 minutes but manages to pack that runtime with character development, humour and proper pee-your-pants scares. And don’t just expect creepy things in the background – by the final act, which Savage refers to as “the freak out”, the movie employs full on stunt work, prosthetics and major shocks, all of which were done socially distanced. It really is an extraordinary piece of work which has unsurprisingly taken horror audiences by storm.

It’s also a film full of hints, easter eggs, references and ambiguities. We sat with Savage – via Zoom, of course – for an incredibly spoilery breakdown of Host and how it was made.

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It’s been over a week now since Host was released – how has this time been? It must be weird launching your film on lockdown?

Rob Savage: It’s really weird. And it’s really weird because I made the movie basically sitting around in my flat, in my dressing gown. And we released the movie with me sitting around in my flat and in my dressing gown. And the response has happened with me… sat in my dressing gown. So it doesn’t quite feel real. I know everyone says that, but because there hasn’t been a premiere, there hasn’t been some sort of big launch where you can see 100 faces smiling back at you, it kind of just feels like I’m basically just sitting on my laptop like everyone has been for the past six months. So there’s a weird disconnect to the whole thing, but it’s obviously lovely. It’s amazing. It’s amazing that it exploded beyond just the horror community because we made it for horror fans. We wanted to get it out on Shudder and we wanted to give horror fans something fun to watch while they were locked down. But it’s lovely that it’s entered the mainstream a little bit.

I understand this was a project commissioned by Shudder?

RS: Yeah. We had a few people bidding on it. I made a stupid prank video that went a little bit viral and off the back of that, we had a few different companies come to us and this was at the height of lockdown. This was right in the peak and nobody could make anything, everyone was totally grounded.

So are we talking about May, April?

RS: Yeah. God, time has lost all meaning. But I guess it was May, maybe end of April. We had all of these different companies come to us. But that approach was much more typical to a larger production. They were saying, “We want to get this out really fast. We’ll try and get it out in six months.” And it’s like, “No, no, no, no, this needs to be in a matter of weeks. This needs to be something that mirrors back what’s going on right now and what people are living through right now.”

Shudder totally got on board with that. And we basically didn’t have a script. We didn’t really have a concept beyond a bunch of friends doing an online seance. Something scary is going to happen, we’ll figure it out, and you’ve just got to trust us. And to their credit, they came on board and they left us to figure it out.

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It’s microbudget but one of the things I loved about it is that it doesn’t look like that. I expected creepy things in the background but then towards the end, there’s actual proper stunt work, which is amazing. I’d like to hear a bit about the decision to do that?

RS : One of the reasons we wanted to go so big at the end is because we knew that people would have very low expectations going in. On paper, it sounds really shit, “Zoom, horror movie.” If I was to read that headline, I’d be like, “Fuck off.” And the fact that we made it under lockdown conditions, I think is always going to be at the forefront of people’s minds. One thing you’re always looking to do when you’re making a movie, especially a horror movie, is to make the audience feel that they’re without a roadmap, that they don’t know what the next turn is going to be. From the beginning, when we blocked it out, we separated it into three acts.

The first act was the seance. The second act was the haunting. And the third act was the freak out. We really wanted it to feel like by about half an hour in, the audience felt like they knew all our tricks. Then we wanted to show them something that was like, “No, you haven’t seen anything yet.” We really wanted to push that final act and make it a roller coaster.

How did you do those big stunt set pieces – how much VFX was used?

RS: With the stunts there’s obviously VFX clean up and stuff, but it’s all pretty much what you see is what we did. So Teddy really got his face set on fire. Jinny really got picked up in the air and thrown into the swimming pool. Everything is 95% done in-camera with a little VFX cleanup to help it out. We started out by writing a list of all the cool things that we could do because of the people we know, the friends that we’ve worked with in the industry.

We had this amazing moment at the very beginning of the process where we were talking about the fact that we have to shoot it remotely as being this big, negative that we are having to constantly fight against. And then, we had this revelatory moment where we’re like, “Oh, but actually it means that we can work with anyone because anyone who’s got an internet connection can suddenly be on our crew.” So we wrote a big list of people who we knew who were just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. We had pyrotechnic experts. There’s an amazing house full of stunt performers who live with a stunt coordinator, which means that legally, without breaking lockdown, we could do all these amazing stunts. Teddy, as well as being an amazing actor, is also a fully qualified stunt performer who’s done burn work before, so we could get him on board and we could set his face on fire.

It was really out of necessity that we came up with all these ideas. Then, we retrofitted the scare scenes to what we knew we could achieve.

That’s brilliant. So the scene with Jinny over the pool, how did that work? How was she lifted?

RS: She’s on a wire, it picks her up. She chokes in midair and then there’s a remote control, like quick release, that lets her go, drops her into the water.

The picnic table at Emma’s death scene was obviously a real picnic table. It’s not a real Emma, though?

RS: Yes, that’s the same. That’s actually Jinny doing that fall. Jinny’s a qualified stunt person as well. We got those both on the same night, she went through a table and then she got hoisted in the air and dropped in a swimming pool. The way that we did that, it was actually the same system. So she was on a rope that dropped her down onto the table from this massive height and just stopped her. Just bungeed her a few inches off the ground. Even though she breaks the table which we loosened like in the old kung fu movies, we weakened it at all the important bits so it broke. She landed with that heavy kind of thump, but she didn’t actually go with all her weight and we didn’t actually break her neck.

That’s incredible.

RS: It was all done with the same rig on the same night. That bit of Emma’s garden is actually – if you were to pan the camera a meter over to the side, you’d see the swimming pool because we shot that in the same location.

James Swanton is your demon….

RS: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He filmed all those bits at his parents’ house.

I was wondering if he was ever in the same room as anyone…

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RS: No, a lot of the stunts and the scares, it’s just hidden cuts. You go from Teddy’s house and he’s got the torch and the torch dips off-screen for a moment. So you’ve got a black screen and then the torch comes up and suddenly you’re in James Swanton’s house and it’s his mum shooting as he walks up the stairs and we see his face jumping out between the banisters. So it’s all just really lo-fi, little techniques like that. One of the biggest effects moments I guess is the moment where you see James, the demon, underneath Teddy’s pool table because we actually shot that against a green screen in James’s house and added him in to Teddy’s pool table. I think there’s the most VFX going on in that shot. The rest of them are pretty much all done in location.

You also worked with Dan Martin on prosthetics, but remotely, how did that work?

RS: He was great. I’ve worked with Dan a bunch of times and he was one of the first people on our list of awesome people who could probably do something cool for us. I messaged him and we figured that the best way probably was to send little prosthetic pieces to Caroline along with a kind of tutorial video, that Dan very kindly made, explaining how to attach it. So Caroline had a few test pieces that she applied first using this video. Then she had the real pieces that she applied on the day. So Dan basically just came on a Zoom call and took her through inch by inch how to apply the makeup, how to blend it in, how much blood to apply, where to apply it.

We had Caroline with a little cushion just out of sight so she didn’t completely brain herself on the laptop. She’d start with a little bit of blood running from her nose and she’d wack her head a couple of times. Then Dan would say, “Great, let’s do a broken nose now.” Then we’d add a little bit, and we’d crack her nose. Then she’d slam a couple more times and slowly we’d build it up until her face was all torn to shreds. Caroline was loving it. All the blood is basically corn syrup. So she was high as a kite by the end of it.

The whole Zoom background is brilliant because it does work like that, of course. You’ll come in and out of shot depending on where you’re sitting.

RS: Yeah. It’s a distance thing. That was one of the first scares we came up with that we wanted somebody to fly through the kind of threshold of the fake Zoom background. Again, that was just her. We set up her camera on her bed, covered her face in blood, and just had her “Superman” at the camera a bunch of times. Then, we stitched it together in VFX.

There are lots of moments and Easter eggs and things off-screen that people have alluded to. And certainly, I think I’ve seen you or possibly Jed [Shepard] allude to something that happens in the first three minutes?

RS: Yeah. So there’s something, I don’t want to spoil it totally… You should be looking around the moment where Jemma first joins, there’s a little… it’s less of a scare, it’s not a demon sighting or anything like that, but it’s a little clue as to what’s really going on. Yeah, that’s what I’ll say.

Post-seance, there’re a lot of moments where we’ve got scary things happening in the background or the demon lurking, which is little-blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments where James will pop up. But really the first half, we basically give the audience everything they need to decipher what happens next. In the first five minutes, there’s clues to where the demon comes from, how everyone’s going to die, how the demon’s going to get summoned. Every single time we introduce a character, they’ve got a little clue as to what their fate’s going to be.

One of the big questions is about Seylan and what actually happens to her. There’s a key moment where something comes out of the corner just before she is cut off – to me it looks like something jumping out but it’s a very quick moment. What should we take from this?

RS: The idea is, it’s something bursting out. It’s something bursting out and knocking things flying in that moment. I know what I think when I’m watching it, but there’s no real right answer. In one take I got her to play it one way, and in another take I got her to play it another. But this idea of whether it’s actually Seylan who’s on the phone when they call… Our Terminator 2 moment.

What’s on the screen is a mixture of those two different takes. One where I got it to play it very much from the point of view of she has become the host of something and she’s possessed by something and she’s giving them the wrong information – because if you look at it, it’s only after they reengage with the spirit in the house, and they ask for further communication, that the shit really starts going down and they to get picked off. So Seylan doesn’t really do a whole heap of good there, which there’s a reading of that she’s helping the demon along.

Was the ambiguity important to you?

RS: With a lot of this, the creepiness is in the not knowing. It’s not like we filmed it and had a definitive answer in mind, but we filmed it knowing that we wanted to create a sense of ambiguity there because that’s what keeps you up at night.

Jemma’s story, although she says it’s not true is weirdly specific. And then there’s all this hanging iconography, Jinny’s neck, and the noose in Teddy’s place…

RS: Exactly. When me and Jemma were working on how that scene would go, she actually made the decision to base the memory on somebody from her real life, who is still alive, but that’s why there’s that kind of weird specificity to it. And I mean, the way that we always thought about it is that it’s a ‘tulpa’ movie.

A tulpa is a ghost or a demon that is summoned by groupthink. So the idea is that if you’re all imagining the same person in your mind, they can manifest, even though they were never really alive and they were never really dead. The idea is that Jemma, by creating so vividly this person, that all of the group see in their head while they’re in this kind of weirdly connected state, allows the demon to come through and the demon starts to manifest using these images that Jemma has evoked. It’s kind of the demon’s way of mocking them or kind of toying with them. As the movie goes through, you start to see more and more of the demon in its real form. It becomes less Jack and more demonic. And then, the final shot, you see frames of a transformation happening where the recognizable figure of Jack starts to turn into something a bit more uncanny and demonic.

So in that sense, when Seylan explains the rules and she talks about how it’s a mask then everybody sees it and thinks of it in that way. And then, of course, we have mask iconography.

RS: Yeah. It’s all about that idea of groupthink. They’re in a collective nightmare by that point. The more that they lean into that, the more it starts to manifest.

Was that consciously a reference point or an allegory for what’s going on in the world?

RS: No, not really. We were really keen to not make it a pandemic movie. It’s a lockdown movie, not a pandemic movie. It’s really about the specifics of being isolated and going stir-crazy and the appearance of being connected, but actually being isolated. That was the main thing we wanted to tap into is it can feel like you’re hanging out in a group and your friends are there, but ultimately you’re on your own. And that’s the horror that we wanted to play out when things start happening, they’re all going through their own individual nightmares and everyone else is just a passenger.

The girls were friends already, right?

RS: We’re all just really good friends. They’re the same people who are in the initial prank video that I did. We were pretty much just hanging out on Zoom anyway, doing Zoom happy hours. And we just basically started pressing record and went from there.

There’s so much brilliant character development done without exposition, which is just really clever. How tightly scripted was it, and how much were they allowed to play?

RS: We gave them parameters for those early scenes. But there was never a conventional script. We had a 10-page outline with certain beats that they needed to hit. I spoke to all the different actors individually and talked about what they might want to bring to the table. I gave them sample lines of dialog that they could play around with, but we never did a full scripted rehearsal.

A lot of the actors didn’t know certain topics that were going to get brought up. It was more just prompts that I knew would be fun. So like the astral plane drinking game, that’s a line in the outline, but I didn’t know how they’d implement that and I didn’t tell Seylan that they were going to start drinking on the word astral plane. So the way that it came up felt kind of very natural and the way that the girls all kind of eyeball each other whenever the word is said is really fun. That’s all just happening for real.

You have mentioned that at points you’re referencing and homaging other movies – obviously there’s quite a bit of Paranormal Activity, what else can we look out for?

RS: Yeah. There’s a lot of Paranormal Activity , and I’m a big found footage guy and I love Paranormal Activity and all of those. Even though we made this in quite a condensed time period, there’s actually a lot more time you get to spend on these kinds of things when you’re filming remotely because you’re not waiting around for the lights to be set up or hair and makeup or any of these things. It means you can really tinker and you can put in these kinds of Easter eggy things, which we had a lot of fun with. I mean, there’s some really big obvious homages, like the final scene with the camera flash is on one end of the scale, we’re referencing the first Saw movie. On a slightly more highbrow end of the scale, we’re referencing Wait Until Dark , which is a movie we love.

The bit with Emma throwing the sheet over the ghost is us giving a nod – it’s sort of the first Conjuring movie, but that wasn’t actually what we had in mind. It was this movie called Satan’s Slaves , which is great. It’s on Shudder. It’s an Indonesian horror movie by this filmmaker, Joko Anwar. It’s really scary. He’s basically the next James Wan. And there’s a great fucking scare with a bed sheet, we were homaging that. Another movie that I love that I wanted to get a reference in for was Alice, Sweet Alice , which is a slasher movie from the ’70s. The mask that floats on the dispossessed demon is a direct reference to Alice, Sweet Alice . The participant ID is the date that Ghostwatch was released, which is a big reference.

Then, the password is DMK, which is from the movie Night of the Comet , which is a movie we love as well. Lake Mungo is a big one that we referenced. The Polaroid picture with the glimpse of Jack was a reference… or not reference, but just we wanted to kind of evoke that same creepiness of that kind of fuzzy, am I seeing what I think I’m seeing, kind of quality that Lake Mungo evokes.

So the obvious question is what’s next? What can we be looking out for? Are you likely to make anything else in lockdown?

RS: Oh, yeah definitely. Because of the success of Host , there’s been a huge interest in doing more. We’ve got lots of ideas that I don’t think people are going to quite expect. The last thing we want to do is try and just repeat Host because it’s such a specific thing, and we did it without any intention of it blowing up like this. So I think if we came at it now with all this expectation, I think it would probably just suck. So we’ve got a really fucking cool follow-up that we want to do that’s in a similar space. That’s going to really take people by surprise.

If Shudder wants us to, we’ve got plenty more of these ideas. And I want to keep making stuff until the world reopens again. It’s so much fun being able to make it… It’s a much more creative process than doing the normal film or TV series, doing it this way in such a condensed time. You can spend years and years developing something that never goes anywhere, but to have a movie conceived and out there in 12 weeks is a dream. So I’d love to do more of them.

Host is available to watch on Shudder now.

Rosie Fletcher

Rosie Fletcher is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Den Of Geek. She’s been an entertainment journalist for more than 15 years previously working at DVD & Blu-ray Review, Digital…

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Review: ‘Host’ Delivers Geniunely Scary Quarantined Horror

Host follows in the footsteps of The Den , Paranormal Activity , and Searching . This type of filming has always intrigued me as it has the potential to hone in on the details of a story and view the pain and agony from one person’s viewpoint up close and personal. Searching and The Den accomplishes such. Unfriended attempted to take on what Host does but undelivered and underwhelmed most moviegoers at the time. However, at close to midnight, the day Host premiered on Shudder is when I decided it was a great time to watch the film. This moment was after seeing the following tweet on a comment thread I was a part of on Twitter.

I’m adding “Host” to this list now because it just got me while the sun is out and I was still a fraidy cat. Lol. — Briandyman 🐝 (@brianscribeNY) July 30, 2020

As much as I wanted this movie to bring it, there was still a part of me that told myself not to get my expectations too high. However, two screams and about ten jumps backward into my couch later, and the film was over. I’m not a screamer when it comes to most horror films. I can count on one hand how many horror films have made me scream, and now I have to add Host to that small list. Award-winning filmmaker Rob Savage wrote, along with Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, and directed the new horror film despite never being able to set foot in the same room with any of the actors during this production. Due to social distancing precautions, Savage directed everyone remotely instead.

Despite being filmed remotely and on Zoom, Host manages to deliver on the thrills and chills one expects from a horror movie. This movie was not just a bunch of mere jump scares either. Some of the scares in this film were ones that I did not see coming. What adds to the scariness of the film is that the actors were handling the camera. We indeed went everywhere with the actor, and when one is in that confined space with someone, it starts to feel a little claustrophobic. We sit with these women and peer into the background to attempt to see what they see. There’s nowhere else to turn. They are the center focus.

The film stars Haley Bishop ( Deep State ), Radina Drandova ( Dawn of the Deaf ), Edward Linard ( The Rebels ), Jemma Moore ( Doom: Annihilation ), Caroline Ward ( Stalling It) , and Emma Louise Webb ( The Crown ). The friends get together on zoom for some seance fun and end up dealing with much more than anticipated. While the plot might be one bore before, Savage and his team of talented writers craft the script in such a way that it’s all incredibly fresh. To release something that feels new to the viewers of the horror world is nothing short of fantastic in a world of remakes and sequels. In this case, though, the viewer is rewarded by embarking on the seance with these women.

In addition to the incredible acting, each woman not only presented a united front in scaring me for the evening, but they also helped pull off specific effects and lit their scenes. These ladies are beyond impressive. They pull off a genuineness even when they might annoy us. Trust me, one of them is going to annoy you with the blatant spiritual disrespect. We must have a non-believer in these films. Because when that person realizes the events happening around them are real and becomes scared that is scary and our guard goes up. There’s something magical about this trope in horror films when done right, and Host does everything right.

According to Shudder, the film is fifty-six minutes long, and they use that time wisely. While we get to know the characters, we manage to care about these people in a short amount of time. As we realize what is going on alongside them, it’s already too late to turn back. The spiritual realm will accept no forgiveness, and in many ways, I feel that it tells the girls, “ You got into this mess I guess you can figure out how to get out of it .” Only in most scenarios, such as this one, we always wonder if that will be the case. Can the ladies figure that out in due time? Will they be able to escape the prescene evoked?

Only the film can answer those questions as I refuse to spoil the movie for viewers. I can say I have honestly learned during this quarantine and from Host is to never listen to someone that tells you, “ It’s called possessed, but that doesn’t have to be a negative thing ,” guide you in any sort of seance. Or, you know, don’t play with the spirit world as you never know who or what you’re inviting into your home. Sure, I’m going to watch movies about it, but I’m not pulling out the ouija board anytime soon.

Host is now available on-demand exclusively on Shudder. Sign up for your free trial today!

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Directed by Rob Savage

Someone new has joined the meeting

Six friends hire a medium to hold a séance via Zoom during lockdown — but they get far more than they bargained for as things quickly go wrong. When an evil spirit starts invading their homes, they begin to realize they might not survive the night.

Haley Bishop Jemma Moore Emma Louise Webb Radina Drandova Caroline Ward Edward Linard Seylan Baxter Alan Emrys Jinny Lofthouse James Swanton Jack Brydon Patrick Ward

Director Director

Producers producers.

Douglas Cox Emily Gotto Samuel Zimmerman

Writers Writers

Rob Savage Gemma Hurley Jed Shepherd

Editor Editor

Brenna Rangott

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Craig Engler Rob Savage Jed Shepherd

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Steven Bray

Stunts Stunts

Nathaniel Marten Mathew McKay

Sound Sound

Calum Sample

Costume Design Costume Design

Alexi Kotkowska

Makeup Makeup

Shadowhouse Films BOO-URNS

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 04 dec 2020, 18 dec 2020, 08 jan 2021, 28 jan 2021, 04 feb 2021, 25 feb 2021, 11 nov 2021, 30 jul 2020, 16 dec 2020, 23 may 2021, 07 jul 2021, releases by country.

Digital VOD
Physical 10 DVDS & Blu-Ray
Theatrical 15

Russian Federation

Theatrical 16+
Theatrical 16 Barcelona (subtitled version) (technical release)
Theatrical limited 15 Limited Theatrical/ Digital HD
Digital NR Shudder

57 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

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Host – Shudder Review (5/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Aug 4, 2020 | 4 minutes

HOST is a new Shudder horror movie made during the quarantine. It’s a found footage movie along the lines of Unfriended and it is brilliant. Seriously, this is one of the best horror movies I’ve watched in a while. Also, it’s just over an hour long which is perfect! Read our full Host movie review here!

HOST is a Shudder horror movie in the found-footage subgenre. It was made during quarantine, which makes it even more impressive. Especially since it has quite a lot of really awesome practical effects (that the actors crafted themselves). And yes, since it plays out over a Zoom call among friends, it is very reminiscent of Unfriended . Something the director is very aware of and gives shout outs too whenever possible.

Still, this movie has a very different storyline. And while I did enjoy the Unfriended movies, I feel that Host is in a league of its own. In part due to having a very crisp runtime of just over one hour. It’s brave, ballsy, and downright perfect for this story!

Fun fact: The word “host” actually means “cough” in Danish, which makes it the perfect title for a movie made during the Coronavirus-quarantine.

Continue reading our full Host movie review below and do check it out on Shudder as soon as possible.

Horror at its very best

What I really loved about Host is the way in which it feels real . We’ve all been trapped at home and used Zoom (or another video chat platform) to communicate. Whether it’s for work or just to stay in touch with friends and family. This makes the story even more relatable and familiar than ever before.

Also, while the Host movie is not a horror-comedy by any means, it has those everyday Corona-moments. When someone coughs, you immediately stop and pause. My favorite moment of the movie comes towards the very ending. A woman fighting to survive what appears to be a supernatural element still manages to remember the basic Coronavirus rules of social distancing.

This moment alone makes this movie an instant cult classic. The jump scares should also please even the most hardened horror fans. Not because they’re necessarily extreme or gruesome but because the timing is spot-on!

Host (2020) – Review – Shudder Horror Movie

I’ve been hearing strange noises from my attic, so I called a few friends and went to investigate… pic.twitter.com/CxmJAf44ob — Rob Savage (@DirRobSavage) April 21, 2020

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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A horror thriller, a political satire, a dysfunctional family comedy, and a touching melodrama, Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" is also one helluva monster movie. It's the recombinant offspring of all those science-fiction pictures of the 1950s and '60s in which exposure to atomic radiation (often referred to as both "atomic" and "radiation") or hazardous chemicals (sometimes also radioactive) results in something very large and inhospitable: "Them!" (giant ants), "Tarantula" (giant spider), "Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People" (giant fungi), "The Amazing Colossal Man" (giant bald guy), "The Giant Behemoth" (giant behemoth -- both giant and a behemoth, but more precisely a radioactive ocean-dwelling Godzilla clone), "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (giant Frankenstein's monster atomically regenerated from the beating heart of the original monster after the A-bomb is dropped on Hiroshima), and so on.

In "The Host" (a k a "Gwoemul"), the mutagen is a simple aldehyde, HCHO (possibly even a radioactive variety). The movie opens in the year 2000 at the Yongsan U.S. Army base in Seoul, where an American mortician (the always superb Scott Wilson , clearly having fun) orders a Korean subordinate to dump dusty bottles of "dirty formaldehyde" into the sink ... which empties into the Han River. When the underling objects, the American insists, "The Han River is very... broad , Mr. Kim. Let's try to be broad-minded about this." Had Al Gore been present, he would have made a persuasive counter-argument with colorful charts and graphs about the dangers of poisoning our fragile planet, but an order is an order, so down the drain the noxious stuff goes.

(This scene is based on a notorious incident involving Albert McFarland, an American civilian mortician at the Yongsan military base, who in 2000 ordered his staff to pour 120 liters of formaldehyde into the morgue's plumbing. Although the chemicals passed through two treatment plants before reaching the Han, source of Seoul's drinking water, the scandal sparked an anti-American uproar in South Korea.)

At the movie's center is the Park family, a clan no less eccentric than the Hoovers of " Little Miss Sunshine ." Patriarch Park Hee-Bong ( Byun Hee-Bong ) runs a snack stand down by the river with his dim-bulb son Kang-Du ( Song Kang-Ho ). His other son is a chronically unemployed no-goodnik, Nam-Il ( Park Hae-Il ), from whom he is estranged. But if the boys in the brood are underachievers, the girls are something else: Their sister Nam-Joo ( Bae Doo-Na ) is an acclaimed archery champion, and Kang-Du's daughter Hyun-Seo (Ko A-Sung), an adorable plaid-skirted schoolgirl, is the apple of everyone's eye.

When the monster nabs a Park from the shore (in one of the best fleeing-in-panic crowd scenes ever filmed), the clan reunites to seek revenge. If only they can fight their way through the political red tape. The government's response to the monstrous threat is an American-backed disinformation campaign about an outbreak of "Asian flu" virus that, as is so often the case with official lies, only serves to exacerbate the real Terror.

The creature -- just like (spoiler warning) the Moroccan kids who accidentally shoot the American employer of the Mexican nanny with the rifle formerly belonging to the Japanese businessman with the deaf daughter who is sexually provocative in " Babel " (end of spoiler warning) -- unknowingly precipitates an international incident. And in the ensuing pandemonium, the Parks are forced to fend for themselves.

But about the monster. Created by the San Francisco-based FX house, The Orphanage, it is a creature of scary amphibious loveliness, with greenish salamanderlike skin, froggy legs and webbed feet, and a pinkish vagina dentata maw that resembles the primary orifice of an Arrakis sandworm, but with extra mandibles and barbed lip-flaps around the opening. (Nice serpentine tongue, too.) This is the most hideously beautiful movie-monster since H.R. Giger's Alien, equally ferocious and hard to kill, but with a poignant side. It is first seen (almost not-seen) hanging from the underside of a bridge like a fruit bat. A giant fruit bat. And, it turns out, it can not only swim and crawl and hop, it can swing and flip like an acrobat, using its tail as a trapeze.

The movie itself is no less dexterous (though it sags in the middle), twisting suddenly from horror to pathos to comedy to action and back again, as the Parks (individually and collectively) battle the forces that would tear them apart -- forces that not only include a giant mutant river monster, but hazmat teams, the police, mad scientists, government conspirators, and an American chemical weapon called "Agent Yellow."

Like its magnificent beast, "The Host" is wild, crazy, messy, preposterous -- and all the better for it.

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Film credits.

The Host (2007)

Rated R for creature violence and language

119 minutes

Park Hae-Il as Park Nam-Il

Byun Hee-Bong as Park Hee-Bong

Song Kang-Ho as Park Kang-Du

Scott Wilson as Mortician

KoA-Sung as Park Hyun-Seo

Bae Doo-Na as Park Nam-Joo

Directed by

Bong Joon-ho

From a story by

Ha Jun-weon
Baek Cheol-hyeon

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The Unbelievable True Story Behind Guy Ritchie's 'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare'

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The Big Picture

Ritchie's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is based on real WWII events but has embellished the action for dramatic effect.
The movie features a team tasked with sabotaging Nazi U-boats, with some added fictional subplots for entertainment value.
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was involved in the real-life Operation Postmaster.

Guy Ritchie 's manly adventure, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare , is an experience that only Guy Ritchie could deliver. It features an all-star cast including Henry Cavill , Reacher himself, Alan Ritchson , and Henry Golding and has them slaughtering Nazis in the most bloody, over-the-top ways possible. It's also based on a real-life story , most notably the recently declassified Operation Postmaster. Operation Postmaster and other WWII-era secret operations were detailed in the novel Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII , which also reveals that Winston Churchill gathered together a group of soldiers who would operate outside the conventional rules of warfare. But how much of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is true to real life? What parts did Ritchie embellish? The answers lie below, and they're fairly surprising.

ministry of ungentlemanly warfare poster

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

The British military recruits a small group of highly-skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II.

How Did Operation Postmaster Impact ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’?

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare centers around the efforts of Gus March-Phillips (Cavill) and his team of specialists, who are tasked with sabotaging a fleet of U-boats that the Nazis have been using to sabotage the Allied Forces . Said boats are stationed on the island of Fernando Po, which is near Spain, a neutral territory in the war. March-Phillips recruits demolitions expert Freddy Alvarez (Golding), Danish commando Anders Lassen (Ritchson), and his old friend Geoffery Appleyard ( Alex Pettyfer ) to pull off the task. But when they learn that the U-boats have had their hulls reinforced, the team decides to steal the boats and deliver them to the British fleet . In true Ritchie fashion, they leave a trail of Nazi bodies behind them.

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In real life, March-Phillips and his team were tasked with stealing the boats from the get-go. They had already completed several missions for the SOE as the No. 62 Commando Unit, which consisted of 55 men instead of just a handful. But the biggest change concerns the obstacles that March-Phillips' team runs into...or rather, the lack of them in real life. The commandos launched two parties to keep the Nazis busy, while they stole the boats with little resistance and managed to get them to the British fleet. Considering the level of violence in Ritchie's previous films and the fact that he admitted to preferring improvisation to scripted moments, it's no surprise that The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has a far bloodier outcome than the historical event.

Marjorie Stewart Has a Different Storyline in Guy Ritchie's WWII Movie

Marjorie wielding a rifle in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

In addition to the plot to sink/steal the Nazis' U-boats, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare also features a subplot with two SOE agents, Richard Heron ( Babs Olusanmokun ) and Marjorie Stewart ( Eiza González ). Heron manages to secure backup for March-Phillips and his team in the form of pirates, while Stewart attempts to lower the guard of SS commander Heinrich Luhr ( Til Schweiger ). In fact, the movie has her suggesting that he throw the party that serves as the distraction for March-Phillips' team to steal the boats.

Stewart, however, wasn't a part of the real-life Operation Postmaster. While she worked for the SOE , she didn't meet March-Phillips until later in her life, with the two eventually getting married. Gonzalez was actually apparently relieved that The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare didn't dive into March-Phillips and Stewart's romance. "I really like that each character was just solely focused on their capacities, their talents, their job, and their wits. Nothing distracted from the mission," she told Entertainment Weekly .

James Bond's Creator Worked on Operation Postmaster

One of the biggest revelations in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is the identity of one of the officers working for the SOE. That officer is none other than Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox), the author of the James Bond novels . In fact, the end credits reveal that March-Phillips was one of the major inspirations for Bond. Cary Elwes even plays an officer named "M" — the same name of Bond's boss throughout various movies and novels. Damien Lewis , who wrote Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII , fully clarified the Bond connections in an interview with the Los Angeles Times :

“March-Phillipps is one of the key characters and there are two or three others — all individuals that Fleming worked with...Fleming was hands-on with Operation Postmaster. That’s absolutely true. But he also worked closely with an amazing character named Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale. He was a high-born bon vivant, just like James Bond, and he was the secret intelligence spymaster in France prior to the war.”

Ironically, March-Phillips would also write a spy novel prior to his death , which Cavill discovered. “Had he not died during the war he might have beaten Ian Fleming to the punch,” Cavill told the LA Times . Considering Bond is one of the roles that Cavill's been frequently connected to , it only makes sense that he'd play the man who served as the real-life basis for the super spy.

While The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare might have exaggerated the level of action that took place during Operation Postmaster, it's still an intriguing look into a side of World War II that hadn't been explored on film or television at that point. The fact that Ritchie managed to do this while also embracing the more outlandish elements of his filmmaking style is a feat that not many filmmakers could have pulled off.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

Rent on Prime Video

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Pat Sajak’s final ‘Wheel of Fortune’ airs Friday. What to know about his spin as host

Pat Sajak standing on the Wheel of Fortune stage in a black suit, holding cards, smiling

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Pat Sajak will wind down his record-breaking spin hosting “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday night . Here’s what to know about the game show icon’s decades-long tenure on the show.

When does Sajak’s final episode air?

The “Wheel of Fortune” Season 41 finale, titled “Thanks for the Memories,” airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday on KABC-7. Thursday’s penultimate episode will include a farewell message from Sajak’s longtime co-host, Vanna White.

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How long has Sajak hosted?

Sajak has hosted the Hangman-style game show for more than 40 years, stepping in for original host Chuck Woolery after its seventh season in 1982, when “America’s Game” still aired on daytime television.

“Wheel of Fortune” debuted in 1975 with Woolery and Susan Stafford leading the show before the “Love Connection” host departed over a salary dispute with NBC. Legendary producer Merv Griffin hired Sajak and famous letter-turner White in 1982, and the two have become fixtures of the series. In 2019, Sajak scored the Guinness Book of World Records title for longest career as a game show host on the same show. He will retire with almost 8,000 episodes to his name.

He earned three Daytime Emmy Awards as game show host during his run and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He also has a People’s Choice Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame credited to his “Wheel” run.

In 2021, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” premiered in prime time on ABC with Sajak usually serving as host.

Why is Sajak stepping down?

The 77-year-old announced his retirement a year ago, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that the current season would be his last. In an interview with his daughter, “Wheel” social correspondent Maggie Sajak, the host said that he could continue hosting the show if he wanted to but felt he needed to exit on his own terms.

“I’d rather leave a couple years too early than a couple years too late,” he said, adding, “I’m looking forward to whatever’s ahead.”

Who’s taking over ‘Wheel of Fortune’? And when?

Headshots of Pat Sajak, left, and Ryan Seacrest

Less than a month after Sajak revealed his retirement, “American Idol” and “On Air” host Ryan Seacrest announced that he would step into the emcee’s shoes. At the time, Seacrest lauded his predecessor for the way Sajak “always celebrated the contestants and made viewers feel at home.”

Seacrest, who signed a multiyear deal with Sony Pictures Television last June, will begin the new gig in September.

White is set to remain on “Wheel of Fortune” for the next two years. She has previously filled in for Sajak as host on a few occasions and, before the brief search for Sajak’s successor came to an end, fans campaigned for White to replace her longtime colleague.

Vanna White, Mayim Bialik, Ken Jennings, Maggie Sajak and Pat Sajack pose for a group photo on the set of the game show 'Wheel of Fortune'

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What did Sajak do before ‘Wheel’?

It’s hard to think about Sajak doing anything other than soliciting consonants and vowels or declaring a player “bankrupt,” but his storied career began long before “Wheel of Fortune.”

Born and raised in Chicago, Sajak got his broadcasting start as a newscaster and announcer at a small radio station, looking to broadcast legends Arthur Godfrey, Dave Garroway, Steve Allen and Jack Paar for inspiration to shape his TV personality. He served in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s and was sent to Vietnam, where he hosted a daily show for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon shouting “Good morning, Vietnam!” each day.

After being discharged, he worked at small radio stations in Kentucky and Tennessee, spending several years as a staff announcer, talk show host and weatherman at Nashville’s WSM-TV. A talent scout for NBC-TV in Los Angeles spotted him and brought him onboard in 1977 to serve as the local NBC station’s primary weatherman. In 1981, Griffin asked him to assume hosting duties on “Wheel” when it still aired during the day on NBC, well before the syndicated version premiered in 1983.

“The nice thing about working in local TV in L.A.,” Sajak has said, “is that decision makers are watching you every night.”

The avuncular host has joked that he spent 40 years doing “a part-time job pretending it was full-time,” given how the show’s shooting schedule has allowed him to tape several episodes at a time.

“The great benefit is [my wife] Lesley and I could spend time together and do things,” he told his daughter in an interview posted this week on the “Wheel of Fortune” YouTube channel. “And I could watch you guys grow up and go to the games and all that kind of stuff that work might have taken me away from.”

What else is on Sajak’s résumé?

During his tenure, Sajak has entertained generations of fans, inspired “Saturday Night Live” and “South Park” jokes and generated numerous headlines about his behavior with contestants . He also briefly hosted the short-lived late-night talk show “The Pat Sajak Show” in the late 1980s and played himself in a number of films and TV shows, including “The A-Team,” “227,” “Airplane II: The Sequel,” “Santa Barbara,” “The King of Queens,” “Just Shoot Me!” and “Fresh Off the Boat.”

“We became part of the popular culture ... more importantly became part of people’s lives,” he said in a recent interview with his daughter, who made her “Wheel” debut as a 1-year-old when she joined her dad onstage. The Princeton and Columbia University grad has been the show’s social correspondent since 2021.

Pat sajak also has helped reformat the show, adding the Toss Up puzzle to contribute more content each episode, plus the idea of the $100,000 Toss Up.

But his awkward dad jokes have raised eyebrows in recent years, with the stalwart host fully committing to an odd voyeurism quip while bantering with White during a 2023 episode. He also has landed in hot water for asking her if she liked watching opera in the buff and repeatedly raised social media hackles when he mocked and pranked a contestant over her fear of fish, poked fun at a man and his long beard by referring to him as one of Santa’s helpers, and put a winning contestant in a chokehold.

What’s next for Sajak?

Sajak said he’s looking forward to time to “with my crossword puzzles” and family. He will continue his duties as chairman of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees, a position he took up in 2019 .

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Nardine Saad covers breaking entertainment news, trending culture topics, celebrities and their kin for the Fast Break Desk at the Los Angeles Times. She joined The Times in 2010 as a MetPro trainee and has reported from homicide scenes, flooded canyons, red carpet premieres and award shows.

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Should You Host with HostGator? Review of Features, Pricing & Performance

May 8, 2024

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Our content is reader-supported . If you click on our links, we may earn a commission. How we review .

HostGator is one of the biggest, and oldest, web hosting companies in the industry. In this 2024 HostGator review, we’ll take a look at the popular web hosting provider to see if their low prices and features are worth it. Is HostGator really a good option for your website? Let’s find out.

Key Takeaways:

HostGator offers flexible and cheap hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth and storage, making it a popular choice for website owners.

HostGator offers flexible plans that come with a range of features, including easy WordPress set up, and a free website builder, and 24/7 customer support.

HostGator’s upsell options and unreliable support can also be frustrating for users, with long waiting times as a common issue when trying to access support.

HostGator is one of the oldest web hosting providers on the market. It’s also one of the cheapest. Founded in 2002, it’s part of the Newfold Digital (formerly Endurance International Group or EIG) parent company, which specializes in web hosting and owns Bluehost , as well.

It’s safe to say that HostGator is one of the most popular web hosting providers out there since it powers more than 2 million websites worldwide. That being said, you’re here today because you want to see whether it lives up to the hype.

Well, I’m here so we can figure that out together and see if HostGator is truly any good. If you don’t have time to read this HostGator web hosting review, just watch this short video I put together for you:

Pros and cons are a good introduction to a hosting provider because they help us see what sets them apart from other such services on the market.

Reddit is a great place to learn more about HostGator. Here are a few Reddit posts that I think you’ll find interesting. Check them out and join the discussion!

Just learned the hard way NOT to use Hostgator by u/No_Pop4073 in webhosting

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Hostgator is turning awful, now wanting more money for new features… by u/sparkktv in webhosting

Pros and Cons

Very, very cheap – That’s right. When it comes to the basic, shared plans, it’s even cheaper than Bluehost, which is also popular for being pretty affordable. For instance, with the current 60% discount, HostGator’s most basic shared hosting server plan starts at $3.75/month ! Of course, the renewal price would be according to the usual hosting plan price (without any discount).
Free domain name – For one year when you sign up for a 12, 24, or 36-month HostGator Shared, WordPress, or Cloud hosting plan.
Free site transfers – HostGator offers to migrate a site you might already have for free. You might think all hosting providers have this rule, but think again – Bluehost charges $149.99 for site migration.
Easy WordPress installations – HostGator is well integrated with WordPress, so if you want to host a WP site with them, they’re going to make it super easy for you. The HostGator Website Builder is also excellent. Or, you can just choose the WordPress hosting plan, and you’ll have WP already automatically installed on your hosting account. No hassle at all!
Easy one-click installations – this implies easy app integration; with one-click installation, you can have any app you want on your own HostGator hosting dashboard within minutes.
Unmetered bandwidth and disk space – HostGator’s unmetered bandwidth mean that you’re not going to be charged as long as you use disk space and bandwidth that corresponds to your site’s needs (this applies to personal or small business websites). All of this should be in compliance with their Terms of Service. If you use more bandwidth and disk space than what corresponds to HostGator’s usage policies, you will receive an email from them, asking you to reduce your usage of it. But this is usually pretty rare.
99.9% uptime guarantee – HostGator provides a guarantee of 99.9% uptime for your site, regardless of which hosting plan you choose, which is pretty good when you think about how none of the hosting providers can guarantee a perfect 100% uptime 24/7.
Free SSL certificate – Also comes with every hosting package. The SSL certificate makes your site much more secure by encrypting the communication flowing between the server where your site’s hosted and the visitors checking it out or entering personal data into it. They flag your site, which means each visitor will be able to see the well-known ‘secure site’ symbol of a padlock at the very left corner of the address bar. It also uses 2048-bit signatures, 256-bit customer data encryption, and 99.9% browser recognition.
45-day money-back guarantee – While most hosting providers out there offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, HostGator offers a pretty generous 45-day grace period during which you can try out their services after purchase and see whether you like them or not.
Flexible billing options – when it comes to paying for your hosting, HostGator provides six different billing cycles – you can choose between 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months. However, the billing for 1, 2, and 3 months is significantly more expensive than the other cycles.
Windows hosting option – a lot of the web hosting providers out there rely on the Linux operating system. However, HostGator also offers Windows hosting plans for those of you who have websites that require specific Windows applications and technologies such as NET, ASP, MSSQL (Microsoft SQL Server), and Microsoft Access.
The free domain for a year feature is not valid for all hosting plans – Unlike Bluehost, HostGator gives a free domain for one year only on the Shared, WordPress, or Cloud hosting plans. For all the other hosting plans, like VPS and dedicated, you will have to get a domain for an additional fee.
Aggressive upselling – Newfold Digital (formerly EIG) is known to push for aggressive upselling options, especially on services like automated backups and advanced functionality options. So make sure to uncheck the features you don’t need if you don’t want to find yourself accidentally paying for something additional. And don’t worry, if you realize that you do need them at a certain point, you can always add them later on.
Limited options for backup – HostGator gives free automated daily backups, but other than that, the free backup options are pretty limited, unless you pay for add-ons.
High monthly pricing – when you compare the monthly Hostgator pricing and annual plan pricing, there is a huge difference. For the shared hosting plan, the most basic billing option is $2.75 with the current 60% discount paid on a 36-month subscription, but if you choose to pay on a monthly basis, every three months, or every six months, it’s going to cost you a whopping $10.95 per month – just for the most basic plan!

In this 2024 HostGator review , I am going to take a close look at some of the pros and cons which you should be aware of before you decide to sign up.

Standout Features

Solid speed, performance & reliability.

In this section, you will find out..

Why site speed matters… a lot!
How fast a site hosted on HostGator loads. We will test their speed and server response time against Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics.
How a site hosted on HostGator performs with traffic spikes. We will test how HostGator performs when faced with increased site traffic.

The most important performance metric that you should look for in a web host is speed . Visitors to your site expect it to load fast instant. Site speed not only affects user experience on your site, but it also affects your SEO, Google rankings, and conversion rates .

But, testing site speed against Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics isn’t enough on its own, as our testing site does not have substantial traffic volume. To evaluate the efficiency (or inefficiency) of the web host’s servers when faced with increased site traffic, we use a testing tool called K6 (formerly called LoadImpact) to send virtual users (VU) to our test site.

Why Site Speed Matters

Did you know that:

Pages that loaded in 2.4 second s had a 1.9% conversion rate.
At 3.3 seconds , the conversion rate was 1.5% .
At 4.2 seconds , the conversion rate was less than 1% .
At 5.7+ seconds , the conversion rate was 0.6% .

When people leave your website, you lose not only potential revenue but also all the money and time you spent generating traffic to your website.

And if you want to get to the first page of Google and stay there, you need a website that loads up fast .

Google’s algorithms prefer displaying websites that offer a great user experience (and site speed is a huge factor). In Google’s eyes, a website that offers a good user experience generally has a lower bounce rate and loads up fast.

If your website is slow, most visitors will bounce back, resulting in a loss in search engine rankings . Also, your website needs to load up fast if you want to convert more visitors into paying customers.

If you want your website to load up fast and secure the first spot in search engine results, you will need a fast web hosting provider with server infrastructure, CDN and caching technologies that are fully configured and optimized for speed.

The web host you choose to go with will significantly impact how fast your website loads.

How We Perform the Testing

We follow a systematic and identical process for all the web hosts we test.

Buy hosting : First, we sign up and pay for the web host’s entry-level plan.
Install WordPress : Then, we set up a new, blank WordPress site using the Astra WordPress theme. This is a lightweight multipurpose theme and serves as a good starting point for the speed test.
Install plugins : Next, we install the following plugins: Akismet (for spam protection), Jetpack (security and backup plugin), Hello Dolly (for a sample widget), Contact Form 7 (a contact form), Yoast SEO (for SEO), and FakerPress (for generating test content).
Generate content : Using the FakerPress plugin, we create ten random WordPress posts and ten random pages, each containing 1,000 words of lorem ipsum “dummy” content. This simulates a typical website with various content types.
Add images : With the FakerPress plugin, we upload one unoptimized image from Pexels, a stock photo website, to each post and page. This helps evaluate the website’s performance with image-heavy content.
Run the speed test : we run the last published post in Google’s PageSpeed Insights Testing tool .
Run the load impact test : we run the last published post in K6’s Cloud Testing tool .

How We Measure Speed & Performance

The first four metrics are Google’s Core Web Vitals , and these are a set of web performance signals that are critical to a user’s web experience on both desktop and mobile devices. The last fifth metric is a load impact stress test.

1. Time to First Byte

TTFB measures the time between the request for a resource and when the first byte of a response begins to arrive. It’s a metric for determining the responsiveness of a web server and helps identify when a web server is too slow to respond to requests. Server speed is basically entirely determined by the web hosting service you use. (source: https://web.dev/ttfb/ )

2. First Input Delay

FID measures the time from when a user first interacts with your site (when they click a link, tap a button, or use a custom, JavaScript-powered control) to the time when the browser is actually able to respond to that interaction. (source: https://web.dev/fid/ )

3. Largest Contentful Paint

LCP measures the time from when the page starts loading to when the largest text block or image element is rendered on the screen. (source: https://web.dev/lcp/ )

4. Cumulative Layout Shift

CLS measures unexpected shifts in the display of content in the loading of a web page due to image resizing, ad displays, animation, browser rendering, or other script elements. Shifting layouts lower the quality of the user experience. This can make visitors confused or require them to wait till the webpage loading is completed, which takes more time. (source: https://web.dev/cls/ )

5. Load Impact

Load impact stress testing determines how the web host would handle 50 visitors simultaneously visiting the test site. Speed testing alone isn’t enough to test performance, as this test site doesn’t have any traffic to it.

To be able to evaluate the efficiency (or inefficiency) of a web host’s servers when faced with increased site traffic, we used a testing tool called K6 (formerly called LoadImpact) to send virtual users (VU) to our test site and stress test it.

These are the three load impact metrics we measure:

Average response time

This measures the average duration it takes for a server to process and respond to client requests during a specific test or monitoring period.

The average response time is a useful indicator of the overall performance and efficiency of a website. Lower average response times generally indicate better performance and a more positive user experience, as users receive quicker responses to their requests .

Maximum response time

This refers to the longest duration it takes for a server to respond to a client’s request during a specific test or monitoring period.This metric is crucial for evaluating the performance of a website under heavy traffic or usage.

When multiple users access a website simultaneously, the server must handle and process each request. Under high load, the server may become overwhelmed, leading to an increase in response times. The maximum response time represents the worst-case scenario during the test , where the server took the longest time to respond to a request.

Average request rate

This is a performance metric that measures the average number of requests per unit of time (usually per second) that a server processes.

The average request rate provides insights into how well a server can manage incoming requests under various load condition s. A higher average request rate indicates that the server can handle more requests in a given period, which is generally a positive sign of performance and scalability.

⚡HostGator Speed & Performance Test Results

The table below compares web hosting companies’ performance based on four key performance indicators: average Time to First Byte, First Input Delay, Largest Contentful Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift. Lower values are better .

TTFB	Avg TTFB	FID	LCP	CLS
Frankfurt 352.9 ms Amsterdam 345.37 ms London 311.27 ms New York 97.33 ms San Francisco 207.06 ms Singapore 750.37 ms Sydney 715.15 ms	397.05 ms	3 ms	2.3 s	0.43
Frankfurt 59.65 ms Amsterdam 93.09 ms London 64.35 ms New York 32.89 ms San Francisco 39.81 ms Singapore 68.39 ms Sydney 156.1 ms Bangalore 74.24 ms	73.57 ms	3 ms	2.8 s	0.06
Frankfurt 66.9 ms Amsterdam 62.82 ms London 59.84 ms New York 74.84 ms San Francisco 64.91 ms Singapore 61.33 ms Sydney 108.08 ms	71.24 ms	3 ms	2.2 s	0.04
Frankfurt 467.72 ms Amsterdam 56.32 ms London 59.29 ms New York 75.15 ms San Francisco 104.07 ms Singapore 54.24 ms Sydney 195.05 ms Bangalore 90.59 ms	137.80 ms	8 ms	2.6 s	0.01

HostGator’s TTFB varies significantly depending on the server location, with the best response time in London (59.84 ms) and the worst in Sydney (108.08 ms). The average TTFB is 71.24 ms, indicating a generally good performance across the globe , though there is room for improvement, especially in Sydney.

The FID is 3 ms, which indicates an excellent performance as it is very low . This suggests that users can expect their interactions with the website to be processed quickly.

The LCP is 2.2 seconds, which is acceptable , although striving for a score below 2 seconds would provide an even better user experience. This means it might take a bit longer for users to see the largest content on the webpage.

The CLS is 0.04, which is a strong score , indicating minimal layout shift and providing a stable experience for users. Google recommends a CLS score of less than 0.1, so HostGator is well within this range.

HostGator has solid performance metrics . There are some differences in TTFB based on server location, and there could be improvements to the LCP. However, the FID and CLS scores indicate a good user experience overall.

⚡HostGator Load Impact Test Results

The table below compares web hosting companies’ performance based on three key performance indicators: Average Response Time, Highest Load Time, and Average Request Time. Lower values are better for Average Response Time and Highest Load Time , while higher values are better for Average Request Time .

Avg Response Time	Highest Load Time	Avg Request Time
58 ms	258 ms	41 req/s
17 ms	133 ms	43 req/s
14 ms	85 ms	43 req/s
22 ms	357 ms	42 req/s

HostGator’s Average Response Time is 14 ms, which is excellent , indicating that the server generally responds to requests very quickly.

The Highest Load Time is 85 ms, also an impressive figure . This suggests that even under high traffic load, HostGator servers can respond to requests in less than a tenth of a second.

The Average Request Time is 43 requests per second , which is a measure of throughput rather than speed. This indicates that HostGator’s servers can handle a high number of simultaneous requests , making it suitable for websites that expect to experience periods of high traffic.

HostGator demonstrates strong performance in both response times and handling high traffic loads . This suggests that it’s well-suited for hosting websites with variable or high traffic levels, as it can quickly respond to requests and manage a large number of requests simultaneously.

Solid Uptime

They promise a 99.9% uptime guarantee , which is great news for any website owner. However, it’s important to keep in mind that this is the standard, and anything less is not generally tolerated.

Page speed is important, but it’s also important that your website is “up” and available to your visitors. I monitor uptime for a test WordPress site hosted on HostGator to see how often they experience outages.

Sites that load slowly aren’t likely to rise to the top in any niche. A study from Google found that a one-second delay in mobile page load times can impact conversion rates by up to 20%.

The above screenshot only shows the past 30 days, you can view historical uptime data and server response time at this uptime monitor page .

Adding to that, HostGator is prepared to compensate its customers with a one-month credit if at any time the server falls short of the 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Security and Backup

HostGator is equipped with a custom firewall that is aimed at protecting its customers’ websites against DDoS attacks. HostGator also offers an SSL on all Hostgator plans and they also have free SSH access (but needs to be enabled in the dashboard).

You can easily get additional security through the SiteLock app which includes automatic daily and continuous malware scans and malware removal, basic CDN, database scanning, blocking of automated bot attacks, and a lot more stuff, depending on which plan you choose (they start at $5.99 per month).

SiteLock is a paid addon that scans for malware and prevents your site from being blacklisted. HostGator’s SiteLock starts from $5.99 per month.

Currently, Cloudflare’s CDN is free of charge only on the shared hosting Business plan that HostGator provides. Cloudflare CDN is a good idea to have because it not only provides extra protection for your site from various hacker attacks and malware but also gives your site a serious performance boost.

If you purchased and registered your domain with HostGator, you can automatically enable Cloudflare . If you purchased a domain with another provider, you will need to make sure that the domain is using HostGator name servers.

What about backups?

HostGator does offer a complimentary backup service on all their plans that runs once a week, and the day is chosen at random. Each subsequent backup erases the previous one, which means you won’t have any previous backup versions of your site. According to HostGator, the terms of their backup policies depend on what kind of hosting plan you’re currently using .

However, you should have in mind that these free backups are considered a kind of courtesy and they shouldn’t serve as the only guarantee for your site’s backup system. HostGator is clear that the customer is responsible for their website content and their backups and that they should make additional backups if they want extra protection for their site.

HostGator CodeGuard

This means that if you run a more serious and complex site, with lots of data and especially business information, you should definitely seriously consider a third-party app for backup, such as CodeGuard, which HostGator officially recommends.

CodeGuard offers daily automated backups, unlimited databases and files, on-demand backups, and daily website monitoring, as well as 1-10 GB of storage, depending on which of the three plans you choose. The most basic one starts at $3.75/month.

What all of this means is that if you opt to use the free security features that HostGator provides, you’ll be left with a very basic array of options. The same goes for backup features. If you’re just starting out with your site and you intend to keep it pretty light and low-key in the beginning, then you don’t need all of these add-ons.

But if you want to start an online business and your site becomes loaded with data and customer info, then I would definitely recommend getting third-party help for extra protection.

HostGator Website Builder

HostGator includes their own website builder for free in all plans . HostGator’s builder is a very handy tool to have, especially if you’re new to creating and running a website .

It’s a builder that makes the website creation experience extremely easy through its intuitive setup, drag-and-drop interface, hundreds of pre-built templates, and whole pages, as well as it’s simple, but also varied options for customization.

The image above is a screenshot from a test page that we created to see just what this built-in builder can do.

Some additional features that you can find in HostGator site builder are HD video embedding, branding removal, easy social media integration, Google Analytics, PayPal payment gateway, coupon codes, SEO tools for better search engine results, as well as inventory management, and an eCommerce shopping cart.

You can also purchase HostGator’s website builder individually , and with that, also get HostGator’s web hosting services (whichever works for you best). Otherwise, as I said earlier, the website builder comes for free with all of HostGator’s hosting plans.

Save for the most basic shared hosting package, which limits the domains to 1, HostGator offers unlimited everything (well sort of – see below) else which is a great deal since their plans are so cheap, to begin with.

(Almost) Unlimited Bandwidth & Unlimited Disk Space

Unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space mean you can transfer and store as much data as you need. “Unmetered” allows for the seemingly limitless growth of your website while using an affordable shared hosting plan.

hostgator unlimited bandwidth and disk space

Having unmetered bandwidth means you can move an unlimited amount of data between your host server, your site visitors, and the internet. This is great for ensuring the speed and performance of your website, especially on a shared plan.

You also receive unlimited databases, which means you can have as many WordPress installations as you want. This is good for those who have many clients and want to test website changes before pushing them live.

However, you should know that “Unlimited” hosting is a myth and at least HostGator is transparent about their resource usage limitation. They offer “unlimited everything”, as long as you:

Don’t use more than 25% of the server’s central processing unit (CPU)
Don’t run more than 25 simultaneous processes in cPanel
Don’t have more than 25 simultaneous MySQL connections
Don’t create more than 100.000 files in cPanel
Don’t check more than 30 emails per hour
Don’t send more than 500 emails per hour

However, there is no limitation on:

Bandwidth you use
Email accounts you create

At least HostGator is open and transparent about it (most other cheap web hosting companies aren’t!).

Free Site Transfer & One-Click Install WordPress

Migrating websites from one host to another is typically the norm for most web hosting companies, however, most companies only provide free website transfers for WordPress sites.

Not HostGator. They make transferring any type of site from another host to them simple, and free. Simply sign up for the plan you wish to use, and let HostGator do the rest.

Depending on which type of hosting account you sign up for, the number of free migrations they offer varies:

	Free cPanel Migration
1 site	1 site	1 site
1 blog	Not Available	Not Available
2 blogs	Not Available	Not Available
3 blogs	Not available	Not Available
30 sites	30 sites	30 sites
Unlimited sites	Unlimited sites	0 – 90 sites
Unlimited sites	Unlimited sites	100 sites

Adding to that, if you are new to owning a website, and HostGator is the first hosting solution you have ever used, rest assured that installing your preferred CMS(Content Management System) like WordPress is as easy as clicking a few buttons during sign-up.

Using their 1-click-install tool, you can easily set up your website without worrying about having technical knowledge.

Your installed WordPress site comes with pre-installed plugins like Jetpack, OptinMonster, and WPForms – as well as HostGator performance tools like built-in caching.

Customer Hostgator Support

There are two main ways you can reach HostGator’s customer service. One is through the live chat option in which you can introduce yourself as a new customer or an existing customer and explain your problem in more detail by selecting a topic, a set of offered descriptions for the problem, and then filling out a small field with the specific details of your question or problem.

The other main Hostgator customer service option is by calling the support team directly at the number (866) 96-GATOR. Both of these options can be reached 24/7, 365 days a year.

You will also be able to find additional info and answers to various questions about HostGator’s services through their vast knowledge base. HostGator’s knowledge base contains 19 categories (with their own subcategories) that include hosting services, policies, the website builder, cPanel, files, design tools, optimization, partnership programs, and more.

If you have any questions, you can write them down in the search window at the top of the knowledge base page. We wrote “how to enable SSL certificate” and this is what came out:

As you can see, there are a number of answers to this question that the base holds in its archive. Some of the answers provided are more specific, and some less, but they are all somehow related to the target word in the question related to “SSL certificate.” This basically works as a FAQ section.

There is another type of knowledge base that HostGator has compiled, and that is the HostGator blog. It has five categories:

HostGator Happenings
Marketing Tips and Tricks
Startup & Small Business
Infographics
Web Hosting Tips

This blog works as a vast network of how-to resources, in-depth articles, and various tips on how to manage and expand your site and how optimize your hosting experience.

HostGator Cons

As with every web hosting service out there, there are going to be some disadvantages to using such a cheap, web hosting solution. Here are the biggest negatives.

Limited Features

While the overall features provided are pretty standard, and a free domain, free website transfer, and unlimited everything are nice, the truth is, HostGator doesn’t offer shared hosting users a whole lot of standard features.

Features that should be standard, and that most other web hosts include in their packages for free, aren’t with HostGator:

Automated website backups is a paid addon (CodeGuard)
Website security such as malware protection is a paid addon (SiteLock)

Is Part of Newfold Digital (formerly EIG)

Again, I am not going to attempt to sway you either way when it comes to the reputation of Newfold Digital. However, most people who review hosting companies will say that a hosting company that is part of thisruns the risk of harboring a bad reputation.

That’s because if you were to go with hosting company A ( that is part of Newfold Digital and you didn’t know it ) and have a bad experience, and move to host company B ( also part of Newfold Digital and you didn’t know it ), who is to say your experience is going to get any better?

Just be aware that HostGator is a part of this group of companies and that the way it runs things is probably going to trickle down into how HostGator handles things.

Compare HostGator Competitors

When choosing a web hosting service, comparing the available options is important. Here’s a look at how HostGator stacks up against its competitors: SiteGround, Hostinger, Bluehost, BigScoots, and HostArmada.

Feature	HostGator	SiteGround	Hostinger	Bluehost	BigScoots	HostArmada
User-Friendliness	Good for beginners	Good for beginners and tech-savvy	Extremely user-friendly	Good for beginners	Professional, business-focused	Innovative, user-friendly
Pricing	Affordable	Mid-range	Very affordable	Affordable	Premium	Affordable
Performance	Reliable with Cloudflare CDN	Custom CDN, advanced features	Good performance	Advanced PHP support	High performance, managed	Innovative tech, reliable
Support	Good customer support	Excellent support	Strong support	Strong support	Personalized premium support	Good support
Special Features	Gator Website Builder	AI Email Writer, custom CDN	Budget-friendly plans	E-commerce enhancements	Managed hosting services	Cutting-edge hosting solutions

Similarities: Reliable hosting with strong customer support.
Differences: SiteGround offers advanced features like AI Email Writer and a custom CDN, catering more to e-commerce and tech-savvy users.
Learn more in our SiteGround review here .
Similarities: Both are budget-friendly and user-friendly, ideal for beginners.
Differences: Hostinger is known for extremely affordable plans, making it more suitable for users with tight budgets.
Learn more in our Hostinger review here .
Similarities: Both offer easy WordPress integration and are beginner-friendly.
Differences: Bluehost focuses on e-commerce enhancements and advanced performance features like PHP 8.2 support.
Learn more in our Bluehost review here .
Similarities: Both provide reliable hosting services with strong uptime records.
Differences: BigScoots is known for its personalized support and premium managed hosting services, targeting more professional and business users.
Learn more in our BigScoots review here .
Similarities: Affordable and reliable hosting solutions with good customer support.
Differences: HostArmada is relatively new with a focus on innovative technologies and services, appealing to users looking for cutting-edge hosting solutions.
Learn more in our HostArmada review here.

HostGator Hosting Plans

HostGator offers a variety of hosting plans. All in all, you can find eight hosting options with different fee schedules:

Shared hosting – this is HostGator’s cheapest hosting plan, starting at just $3.75/month , with the current discount, paid on a 36-month basis . This type of hosting is just what the name suggests – your website shares a server and the resources necessary for its operations with other similarly small websites from different site owners. It is not bad when you’re just starting out, if your site doesn’t require too much power, and if you aren’t expecting too big of a traffic surge.

Prices from just $3.75/month make HostGator one of the cheapest web hosts in the industry.

Cloud hosting – as the name suggests, cloud hosting uses the resources of cloud technology. This means that, unlike other types of hosting, which use a single server, cloud hosting uses a network of connected virtual cloud servers that host the website or application in question. This means that your site will be able to use the resources of multiple Hostgator servers. Cloud hosting is recommended for websites and online businesses that need fast loading times, at all times , even if they experience frequent traffic surges, like the ones coming from promotions, current offers, or sales. In short, cloud hosting provides more scalability, flexibility, and reliability. With the current discount, HostGator provides the cheapest cloud hosting plan costs $4.95 per month , paid on a 36-month basis.
VPS hosting – VPS stands for a virtual private server, which basically describes dedicated resources that are only for your site on a particular server. What this means is that physically speaking, your site is still on a shared server (a.k.a. the server’s hardware), but the resources that your site needs are yours and yours only (such as CPU power or RAM memory, for example). VPS is the best option for website owners who want more control over their hosting resources and hosting environment. Also, if you experience a growth in traffic or need to manage multiple websites and require the necessary resources to manage them in an effective way, while also not wanting to pay the extra money, then you should consider signing up for a VPS plan. VPS hosting plans start at $19.95 per month , paid every 36 months.
Dedicated hosting – dedicated hosting goes a level beyond VPS hosting. With this hosting plan, you get a server just for you . You’ll be able to use all its resources and power multiple websites, without having to share space and resources with other users. Dedicated hosting is a good idea when you notice that you’re running out of space, or you notice that your site has been loading slower than usual. If your audience has grown over time, and you have more traffic, more site demands, and you generally need more space and want a faster website, as well as full control of your server, you might want to think about getting a dedicated server hosting plan. With the current discount, dedicated plans start at $89.98 per month , paid every 36 months.
WordPress hosting – as the name suggests, this hosting plan is specifically aimed at powering WordPress sites . It means that it has more features that are related to WP and it makes setting up a WP page easier and more efficient, compared to other hosting plans. It’s recommended for people who specifically want to create and run a WordPress website. This hosting plan starts out at $5.95 per month (paid on a 36-month subscription), with the current discount.
Reseller hosting – also called “white label hosting”, enables you to offer hosting services as if you yourself were a real hosting company . You can offer your services to clients without the hassle of actually creating a hosting company from scratch. It means you don’t need to deal with server and software maintenance or handle any uptime troubles. This type of hosting allows you to make money from providing hosting services to others, though they’re actually facilitated by HostGator. It’s best for agencies or freelancers who offer their clients services related to web design and web development, as well as other business-related services. It allows them to promote their brand and receive income from their customers, as well as combine hosting options with other services they might offer. HostGator ensures a client management and billing software called WHMCS which is included, for free, in all of their reseller plans. The plans start at $19.95 per month , for 36 months, with the current discount.
Windows hosting – a large portion of hosting hostgator servers out there run on the Linux operating system, which is the most popular one by far, but some also run on Windows. This is because there are certain applications that can only run on Windows servers, as well as specific Windows-related technologies that are only possible with this kind of hosting. For example, ASP.NET developers cannot work on any other type of hosting software. Windows hosting plans start at $4.76 per month , with the current discount, paid on a 36-month basis.
Web application hosting – Application hosting allows you to host and run your applications on a cloud or regular server that HostGator offers. This means that your application can be accessed from the internet , so it doesn’t need to be downloaded, and your clients and users can interact with a web-based user interface. HostGator’s hosting services run on multiple operating and data management systems such as Linux, MySQL, Apache, and PHP, making them compatible with lots of other software and existing applications. With the current discount, the starter plan for the Web application hosting plan is pretty cheap, coming at only $2.75/month , paid every 36 months.

I will go into more detail about the key features of each of these plans in the Pricing Plans section in the next section of this article.

Plans & Pricing

As I mentioned earlier, HostGator offers eight types of hosting services. First, I’d like to give you an overview of all of their hosting plans , and then, I’ll also get into more details about each of the key features of the types of hosting services they offer.

Plan	Pricing
Free plan	No

Hatchling plan	* (with the current 60% discount)
Baby plan	* (with the current 65% discount)
Business plan	* (with the current 65% discount)

Hatchling cloud	$4.95 per month* (with the current 45% discount)
Baby cloud	$6.57 per month* (with the current 45% discount)
Business cloud	$9.95 per month* (with the current 45% discount)

Snappy 2000	$19.95 per month* (with the current 75% discount)
Snappy 4000	$29.95 per month* (with the current 75% discount)
Snappy 8000	$39.95 per month* (with the current 75% discount)

Value Server	$89.98 per month* (with the current 52% discount)
Power Server	$119.89 per month* (with the current 52% discount)
Enterprise Server	$139.99 per month* (with the current 52% discount)

Starter Plan	$5.95 per month* (with the current 40% discount)
Standard Plan	$7.95 per month* (with the current 50% discount)
Business Plan	$9.95 per month* (with the current 57% discount)

Aluminum Plan	$19.95 per month* (with the current 43% discount)
Copper Plan	$24.95 per month* (with the current 49% discount)
Silver Plan	$24.95 per month* (with the current 64% discount)

Personal Plan	$4.76 per month* (with the current 20% discount)
Enterprise Plan	$14.36 per month* (with the current 20% discount)

Hatchling Plan	$2.75/month* (with the current 60% discount)
Baby Plan	$3.50 per month* (with the current 65% discount)
Business Plan	$5.25 per month* (with the current 65% discount)

* These prices refer to the 36-month plan. The plans renew according to their regular rates.

45-Day Money-Back Guarantee

When it comes to money-back guarantees, HostGator is more generous than a lot of other hosting providers out there.

If you sign up for one of HostGator’s hosting plans, you’ll be able to get a full refund of your money within the first 45 days if you’re not satisfied with the plan you’ve chosen and paid for.

You should keep in mind that this money-back guarantee refers to the basic hosting services HostGator offers. It doesn’t refer to any setup fees or domain registration fees, or to any other fees that apply to additional services you might’ve purchased or used from HostGator.

After the 45-day window passes, you won’t be able to get a refund of your money anymore.

Shared Hosting Plans

As you are able to see, HostGator’s shared hosting plans are definitely among the cheapest shared plans you can find.

Starting at just $3.75/month with the current 60% discount, the basic Hostgator’s shared hosting plan (called the Hatchling plan) offers unlimited storage , unmetered bandwidth , and:

A single website
Free SSL certificate
Free Domain
One-click WordPress installation
Free WordPress/cPanel website transfer

The Baby plan, which is slightly more expensive , comes at $4.50/month , and it is pretty similar to the Hatchling plan. The main difference is that instead of a single website, this plan allows you to host an unlimited number of websites .

The Business shared plan offers additional benefits, such as:

Free SEO tools
Free dedicated IP
Free upgrade to Positive SSL

All of the plans within the Shared hosting plan offer unmetered bandwidth, which means you shouldn’t worry about any occasional traffic spikes (although if they keep happening too often, HostGator is probably going to contact you and ask you to get a bigger plan).

You’ll also be able to get a domain and register it for free. The SSL certificate also comes with all plans, making your site secure and trustworthy. And last but not least are the one-click WordPress installation, which makes WP integration all the easier.

HostGator includes free email accounts with the POP3 and SMTP protocols. It also offers 25 mailing lists for all plans, webmail access, and spam protection with the help of SpamAssassin.

Cloud Hosting Plans

Should you want to use the resources of several cloud servers, you should opt for HostGator’s cloud hosting plans.

They’re also pretty cheap and start at $4.95 per month (paid every 36 months), with the current 45% discount.

The basic, Hatchling cloud hosting plan offers:

Single domain
2 GB memory

The Baby cloud plan is similar to the Hatchling plan but upgraded. It offers the basics such as an SSL and domain, but it also offers hosting for an unlimited number of domains, as well as 4 GB memory and 4 core CPU power.

The premium plan in HostGator’s cloud hosting offers, a.k.a. the Business cloud plan also offers an unlimited number of domains, a free domain, and SSL, but it additionally offers a free upgrade to Positive SSL, a free dedicated IP, and free SEO tools. Its cloud servers are able to provide 6 GB memory and 6 core CPU power resources for your site.

The cloud server plans have an integrated caching option, which means your site will always have an optimal caching configuration that makes it load pretty fast. You’ll be able to control the performance of your site and have a clear overview of all the metrics you need for your site’s success through their intuitive dashboard.

Easy resource management and total control over resources allow you to increase and improve the resources your site needs to operate seamlessly, so you needn’t worry should you get a traffic spike, for example. Also, if another unexpected issue arises, you’ll be able to tackle it in real time.

The cloud hosting plan also includes an automated failover. This means that if one of the servers your site is being hosted on through the cloud network experiences a hardware issue, your site’s performance and availability won’t suffer: the automated failover allows for an automatic transfer to another fully functional server.

The cloud hosting plans offer unlimited email accounts with SMTP and POP3 protocols , a standard of 25 mailing lists , spam prevention with SpamAssassin, access to email via phone through IMAP, as well as unlimited email aliases, unlimited mail forwards, and unlimited autoresponders. This is a great Hostgator email hosting you can consider for your business.

VPS Hosting Plans

HostGator’s VPS hosting plans give you full root access to the server’s resources, and plenty of dedicated resources.

The basic plan, called Snappy 2000, starts at $19.95 per month paid every 36 months with the current whopping 75% discount, and includes:

2GB RAM
2 core CPU
120 GB SSD

All plans include unmetered bandwidth and 2 dedicated IPs .

The second, Snappy 4000 plan has the same 2-core CPU power, but it offers 4 GB RAM memory and 120 GB SSD memory.

The most premium plan from this group, the Snappy 8000 includes an upgrade of the CPU power with a 4-core CPU , as well as 8 GB RAM memory and 240 GB SSD memory.

These plans offer full root access to the virtual private server’s resources, so you can manage the CMS(Content Management Systems) on your own should you want to, as well as insert custom code.

This hosting also includes advanced functionality meaning you get to create an unlimited number of email addresses, as well as unlimited domains, FTP accounts, databases, and much more.

HostGator’s VPS hosting uses hardware from proven industry leaders such as AMD and Intel, which means your site is going to use only the best and the fastest.

You’ll also be able to use a full suite of VPS tools such as site templates, site development tools, script installer, and others.

And if you’ve been wondering about site backups, HostGator’s VPS plans offer weekly off-site backups of your site’s data.

Dedicated Server Hosting Plans

If you need the power of a dedicated server, HostGator has you covered. The cheapest plan from this category is the Value Server plan coming at $89.98 per month (paid every 36 months), with a current discount of 52%.

This plan offers:

4 core/8 thread processor
8 GB RAM

All plans offer unmetered bandwidth, Intel Xeon-D CPU, and the ability to choose between Linux or Windows OS-run servers.

The second plan, called the Power Server plan, includes an 8-core/16-thread processor, as well as 16 GB RAM and 2 TB HDD/512 GB SSD memory.

The best and most expensive plan in this category is the Enterprise Server plan coming at $139.99 per month with the current 52% discount. It has the same 8-core/16-thread processor as the Power Server plan, but it offers 30 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD memory.

HostGator’s dedicated hosting plans allow you full server control, which means you’ll have at your disposal the whole array of system resources.

You’ll also be able to choose between HDD (space) and SDD (speed) hard drives, depending on what your site needs.

The dedicated hosting plans give you DDoS protection so you don’t get too worked up about your site and your resources, should an attack on your server occur.

The included IP-based firewall is there to keep your server safe and to assure optimal performance, whatever happens.

You can also choose between cPanel and WHM on Linux or Plesk and WebMatrix on the Windows server.

All of HostGator’s dedicated servers are hosted at a US location, a Tier 3 data center. Also, HostGator offers a network guarantee that your site is always going to be online.

WordPress Hosting Plans

If you’ve set your mind to have a site in WordPress, it’s best to get one of HostGator’s WordPress hosting plan packages.

The cheapest one, called the Starter plan, starts at $5.95 per month , with the current 40% discount, paid on a 36-month basis.

It includes one site, 100k visits per month, and 1 GB data backup. The rest of the plans just double or triple the same key features as the first plan. So the second, the Starter plan, includes two sites, 200k visits per month, and 2 GB worth of backups. And the third, the Business hosting plan, which costs $9.95 per month with the current 57% discount, offers the hosting of three sites, 500k visits per month, and 3 GB worth of data backup.

All WP hosting plans include a domain (for a year), an SSL, and free email with up to 25 mailing lists.

Reseller Hosting Plans

If you want to offer hosting services to your clients, but don’t want the hassle that comes with creating a hosting company from scratch, then why not get one of HostGator’s reseller hosting plans?

The Aluminum plan , the cheapest in this category, comes at $19.95 per month with the current 43% discount, and of course, paid every 36 months. It offers 60 GB disk space and 600 GB bandwidth .

The second plan called the Copper plan offers 90 GB disk space and 900 GB bandwidth, and the third plan called the Silver plan offers 140 GB disk space and 1400 GB bandwidth .

All plans include unlimited websites and an SSL.

This hosting category also comes with free billing software (called WHMCS or Web Hosting Billing & Automation Platform), already automatically installed in whichever plan you choose.

Also, you’ll get complete flexibility when it comes to payment methods, resource allocation, and any other services you want to provide for your clients that come to your mind.

Windows Hosting Plans

And if you really need to work on a Windows-operated server, HostGator has you covered. You can choose between two plans here – the Personal plan, coming at $4.76 per month (with a current discount of 20%), and the Enterprise plan, coming at $14.36 per month (also discounted by 20%), paid on a 36-month basis.

The Personal plan offers registration of a single domain; unmetered disk space, unmetered bandwidth, and an SSL security certificate come in both plans. The Enterprise plan allows for the registration of five domains and it also comes with a free dedicated IP.

HostGator’s Windows hosting plan offers a host of powerful admin tools such as file manager, scheduled tasks, secure directories, and a lot more. It also offers programming features such as ASP and ASP.NET 2.0 (3.5, 4.0, and 4.7), as well as PHP, SSICurl, GD Library, MVC 5.0, and AJAX.

As with most of its hosting plans, HostGator here also offers one-click installations of important applications such as WordPress and other open-source scripts.

The Plesk control panel, loaded with features, is included in the Windows hosting plans. It will make it that much easier to create websites and set up applications, among other things.

One of the greatest things about the Windows hosting plans is how free you are to manage the server and build it as you, please. You get an unlimited amount of sub-domains, FTP and email accounts, Microsoft SQL and MySQL, and Access databases.

Questions & Answers

In this section, we’ll try to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about HostGator, its features, and its services.

Our Verdict ⭐

Is HostGator any good? Yes, HostGator is a good solution if you want a web hosting provider that is cheap, easy to manage, has a decent speed, and offers an uptime of 99.99%. It’s one of the most popular hosting companies.

Get unlimited bandwidth, disk space, email accounts, and more with HostGator's affordable plans. Plus, enjoy 24/7 support and free site migration.

It’s a good provider if you’re just starting out with a single site or want to manage multiple small sites, for which you can choose their basic shared plans, especially if your budget is tight.

That being said, if you want a bit more speed, increased security, and more features ; if your site grows and needs more resources to function better, but you’re still on a tight budget, their cloud plans are a good option for when you need to upgrade.

And, also, if you’re specifically interested in creating a site in WordPress, you can choose one of their special WordPress-managed hosting plans and get everything that you need for your WP site all in one place.

HostGator offers a whole variety of attractive features, such as their easy-to-use website builder, simple cPanel, and QuickInstall tool that allows you to install your favorite apps on your site within minutes.

What this means is that HostGator definitely offers good value for your money, especially with some of their cheaper plans.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that HostGator has everything you’re looking for . But that’s why there are so many other web hosts on the market! This just means that you’ll have to do your fair share of research and see what are the most important features for your site and the ones that you think are absolutely necessary to grow and expand your business.

If you think HostGator is able to do that, I recommend that you don’t think twice and give it a shot! After all, there’s that 45-day grace period you can fall back on.

Who should choose Host Gator? Its user-friendly interface, including a simple control panel and website builder, makes it ideal for beginners and small business owners who want to establish an online presence without technical complexities.

I hope you found this expert editorial HostGator hosting review helpful!

Recent Improvements & Updates

HostGator constantly improves its hosting services with additional features. HostGator has introduced several updates and improvements to its services and hosting products recently (last checked June 2024):

Easier Customer Portal : They’ve redesigned their customer portal to make it easier for you to handle your account. Now, you can quickly change your contact details or how you want to handle your billing.
Faster Website Loading : HostGator has teamed up with Cloudflare CDN, which means your website can load faster for visitors around the world. This is because Cloudflare has servers globally that keep a copy of your site, so it loads quickly no matter where someone is accessing it from.
Website Builder : The Gator Website Builder from HostGator uses AI to assist users in creating websites, making the process simpler, especially for those with limited technical skills. This tool allows for easy setup of blogs or e-commerce stores as part of the site.
User Interface and Experience : HostGator uses the popular cPanel for its control panel, known for its ease of use, making it a good choice for both beginners and experienced users. The user interface is intuitive, simplifying tasks like managing files, databases, and email accounts.
Security Features : HostGator’s hosting services include various security features such as free SSL certificates, automatic backups, malware scanning and removal, and DDoS protection. These features enhance the security and reliability of websites hosted on their platform.

Reviewing HostGator: Our Methodology

When we review web hosts, our testing and evaluation are based on these criteria:

Value for Money : What types of web hosting plans are on offer, and are they good value for money?
User Friendliness : How user-friendly is the signup process, the onboarding, the dashboard? and so on.
Customer Support : When we need help, how quickly can we get it, and is the support effective and helpful?
Hosting Features : What unique features does the web host provide, and how do they stack up against competitors?
Security : Are essential security measures like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, backup services, and malware/virus scans included?
Speed and Uptime : Is the hosting service fast and reliable? What types of servers do they use, and how do they perform in tests?

For more details on our review process, click here .

Customers Think

Cheap hosting that just works!

Web hosting that just works! No bells and whistles but my site is online without any downtime or dramas (fingers crossed). I want to recommend HostGator!

Amazing Hostgator

HostGator is amazing!! Their support is 6 stars in my opinion. Every time I’ve had an issue and called the support team has always gone out of their way to help. I am very happy with their service. Just upgraded to their business plan, and my website is now lightning fast. If your looking for the best, definitely put Hostgator to the test, You will not be disappointed!

Cheaper than SiteGround but..

I used to be a Siteground customer. The only reason I moved my website to Hostgator was the cheap price tag. At the time, I was paying Siteground about $10 a month. And Hostgator was only half the price. Back then I didn’t know that they double their price after your first year. I had heard mixed reviews about Hostgator but I never thought too much of it. As of now, my site runs fine but it slows down from time to time for no reason and customer support just plain sucks. I am paying a lot less than Siteground for now but I will move my site back to Siteground when they double their price at the end of my current plan.

Pricing isn’t transparent

Hostgator offers an easy dashboard and cPanel to manage your website. As a web developer, cPanel makes my work 10 times easy. It is also really easy to teach clients how to use it. That’s the good stuff about Hostgator! The bad part is my clients sites have slowed down since I moved them to Hostgator from a VPS and the only way to improve speed is to keep upgrading. They keep throwing new upgrades in my face. That’s something I really don’t like. Their pricing isn’t upfront. They sucker you in with their 3-year cheap plans and then keep asking you to upgrade.

Good for wordpress

I started my WordPress blog with Hostgator a couple of years ago. It has been smooth sailing ever since. I had a couple of issues here and there when I got started but Hostgator support was quick to help me resolve them.. Highly recommended!

Startup Seller

I love HostGator’s entry plan as a freelancer and a startup seller. Though my plan may have limited features, this has helped me reached my goals so far.

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About Author

Matt Ahlgren

Mathias Ahlgren is the CEO and founder of Website Rating, steering a global team of editors and writers. He holds a master's in information science and management. His career pivoted to SEO after early web development experiences during university. With over 15 years in SEO, digital marketing, and web developmens. His focus also includes website security, evidenced by a certificate in Cyber Security. This diverse expertise underpins his leadership at Website Rating.

The "WSR Team" is the collective group of expert editors and writers specializing in technology, internet security, digital marketing, and web development. Passionate about the digital realm, they produce well-researched, insightful, and accessible content. Their commitment to accuracy and clarity makes Website Rating a trusted resource for staying informed in the dynamic digital world.

Ibad Rehman

Ibad is a writer at Website Rating who specializes in the realm of web hosting and has previously worked at Cloudways and Convesio. His articles focus on educating readers about WordPress hosting and VPS, offering in-depth insights and analysis in these technical areas. His work is aimed at guiding users through the complexities of web hosting solutions.

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‘Wheel of Fortune’: Vanna White bids an emotional goodbye to Pat Sajak

FILE - Vanna White, left, and Pat Sajak make an appearance at Radio City Music Hall for a taping of celebrity week on “Wheel of Fortune” in New York on Sept. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file)

FILE - Pat Sajak, left, and Vanna White appear aboard the Wheel of Fortune Express in Miami on Feb. 12, 1987 to tour 33 cities from Miami to Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Judy Sloan, File)

FILE - Pat Sajak, left, and Vanna White, from “Wheel of Fortune,” attend a ceremony honoring Harry Friedman with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2019. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ahead of Pat Sajak’s final episode as the host of “Wheel of Fortune,” Vanna White paid an emotional tribute to her co-host of more than 40 years.

On Thursday’s episode of the beloved game show, White honored Sajak’s work and their friendship with a video segment that featured clips and photos tracing their collaboration from the 1980s to the present.

“As this chapter of our lives is coming to an end, I know you’ll still be close by. You’re like a brother to me and I consider you a true lifelong friend who I will always adore,” she said. “I love you, Pat.”

FILE - Pat Sajak, left, and Vanna White appear aboard the Wheel of Fortune Express in Miami on Feb. 12, 1987 to tour 33 cities from Miami to Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Judy Sloan, File)

Pat Sajak and Vanna White aboard the Wheel of Fortune Express in 1987 (AP Photo/Judy Sloan, File)

White said that while their long-running work collaboration has been significant to her — noting that he made her feel “so comfortable and so confident” when she started — she said their personal friendship has meant much more.

“As much fun as we had on camera, those memories, milestones and life events we shared with our families, outside the studio, are my favorite,” she said, seeming to hold back tears. “We’ve watched our children grow up together, we’ve traveled all over the world, we’ve eaten hundreds of meals together. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve celebrated.”

After the prerecorded video segment ended, Sajak and White shared a hug on stage.

FILE - Pat Sajak, left, and Vanna White, from "Wheel of Fortune," attend a ceremony honoring Harry Friedman with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2019. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Sajak and White have been one of television’s most iconic duos since they started working on “Wheel of Fortune” together in 1982, when the show first aired in syndication. They have appeared in over 8,000 episodes together, with Sajak leading the contestants through the game and White famously turning the letters on the puzzle board.

Sajak announced his retirement in June 2023, making the 41st season of the show his last. White extended her contract in September through the 2025-2026 season and will help shepherd Sajak’s replacement, Ryan Seacrest, through his first two seasons at the helm.

When Seacrest was announced as Sajak’s successor, Seacrest said in a statement he was “truly humbled” to take over.

“I can say, along with the rest of America, that it’s been a privilege and pure joy to watch Pat and Vanna on our television screens for an unprecedented 40 years, making us smile every night and feel right at home with them,” Seacrest said.

Sajak’s final episode will air Friday.

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COMMENTS

Host movie review & film summary (2020)
Host. "Host," a new horror movie about a haunted Zoom meeting, is decent, as far as high-concept genre exercises go. It's only 56 minutes long, features some cool practical stuntwork thanks to the team at Lucky 13 Action, and is surprisingly not overbearing in its depiction of the Way We Live Now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-writer ...
Host (2020)
Rated 0.5/5 Stars • Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/13/24 Full Review Cayden P This movie was ... 04/26/24 Full Review cbcguy Suspenseful horror movie, Unfriended walked so Host could run. The movie ...
Host
By adapting to current world events and the popular technology that goes with it, Host further proves how crucial found footage is in capturing social fears. Full Review | Original Score: 9.5/10 ...
'Host' Review: A Zoom Séance Channels Spirits and Melancholy
Rob Savage, the director and co-writer of "Host," finds a surprising amount of ingenuity in mining the horror of yet another quarantine conference call. Streaming on Shudder, the film makes ...
Host (2020)
Host: Directed by Rob Savage. With Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova. Six friends hire a medium to hold a seance via Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargained for as things quickly go wrong.
Host (film)
Host is a 2020 British independent supernatural horror film directed by Rob Savage and written by Savage, Gemma Hurley, and Jed Shepherd. A computer screen film that takes place entirely on a Zoom video call, it follows a group of friends who attempt to escape a demon they inadvertently summoned during an online séance.. After a short prank video by Savage which featured a handful of the film ...
'Host' Review: It's the Scariest Horror Movie of 2020
Filmed over the course of just 12 weeks and set right in the middle of quarantine, Host is the "most 2020" movie to be released this year -- and perhaps will remain the most 2020 movie of all time.
Host
Host is an enjoyable horror flick that seems cliched, and it definitely is, but with some novelties. The Zoom meeting part is attractive plus topical, and makes the whole viewing more delightful if you can relate with it. It's the usual story where a group of unsuspecting friends get together on an online call to hold seance and things go wrong ...
Host Review: Zoom Horror That's Fresh and Frightening
Reviews Host Review: Zoom Horror That's Fresh and Frightening. ... Host is an excellently made film in its own right but at a runtime of less than an hour it almost feels like something new ...
Host Review
Host Review. A group of friends gather online during lockdown to attempt a seance over video-conference-call app Zoom, led by a mysterious Irish medium. When a drinking game leads to some of the ...
Host (2020)
REVIEW - HOST As we all know over the past 4 months there have been very few new films because of the pandemic, which in a strange way actually made this film even more enjoyable. Filmed during lock down and referring to the situation around the current pandemic a shot UK film was released that probably no one has heard of.
The Host movie review & film summary (2020)
Andy Newbery 's "The Host" riffs off of two horror movies many might recognize, Alfred Hitchcock 's "Psycho" and to a lesser extent, Eli Roth 's "Hostel.". However, the unholy mix of the two did not pack enough suspense to keep this viewer guessing or vary enough for me to stop thinking about the parallels. For a tale of ...
'Host': Rob Savage's Quarantine Horror Film Is About More Than a Virus
August 17, 2020. A scene from the Shudder horror movie 'Host.'. Shadowhouse Films. When lockdown began, British director Rob Savage intended to make the best of his isolation — digging out ...
Host review: a Zoom horror film full of icy lockdown chills
Host wears its debt to found-footage horrors like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity on its sleeve, while briskly reworking the formula into a laptop-based horror with big jumps and ...
Host Explained: How it was Made, Easter Eggs and all Your Questions
Shudder's lockdown horror, Host, is fast becoming the defining movie of 2020 - director Rob Savage breaks it down. Massive spoilers for Shudder original HOST to follow. Productions are shut down ...
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Chris Stuckmann reviews Host, starring Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Alan Emrys, Seylan Baxter. Directed by Ro...
Review: 'Host' Delivers Geniunely Scary Quarantined Horror
Jemma Moore - Jemma - Host. According to Shudder, the film is fifty-six minutes long, and they use that time wisely. While we get to know the characters, we manage to care about these people in a short amount of time. As we realize what is going on alongside them, it's already too late to turn back.
‎Host (2020) directed by Rob Savage • Reviews, film
Cast. Haley Bishop Jemma Moore Emma Louise Webb Radina Drandova Caroline Ward Edward Linard Seylan Baxter Alan Emrys Jinny Lofthouse James Swanton Jack Brydon Patrick Ward. 57 mins More at IMDb TMDb. Sign in to log, rate or review. Share.
'Host' (2020) Review: The Séance Film Made Modern
Host (2020) is a delightfully modern take on the seance film. Set during the COVID pandemic, a group of friends decide to have a seance over Zoom. Why should a spirit be barred from contacting us just because we're connected online? Evidently, there is no reason. The movie is slow-going at first. We have about […]
Host Ending Explained: Director Breaks Down the Demon's Mythology
Savage further explained: "It's like a demon that's summoned by group think, so the idea is, if everyone pictures the same image in their head, you can actually make something manifest, just ...
Host
HOST is the story of six friends who hire a medium to hold a séance over Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargain for as things quickly ...
Host (2020)
HOST is a Shudder horror movie in the found-footage subgenre. It was made during quarantine, which makes it even more impressive. Especially since it has quite a lot of really awesome practical effects (that the actors crafted themselves). And yes, since it plays out over a Zoom call among friends, it is very reminiscent of Unfriended.
The Host movie review & film summary (2007)
Jim Emerson March 08, 2007. Tweet. A monster's attack in "The Host" forces Nam-Joo (Bae Doo-Na) and her family to fend for themselves. Now streaming on: Powered by JustWatch. A horror thriller, a political satire, a dysfunctional family comedy, and a touching melodrama, Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" is also one helluva monster movie.
Kelly Clarkson Shocked by Bad Letterboxd Reviews of Her Favorite Movies
"The Kelly Clarkson Show" released a video of the singer-turned-host reacting to bad Letterboxd Reviews of her favorite films on Saturday -- and most notably, Clarkson was stunned to discover ...
Grind (2025)
Grind: Directed by Mark Cantu. With Felissa Rose, Ginger Lynn, Lynn Lowry, August Kyss. A group of college students host a midnight grindhouse film festival. They discover a cursed arthouse horror called "The Creeping Chaos". In classic horror fashion, they mistakenly screen the film and unleash absolute mayhem.
Warner Bros. Discovery Cooks Up New Serving of TBS' 'Dinner & A Movie'
Warner Bros. Discovery has tapped Jason Biggs and Jenny Mollen to host a revival of longtime cable TV mainstay "Dinner And A Movie'
The Unbelievable True Story Behind 'The Ministry of ...
The movie features a team tasked with sabotaging Nazi U-boats, with some added fictional subplots for entertainment value. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was involved in the real-life ...
Pat Sajak's 'Wheel of Fortune' finale: What to know
Pat Sajak will host his last "Wheel of Fortune" episode, the Season 41 finale, at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The syndicated show airs locally on KABC-7.
Should You Host with HostGator? Review of Features, Pricing & Performance
Learn more in our HostArmada review here. HostGator Hosting Plans. HostGator offers a variety of hosting plans. All in all, you can find eight hosting options with different fee schedules: Shared hosting - this is HostGator's cheapest hosting plan, starting at just $3.75/month, with the current discount, paid on a 36-month basis.
Vanna White bids emotional farewell to Pat Sajak on 'Wheel of Fortune
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ahead of Pat Sajak's final episode as the host of "Wheel of Fortune," Vanna White paid an emotional tribute to her co-host of more than 40 years.. On Thursday's episode of the beloved game show, White honored Sajak's work and their friendship with a video segment that featured clips and photos tracing their collaboration from the 1980s to the present.