HostGator might be best-known for their shared hosting plans, but they also have a big selection of Virtual Private Server plans for customers that need better performance and the ability to customize their application setups. All VPS plans from HostGator give the customer full root access in order to have complete control of their hosting environment. All the HostGator plans offer full support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, via phone, live chat, or email.

HostGator VPS plans are a substantial upgrade over their inexpensive shared hosting plans, but less expensive than moving up to truly dedicated servers. Any of the HostGator VPS plans can be upgraded at any time with no disruption of websites hosted on their servers. All the plans allow users to have unlimited domains, sub domains, email accounts, and databases. HostGator performs weekly offsite backups for data security and recovery purposes, and your IP addresses are held on private name servers.

Snappy 500 VPS Plan

The Snappy 500 plan is the most economical VPS plan that HostGator offers. It has introductory rates with as much as 40 percent off regular prices, but even its regular pricing is competitive with some shared hosting plans available from other hosting companies. Snappy 500 VPS plans include 0.5 cores, 512 MB of RAM, 25 GB of hard disk space, 2 IP addresses, and 500 GB of bandwidth.

In order to save money, the Snappy 500 doesn’t come with the familiar Control Panel administrative interface, but instead uses Virtuozzo as the only way to manage your account. Because of this, the Snappy 500 is listed as a semi-managed server plan, with limited support. HostGator does perform a backup on semi-managed plans on a weekly basis, but it might not be possible to recover your databases from this type of backup. Another aspect to keep in mind with semi-managed VPS plans is that they don’t qualify for the free site transfer service available with all of HostGator’s other VPS plans. You’re on your own for email service, as well, and will have to install and set up your on Mail Transfer Agent.

Snappy 1000 VPS Plan

The Snappy 1000 VPS plan from HostGator is their lowest priced managed server plan. Unlike the Snappy 500, the 1000 plan has the familiar Control Panel interface, which makes server administration easy, even for non-technical users. The Snappy 1000 includes a single CPU core, 1GB of random access memory, up to 2 IP addresses, 60 gigabytes of disk space, and 1 terabyte of bandwidth.

Snappy 2000 VPS Plan

HostGator’s Snappy 2000 VPS plan is another fully managed server plan, with substantially greater performance and available storage than the 500 or 1000 plans. Users will get the benefits of 2 CPU cores, 2 gigabytes of RAM, 2 IP addresses, 1.5 terabytes of bandwidth, and 120 gigabytes of hard disk space for your applications and data. Like all the HostGator VPS plans, it’s offered at a 40 percent off introductory price.

Snappy 4000 VPS Plan

The Snappy 4000 VPS plan offers a modest upgrade of performance and storage capacity over the Snappy 2000 plan. It offers the same 2 CPU cores, but doubles RAM to 4 gigabytes. Like the Snappy 2000, the Snappy 4000 allows 2 IP addresses. Bandwidth is increased to 2 terabytes, and hard disk space is increased to 165 gigabytes. Pricing is only increased by approximately 30 percent over the Snappy 2000 plan, so the upgrade is an economical one if you require slightly better performance.

Snappy 8000 VPS Plan

The Snappy 8000 VPS plan is the largest fully managed virtual server plan that HostGator offers. Except for the same 2 IP addresses that come with all the VPS plans, the Snappy 8000 has improved capacities in all categories. It has 4 CPU cores, 8 gigabytes of RAM, 240 gigabytes of disk space, and 3 terabytes of bandwidth. It’s available with a 40 percent discount for new clients, and is only about 20 percent more expensive than the Snappy 4000 plan.

Free Extras Offered With Every VPS Plan

HostGator gives users of any VPS plan access to a free SiteBuilder tool, including over 4,500 templates so you can launch your website right out of the box, according to reviews from the Blog Starter. If you’re a domain reseller, you’ll be able to participate in their Reseller Club for free. They also offer a library of 52 handy scripts that you can install with the click of your mouse that will make administration of your account easier. If you’re transferring an existing website, domain, or database, all the plans except the Snappy 500 include free migration.