This web hosting company comparison was researched thoroughly through online user reviews, extensive investigation of each site and contact with each sites sales and technical staff. The hosting plans compared here are comparable in price but the features of each companies plan factor into our review.

Host Gator has a clean concise homepage. This company has won numerous awards for their services since 2004, more so than iPowerweb. Most consumers tend to be well pleased by what Host Gator has to offer. Host Gator simply offers more flexibility and functionality on the back end of its line. This company is clearly geared toward leaving its customers options for code, convenience and expandability. SSI and CGI are expected these days but Host Gator tolerates Cron Jobs, Ruby on Rails and gives out free module installation. The eCommerce options for Host Gator are also accommodating. Importantly to some, is the ability to contact people who work at these companies. Talking to an online rep took less than 10-seconds from session initiation to first greeting. Phone support was also easy. The link for live-chat support was large and well placed on the home page and other pages. Unlike iPowerweb whose live chat feature did not work on the first five clicks and when the link did work on a second page, there were many mandatory forms to complete and phone support was equally as taxing.

In comparing Host Gator and iPowerweb, we found that iPowerweb is geared perhaps more toward business users. This UNIX based system has significantly better storage and bandwidth offerings: 200% more. iPowerweb has won it's share of awards and many of its clients host more than one domain in their accounts. Payment options and discount plans are also much more flexible with iPowerweb. Keeping with iPowerweb's professional orientation, a paypal compatible eCommerce system is in place and most impressive is the solid technology that their data centers are built on as well as hosting for international domains. iPowerweb also includes a marketing package with Google and Yahoo! that give your credit for services. However, Ipower web has been suffering since mid-2007 by terrible customer service during a total upgrade of their system. People are spending hours on hold for tech support and having to jump through many hoops to transition their old site to the new platform. For this reason (absolutely overwhelming customer service dissatisfaction) they get a lower score.

Considerations as we compare Host Gator and iPowerweb are going to be how you plan to populate your site with content, your needs regarding customer support, and what it's purpose is. Having 3-times the disk space and bandwith can be essential, and the cost reduction options of going with a 2-year contract can bring the price down significantly. For a more elaborate and future-resistant site that still has innovative qualities, the Host Gator plan offers those who know how to use code some real opportunities and for those that are in the novice category help is just a click away. You should also consider downtime and customer support when choosing website hosting company. Having run websites on ipower and Hostgator, we've experienced some downtime with both sites. However, it has been slightly less often with Hostgator. Both hosting companies offer 24-hour chat support from their home pages, although it takes much longer to get someone from Ipower to respond.

Both ipower and Hostgator are both phenomenal hosting companies, but we're going to recommend Hostgator on this one simply because of Ipower's customer service issues.