Brent Oxley of HostGator has recently written an article explaining their hosting plan change, which gives their $9.95/month “Baby” plan 6,000GB/month data transfer and $12.95/month “Swamp” plan unlimited monthly data transfer — they are Selling Out.

How do all us shared web hosting companies sell more disk space and bandwidth for ten bucks then the dedicated server providers sell for hundreds?

Its an easy concept really. Every web host has a terms of service with CPU and memory limits. If your website consumed too much of its share of CPU or memory then most web hosts will require you to upgrade. When you purchase a dedicated server you cant get shut down for CPU or memory abuse so they have to sell you a plan based on what your site could use with less restrictions.

Via Web Hosting Unleashed, HostGator has announced a new niche hosting service — SEO Hosting. From its hosting plan page:

Our hosting plans are designed for those who require advanced Search Engine Optimization tools. Our customers know that the key to a successful SEO campaign begins at the foundation, their web hosting provider. SEO hosting customers have come to depend on the reliable, easy to use interface that we have developed for unsurpassable Search Engine Optimization.

Got a friend who has his personal website hosted on HostGator. I went there the other day, typed in an URL that points to a file that does not exist. Instead of Apache’s default plain vanilla 404 not found page, I got the following rendered inside my browser.