Hostgator

HostGator pays $65 per signup at the base tier, rising to $75, $100 and $125 as your monthly volume grows. There's no minimum payout, but there is a long wait: expect around three months before money lands.

What the tiers actually require

Everyone starts at $65. The increases are not purely volume-based, which is the part most write-ups miss. HostGator weighs conversion rate, customer renewal rate and average order value alongside raw signups, so sending large volumes of low-quality traffic that churns will hold your rate down.

The cookie is 60 days with last-click attribution, and the program runs on Impact.

The three-month wait

Standard turnaround on payment is roughly three months. HostGator does this because shared hosting has a meaningful refund and chargeback rate, and they clear it before paying. There's no referral minimum, so your first sale will eventually pay, but plan cashflow around a quarter rather than a month.

If waiting a quarter is a problem, SiteGround pays weekly for a similar rate and is a better fit for a site that needs the money moving.

Who converts

Price-sensitive beginners launching a first website. HostGator's intro pricing is aggressive and its brand recognition in that segment is high, so "cheap web hosting" and "how to start a blog" content converts. Small business site guides work too.

Technical readers largely avoid it, and WordPress-specialist audiences tend to prefer SiteGround or a managed host. Don't fight that; recommend HostGator where budget is genuinely the deciding factor and something else where it isn't.

HostGator vs Hosting.com for affiliates

HostGator starts higher and has no threshold, so a small site sees its first payment sooner in practice despite the longer clearing period. Hosting.com gives you an extra month of attribution, which matters more on comparison content people revisit. Neither is a runaway winner.

Getting approved

Apply through Impact. Approval is routine and HostGator is one of the more permissive hosting programs. The terms prohibit brand bidding in paid search and self-referrals are voided.

Verdict

A reliable earner for beginner-focused content, with the caveat that you're effectively lending HostGator your commission for a quarter. The performance-weighted tiers reward quality over volume, so a smaller audience that actually sticks around will out-earn a bigger one that churns.