Hostgator began overselling their shared and reseller accounts. If you have anything but dedicated server at hostgator - you'll find your sites sluggishly slow. I used to recommend it myself but starting this year I notice gross degradation in speed across all sites hosted on hostgator accounts, including my clients account who are using business hosting plan.

I ended up renting dedicated server, securing and essentially launching my own hosting company for myself and most clients. Difference in speed: 3x-10x

I can confirm that Hostgator is extermely reliable. if you dont want to spend a dime i have a huge reseler space just sitting there. Let me know if you want and i can provide you with a free space for your blogging. My email should be visible