Inc. Magazine just ranked HostGator #239 overall on their prestigious Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing privately owned companies in America. Here’s how the companies that make Inc’s list are ranked:

The Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2005, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales. Additionally, they have to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent — not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies — as of December 31, 2008 (a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired since that date). Revenue in 2005 must have been at least $200,000, and revenue in 2008 must have been at least $2 million.

Additionally, HostGator ranked #6 in all Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (Greater Houston area) companies, and #20 out of all companies in our category—Business Products & Services.
HostGator has managed to grow over 896% within the measured 3 year time period. We’ve nearly doubled in revenue from 2007 to 2008.

In 2008, HostGator was ranked at #21 overall. Although 2009’s rank was lower than the previous year’s, we’ve nearly doubled our revenue between the two periods. Despite the job market shrinking across the U.S., HostGator has also created 100 positions for highly qualified technicians and systems’ administrators in the Houston area over the last year.

I think I speak for everyone at HostGator, when I say we’re all really proud to be a part of this company and what we’ve been able to accomplish. The growth simply comes from doing what we’ve always done: providing our clients with reliable web hosting service, 24/7 support, and by offering as many features as possible.

Huge thanks goes to our clients and employees for our continued success. …

Inc. Magazine compiles an annual list of the top 5,000 fastest-growing companies in America. They rank each of the top 5,000 companies depending on their revenue growth for the past three years.
Inc. 5000 announced yesterday that HostGator made their list of the top 5000 fastest growing private companies in America. Turns out, that not only did HostGator make the list, but we ranked in at #21 overall. In our industry, business services, we ranked #2, and in Texas we’re the #1 ranked fastest growing company. For our specific industry–web hosting–HostGator is the fastest growing web host out there, period.

This is quite a feat for a company that started out of a college dorm room with literally no budget.

According to Inc.’s analysis, the reason for our growth is:

Because support is key in the Web-hosting business, the company never outsources support and keeps technical support staff available 24/7, with an average wait time of one minute for inbound calls. It also provides developed templates and specialized software licensing to clients for free to enhance the company’s service offering.

I agree with the analysis, but I’d also like to share a few other points to explain why HostGator is not only floating but thriving.

• We’re a transparent company. Before potential customers sign up with us, they can check out real HostGator reviews right on our public forums from current customers.
• We truly care about our clients. It doesn’t matter whether you pay us $5 a month for web hosting or if you buy your own dedicated server through us. Every client at HG receives priority attention and 24/7 support.
• Our affiliates contribute in a large way to the success by bringing in new sales. Anyone can join our hosting affiliate program. Whether you are a client of HostGator or not, we will pay you up to $125 per sale for referring people to our service.
• Definitely the biggest asset at HostGator is our people. To offer 24/7 support, it means that we have people here for our customers at 3 AM answering calls and taking care of issues before they become problems. They keep the servers running, making sure millions of web sites and businesses stay online. HostGator would instantly become more profitable if we cut corners and outsourced support, but in doing so we wouldn’t be able to keep the quality where it is. So that’s why we continue our hiring frenzy, to keep up with the growth. The only thing that has kept us from growing faster is making sure we have enough people to support our current and future customers. We’re in this for the long haul, and we want our customers to be with us just as long.

It’s an accomplishment and something that we’re all proud of, because every employee at HG helped to make this happen. In three years time we’ve grown over 5,000%, let us know what it will take to make the most of the next three. …