During a period when most of the world’s developed nations were suffering the poor economic trends that go along with an approaching recession there were still more than a few companies able to not only maintain their revenue but increase it dramatically. Online business magazine Inc annually ranks the 5000 fastest growing privately owned companies in the United States based on revenue growth, giving credit where it is due to the entrepreneurs intelligent and motivated enough to prosper where others cannot and exemplifying the positive business practices of those ranked.

While many representatives of most sectors appear on the list in abundance, year after year, one industry that fails to cause a stir on the annual list, historically, is web hosting. One company that has been waving the hosting flag on the lists for both 2008 and 2009 is the fast-growing and hugely popular provider HostGator.com. After an impressive showing at number 21 last year with revenue of $18.7 million in 2007, the Texas-based company found themselves highly ranked again this year, coming in at number 239 with revenue growth of an astounding 896% over the measured period.

Don’t let the relative drop in rank fool you: HostGator nearly doubled their 2007 revenue total in 2008 with a reported number of $34.2 million. In addition to the rank of 239th on the main Inc 5000 list, they also managed to come in at number 6 where businesses located in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area of Texas were concerned and number 20 in the Business Products and Services category covering the entire country. In a year that saw an increase in national unemployment in the U.S., HostGator managed to buck the trend, creating and filling over 100 highly specialized positions for technicians and system administrators, demonstrating an aggressive and effective business plan against all odds.

Other representatives of the hosting industry on the 2009 edition of Inc’s list include Layered Tech at number 622, domain and hosting giant GoDaddy at a respectable number 1,241, Host.net at 1,367 and Hosted Solutions at 1,613. In all, the IT services category, with hosting providers included, saw the most companies on the 2009 list with a total of 658.