Hostinger is a well-regarded web hosting provider that has garnered attention for its affordability, performance, and extensive feature set. It offers various hosting solutions, including shared, cloud, VPS, and WordPress hosting, catering to a wide range of users- from personal bloggers to small businesses. It claims to provide competitive pricing, robust uptime, and user-friendly tools to help you build the ultimate website for making money. Our Hostinger review puts this to the test.
Let’s find out if this website delivers on its promises or if it’s just another tall tale to get your money.
This Hostinger review delves into its strengths and weaknesses, examining key aspects such as performance, customer support, pricing, and overall value. With this review, you can use our comprehensive analysis to determine whether Hostinger is the correct choice, if you’re starting a new website from scratch, or changing providers.
Overview
Hostinger is a popular web hosting provider renowned for its affordability and feature-rich plans. These make it a strong contender for individuals and small businesses looking to establish an online presence. However, users needing top-tier performance and dedicated support might need to consider higher-end providers.
Its straightforward setup and extensive knowledge base make it an accessible choice for those new to web hosting. Selecting a reliable web hosting provider is also essential. Your web host directly impacts uptime, the speed at which pages load, and other performance indicators that affect the end-user experience.
More specifically, as the website owner, customer support, scalability, and ease of use affect your experience. Over the years, we’ve personally used hundreds of hosts and conducted extensive testing with nearly all of them. We can also state with certainty that Hostinger provides a superb mix of cost, functionality, support, usability, and long-term scalability.
Features of Hostinger
Hostinger is known for providing affordable hosting solutions to individuals and small businesses. This hosting platform was founded in 2004 and is one of the best for all your hosting needs today. Here are some of its excellent features.
LiteSpeed Web Server
Hostinger uses the blazingly quick LiteSpeed web server, which is the program that runs on the actual server and serves up the material for your website to users. Because LiteSpeed is licensed under an open-source (i.e., free) license, it performs better than the more established Apache web server, which many other web providers still use.
While LiteSpeed provides excellent performance, the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress plugin saves your website pages’ pre-loaded (cached) versions so visitors can view them more rapidly.
Generous With SSD Storage, Bandwidth, and Number of Sites
Hostinger offers many features for its low prices; for example, the most affordable WordPress plan supports 100 websites and comes with 100 GB of SSD storage and limitless bandwidth.
This is more than the most expensive plans many other cheap hosts offer. You’ll be able to host multiple websites at once and have plenty of space to expand and enhance your online presence.
Automatic Backup With One-Click Restoration
Data loss can destroy an internet firm. You don’t want to invest hours into your website only to have it all disappear due to a Wi-Fi malfunction or an error. Fortunately, Hostinger provides an adaptable backup solution that lets you make, get, and use backups.
Additionally, it provides weekly automated backups with a free upgrade to daily automatic backups with higher-tier shared plans. Alternatively, this functionality is available as an add-on for a fee.
Security Features
Hostinger takes security seriously and provides several security features to protect websites. These include free SSL certificates, daily backups, DDoS protection, and proactive server monitoring.
Money Back Guarantee
To put your mind at ease, Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with their services.
24/7 Customer Support
Hostinger provides 24/7 customer service with knowledgeable, professional, and functional staff that courteously answers all your queries.
Pros and cons
Like every commodity on the market, selecting Hostinger as the web host for your website has advantages and disadvantages. To give you the whole picture and help you decide if it is the right option for you, we want to highlight a few of the most critical factors that go in their favor and a few possible downsides.
Pros
Quick Loading Time
The good news is that Hostinger routinely offers fast speeds for a shared hosting service. We have tried their shared hosting, VPS hosting, and WordPress hosting.
This website builder delivers decent speeds and reliability for primary sites. Features like LiteSpeed web servers, SSD storage, and global data centers contribute to respectable performance.
LiteSpeed Web Servers
Hostinger’s remarkable performance is attributed to its use of LiteSpeed web servers. Thanks to LiteSpeed, it may deploy its bespoke hPanel without compromising speed.
It is far quicker than the Apache web servers that most low-cost shared hosting companies employ. Furthermore, LSWS stores copies of your website in a cache to speed up user page loads.
It’s Incredibly Cheap
In addition to having lightning-fast site speeds, you’ll also pay meagre costs. For as little as $2.99 a month, you can share 100 GB of storage across up to 100 websites with shared hosting. That is about as inexpensive as it gets.
Hostinger offers some of the cheapest hosting plans in the market. Not all of Hostinger’s hosting options are inexpensive; its cloud plans begin at $9.99 per month, and its VPS plans start at just $4.99.
Rich in Features
You receive malware scanning, a web firewall, a CDN, backups, free WordPress tools, website builders, AI capabilities, and more for a meagre fee. As we previously stated, this feels like it could be more inexpensive.
Also, many plans include free domains, SSL certificates, weekly backups, and other perks like WHOIS domain privacy protection and free site migrations.
First-Year Free Domain
Every Hostinger package includes a free domain name. It is preconfigured, so you won’t need to perform any technical or administrative labor to get started.
Starting Up Is Simple
Hostinger is quite simple to use, particularly after everything gets configured. First-timers find the hosting service easy to use because of its intuitive dashboard, assisted setup process, and clean layout; you need no training.
Free AI-powered Website Builder
Every Hostinger plan has a free version of one of the best website builders available. It’s simple to use without technical knowledge, whether you need an essential business website or a fully-fledged online store.
You can choose from more than 100 pre-made themes to get started or use the AI site builder to create a unique website quickly.
One-Click Installation
Hostinger provides robust tools without sacrificing simplicity. For instance, It has an auto-installer option that makes installing programs much more effortless.
You can have a fully functional WordPress, Drupal, WooCommerce, or PrestaShop website with only one click. There’s no need to tinker with code or endure protracted installation procedures to start your journey.
Simple Site Migrations
When transferring an existing website to Hostinger’s hosting services, Hostinger will handle all the technical details. You need to start the website migration process, supply a few details, and you’re set to go.
Money-Back Assurance
Are you unsatisfied with the service you bought? Not an issue. If, after 30 days, you decide it’s not what you expected, you can return it for your money. The guarantee does not include redemption fees, domain name renewals, or privacy protection.
Cons
No Phone Call Assistance
Hostinger offers several blog posts, knowledge-based articles, and tutorials if you need assistance. Another option is Hostinger Academy, a YouTube tutorial series. Even though these resources are beneficial, they cannot replace a phone call that helps you through a frustrating situation.
Unfortunately, the only means to contact customer service are the round-the-clock live chat, email, and ticket systems. This is quite a considerable downside for us, especially when you have a complaint that can best be discussed on the phone.
Confusing Prices
It can be challenging to decide which plan is ideal for you because there are three different subscription lengths and variable renewal costs for each. Remember that the monthly rate will return to $11.99 when estimating long-term expenses following the discounted renewal price.
More extended plans come with substantial reductions, but will you need that plan for 48 months? Examine your business plan and choose a subscription duration that considers potential renewal dates in case your hosting plan needs an extension.
Performance Restrictions on Lower Plans
While acceptable for primary sites, more resource-intensive websites may experience performance issues on lower-tier plans due to throttled disk speeds and limited memory.
Lack of Dedicated Server Hosting
Hostinger does not provide dedicated server options, which may be a limitation for businesses needing more robust hosting solutions.
Hostinger Plans
You can select from a variety of packages offered by Hostinger. Every one of them provides distinctive items that fit particular requirements.
If money is minimal, Hostinger provides free hosting through 000webhost.
However, if you’re serious about launching and expanding your website, we don’t advise it. Here, we provide a detailed look at Hostinger’s plans and costs.
Hostinger Premium
Hostinger’s most affordable hosting package is this one. For just $2.99 a month, you can host up to 100 websites with 100 GB of SSD storage, 100 email addresses, an unlimited bandwidth plan, a free domain for the first year, and a free SSL certificate for every website.
Along with your free domain name, you’ll also receive free WHOIS privacy protection, which protects your data. Even if the most excellent pricing requires payment 48 months in advance, you will still pay less than $150 today out of pocket.
Hostinger Business
If you want to upgrade, the Business plan from Hostinger is ideal. In addition to daily backups, five times the processing power, 200 GB of NVMe storage, and many more, this plan includes all the Premium plan features.
The Business plan’s monthly cost increases to $13.99 for a monthly commitment after $3.99 for 48 months.
Is Hostinger Worth It?
Our thorough and consistent testing indicates that it is. It is perfect for personal websites, business landing pages, and small-to-medium-sized online stores because it focuses on shared WordPress hosting and provides plenty of help for beginners.
Hostinger provides VPS and cloud hosting for websites with significant traffic and resource requirements. However, these plans are frequently less flexible and valuable than expensive hosts.
When it comes to shared web hosting at an affordable price or for customers switching from more expensive providers, Hostinger shines. Most crucially, because of its LiteSpeed-based server infrastructure, Hostinger offers shared hosting performance that, according to our tests, almost all other low-cost hosts can’t match.
Hostinger’s website serves a global audience, and it is notable for having customer interfaces in multiple languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Portuguese (including Brazilian Portuguese), Spanish (Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Spain), Turkish, and Ukrainian.
For novices and fundamental websites, this website builder is excellent, and the VPS plans are reasonably priced. Hostinger is a good choice if you’re either a total novice or have enough familiarity with their VPS option to manage your server.
If you are not an expert at VPS, using Hostinger VPS packages can be a little out of your league. However, anyone with enough skill to not need assistance with the shared plans will not get value for their money.
What Is Hostinger Best Used for?
Depending on what you require. We do not recommend Hostinger’s shared services for an e-commerce site with high traffic or a specialized web application that requires a flexible hosting environment.
But if you’re looking for a user-friendly service to host a simple website, this website builder is among your finest choices.
How Big Is Hostinger?
Hostinger is a seasoned Lithuanian hosting company with over a million users worldwide and over 1,000 workers.
Using about 20,000 organizations, it is ranked 35th in Datanyze’s Web Hosting Market Share research, accounting for 0.45% of the hosting market.
Conclusion
In summary, Hostinger is a strong and affordable web hosting provider suitable for both beginners and experienced users. With plans starting at $2.99 per month, it’s a cost-effective option for establishing an online presence. Hostinger offers fast loading times, reliable uptime, and easy website management through features like the custom hPanel and AI-powered website builder. Security is a priority, with free SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and regular backups.
However, the lack of dedicated server plans and phone support may be a downside for those with larger, resource-heavy websites. Despite this, Hostinger’s affordability, performance, and user-friendliness make it a great value for many, offering the tools and support needed to succeed online.