Hostinger Review

Inexpensive but Reliable Web Host

Hostinger has some of the most affordable options on the market with an abundance of notable features we’ll review below. 

Solid Uptime

Hostinger guarantees 99.9% uptime. If they fail to deliver, you can contact them and request a credit of 5% of your monthly fee. Yet, the best hosting providers guarantee 99.99% uptime. What’s the difference? 99.9% uptime means 8.77 hours of potential downtime throughout the year, while a 99.99% uptime guarantee will result in only 52.60 minutes downtime per year. 

This doesn’t mean Hostinger is undependable. Quite the contrary, our Hostinger review found out that the web host has been consistent at an average of 99.99% over the past few months. Other reviews also signal that Hostinger has a strong, better-than-expected uptime record. 

Global Data Centers

The host’s servers are deployed in seven global Tier-3 datacenters; the US, UK, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil, Lithuania, and the Netherlands are the main Hostinger server location points. All servers boast a 1,000 Mbps connection which ensures stability and fast loading time. Additionally, they are protected by multiple fail-safe levels, daily or weekly backups, and RAID-10. 

Average Loading Speeds

Built for speed, Hostinger provides a customizable server-level caching. The LiteSpeed Cache plugins are designed to turbo-charge web apps enabling them to handle traffic spikes. Cache management is made easy with the powerful Smart Purge technology. Additionally, the vendor’s plans feature HTTP/2 which is a faster, more secure, and easier-to-use version of HTTP. Delivering data via binary code, HTTP/2 reduces data size, improving the speed and load performance significantly. 

All these features are great for the money, but Hostinger doesn’t reach the loading speeds level of premium hosting providers. In fact, Hostinger reviews on the web show that even the premium plans are pretty average, and the speed of the premium servers isn’t up to the expected level. 

Custom Dashboard

Hostinger is one of the few web host providers that offer a branded control panel instead of the industry-standard cPanel. Surprisingly, the hPanel is clean and intuitive with all features sorted by categories. The minimalistic icons give you a feeling that everything's in place. A huge bonus is that hPanel is very beginner-friendly, as noted in many Hostinger reviews. However, users that are already accustomed to cPanel might find it harder to adjust to hPanel. 

Hostinger Free Domain  

You get a free domain when you sign up for an annual plan. Additional domain registrations aren’t free but are really affordable. A domain with a “.com” extension will cost you $8.99/year, and for a “.net” extension you’ll have to pay $12.99/year. There are even more affordable options like “.online “.tech”, “.online”, and “.xyz” which cost $0.99/year, “.live” and “.world” which come in at $3.50/year, and  “.me” for $6.45/year. 

Within 36 days of expiration, you can renew your domain name for free. After, there is a Redemption Grace Period which allows you to redeem the domain for an extra $80 until the 66th day of expiration.

Free Migration 

If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, you can complete the migration yourself by taking advantage of the available tools. Hostinger reviews, however, suggest that the DIY migration is unintuitive, especially for the non-tech-savvy. The good news is that if you need some help along the way or want the dedicated team to do the migration for you, you can get in touch with the Customer Success agents, free of charge.

Developer-Friendly Hosting Solution

A few features make Hostinger truly stand out as a developer-friendly solution. 

Auto Installer

Installing your favorite apps is convenient with Auto Installer. Once you choose the script you’ll be taken to the setup page. You’ll need to fill out details like the admin username and password, the website name, and choose the URL that will be used for the script in question.  

PHP7 Support

Hostinger supports PHP7 which allows you to run commands smoothly and enhance your website’s performance, loading speeds, and security.

Git Support

Git — the open-source version control system — enables developers to work together on projects in an efficient way, making the problem-solving process smoother. 

Hostinger Website Builder

Hostinger provides access to Zyro website builder. Although not as robust as the top-ranked website builders, Zyro is great for users with no developing knowledge — a feature appreciated in many Hostinger reviews. Simple and easy-to-use, Zyro has everything needed to start building your online business presence and manage it efficiently. You can choose from multiple templates and then customize literally everything. You also have access to the Zyro AI Content Generator and Logo Maker which is a huge plus. 

Is Hostinger Safe?

Hostinger’s servers feature advanced security modules like Apache mod_security and PHP open_basedir. There is also a dedicated cybersecurity team that constantly monitors the systems and performs security tests. 

In addition to the free SSL certificate included for free in the Business hosting plans, there’s a two-factor authentication feature, DDoS protection, and anti-malware features. Weekly backups are available with all plans, but only the higher tiers offer automated daily backups. You can opt to purchase the daily backup service for $1.89/month. 

Hostinger Customer Support

Hostinger offers support via live chat as well as tickets and claims it takes only 50 seconds for the support team to respond to your call for help. This is very ambitious so we took upon ourselves to determine if that’s true. First of all, the support is very localized. The team has four support centers and serves 20 countries in their native language which is a great bonus. 

Users, however, seem to be either impressed or totally disappointed. Some say the agents are responsive, patient, informative, and helpful. They report fast response time and problem-solving. On the flip side, some users feel that the Hostinger support system is unorganized, emphasizing that they had to wait for a few hours to get a reply via email due to errors in MX records. They have also reported that the Hostinger live chat was incapable of solving their issue.  

All in all, it’s clear that the vendor doesn’t quite have five-star customer support. You might wait longer than usual if you contact them via email, and there’s no phone support so the best option is to reach them via live chat. While not as responsive as other teams, Hostinger agents try to come through, and an added bonus is the use of emojis and gifs which would surely ease the frustration of the waiting times. 

For general inquiries, you can check Hostinger’s knowledge base with tutorials and instructions for both beginners and more advanced users. The topics are categorized, the most popular articles are listed, and you can use the search box to find what you need.

Hostinger Refund Policy

Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee which is pretty standard for web hosting providers. The money-back policy, however, doesn’t translate into a 100% refund. Things like redemption fees, domain name renewals, SEO toolkit, payments using cryptocurrencies, tokens, or digital assets, and domains with ccTLD are not eligible for a Hostinger refund.

Hostinger Pricing Overview

Hostinger capitalizes on its low introductory prices. And when we say low, we mean $0.99/month. Surprisingly, it provides good value for money, especially for those just starting out. Sure, there are a few catches; for example, to pay the lowest $0.99/month, you would have to buy the Single shared hosting plan for four years in advance, which would actually translate into $47.52 upon checkout. 

You can opt for a 3-month, 12-month, 24-month, or 48-month contract. Generally, the longer you commit to during the first purchase, the more you’ll save. The renewal prices are higher as it is the practice with almost every web hosting provider, but in this case, the prices aren’t shockingly higher. Hostinger coupon options can be found on the dedicated page on their website, so make sure to take a look before subscribing. You can find some great deals, claim the desired discount, and get lower prices on all listed web hosting, cloud, and VPS plans. 

While there isn’t a dedicated hosting option, you’ll find an abundance of Hostinger plans you can choose from — from the free Hostigner web hosting to Linux and Microsoft VPS. 

Hostinger Free Hosting

000webhost, powered by Hostinger cloud, has a completely free tier that provides basic web hosting for up to two websites. It comes with 300MB disk space and 3GB limited bandwidth. Its features are pretty basic; you get monthly data backups, no advanced security, and standard processing power and memory. The hosting is also said to be quite slow and unreliable, so it is not suited for important projects. In short, you get what you pay for.

Hostigner Shared Hosting

There are three options for shared hosting designed to suit beginners, personal websites, and small businesses. All tiers include a free SSL certificate, webmail access, file manager, weekly backups, DNS management, access manager, Cloudflare protected nameservers, Github integration, cache manager, remote MySQL, 3 GB database, and 1 CPU. 

Single Shared Hosting starts at $0.99/month (renews at $2.15). It includes hosting for one website, 10GB of disk space, 256MB RAM, 100GB of bandwidth, two subdomains, one FTP account, one Cronjob, and one email. 

Premium Shared Hosting comes in at $2.59/month ($3.49/month after the promotional period). It provides hosting for an unlimited number of websites and includes 20GB of disk space, 512 RAM, and (almost) everything unlimited — bandwidth, MySQL databases, Cronjobs, and FTP accounts. It further ups the Single plan with SSH access and free domain.  

Business Shared Hosting stands at $4.09/month (normally $7.95). The features are the same as in the Premium plan with the additional perk of daily backups, 1GB RAM, and 4X allocated resources. 

Hostinger VPS 

Our Hostinger review continues with VPS hosting. Ranked among the top VPS hosts, Hostinger promises cloud-based hosting with fast speed and no downtime. The six virtual private server plans come with CPU power that ranges from 1 to 8 vCPUs, 1-8GB SSD storage, RAM from 1GB to 8GB, 1,000-8,000GB of bandwidth. All plans include a dedicated IP, 100 Mb/s Network, and IPV4 & IPV6 support. 

Additionally, the plans come with root access which grants more customizability, while the VPS Control Panel makes the management process simple and easy. The data is saved thanks to the top-level backup system which allows making snapshots that can be restored with a few simple clicks.

Hostinger VPS plans start at $3.95/month. When comparing Hostinger vs DreamHost, for example, you can note that Hostinger’s prices are very affordable. DreamHost’s VPS plans start at $13.75/month and go all the way up to $110/month, while Hostinger’s plans are as shown below.

• 1 vCPU — from $3.95/month — 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD storage, and 1TB bandwidth
• 2 vCPU — starts at $8.95/month — 2GB RAM, 40GB SSD storage, and 2TB bandwidth
• 3 vCPU — $12.95/month — 3GB RAM, 60GB SSD storage, and 3TB bandwidth
• 4 vCPU — $15.95/month — 4GB RAM, 80GB SSD storage, and 4TB bandwidth
• 6 vCPU — $23.95/month — 6GB RAM, 120GB SSD storage, and 6TB bandwidth
• 8 vCPU — $29.95/month — 8GB RAM, 160GB SSD storage, and 8TB bandwidth 

Hostinger Windows VPS

Our Hostinger review shows that the Windows hosting option is also affordable. All plans include Windows Server 2012 layout which has the same interface as Windows 8, is easy to adopt and supports faster installation of apps. Dedicated IP with IPv6, enterprise-level data backups, and easy-to-use VPS control panel are all part of the Windows VPS plans. 

• Windows VPS 1 — 2GB memory, 4 cores, 50GB storage, 4,000GB bandwidth — $26/month
• Windows VPS 2 — 4GB memory, 4 cores, 100GB storage, 5,000GB bandwidth — $62/month
• Windows VPS 3 — 8GB memory, 4 cores, 200GB storage, 6,000 bandwidth — $120/month
• Windows VPS 4 — 16GB memory, 4 Cores, 400GB storage, 7,000 bandwidth — $250/month

Hostinger Cloud Hosting

Hostinger’s cloud hosting plans leave plenty of room for growth. You can start small and get more power and resources as your site grows. All plans support hosting of an unlimited number of websites and come with a dedicated IP address, a Hostinger free domain and SSL certificate, automated daily backups, DNS management, integrated caching, and unlimited bandwidth. Since the plans are fully managed, you won’t have access to your server or an option to change your operative system, but this is a minor downside for such convenient hosting. There are three plans you can choose from.

• Cloud Startup — comes at $7.45/month (renews at $15.90) — 2 CPU cores, 100GB SSD storage, 3GB RAM, and 1X speed boost
• Cloud Professional — starts from $14.95/month (renews at $31.80) — 4 CPU cores, 140GB SSD storage, 6GB RAM, and 2X speed boost
• Cloud Global (powered by Google Cloud) — costs $37/month (renews at $80) — 8 CPU cores, 200GB SSD storage, 16GB RAM, 4X speed boost, and access to the website builder

Hostinger WordPress Hosting

Hostinger’s WordPress hosting plans have a rich feature set that enables effortless website management. The team monitors every WP website, scanning for potential threats and vulnerabilities. Hostinger uses LiteSpeed web server with LS Cache plugin to ensure the WordPress sites are at their peak performance at all times. All WordPress plans include unlimited bandwidth, free SSL and domain, 100 email accounts, WordPress Acceleration, WooCommerce, DNS management, and unlimited MySQL databases. 

• WordPress Starter — from $2.15/month (renews at $3.49) — it supports hosting of up to 100 sites; includes 8 CPU cores, 200GB SSD storage, 16GB RAM, 4X speed boost, weekly backups, and Jetpack Free plugin
• WordPress Premium — $7.45/month ($15.90 when you renew) — good for up to 300 sites; it ups the Starter plan with 100GB disk space, Jetpack Personal plugin, and daily backups
• WordPress Business — $14.95/month ($31.80/month for renewal) — it’s packed with all Premium features along with 140GB disk space and a Jetpack Premium plugin

Hostinger Magento Hosting

Our Hostinger review has shown that the Magento hosting is basically a replica of the WordPress hosting with some tweaks. SEO-friendly, optimized with carts, and feature-rich, Magento hosting will help you reach your full potential. You can rest assured that your shoppers will have the best experience and, as a result, you’ll be making more sales than ever.  

Lightning-fast speed is guaranteed thanks to the unique caching with Nginx setup and memcached fork from Twitter. Besides the free SSL certificate that comes with all plans, the CloudFlare integration adds an extra layer of security. You can easily upgrade your plan as you go and get extra power and resources without hassle. Support for hosting unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, isolated resources, free dedicated IP, and domain registration are included in all three plans.

• Cloud Startup — from $7.45 (renews at $15.90) — 100GB SSD storage, 3GB RAM, and 2 CPU cores
• Cloud Professional — starts at $14.95 ($31.80 upon renewal) — 140GB SSD storage, 6GB RAM, and 4 CPU cores
• Cloud Global — costs $37/month (renewal rate is $80) — 200GB SSD storage, 16GB RAM, and 8 CPU cores

Hostinger PrestaShop Hosting

PrestaShop has all the tools needed for your ecommerce success without requiring any technical knowledge. Our Hostinger review shows that the platform’s professionals make sure to provide a top-performing environment for your store, offering custom server configuration, integrated caching, HTTP/2, the latest PHP and MySQL version, lifetime TLS certificate, and CloudFlare. 

• PrestaShop Starter — starts at $2.89 (renews at $3.49) — 20GB SSD storage, weekly backups
• PrestaShop Premium — from $3.99 (renewal rate is $7.95) — 100GB SSD storage, daily backups
• PrestaShop Business — costs $7.45 ($15.90 upon renewal) — 100GB SSD storage, daily backups, dedicated IP address, dedicated resources 

Hostinger WooCommerce Hosting

WooCommerce hosting aims to provide top speed and performance for online stores running on WordPress. As our Hostinger review has revealed, this hosting type offers custom setup and an in-house admin team that monitors them ensuring the online store works at its peak. All plans support unlimited websites and include unlimited bandwidth, as well as free domain and SSL certificate.

• Woo Starter — comes at $3.99 (renews at $7.95) — 100GB SSD storage, weekly backups, Jetpack Free
• Woo Premium — starts at $7.45 (renewal rate is $15.90) — 100GB SSD storage, daily backups, Jetpack Personal
• Woo Business — from $14.95 ($31.80 upon renewal) — 140GB SSD storage, daily backups, Jetpack Premium

Additional Products

Hostinger offers a few additional services with excellent perks. 

Hostinger Email Hosting

Focused on email servers, this service works independently of the Hostinger web hosting and enables you to use domain-specific email addresses. Thus you’ll have a professional-looking email as well as more credibility and trust among the clients. The plans support up to 50 email aliases and provide automated antivirus checks and multi-device support. 

• Business Email — from $0.99 — 10GB email storage and two email filters
• Enterprise Email — $2.49 — 30GB email storage and unlimited email filters 

Hostinger Minecraft Server Hosting

This service enables users to play the adventure video game on a multiplayer server. Setting up a Minecraft server is a one-step process. All five plans include instant setup. Additionally, they come with dual-CPU hardware, PCI-DSS compliance, automatic off-site backups, web/FTP file access, multicraft panel, and a mobile app. The dedicated VPS resources can help you manage the server, reboot it, install web scripts, or make real-time password changes. 

• Alex Plan — $8.95/month — 2GB memory and 2 vCPU coresVillager Plan — $12.95/month — 3GB memory and 3 vCPU cores
• Creeper Plan — $15.95/month — 4GB memory and 4 vCPU cores
• Herobrine Plan — $23.95/month — 6GB memory and 6 vCPU cores
• Enderman Plan — $29.95/month — 8GB memory and 8 vCPU cores

Is Hostinger a Good Host?

Our Hostinger review showed that the web host packs solid performance and good loading speeds. It’s incredibly user-friendly which makes it an ideal choice for those just getting into the blogging business. There’s no dedicated hosting and its support could use a few improvements in terms of responsiveness as well as an addition of a phone channel. All in all, the great services combined with the affordable pricing make for an excellent value for money.