Hostinger started out in 2007 as a free web hosting service and has developed into one of the best shared and cloud hosting providers around. You can build a website and get high-quality hosting at some of the lowest prices around with Hostinger. Whether you’re creating a new home on the web or looking for an upgrade over your current lackluster hosting provider, we’ve put together a comprehensive review of Hostinger to help you make your decision.
Compare Hostinger to The Best Web Hosting Sevices
The right web hosting service is key to a successful website, and we want to help you make the right decision. So, we did some of our own digging to determine whether Hostinger is as good as people say it is. We researched, reviewed, and analyzed a variety of web hosting services and from there, narrowed our list down.
What did we find? We found that Hostinger is so great that we awarded them the top spot on our list of favorite web hosting services.
Why is Hostinger number one on our list? Because it provides the best service for most people–meaning it works for a variety of people looking to build a website.
To top that off, it is also the most affordable option. Hostinger plans start at just $1.99 per month. That is something you’ll want to take advantage of.
The thing we love most about Hostinger’s low price is that it doesn’t mean that your service will be cheap. In fact, the platform is a solid competitor for others on our list whose prices are much higher.
While Hostinger is our favorite web hosting service, it is just one of many different hosting options that may be a good fit for your specific needs. Whether you have a small business, a large company, a strict budget, or a real need for speed, there is something on our list for you. See all of our top picks here, do some reading, and decide which is the perfect one for you.
If Hostinger sounds like a possibility, read on for our in-depth review of this web hosting service.
Hostinger: The Good and The Bad
Like any product on the market, there are pros and cons to choosing Hostinger as your websites’ web host. We want to call out a few of the key elements that work in Hostinger’s favor and a couple potential drawbacks. So you get the full story on whether they’re the best choice for you.
The Good
Fast Load Times: It’s no secret that the loading time for your site is very important. If a visitor comes to your website and has to wait for things to load, they won’t stick around. In fact, many people aren’t willing to wait for more than a couple of seconds for a site to load.
That’s why we love that Hostinger provides quick hosting speeds. And we’re not just going off of what they tell everyone on their webpage copy. We’ve tested them out for shared hosting, VPS hosting, and WordPress hosting.
And Hostinger delivers. For each of those hosting types, we put a test site through FreshPing for a full month. Each one averaged well under one-second load times, with Hostinger’s VPS and WordPress hosting averaging right around 470 milliseconds. That’s wonderfully fast and better than just about every other hosting provider we tested in those categories.
Hostinger has servers not just in the United States, but also in Asia and the UK, so that helps keep the overall loading times quick no matter where you or your visitors are located.
Fantastically Affordable: Not only do you get blazing fast site speeds on a Hostinger plan, but those plans come at some of the most competitive price points around.
Shared hosting starts as low as $1.99 per month for a single site, with plans that support multiple sites or allot more resources starting at $3.49 per month. WordPress and VPS hosting don’t require much more of an investment, either, starting at $1.99 and $3.95 per month, respectively.
Now, keep in mind these attractive rates are for a long-term commitment up front of 48 months. That can be a bit of a sticking point if you’re not ready to commit to four years right away. On the flip side, though, it means you lock in that attractive rate for a good while. And, since it’s such an affordable monthly rate. You’re only looking at a payment of $96 for 48 months of shared or WordPress hosting.
However, if you don’t want to commit to four years right off the bat, Hostinger has generously extended. It’s best pricing for the Premium Shared Hosting plan to one-year commitments as well. That means you can pay just $41.88 today and snag Hostinger’s most popular shared hosting package for a full year. One which also comes with a free custom domain.
With all that in mind, the next few positives that follow should further put your mind at ease about committing to Hostinger and the value you’re getting.
Money-Back Guarantee: Not happy with your Hostinger purchase? No problem. You have 30 days to try it out and get your money back if your experience is not all you were hoping for. However, be sure to note that redemption fees, domain name renewals, and privacy protection are the only things not part of the 30-day money-back guarantee, so keep that in the back of your head.
Otherwise, the hosting, domain transfers, and SSL certificates are all refundable within 30 days of purchase.
Free Domain: You need a domain to go along with your hosting, and while you can buy your domain and your hosting from separate companies, it’s nice when you can do everything in one place. It’s even nicer when you can get the domain for free. That’s an option for those who opt for any of Hostinger’s web hosting plans above the single-site tier.
Free Website Builder: Hostinger’s partnership with Zyro gives you access to one of the better website builders for free with your plan.
Zyro’s easy-to-use builder is great for whipping up a company website, but you can also build out a fully functional online store with it, too. Start from one of over 100 templates or drag-and-drop your way to a beautiful home on the web from scratch.
Either way, you get a site builder for free with Hostinger that doesn’t make you sacrifice any customization capability.
Simple to Get Started: One of the other things we’ve loved about Hostinger when testing their hosting products out is how easy it is on users when they’re starting out. With a clean interface, guided setup, and a dashboard that doesn’t make first-timers take a whole class in order to use it, Hostinger is beginner-friendly without skimping on powerful tools and reliable servers.
That extends to building a site right after you’ve finished signing up for Hostinger and setting up your hosting plan.
Let Hostinger’s wizard walk you through each step. You’ll be amazed by how quickly it results in a fully functional website for you.
The Bad
No Phone Support: Sometimes you need a real human on the phone to get help with a problem, and unfortunately Hostinger does not offer that option. The only way to get in touch with customer support is via a live chat, which is good. But isn’t the same as a phone call to walk you through things that are likely frustrating.
Spotty Uptime on Shared and WordPress Hosting: Speed and uptime are the two sides of the web hosting quality coin. Whereas speed relates to how quickly your pages load for visitors, uptime is a measurement of server reliability. Hosting servers can go down for any number of reasons, from planned maintenance to unforeseen errors.
Hostinger’s lower-octane plans haven’t performed too well compared to their peers. With their shared hosting and WordPress hosting, we’ve seen a lot of downtime, in the ballpark of one to two hours per month. That’s almost a full day per year that your website wouldn’t be available to visitors.
Fortunately, we’ve seen vast improvements when testing their burlier hosting offerings. Hostinger’s VPS hosting turned in only 17 seconds of total downtime when we tested it in late 2021.
Missing Features on Budget Plans: While not a dealbreaker for everyone, there are some helpful features missing from Hostinger’s entry-level plans that we’ve seen on comparable ones from their competitors. The most notable case is with their WordPress hosting. Which doesn’t include a content delivery network (CDN) and automatic daily backups on the two cheaper plans (Single and Starter).
Make sure you look over the full feature set for the hosting plan you’re considering. You may have to pay for a higher tier to ensure you’re getting all the features and tools you need.
Hostinger Pricing and Options
As is the case with most web hosting providers, Hostinger has a number of different packages for you to choose from. Each one offers unique things that are suited for specific needs.
There is no free plan available with Hostinger, but the Single Shared Hosting plan is inexpensive enough that it almost feels free. This is a great place to start.
Hostinger Single
Hostinger’s most basic plan is part of the shared web hosting offerings. Which means that your website exists on a server with other websites. This is great for those who don’t have a budget for expensive web hosting. As the cost of the server is split between numerous others. However, the bad thing about this is site speed could be compromised because there are so many other people using the same server.
However, if you are just starting out with a website, the Single plan gives you what you need to get the ball rolling.
The Single plan pricing starts at $1.99/month with a 48-month commitment, and that price jumps all the way up to $9.99/month if you sign up for a monthly commitment.
This plan gets you 1 website, 30 GB of SSD storage, 100 GB bandwidth, 10 GB solid-state storage, a free SSL certificate, 1 email account, and much more.
Hostinger Premium
Hostinger’s next level, the Premium, offers everything the Single does as well as some added bonuses, including free domain registration (for the first year only), unlimited bandwidth, up to 100 websites, 100 GB of SSD storage, up to 100 email accounts, and more.
Pricing for this starts at $3.49/month with a 48-month commitment, all the way up to $11.99/month for a monthly commitment.
Hostinger Business
If you’re looking to level up your plan, then Hostinger’s Business option may be right for you. With this plan you get everything included in the Premium plan, plus daily backups, 4 times the processing power, 200 GB SSD storage, and much more.
Pricing for the Business plan starts at $4.99/month for 48 months and goes up to $16.99/month for a monthly commitment.
Cloud Hosting
If you’re considering cloud hosting vs. traditional shared hosting, take a look at Hostinger’s offerings. Not sure what cloud hosting is? We’ve got you covered. How cloud hosting differs is that rather than your site being hosted on a single server. It is hosted in the cloud, which allows for more flexibility and easier scalability.
Cloud hosting plans begin with the Startup at $9.99/month for 48 months. This is a great starting place. If you are looking for something more, Hostinger’s recommended cloud plan is the Professional. Which starts at $18.99/month for 48 months. And if you need more than this still, the Global plan may be just what you’re looking for, and that will cost you $69.99/month for 48 months.
The massive jump in price from the Professional to Global plan is due to a few features including 4 times the speed boost of the Startup Plan, 16 GB RAM, 8 CPU cores, and much more.
VPS Hosting
If you are looking to make waves with your business’ website, then VPS hosting may be right for you. VPS stands for virtual private server, and it means that you have your own server as opposed to sharing one with other users.
Hostinger offers six different VPS hosting plans, starting at $3.95/month for 48 months. That price point gets you 3 GB RAM, 60 GB storage, and 3 TB bandwidth. The plans offer a few more features than the ones prior and take. You up to the VPS 6 plan which includes 8 GB RAM, 160 GB storage, and 8 TB bandwidth. That will set you back $38.99/month for 48 months.
Minecraft Hosting
Hostinger offers a unique hosting service that many of its competitors don’t: a Minecraft hosting that is geared towards gamers. This hosting starts at $8.95/month for 48 months and offers plans that go up to $29.95/month for 48 months.
With this service, you can install your own game mods, along with many other things.
When it comes to hosting, there is no shortage of options with Hostinger. They also offer WordPress hosting, which is a top choice for many people building websites.
There is hosting for everyone at Hostinger, so do some more reading to see which one is the ideal plan for your needs.
Comparing The Best Web Hosting Services
Though Hostinger sits at the top of our list for best web hosting services, there are some other great options that also made the cut.
- Hostinger – Best web hosting for most users
- SiteGround – Best for keeping uptime above 99.99%
- HostGator – Best for scaling your small business easily
- DreamHost – Best pay-as-you-go web hosting
- Bluehost – Best drag-and-drop page builder for beginners
- InMotion Hosting – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan
- Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users
- A2 Hosting – Most dependable web hosting for European and Asian audiences
Hostinger is one of the most versatile hosting providers, and has options no matter how big or small. Your website, and no matter what type of website you are looking to build. Though the uptime speed has dropped a bit and isn’t as consistent as we would like. The site load is speedy, and the other pros seem to outweigh the few cons. Just be ready for some potential site downtime.
Overall, we highly recommend this hosting service to get your website up and running and scale it along the way. Hostinger is great for those who are both new to and seasoned in building a website, and has strong support and help along the way.
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