Hostinger review: will you get more than you paid for?

Just a couple of years ago, Hostinger was a hidden gem of web hosting only a few knew about. Now, it’s a major player stealing attention from other industry sharks by offering unbeatable prices, solid performance, and a convenient user interface. Well, that’s what all Hostinger reviews are raving about, anyway.

For me, one thing is certain.

To become as visible as Hostinger in a competitive market such as web hosting, you have to be good. Or just very very loud.

I think Hostinger is both.

First of all, it offers the cheapest prices in the industry. Hosting for less than $1 without a special occasion? Well, there’s nothing cheaper unless you’re looking for free stuff. That’s loud.

Second of all, features offered by Hostinger are no less extensive than its competitors. 

And finally, performance scores can compete with the top dogs of the industry.

This might sound too good to be true, but I have some solid facts to prove it all. You see, for this Hostinger review, I ran extensive tests. They cover ease of use, performance, security, and customer support. And of course, I did a detailed pricing analysis before purchasing. 

If you’re in a rush, you can jump straight to conclusion or focus on a part that intrests you the most:

Pros and Cons of Hostinger

Hostinger pricing 

By far the most popular (and affordable) web hosting option offered by Hostinger is shared hosting – starting price is just $0.99 a month. Other options include cheap WordPress plans, Cloud hosting, and VPS.

It’s obvious that no matter in what stage your project is, there’ll be an option suited for it. 

Nonetheless, shared hosting is what most people start off. 2 things to note immediately – SSL is included in all plans while a free domain is included only in Premium and Business plans.

• Single ($0.99/mo) is the best option if you’re a first-time user. It includes hosting for 1 website with 30GB SSD storage space, bandwidth for up to 10k monthly visits, and 1 professional email account.
• Premium ($2.19/mo) is the option for small business websites or blogs. It comes with 100 websites and email accounts allowance, 100GB SSD storage space, and bandwidth for 25k monthly visits.
• Business ($3.99/mo) is an option for better performance and security that are needed by smaller eCommerce stores and high-traffic blogs. It comes with 200GB SSD storage space, bandwidth for 100k monthly visits, free daily backups, and CDN.

Hostinger is very generous and transparent when it comes to server resources. Knowing that a small website usually doesn’t take any more than 5GB of space, the Single plan gives more than enough. Meanwhile, 200GB with Business is more than a lot of competitors hide under their unlimited buzzword.

But not everything is equally valuable.

In my personal opinion, there are 2 options that are worth the money: 

1. You can pick Single if you are just starting out, testing the grounds, and need 1 website only. It has more than enough resources for that one site and no cheaper option exists. 
2. Pick Business to get the best value possible – resources included are significantly higher than with Premium, plus you get daily backups that can save you a ton of headaches in case something breaks. And it’s just around $1 extra, while daily backups usually cost at least $2/mo.

But are there any tricks involved?

Pricing need to know

To get the best price with Hostinger, you will need to play some cat and mouse games. It’s not innocent of simple industry marketing tricks – the prices are cheaper for longer billing terms, and renewals are more expensive.

So let’s break it down.

In comparison, the cheapest plan with Bluehost for 4 years would cost you $214, while with InterServer – $228. A2 Hosting’s cheapest plan would total $215.52. As these providers only offer 3-year billing periods, I counted in higher renewals for an additional year.

Talking about renewals. Hostinger’s Single plan will renew at a $2.99 a month rate which is still significantly cheaper than the renewals of other providers:

• The cheapest renewal with Bluehost is $8.99/mo.
• The cheapest renewal with InterServer is $7/mo.
• The cheapest renewal with A2 Hosting is $8.99/mo.

No doubt, Hostinger is unbeatable in the pricing department. Initial and renewal pricing considered.

There’s one more thing we need to discuss. That’s the money-back guarantee. I know that the majority of you won’t read the terms of service (can’t blame). So I did it for you, and here are a couple of things you should know:

• You can get your money back 30 days after the purchase.
• If you paid with cryptocurrency, then your purchase is non-refundable.
• Extra services like G Suite, domain privacy, and SEO toolkit are non-refundable.
• Country code top-level domains (e.g. .in, .uk, .sg) are non-refundable.

That’s a standard set of terms, but nonetheless, good to know.

All in all, there’s currently no cheaper option than Hostinger (and when it appears, believe me, I’ll test it). You can get a simple yet good-value web hosting plan for less than a dollar or pick the best value for your buck with the more advanced options.

Hosting management – is Hostinger easy to use?

One of the most crucial things about hosting is you being able to use it. And Hostinger is incredibly easy to use as it is designed with beginners in mind. Automatic wizards will take care of initial setups, and the control panel is not just good-looking – it combines great simplicity and functionality too. 

Every new user will go through the following window:

For this Hostinger review, I picked the Premium shared hosting plan as it was heavily discounted during Black Friday. 

Anyway, this is where you start your web hosting journey – as simple as going through 3 setups: hosting, domain, and SSL. 

I recommend going through the hosting setup first. It will take care of domain registration, server choice, and application installation all in one go. 

Once you are done picking through the options (or skipping them), you’ll get a window confirming the successful setup. Here, you can also choose your server location. Don’t miss this one! The option is written in a really small font.

Pick the location that is closest to your target audience and not yourself. After all, the website is for them.

When you’re happy with the choice, go back to the initial setup window and activate SSL. It’s as simple as just choosing the domain and clicking Install SSL.

Aaaand, you’re done. If you chose to install an application like WordPress during the hosting setup, your website is now live and ready to be customized. 

Talking about that, you need to see the control panel. How do you reach it?

Well, this is the window you’ll now see every time you log in to Hostinger. It works as a navigation to find you hosting accounts and domains.

To reach the control panel, simply click on Manage in the Hosting tab.

What does Hostinger control panel look like?

While the most popular control panels remain cPanel and Plesk, Hostinger decided to go with a custom option. It’s called hPanel, and it’s effortless to navigate. 

I can definitely see some influence from predecessors of this one. If you’ve used cPanel before, this will be both an upgrade, and you won’t be lost. Meanwhile, first-timers should not be scared either – every tool has an explanation in it.

Judging by what I’ve noticed over time, Hostinger is committed to its control panel. So much so that the provider is constantly updating hPanel to make it more intuitive and more comfortable for users. So, if it’s going to change a bit while you’re using it, don’t be surprised. 

The main things that you’ll be doing in hPanel are: reaching file manager, installing applications, checking databases, and adding domains as well as email accounts

Looking in detail, everything is well-organized. Every tool has a place in a very logical category. For example, you’ll find auto-installers (for WordPress, Joomla, and other content management systems) under the Website category, together with options to import or migrate a website.

The only issue with hPanel is that it can get slow. Like… annoyingly slow.

One day, you’ll be clicking through it with no problems as everything’s loading at the speed of light. The next day… It will be taking 10s of seconds to load each of the tools. Other than this annoyance (sometimes), I’ve found no issues.

Altogether, hPanel is a good tool to manage your website. It has every functionality needed, and, if you can overlook the speed, there’s no other flaws.

Is it easy to install WordPress?

WordPress installation with Hostinger is very simple. All you need to do is find the WordPress icon (it’ll be the first one) in the Websites > One-Click Installs tool and click on it. At the same time, you might never need to use it – WordPress installation can be done automatically in the initial hosting account setup.

If you skipped the first setup or need a second website, then choose WordPress and the installation window will open.

All you’ll have to do is fill our the form with a username, password, email, and website title.

Hostinger picks the newest version of WordPress and creates a new database by default. You can change these settings if you like. And, once you click on the Install button, your website will be ready in a couple of minutes. 

After installing WordPress, Hostinger also adds a management area for it. You can either use the convenient menu on the left to reach it (WordPress > Dashboard) or go back to the main control panel window.

In this management area, there’s find a bunch of tools for managing your new website:

• Force HTTPs allows you to check whether SSL is active or not and activate it if needed.
• You can also Flush Cache if you made changes to the website and they do not appear.
• Maintenance mode is a useful tool that makes your site inaccessible for other users. It’s great to have it on when you’re building a website.
• Edit Website takes you to WordPress Admin panel.

Other tools allow you to manage WordPress updates, plugins, and backups.

It is a small detail, but definitely makes the user experience way better. So what else is in hPanel?

Can I add an email account with Hostinger?

You surely can have a professional-looking email account with Hostinger. With the Single plan, you get 1 account, while all other plans can host up to 100 mailboxes.

All you need to do is enter the mailbox name, password, and click on Create.

Once done, your new mailbox will appear under the Manage E-mail Accounts tab.

Click on the blue button to reach your actual mailbox.

As you can see, it’s very clean and simple. The mailbox itself is on the basic side but still better than what a lot of other providers are offering for free.

It will work for individual users or small businesses to get their contact form submissions or for contacting partners. 

Mind you, for big email marketing campaigns, you’d be better off with a separate email server. That would guarantee good deliverability.

All in all, Hostinger is easy to use. As you saw, the interface is nice and modern, you can reach all the tools easily, and everything works just fine.

Performance – is Hostinger fast?

I can safely say that Hostinger is an example of how web hosting performance should look like. No matter what you pay for it. This host is stable, fast, and can handle quite some traffic even on cheap plans. 

I did 3 types of tests to see if there’s anything at all that would make this provider flinch.

Hostinger uptime and response time

For an easy first test, I set up a simple uptime monitoring tool and left it running for 2 months. During this time, Hostinger had 0 outages and scored a perfect 100% uptime.

Surely enough, keeping 100% uptime is not possible in the long term. Even for the most expensive providers. There will always be server maintenance involved. So you will see an occasional minute or two of downtime. On the other hand, this shows that Hostinger is very reliable, and there are no server issues.

The tool also tracks response time, which averaged at 511ms. To put it into perspective, a little bit over 600ms is considered average for shared hosting. So Hostinger is above that.

Hostinger speed

For the next test, I compared website loading speeds when tested from different locations. Hostinger nailed this one.

My website is hosted in the US data center, so the best performance can be seen when testing from the US – just 479ms till Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Naturally, the further we go, the longer it takes to load. For visitors from Europe, this website would take around 1.3 seconds to load, while visitors from India would have to wait 1.7 seconds.

Lots of numbers. What do they mean?

Google is taking metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint into the account when ranking pages. The lower the number, the better your score. Keep it under 2.5 seconds and you’re good.

So Hostinger is brilliant here. 479ms, when tested from the US, is one of the best scores I’ve ever gotten. But even when testing from India, we can still pass Google’s test.

What changes if I test a fully built website?

With a fully built website, LCP increases to 849ms. That is still under a second.

While search engines take LCP into consideration, the loading circle only stops spinning when the website is fully loaded. That’s when the user can say ‘Oh that was fast!’ Will they say that if your website is hosted on Hostinger? Sure they will, as there’s almost no further delay – fully loaded time is 936ms.

Now the final and perhaps the most important test. Can Hostinger handle the traffic? 

Hostinger stress testing

I’ve sent 50 visitors to my test website. That is a big number. Imagine there would be 50 visitors on your website every single moment – someone leaves, more join in. That would soon add up to 10s of thousands of monthly visitors.

Hostinger handled the test just fine. 

2 things are crucial in this graph – the blue line that represents server response time and the grey line that shows how many virtual users are on the website. 

As the number of visitors increased, response time remained the same. Hostinger did not slow down apart from a couple of bumps later on. Overall, it stayed as fast as with 1 visitor.

A++, Hostinger passes all of my tests and earns a place among the fastest and most reliable hosting providers. The provider is fast, reliable, and powerful enough to handle considerably big loads of traffic.

What makes Hostinger fast?

For your site to be fast, your host has to be fast. Hostinger is doing quite well in this department so far, taking both simple and advanced performance-boosting measures on its end.

Personally, I find it very interesting how such cheap provider can deliver performance results comparable to much more expensive hosts like SiteGround or A2 Hosting.

So, what exactly is Hostinger doing to be fast?

Battling latency

If the server is far from the visitor, it will take longer to load a website. Just like if you are further from a Wi-Fi router, the connection is weaker. Hostinger tackles this problem by allowing you to choose one of its 7 server locations worldwide – US, UK, Netherlands, Lithuania, Brazil, Singapore, and Indonesia.

So when setting up your hosting account, pick the location that is closest to your audience. 

Keeping tech fresh

Hostinger keeps its tech upgraded – from SSD drives to the latest PHP versions or fast LiteSpeed web servers. Once anything new comes up, Hostinger will follow the best practices. 

• SSD storage is nothing new now. These drives replaced the older and slower HDD ones, and many web hosting providers swiftly made the change. Hostinger was among the first providers to do that.
• Each new PHP version can increase your website speed just a tiny bit. The newest version is PHP 8 and Hostinger has it. You can change the PHP version in the PHP Configuration tool in hPanel.
• LiteSpeed Web Server is a technology that works to boost website speed. It has a built-in caching engine that is pre-configured on every WordPress website. Make sure you have it on in the WP-Admin panel.

WordPress optimization

WordPress websites benefit the most from the latest technology and its optimizations used by Hostinger. In fact, the provider checks all the boxes when it comes to optimizing WordPress:

• The latest PHP version is available.
• Both HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 (Quic) are there.
• IPv6 is enabled.
• Advanced caching is possible.

While most of these things are done automatically, the cache can be turned on and off by you in the WordPress management area.

Also, LiteSpeed comes with a plugin for WordPress. You can use it to set up more advanced website cache and optimization settings. As an additional perk, this plugin also allows compressing images automatically and optimizing website code.

The plugin is already pre-installed on Hostinger’s version of WordPress. So just go in there, set up the cache, compress images, and take advantage of a fast website.

Performance-wise, Hostinger appears to have no weak links. The technology used by the provider is the cause for the great Hostinger performance review results I got.

Is Hostinger secure?

Hostinger has pretty good security measures in place, although they are more on the basic side. The servers are taken care of by security experts while your and your visitors’ data is safe with free SSL. Depending on the plan, you also get weekly or daily backups, and it is possible to set up 2-factor authentication (2FA). 

Shall we get into more details?

• Internal server security – the servers are monitored 24/7, and they are equipped with essential security modules like mod_security and PHP open_basedir. Data centers themselves take care of high redundancy. That is definitely not the weak link. 
• Free SSL – each of Hostinger’s plans comes with a free SSL certificate, and it took me just a few clicks to install it during the initial website setup. This feature encrypts all data that travels from and to your server so no third party can steal it. By the way, it is a Google ranking factor too, so there’s literally no reason not to activate SSL.
• DDoS protection – there are several layers of protection against DDoS attacks. Traffic is analyzed and blocked through Wanguard that generates firewall rules. There are also Bitninja or Imunify360 web application firewalls on each server.
• Daily or weekly website backups – imagine if you could roll back time. For example, one minute your website is functioning fine and the next – there’s some major error. You simply go to the backup manager and roll back the latest version of your site that’s functioning. Time-spinner, no less. Weekly backups are included in all of the plans, while daily backups are provided for the Business plan users.
• 2FA – even if your password gets into the hands of other people, they won’t be able to log in as the password is simply not enough anymore. Alongside your regular password, you’ll need to use a second layer of security – confirmation via code which only you have access to via an app. 

All things considered, Hostinger has security essentials in all of its packages. It might not seem like a lot, but it is definitely enough to protect your website from the most common vulnerabilities.

suppoWill Hostinger support help me?

Like any other self-respecting hosting provider, Hostinger offers a great variety of customer support options. I’m talking about a 24/7 live chat, a ticketing system, email, as well as an extensive knowledge base. However, phone support is not available.

When talking about customer support, several things are crucial:

• Can I reach customer support any time?
• Will they respond fast?
• Do they know how to help me?

TL;DR Hostinger ticks all of the boxes. Most of the time. For more details, let’s continue.

First things first, a pinch of constructive criticism.

Remember 2020 pandemics? When it first hit in spring? Well… Hostinger was not ready. At all. That resulted in the live chat becoming completely unavailable. The only option left was email, and we all know that it can take a while. Even now, chat is functioning well, but wait times are still longer than usual. 

But who could have expected such an explosion for online industries? 

So with the chat on and working now, how was my experience?

Well, I contacted the support several times when writing this Hostinger review. Just to ask for clarifications or guidance. On average, I’d get the first response in around 24 minutes.

That’s quite a long time. Providers like Bluehost or GoDaddy usually respond immediately. So that is a downside, definitely. On the other hand, all interactions were very helpful and professional.

Every agent I talked to was very well trained and answered all my questions with grace. Here, I asked about server location choice.

Not only did the agent provide the full list of data centers and explain why I couldn’t choose some of them, but he also offered to make a transfer! I did not ask for it, but here I have an opportunity. Plus, it’s free. 

So of course I rated the chat as excellent. You know what I would also rate as excellent? The live chat interface itself.

You can always go back to previous chats, send screenshots and gifs, and even leave the chat only to come back and join it again later. That is convenience. A++.

Now, and here is the cherry on top, Hostinger’s customer support agents are not those robotic people who reply as if you’re talking to a very bored chatbot. No sir. They go the extra mile and are incredibly friendly.

The point is that you won’t get those formal answers you’d otherwise expect. You can actually have a pleasant conversation. There are emoticons and gifs involved, for Christ’s sake.

Sure, this is not something that’s necessary. But I find it to be a really nice touch.

Hostinger also has a big knowledge base. And when I say big, I mean, ‘How can they know everything I wanted to ask?’ sort of extensive. But I find that pretty great, especially if you’re a beginner. You’ll find tutorials there too.

Now, do you think I forgot the lack of phone support? Well… Yeah. I did.

With live chat functioning so well (though a little slow), I do not ever see the need to call someone. But that might just be my millennial mind. I never do see the need to call anyone.

All in all, Hostinger’s customer support service is good. The agents are knowledgeable, incredibly friendly, and they do their best to answer your questions. Unfortunately, the wait times can get long, but in the meantime, you get to scroll through a vast and helpful knowledge base. 

Free website migration

Many people don’t know, but Hostinger has always and still is offering free website migration. You’d just need to ask a support agent, and they would migrate your website in a blink. But there is literally no information about that.

Whenever I needed a transfer, I’d just go in and ask a support agent. Usually, the same person would handle it on the spot, so I’d be able to follow them every step of the way. 

So finally I saw some change. Now you can request your free website migration from the dashboard without contacting anyone. 

Still, there’s no info about that anywhere on Hostinger’s website. But if you need it, you’re welcome.

To locate the request for migration, click on your name icon in your account.

To get your website transfered, you’ll need to fill out a form. Hostinger can take care of WordPress, cPanel, FTP, and even other control panel migrations.

The only downside is that you need to provide your hosting account password. On the other hand, you’re migrating anyway and will probably cancel that account soon enough. Just make sure that you don’t use the same password on every account you have. Email, Twitter, and bank account included.

So while Hostinger does not brag about its free website migration, it is there and available for free. If you were afraid to leave your current provider because of the daunting migration, there are no more reasons not to do it.

Hostinger for anonymous and adult hosting

Interestingly, one of the very few providers to be confident enough to allow anonymity and adult hosting is Hostinger. Whether you’re protecting your identity or need an adult website (it’s not just porn, you, dirty-minded reader), this one provider has the means to help you.

So why exactly is Hostinger suitable for anonymous hosting? 

Well, for one thing, it allows you to make payments using cryptocurrencies. Due to their nature, nobody can track them down and see where the money comes from. Your identity is perfectly safe. Hostinger accepts all major cryptocurrencies, and you can choose this method of payment when you check out.

Secondly, when you purchase a plan from Hostinger, you don’t have to go through the account and identity verification. In hopes of preventing fraud, other providers require identity verification. One good example is Bluehost.

So, there you go. You have two good reasons for which Hostinger is excellent for anonymous hosting.

As far as adult content is concerned, Hostinger will accommodate you in this case too. Hostinger is perfectly okay with adult content as long as it is legal and not copyrighted.

I’m not referring here to pornography only, but to gambling, alcohol, and tobacco-related content as well.

Needless to say, if you are interested in anonymous hosting or adult hosting, Hostinger is your guy. Your identity won’t need to be verified, and its servers allow adult-related content.

Hostinger review – the final verdict

For me, this Hostinger review has just confirmed that this web hosting provider has not lost its way. It is still a cheap option that is easy to use. But more importantly, it’s the one that’s both reliable and can be a strong foundation for a fast website.

In a summary, how does everything look? 

Who do I recommend Hostinger to?

Hostinger is the best option for beginner users building their first websites. It’s cheap yet high-quality, not to mention easy to use. At the same time, more expensive options will be great for small businesses – the performance definitely competes with the top dogs of the industry.

Alternatives to Hostinger

Good hosting is the one that fits your website. Hostinger is fast, cheap, and easy to use, but might lack some features or tools you need. In that case, I’ve prepared a shortlist of alternatives. Consider DreamHost, SiteGround, and InterServer if this Hostinger review did not hit the right spot.

DreamHost

DreamHost is a provider that focuses on WordPress hosting. Just like Hostinger, it works with a custom control panel and is rather affordable. Shared hosting starts at $2.59/mo.

The provider includes additional perks such as daily backups, free domain, and domain privacy even in the cheapest plan. So if you are looking for more security, DreamHost is a good alternative.

SiteGround

SiteGround is a premium alternative with a focus on WordPress hosting. While the prices start at a steep $6.99/mo, the provider makes up for it. The biggest perk of all is performance. SiteGround is one of the fastest shared hosting providers I tested.

Additionally, SiteGround’s plans are equipped with custom caching and daily backups. Starting with a mid-range plan, staging environment, custom PHP setup, and team management tool will be included. This makes the provider a great option for business websites.

InterServer

InterServer is a great option for short-term hosting. It’s one of a few providers that offer reasonable month-to-month billing options, starting at $5/mo. Also, you’ll get to use cPanel for hosting management.

The cheapest plan is also very universal. It allows unlimited websites with unlimited storage space. You should take it with a grain of salt, but InterServer should be good for all small-to-medium-sized websites. So if you like cPanel or need month-to-month hosting, InterServer looks great.

Hostinger FAQs