Hostinger is a great choice for beginners and intermediate users because they offer a variety of plans at affordable prices. However, it is not ideal for big companies because it does not offer dedicated hosting.
Hostinger Pros and Cons
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Hostinger is a well-known web hosting provider that offers affordable plans with lots of features. These plans are suitable for home users, small businesses, and medium-sized businesses.
In this review, we will discuss the thorough research we conducted on Hostinger. We created a test site and examined the user-friendly custom control panel. We also tested the support, monitored the speed and uptime, and compared our findings with the top competitors.
We discovered a well-designed service that has great reliability. It is user-friendly, making it suitable for beginners. However, it also offers advanced features and flexibility to satisfy experienced users. Hostinger may not be the best choice for big corporations and demanding applications because they do not offer dedicated hosting and phone support. However, this depends on your specific needs and goals.
In the next section, we will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Hostinger. This will help you determine if Hostinger is the right web host for you.
What Are the Key Features of Hostinger?
| Free SSL | Yes |
| Free domain | Yes |
| 24/7 customer support | Yes |
| Performance grade | A |
| 1-click WordPress | Yes |
| Free email | Yes |
| Money back guarantee | 30 days |
Hostinger Pros
Excellent Uptime
Having a reliable web host is crucial for a high-quality website. If your website is frequently unavailable, even if a provider offers many additional features, most of your visitors will leave.
To evaluate Hostinger’s performance, we created a test WordPress website and monitored its speed and downtime using Uptime.com from various locations worldwide.
Even though our website was hosted on Hostinger’s basic shared hosting plan, it had a perfect uptime of 100% during the 10 weeks we monitored it.
If your website doesn’t perform well, Hostinger provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, it’s important to note that this guarantee may not be as impressive as it initially sounds. The company has many exclusions. Even if they make a big mistake, they will only refund you a small 5% of your hosting fee.
Fast load
To measure website load speeds, we use GTmetrix. It accesses a test page and tells us how long it takes for the main content to load, which is called Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). A low LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) means that your website loads faster, which makes visitors happy because they can see the content on the screen sooner.
Hostinger performed well with a fast Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) time of 0.607 seconds. This was the second fastest result out of the last 15 tests, with HostGator being slightly faster.
It is important to check the speed of a website for one-time loads. However, it is also valuable to assess its performance during periods of high traffic. We use a stress-testing service called k6 to test our site. We unleash 20 virtual users and observe the results.
According to Hostinger’s results, it was able to handle 15 requests per second during the test. This is similar to what other providers offer, but it works well for shared hosting. If you choose a more powerful shared or VPS plan, you can handle even more visitors.
Low Price
Hostinger offers affordable hosting plans starting at $1.99 per month for their Single shared hosting plan, which lasts for four years. After that, the renewal price is still reasonable at $3.99.
Don’t want to commit to a long-term sign-up? If you switch to the annual plan, it will only cost you $2.99 per month ($5.99 when it’s time to renew).
Most Hostinger plans are the same. The Business WordPress plan is great for hosting up to 100 sites. It provides plenty of resources and includes daily backups. The plan starts at $3.99 per month for four years ($8.99 when you renew), or $4.99 per month on the annual plan (renewing at $11.99).
Quality Custom Control Panel
Hostinger does not provide cPanel, which is a user-friendly server and site management platform, to its shared hosting users. Instead, they use their own custom platform called hPanel. We are often cautious about custom control panels because many of them are very weak. However, hPanel is a rare exception to this.
The interface is similar to cPanel. It has a sidebar that displays server details like location and IP address. There are colorful icons that represent different features organized into categories such as Domains, Emails, Files, WordPress, and more.
Even beginners can access most functions. Making an email address is simple. Just enter the address and a password. If you need them, you can easily access advanced features like importing existing emails or setting up SPF and DKIM records. These features help authenticate emails and protect against phishing attacks, and they are just a click or two away.
Hosting experts may not find custom control panels to be beneficial. Despite their experience with cPanel, they are still required to navigate through menus and options like any other user.
In general, hPanel is a great option because it combines power and user-friendliness. The platform has all the necessary features to help you quickly launch your website.
Lots of Features
Hostinger offers affordable plans that are packed with numerous features. These features often come at an additional cost with other providers.
The Business plan from Hostinger starts at just $3.99 per month. It comes with ultra-fast NVMe storage, free website migration, daily backups, malware scanning, unlimited free SSL, and the ability to host up to 100 sites. If you decide next year that you want a web store, it’s not a problem. The platform has built-in support for e-commerce. You can sell up to 500 items and offer up to 20 payment options. The best part is that there are no transaction fees.
If you have experience with hosting or if you are building a business website and know exactly what you need, then this may not be very important.
If you’re new to hosting and unsure about the future of your website, Hostinger plans are flexible and suitable for beginners.
Hostinger Cons
Every web hosting service has its flaws, and here are the main concerns we have about Hostinger.
Not Powerful Enough for Demanding Websites
Hostinger provides various plans for shared, cloud, and VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting. However, all of these plans involve sharing your web server’s resources with other Hostinger customers. There is no option for dedicated hosting, where you can rent a whole server exclusively for yourself.
Smaller projects may not encounter this issue. If you want to create a basic personal or business website with a WordPress blog, even the most affordable Hostinger plan will be sufficient to handle hundreds of visitors per day. However, if you expect a much higher volume of traffic, the top VPS plans offered by Hostinger can handle many thousands of visitors.
Limited Features With Cheap Hosting Plans
Hostinger offers affordable costs, however the basic plans include some catch.
For instance, the lowest Single shared hosting plan has no free domain. Compare pricing with various suppliers keeping that in mind.
The Single plan allows one email account. For a personal site, ‘me@mydomain’ may be enough, but family or commercial sites may not.
Low-end plans only offer weekly automated backups. We’re delighted to see some backups (many providers charge extra), however if you alter the site often, this is an issue.
Hostinger isn’t aiming to trick anyone; just the reverse. Scroll down each product page to see a detailed comparison table of what each plan includes and excludes.
No Telephone Support
Unlike other top hosting providers, Hostinger doesn’t offer phone support.
If a business-critical site is down or misbehaving and every second counts, it might be an issue. Phone conversations are unmatched for sharing views with an expert, clarifying the problem, and getting solid advice in seconds.
Fortunately, Hostinger has 24/7 live chat, where we usually speak to an agent within minutes.
For complicated issues requiring log data or screenshots, email and ticket help are better, although even these get responses within an hour.
How Easy is Hostinger to Use?
Hostinger does not provide cPanel, which is a user-friendly server and site management platform, to its shared hosting users. Instead, they use their own custom platform called hPanel. We are often cautious about custom control panels because many of them are very weak. However, hPanel is a rare exception to this.
The interface is similar to cPanel. It has a sidebar that shows server details like location and IP address. The features are represented by colorful icons and are grouped into categories with sensible names such as Domains, Emails, Files, and WordPress.
Even beginners can access most functions. To create an email address, you only need to provide your desired address and a password. A sidebar offers additional tools that are more advanced. These tools include importing existing emails and setting up SPF and DKIM records. These records help authenticate emails and protect against phishing. Setting them up is quick and easy, requiring just a few clicks.
Hosting experts may not find custom control panels to be beneficial. Despite their experience with cPanel, they are still required to navigate through menus and options like any other user.
In general, hPanel is a great option because it combines power and user-friendliness. The platform has everything you need to quickly launch your website.
How Fast is Hostinger?
Hostinger’s speed can vary depending on several factors, including:
Hosting plan: Shared hosting plans are typically slower than VPS or dedicated hosting plans.
Server location: The closer the server is to your target audience, the faster your website will load for them.
Website optimization: Your website’s code, images, and plugins can all impact its speed.
Here’s a summary of what users and reviewers have reported about Hostinger’s speed:
Positive:
- Independent speed tests: Several independent speed tests have shown Hostinger to be relatively fast, with average loading times below 2 seconds.
- User reviews: Many users report good website loading speeds with Hostinger, especially on higher-tier plans.
- SSD storage: Most Hostinger plans use SSD storage, which is much faster than traditional hard drives.
Negative:
Shared hosting limitations: Shared hosting plans can experience slower speeds during peak traffic times.
Overselling: Some users have reported issues with overselling on shared hosting plans, which can lead to performance problems.
Distance to server: Users located far from Hostinger’s servers may experience slower loading times.
Does Hostinger Offer a Website Builder?
If you don’t have a website yet and find WordPress intimidating, using a website builder can be the simplest way to begin. Usually, they will provide a collection of ready-made website designs that you can use to begin building your website. You can easily add pictures, videos, maps, and other page elements by simply dragging and dropping them. Customizing the content with your own text and photos is just like using any editor.
Hostinger offers a website builder that comes with unlimited traffic, free SSL certificates, web hosting, support for up to 100 websites, a free domain, free email, ecommerce features, and more.
We found the tool to be easy to use and understand, so we could start using it immediately. You don’t have to spend a lot of time going through long lists of features, comparing different plans, or worrying about what you can afford. Simply provide your email address to create an account, and you can start building immediately.
The editor is simple, but the online shop’s WYSIWYG editor will provide you with tools to create detailed descriptions with HTML titles.
The Hostinger website builder is priced at $2.79 per month. It is a good option for personal use and small websites. The power available here is insufficient for business applications. Additionally, even if your website becomes successful, there is no way to upgrade and handle the increased demand.
Types of Plans Offered by Hostinger
Hostinger offers a variety of hosting plans to suit different needs and budgets. Here’s a breakdown of their key offerings:
Web Hosting:
Shared Hosting: Starts at $1.99/month, best for small websites and blogs. Includes 1 website, 10 GB storage, 100 GB bandwidth, free SSL certificate, free domain (for select plans).
Cloud Hosting: Starts at $8.99/month, great for medium-sized websites and online stores. Offers multiple resources like CPU, RAM, and storage that can be scaled up or down as needed.
WordPress Hosting: Starts at $1.99/month, optimized for WordPress websites. Includes automatic WordPress installation, managed updates, website security, and caching.
Other Services:
VPS Hosting: Starts at $5.99/month, provides a virtual server with dedicated resources for better performance and control.
Minecraft Hosting: Starts at $7.95/month, optimized for hosting Minecraft servers.
Email Hosting: Starts at $0.99/month, lets you create professional email addresses with your domain name.
Domains: Register your own domain name for your website. Prices start at $0.99/year.
Is Hostinger Right for You?
Hostinger is a great option for personal and small to medium business websites because it offers reliable, feature-packed plans at a low cost. If you have a website with very high traffic, dedicated hosting may not be the best option. However, don’t completely disregard it. Hostinger offers high-end VPS plans that can potentially handle hundreds of thousands of visitors per month.
