Hostinger Hosting Review: Is it Good for 2023?

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In this Hostinger hosting review, we will assess them based on several key factors: ease of use, pricing, reliability, performance, and customer support. But first, let’s provide a brief overview of the company.

Hostinger is a web hosting company that was founded in 2004 by Arnas Stuopelis, located in Lithuania. Initially, the company was named “Hosting Media” and it started as a free web hosting service provider for users in Lithuania.

In 2007, Hosting Media was rebranded as “000webhost.com” and the company began to expand its services to other countries. Hostinger started offering paid web hosting services with affordable pricing and excellent customer support, which quickly made it popular among users who were looking for reliable hosting solutions at affordable rates.

Following its rapid growth, the company rebranded to “Hostinger” in 2011, which remains its name today. In the following years, the company opened offices in Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Cyprus, and expanded its services to over 170 countries. Additional services such as domain registration, a website builder, and cloud hosting were soon introduced.

Today, Hostinger is one of the leading web hosting companies in the world, providing affordable and reliable hosting solutions to individuals and businesses of all sizes.

Pros & Cons of Hostinger Web Hosting

Ease of Use (4.8/5)

Hostinger web hosting is extremely easy to use. When you are going through the initial setup stages their automatic wizards can take care of hosting, SSL & domain. Follow their on-screen instructions and they take care of the rest.

Let’s now take a look at the Hostinger control panel to see how easy it is to use. Hostinger’s control panel is designed to streamline the user experience, making it accessible even for beginners who may not have technical expertise.

The control panel is decorated with modern icons and is set out in a simple way to make it easy for the user to use. The control panel is simple, yet highly functional. Perfect for beginners.

Hostinger doesn’t use the traditional cPanel that is used widely amongst developers as an industry standard. Unless of course, you opt into a shared hosting package you can use cPanel this way.

Instead, they have created their own hosting control panel called hPanel. This was designed to be easier for the user to use by having all primary functions such as email and domain management all in one area.

Overall, we score Hostinger a solid 4.8/5 for ease of use. Their hPanel interface is beginner friendly but can take some adjusting to if you are used to working within cPanel. Their automatic wizards ensure a seamless setup process, eliminating the need for any technical knowledge on the user’s part.

Pricing & Packages (3.0/5)

With Hostinger, you can embark on your web hosting journey for as low as $1.99 per month for single web hosting, ensuring budget-friendliness and affordability. Opting into one of their premium or business hosting packages comes with an extra 3 months free as well as saving up to 75% off the monthly price.

With heavily slashed promotional prices and extra months included for free, we score Hostinger a 3.0/5 for pricing. While they may not be the absolute cheapest among the hosting providers we have reviewed, the pricing of their packages still offers excellent value for money.

The absence of dedicated hosting disappoints them, especially considering that many of their competitors such as Ionos provide this feature. While it may not be a concern for the majority of individuals, those who desire complete control over their server speed and performance would not find this with Hostinger.

Web Hosting

Hostinger offers three tiers of web hosting packages: single, premium, and business web hosting. For this pricing table, we will show the cost of opting into a 12-month package. In order to benefit from the promotional price of $1.99, you are required to make a commitment for 48 months. For the majority of users, this duration can be considered excessively long, especially if starting a new project.

In our opinion, the premium web hosting package is the top choice. It offers most of the features found in the business package at a significantly lower cost. While the single web hosting package is suitable for personal websites, it lacks many of the features available in the other packages, such as WordPress multisite, staging tool, and WP-CLI. Considering the additional $2 cost after the promotional period ends, the premium package provides far superior value compared to the personal package. In particular, the free domain name for a year is a no-brainer.

Cloud Hosting

Unlike traditional hosting, cloud hosting uses virtualisation which splits a physical server into multiple virtual ones. Essentially, when you choose a cloud hosting package you have your own “virtual” server with your own resources rather than sharing a physical one. If you need top-notch performance all the time, it’s worth investing in a cloud hosting package.

Hostinger’s cloud hosting combines the best features from both shared and VPS hosting into one package. You get a dedicated IP that is not shared with other users on the same network and a lifetime SSL if you opt into a 12-month package. All the backend nitty-gritty stuff is taken care of by Hostinger, making cloud hosting an enticing option for beginners.

Packages include startup, professional and enterprise.

If you’re on a budget, we recommend the startup package. All packages come with every feature available so if can compromise slightly on RAM, storage, and CPU power it provides sufficient capabilities to get the job done effectively.

All cloud hosting packages come with a free domain name for the first year if you sign up for a 12-month contract.

WordPress Hosting

If you’re looking for hosting that is specifically optimised for WordPress websites, Hostinger’s WordPress hosting is the ideal choice. The WordPress hosting packages use LiteSpeed servers and includes the LiteSpeed cache plugin, resulting in enhanced performance that can be up to four times faster than standard hosting.

Packages include: Single WordPress, WordPress Starter, Business WordPress & WordPress Pro.

Hostinger makes the process easy, they offer a 1-click WordPress installer and take care of all the technical backend stuff. Backups are automated and the WordPress staging tool allows you to duplicate your site and make amendments with no risk to the live site.

You get a free domain with all packages except for the Single WordPress package.

Hosting for Professionals

Hosting for professionals is very similar to the WordPress hosting packages. These packages are specifically designed for business owners rather than individuals. Hostinger places emphasis on features like daily backups and dedicated resources, ensuring that organisations, particularly those operating e-commerce stores, have ample resources available to them.

For those running a small online store, the business hosting package offers sufficient resources to meet your needs. However, in terms of value for money, we recommend considering the cloud startup package. With dedicated resources and an IP address of your own, this package provides greater control compared to the business hosting package, which lacks these features.

No matter which package you choose, all come with a free domain for the first year and unlimited SSL.

VPS Hosting

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. Hosting with a VPS is more secure and stable than shared hosting. It’s the most cost-effective solution if you have a website generating mid-range traffic – more traffic than what a shared hosting plan provides but not enough to justify renting an entire server.

Hostinger offers an impressive selection of 8 VPS packages, catering to a diverse range of storage and power requirements, ensuring a perfect match for your individual needs.

When opting for a VPS hosting package, you have the freedom to select from a diverse selection of Linux operating systems. Hostinger provides options such as CentOS, Ubuntu, or Debian, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your familiarity and preferences.

CyberPanel Hosting

CyberPanel hosting is a variant of VPS hosting that utilises the power of OpenLiteSpeed. It offers a range of features, including automated backups, automatic SSL certificate management, an FTP server, PHP management, and numerous other capabilities.

If you favour the CyberPanel control panel, it might be a more suitable choice for you compared to traditional VPS hosting. It offers an effortless setup with a one-click WordPress installation, and its integrated LiteSpeed cache plugin ensures swift loading times for your website.

Reliability & Performance (4.0/5)

In the context of running your entire business operations on your website, reliability and performance become crucial factors. It is imperative to find a provider that consistently delivers smooth and speedy performance, ensuring uninterrupted operations at all times.

Uptime Score

Having a good uptime score is important for retaining visitors and putting more trust into your website. Claiming 100% uptime is impossible. Natural disasters and updates can sometimes be hard to avoid. Achieving uptime as close to 100% as possible should always be a main goal.

Hostinger offers a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%. Generally, they live up to this promise. Looking at their uptime from the past 6 months they deliver 100% uptime for all months except April where their uptime drops to 99%. The total average over the past 6 months falls to just below that 99.9% range at 99.83%.

Although Hostinger experienced a few partial outages towards the end of April, its overall track record demonstrates a consistent delivery of impressive uptime throughout the year. Hostinger scores a 4/5 for reliability.

Speed

Having a fast website is crucial because it creates a positive first impression and helps retain visitors. Slow-loading websites can turn away potential customers before they even get a chance to see your content or offerings. Therefore, picking the right provider that can deliver the right speeds is crucial.

We collected data from one of our other sites and monitored the Hostinger uptime over the course of 8 months.

We collected data from one of our other sites and monitored the Hostinger uptime over the course of 8 months. It’s clear to see for the majority of months our uptime was below 300ms which is excellent. As a general guideline, anything drastically above 300ms can start to become noticeable which is not ideal for the user experience.

From March onwards we were slightly disappointed to see our response times being way above the 400ms mark.

Support (4.5/5)

Having reliable customer support is vital for a hosting provider, as any issues can potentially lead to financial losses, particularly for business owners. The ability to promptly and efficiently address inquiries can significantly impact the decision-making process when selecting a hosting provider.

While phone support is not available, Hostinger has focused its time and resources on enhancing live chat support to ensure more efficient handling of customer queries.

Alternatively, you can view a support page where you can find FAQs and answers to common problems. This support page is filled with informative articles that cover various topics, ranging from initial setup guidance to utilising their hPanel effectively. Whether you need assistance with website building or setting up an email account, the support page is likely to have the answer.

Answers are updated frequently, usually weekly or whenever new or better solutions come available. From experience, we found that the support page alone provides a lot of value meaning you’d very rarely need to access live chat.

Hostinger receives a rating of 4.5/5 for support, taking into consideration the absence of phone support, which may be the preferred contact method for some individuals. While the lack of phone support is a limitation, Hostinger’s availability of 24/7 live chat and email support, as well as a comprehensive support page, contributes to an overall strong support score.

Summary: Hostinger Hosting Review (4.1/5)

Hostinger is a provider that we definitely recommend. They offer fast hosting solutions as well as having reliable uptime which is ever so important when maintaining a website. They may not offer the cheapest solutions, but their introductory offers are competitive and there is a vast range of packages available to suit your needs.

If you’re not too worried about the lack of phone support then their live chat support is usually a quick and efficient way of sorting out your problems. Staff are knowledgable, helpful and put a lot of effort into dealing with your queries.

Visit our resources page to see how other hosting providers compare to Hostinger.