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TL;DR:

Introduction

Founded in 2004, Hostinger is a relative newcomer to the hosting game. However, don’t let that scare you – they offer some really competitively-priced hosting plans. Based out of Lithuania, they currently boast over 29 million ‘users’ and have data centers in Brazil, USA, UK, Singapore, Netherlands, Indonesia, and (of course) Lithuania.

Hoatinger position themselves as a premium service without the high-end price tag, offer shared hosting, VPS, cloud hosting, windows VPS, and e-mail hosting services. Although this may sound good on the surface, a few mixed reviews cast a cloud of doubt upon how good they actually are – more on this later.

In our opinion, Hostiger would suit those who need a cheap locale to host some of their web projects and is better suited to users who don’t need to rely heavily on technical support. Therefore, Hostinger is likely best suited for more technically-savvy users or people who can get by without speedy support.

Shared Hosting

Keep in mind that if you want to get these promotional and listed renewal rates you’ll have to opt for their 3-year plan pricing, otherwise things start to get expensive quickly.

Here are the prices for the “Premium” plan on all the different contract terms:

Features and What’s Included

Hostinger doesn’t skimp out on features, and overall offer a pretty beefy package of features.

Each list is for the respective plans: Single, Premium, Business

Furthermore, all plans include:

• e-mail
• SSL
• Managed WP
• 30 Days money back guarantee
• GIT access
  • Create repositories of websites for easier management and deployment
• Cloudflare protected nameservers
• 24/7 customer support
• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• Access manager
  • allow others to collaborate on your projects or website(s) by granting them access with controls for admin privileges or sub admin privileges.

Opinion

Overall what’s on offer at first glance looks pretty good. The packages offer a lot of the industry-standard stuff like SSD storage, SSL certificates, 24/7 support, and “managed WordPress”. The prices are also extremely reasonable, but the low price points come at a cost. Ultimately, for its price point Hostinger might fit the bill for those looking to host “hobby” websites, portfolios or something that isn’t business related.

WordPress and eCommerce Hosting

Seemingly every host these days is offering a WordPress hosting package, optimized to work well with WordPress-based sites. Hostinger also offers an eCommerce package which is geared towards helping you get a store set up and going quickly and painlessly.

WordPress Hosting

Hostinger WordPress hosting is specifically designed for better speed, security, and ease-of-use with WordPress. Here are some of the key features on offer:

• Auto-updates
  • Core WP updates, plugin updates done automatically
• JetPack Free and Personal (depending on plan)
• WordPress Multisite
  • Manage all your websites from the same WordPress installation, on a single dashboard
• Command Line installation (for developers)
• CDN network
• Weekly or daily back ups (weekly for lower tier plans)

Opinion

Frankly, the prices are hard to beat. If you go for the WP “Starter” package you’ll only pay about $143.50 for 3 years of hosting, and if you do decide to renew for an additional 3 years you’ll be paying $383.50, which is exceptionally competitive. The features like SSD storage, auto updates, and back ups are what you’d expect from any hosting company these days. However, one thing that sets these WP packages apart from others is the amount of websites you’re allowed to host. Generally WP hosting plans restrict you to 1 domain, but Hostinger allows up to 300 websites!

All in all, Hostinger offers a great package at a very reasonable rate.

eCommerce Hosting

Hostinger has their own proprietary system for eCommerece called “Zyro” which is essentially a website builder, management system, and integrated marketing platform.

Zyro’s dashboard allows you to manage your web-store, marketing campaigns, inventory, and payment options from a single convenient dashboard.

Zyro offers convenient payment option integrations such as credit card and PayPal. Furthermore, Zyro will help calculate your shipping rates and help you find the best rates available.

Plans and Pricing

Renewal rates on the eCommerce plans are a bit trickier. The price for the 3 year plan isn’t listed, implying that there is no renewal rate. However, that may be subject to change at anytime. If you opt for the 1 year plan on the eCommerce plan you’ll be subject to higher renewal rates.

Features

Zyro is a user friendly drag and drop web site builder, designed to be a no hassle approach to getting a eCommerce store up and running. It offers loads of templates and has a built in AI system which helps do some of the heavy lifting for you. All in all, if you need a very basic web store Zyro might fit the bill, but those looking for “advanced “customization, flexibility and control over their website should consider other options.

There are over 70 free templates to choose from. They look great, and are responsive on mobile devices as well.

However, despite their pleasing appearance Hostinger’s templates lack extensive customization options. For example, changing fonts isn’t as straightforward as it should be. Moreover, once you select a template you have to stick with it – no changing at a later date.

Additional Features:

• AI Tools
  • Heat Map (see how users are using your website)
  • Fill text for you ( the AI will gather text relevant to your store and write content for your website)
• Third Party Integrations: from major services like google and facebook
  • Facebook
  • HotJar
  • Google Ads
  • Pixels

Opinion

Zyro is an easy to use eCommerce tool which can help nearly anyone get an online store up and running in no time, be they absolute beginners or tech whiz-kids. Zyro really shines when it comes to ease of use – there is virtually no learning curve.

Zyro also comes with a nice suite of business tools. From logo creation tools, slogan generator, and business e-mail, Zyro packs just about everything to help get you on your way.

The pricing is also pretty good, starting at $8.99/mo. It’s not easy to find a better deal in terms of a complete package for getting a web store up and running.

What are People Saying?

Zyro has been generally well received by its users. Many users like it’s ease of use, and overall are impressed with the platform.

What are the downsides, then? Well the support is extremely lacking. In-fact, the support is so bad that it’s basically non-existent, despite the company claiming 24/7/365 support availability. Although it’s unlikely most users will encounter issues, you’re essentially on your own if you do.

VPS Hosting

Hostinger offers 6 different VPS options ranging from the small, simple and cheap to the more robust.

Keep in mind that to lock in their best prices you’ll have to opt for the 3 year plan.

Here are the prices for different term lengths for the VPS 2 package.

Features

The VPS features are what you’d expect, with offerings like SSD storage, root access, a 30 day money back guarantee, choice of operating system (centOS, Ubuntu, Debian, etc), and much more.

Their VPS services are “semi-managed”, meaning that for the most part, you’ll have to do most of the systems administration yourself. They will assist you with using the control panel and “issues related to the backend” of the server.

They also offer Windows based VPS hosting packages if you prefer to use that operating system over a Linux based platform. The Windows VPS packages come with the same features as the Linux ones but are geared towards users who plant to use .NET and .ASP type languages/programs.

Opinion

With lots of different configuration options, choice of operating systems and software, Hostinger VPS may seem like a good choice for those looking for lots of options and the ability to scale their server needs as demands change.

Nevertheless, Hostinger does not use cPanel on the VPS plans which could make use of the backend a bit frustrating (Hostinger does offer a specific cPanel plan, but it’s not a VPS plan). Moreover, their “semi-managed” VPS support may be an issue for some. For those who are less tech savvy, you may want to consider other options that offer full management or more comprehensive management packages.

Cloud Hosting

Hostinger offers cloud hosting if you require more robust hosting, or prefer using a cloud-type hosting. Their cloud services offer dedicated resources, virtually no downtime, easy to manage control panels, and are fully managed by the Hositinger support staff.

Plans and Pricing

What’s Included:

• Free website migration
• Managed WordPress
• Dedicated IP
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Daily Backups
• Email
• Choice of data center
• Custom Control Panel

Features

Hostinger employs a custom control panel which makes managing the back end of your websites easier and more intuitive.

Furthermore, unlike shared hosting you will have dedicated resources just for you, which will increase uptime, speed and overall reliability of your web services.

Hostinger uses cloudlinux with LVE containers. Each account gets a dedicated container and is served from there. Each container has resource boundaries to make sure the host stays healthy at all times (even if, one of the accounts is under a DDoS attack). In case the host needs to be put down, the account with its container can be easily migrated to a different host, to avoid unnecessary downtime.

Hostinger

Opinion

The basic package for the cloud hosting is good value for money, as many other companies are offering cloud hosting at price points far above what Hostinger is offering.

The Managed WP, daily backups, CDN network, dedicated IP, and SSD storage add a lot of great value.

Nevertheless, some users may want root access or ability to run specific scripts or applications which isn’t an option with their cloud hosting as it’s fully managed.

Minecraft and cPanel Hosting

Hostinger offers two “boutique” hosting options; they offer special hosting for playing Minecraft as well as cPanel hosting. So if you’re a gamer or just looking to use cPanel, they’ve got plenty of options for you.

Plans and Pricing

Plans start at $8.95/mo and range up to $29.95/mo for the highest tier package on a 3 year commitment. If you want to go for a shorter term you’ll have to fork over some extra cash.

Plans Include:

• Modpacks and plugins
  • Root access allows you to install mods
• DDos protection
• Automatic backups
• SSD storage
• Custom control panel for easy management of your server
• Choice of data center location

cPanel Hosting

If you’re a developer or just someone who prefers using cPanel, you can opt for their cPanel hosting option. They’ve only got two options, but the higher tier package is surprisingly adequate.

Plans and Pricing

Once again Hostinger boasts some impressive prices on their cPanel offerings

Opinion

These plans are pretty awesome for the price. If you opt for the gold plan you’re only paying $156 dollars for 3 years of hosting, which is an exceptionally good deal. The automatic backups, SSL certificates, website builder, and “unlimited” disk space really add great value for what you’re paying for. Overall, if you need a cheap web hosting package that has the tools for developers this might be a good choice for you.

Controversy, Fake Reviews, Customer Support, and Things to be Aware of

We’re not here to bash on anyone or put their business down, just to deliver our readers honest, useful, and helpful reviews. We could have glossed over what we’re about to say here, but we feel that our readers deserve as much information as we know to make informed choices.

Contraversy and Fake Reviews

It’s well know that Hostinger has been involved in some less-than-stellar incidents throughout its short history. Back in 2019, Hostinger was the victim of a hacking which lead to a data breach of more than 14 million customers. Beyond that they practice less-than-ethical business practices, including the use of fake reviews and manipulating people to buy their services.

Hostinger has also been caught red-handed manipulating Facebook polls to make them appear more positive towards their company. They basically use all their employees to talk themselves up in polls and other social media posts. Since being called out on this by ReviewSignal, they’ve managed to keep the scam going with fake Facebook profiles and accounts that are “seemingly” unassociated with their company.

Hostinger is also known to post fake TrustPilot reviews, using their own employees or paid agents to post extremely positive-looking reviews. If you take a look at their TrustPilot, you can seen a lot of positive reviews, but don’t be fooled – many of them are fake, written up by Hostsinger’s own employees.

Sentiment on Social Media

Meanwhile views on social media are noticeably less positive. Reviews on Reddit, for example, are a stark contrast with the glowing reviews on TrustPilot:

Support isn’t 24/7/365

Many users complain of extremely long wait times when trying to contact support, sometimes taking days or more to get a response. Whilst it’s true that we’re cherry picking some reviews that exemplify this, go look for yourself – there is plenty of evidence out there to support the view that Hostinger’s support is less than stellar.

To be fair, many companies are scrambling to deal with the pressure that has come from the ongoing global pandemic. Hostinger used to have an online chat support system, which has recently been removed. They claim they are working diligently to reinstate chat support and improve their customer wait times. We’ll update in a few months and see if they’ve followed through on their word (Jan 2021).

Take it all with a grain of salt

Some users, reviewers, and social media participants may be a bit jaded, and for this reason we’re taking both the good and bad sentiment with a grain of salt. Many real users find utility in their services, and if you’re in a similar position you may find them to be a good fit for your needs as well.

For example one Redditor says:

This comment is a bit old (from 3 years ago), but it really sums up our views about Hostinger – not terrible nor amazing. A good place for developers or others to work on “non-serious” projects or a cheap place to “throw multiple sites”.

The Bottom Line

Hostinger at first glance may dazzle you with their impressive landing page, strong reviews, and extremely affordable pricing. In fact, their promo-pricing is some of the best you’ll find on the market. But be aware that their renewal rates in many instances are nearly double.

Many may be put off by their somewhat underhanded business practices that we’ve talked about, and we can understand that. But we’re taking the middle ground here and saying that a company of their size may offer some great utility to a specific set of people.

Who are those people ?

We think their eCommerce platform is one of the better products they offer. It’s powered by Zyro, a drag and drop web page builder, and is a viable option for anyone looking to start an online store quickly without any technical knowledge. It’s fairly cost friendly, and is super easy to use – allowing nearly anyone to get a web store set up in no time.

We think Hostinger is good for individuals who are either developers or are comfortable trouble shooting their own issues and need a place to host a multitude of sites for rock bottom prices.

We do not recommend Hostinger for beginners or people who need fast and comprehensive technical support.

All in all, Hostinger may offer something for you, but it’s not for everyone.