Introduction
If you are someone new testing waters in launching your own website or if you are someone well experienced and fed up with other expensive web hosting providers Hostinger might be the right fit for you. Hostinger has been one of the world’s biggest companies offering highly affordable plans and quality web services to its customers for several years now.
In this article, we will discuss the most attractive features of hostinger, performance, plans, pricing, benefits, pros and cons of buying a hostinger plan. This detailed review will help you make an informed decision before going ahead with your purchase.
About Hostinger:
15 years ago when Hostinger International Ltd was officially founded, nobody would have imagined the world’s advancement on the web. The company started out as a free service offering plans like web hosting and shared hosting, has now expanded as the world’s best organization with cloud hosting, VPS, email, Minecraft hosting, WordPress hosting and many more services becoming one of the first hosting providers across several countries that offers tier-4 data centers.
Hostinger Features Overview:
You will be pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming features offered by Hostinger with their minimalistic and cost effective plans to help boost your site’s speed and performance. The main goal of a web hosting platform is to provide optimal speed, security and bandwidth for the user to easily host their websites without much of a hassle. Hostinger provides all such features well within the budget.
Some of the most attractive features:
- Storage: The basic plan on Hostinger offers 50GB SSD Storage while the advanced plan offers 200GB SSD Storage which is massive by all means to handle the traffic on your website.
- Backup: All plans offer weekly or daily backups based on your requirements and usage
- Uptime: Hostinger boasts of up to 99.99% uptime per month
- Security: All plans provide unlimited free SSL and Cloudflare Protected nameservers
- Domain: The premium and advanced plans offer free domains that you can utilize for your websites
- Bandwidth: The basic web hosting plan offers 100GB of Bandwidth while the other plans offer unlimited bandwidth for you to handle the traffic on your website
- Support: This is the best part of Hostinger. They offer a 30 days money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with your plans. 24/7 customer support is also offered for your convenience.
Additional features like DNS Management, Access Manager, Subdomains, FTP Account and Cron jobs are also provided based on the plan that the customer chooses from.
Performance:
When it comes to the performance, we should mainly talk about the turn around speed and Server Response Times. To attract traffic to your websites it’s very important to have a super-fast load time to keep the user locked on your page for a significant amount of time. In this time and age of high speed internet, people will not keep waiting for the website to load. Hostinger claims an average of 470 milliseconds of server response time which is all you could ask for. Here in this article we will discuss about LSWS(LiteSpeed Web Servers) and Hostinger’s in-build cache manager in depth.
- LiteSpeed Web Servers(LSWS):
Contrary to the generic servers like Apache web server, Hostinger uses LiteSpeed web servers(LSWS) to deploy the custom hosting panel which helps with a better all round performance and reduces the load time massively. The LiteSpeed web servers are kept in several countries like Europe (France, the Netherlands, Lithuania, the United Kingdom), Asia (Singapore, India), North America (the USA) and South America (Brazil) and they hold copies of the web pages via cache which makes your website’s performance smoother than ever. You can select your datacenter while setting up your order to choose the server. You can also change your server using the server transfer tool after your account is activated to migrate your web hosting to your location.
You can use some speed test tools such as GTMetrix where you can test the speed of your website and observe the performance, structure, LCP, TBT and CLS metrics and web vitals. With Hostinger you can expect more than 40% improvement in your website’s usual load time. When we tested our test website supported by Hostinger server on GTMetrix we could see a usual load time of around 0.7 seconds which is at least 50 times faster than other typical servers. Please check the below link for more information:
- Hostinger’s in-build cache manager:
Hostinger offers an additional service called Cloudflare (CDN) which is a content delivery network. This helps you increase your website’s server response speed by creating copies of your website on their servers that are situated across the world. All you have to do is create an account with Cloudflare with your domain, choose a plan that is suitable to your needs and link it to your Hostinger account.
Hostinger’s hPanel Cache Manager helps you to improve your website’s speed and gives you an opportunity to manage this within your website tools. This can be in the form of a plugin in case of WordPress sites or with the help of a CDN.
Domains, Web Hosting Plans and Pricing:
- Domains:
Hostinger is one of the best and cost saving companies offering Domains at an extremely affordable price point and you can buy them within minutes. Starting at as cheap as $0.99 for the domains like .online, .store and .tech the maximum price is for .com at $9.99 which is also comparatively inexpensive.
- Web Hosting and Pricing:
Hostinger is currently offering four types of plans. The most basic plan starts at just $1.99 per month, the second plan costs $2.99 per month and the third plan costs $3.99 per month. All the four plans have minimal differences in the features that are offered.
Free Plan: This is the basic trial plan that you can utilize to test waters at Hostinger. If you like this, you can go ahead with the paid plans.
Single Web Hosting:
This is the most basic plan which is ideal for beginners and costs as cheap as $1.99 per month. With this plan you can host one website, get up to 50GB SSD storage, up to 10,000 visits monthly, one email account, 100GB Bandwidth and two databases. This plan also offers some additional WordPress Options like Acceleration and management. This plan has 30 Days Money back guarantee, 24/7 customer care support and up to 99.9% Uptime Guarantee offered by Hostinger.
Premium Web Hosting:
This is the second best plan offered by Hostinger that they say is perfect for personal websites. Offered at $2.99 per month and with additional offers like 3 months free applied, this is literally the steal deal for website owners. You can host up to 100 Websites with a massive 100 GB SSD Storage and a guaranteed 25k visits monthly. All other features are similar to the Basic plan but just much better and bigger.
Business Web Hosting:
If you are a Business owner and you are looking at massive data flow within your website, this is the best plan for you. The third and most pricy plan of Hostinger costs around $3.99 per month and has an additional 3 months free just like the premium plan. This plan differs with respect to Storage, visits, bandwidth and some additional features.
Cloud Hosting:
Starting at $9.99 per month, this plan offers scalable resources, automatic backups and 24/7 customer support. Cloud Hosting is mainly for websites that have super heavy traffic.
*The above mentioned prices are first time offers. All the above plans cost a bit more when you renew.
Security:
Hostinger may be offering cheaper services but does not compromise with the security of your websites. The company offers a comprehensive suite of security services and has taken measures to ensure that the clients get what they expect. Often sites are vulnerable to malware and DDoS attacks online and 90% of these attacks can be easily managed with Hostinger ensuring that the connection between your website and the user’s device is safe and secure by adding the free SSL Certificate offered by Hostinger.
With every plan of Hostinger web hosting, you get free SSL Certificate, PatchStack Security, intrusion detection systems, end to end encryption, Cloudflare Web Application DNS Firewall which is managed internally and an automatic Malware Scanner that is periodically running in the background. Regular weekly/daily backups ensure that your data is up to date and secure. Most of these tools are free on Hostinger if you commit to at least one full year of service.
You can also configure agents such as BitNinja Server Security that can be within your infrastructure and send information about any attacks encountered to a central cloud server like Hostinger. You can of course set up two-factor authentication which you can make mandatory for all your websites before logging in. This is the best Security suite that you can get and is much more that’s being offered than you are paying for.
Backup and Restore:
The backup and restore service offered by Hostinger is a vital part of the company’s commitment to ensuring the safety and security of its clients’ data. This service enables Hostinger clients to create backups of their websites, databases, and email accounts. The backups are stored in a secure, off-site location and can be easily retrieved in the event of a data loss. This helps to ensure that clients can quickly restore their websites to a previous state if necessary, without having to worry about the loss of critical data.
One of the key features of Hostinger’s backup and restore service is its ease of use. The service is accessible directly from the Hostinger control panel, and clients can easily create, manage, and restore backups from this interface. In addition to its ease of use, Hostinger’s backup and restore service is also highly reliable. The service uses advanced data backup and restore technologies to ensure that clients’ data is stored securely and can be easily retrieved if necessary.
The service is also fully automated, which means that backups are created regularly and automatically, without the need for manual intervention. This helps to ensure that clients’ data is always up-to-date and protected against potential data loss. Another important aspect of Hostinger’s backup and restore service is its affordability. The company offers its clients a variety of pricing plans, each of which is designed to meet the specific needs of different types of users. This means that clients can choose a plan that best suits their budget, without having to compromise on the quality or reliability of their backup solution.
Additional Hostinger Features:
Let’s now discuss some more Hostinger features in detail:
- Account Sharing Tool:
There are some additional features that Hostinger offers that you can check to gauge if this is the right fit for you. One of those features is the Account Sharing tool. This tool can be used to request access to an existing user’s account without any credentials to be shared. This is the most useful tool for developers who want to write some code for their website but do not own the Hostinger service.
All you have to do is provide the email address of the account that is requesting the access and give an access level. With the help of these access levels you can choose to Manage services or manage and make purchases using a stored payment method. This can get tricky so be very careful while utilizing this tool to make sure the service is not in the wrong hands.
- Professional Business Email: Email Hosting
You can utilize this feature for authenticity and credibility to your brand. You can purchase an email hosting plan on Hostinger with a minimalistic and affordable plan and configure your email hosting, set up your DNS settings and sync your email to all other devices. This is best for business users who have a huge customer base and deal with tickets and issues.
- Website-Builder:
This plan can be used to create a website from scratch and Hostinger provides a monthly plan that offers a Free Domain, Free email, ecommerce features, marketing integration and 24/7 customer support. This is the best option for beginners who want to establish a website of their own and are looking for all the tools to develop it from scratch. You can also use tools like Zyro Website Builder and link it to your Hostinger account at a minimal price and use it to build your website.
- Migrate to Hostinger for Free:
This is probably the best feature offered by Hostinger. If you are not satisfied with your current web host server and looking to migrate it to a better service, use Hostinger’s free website migration irrespective of the number of websites you own. Hostinger offers unlimited website migration for free. All you have to do is choose a plan, request for a migration and you are done. You just have to pay for the web hosting plan that you choose.
- Staging in Hostinger:
Hostinger offers staging via WordPress where you can modify your website without any risk of crashing or messing up the functionality. This gives a risk free environment, early prevention of errors with the help of debug options and many more. The only downside of this is that this process is time consuming and you may have to bear additional costs.
Pros and Cons of Hostinger:
Here is a detailed overview of the pros and cons of Hostinger web hosting service so that you can make an informed decision before buying one of their plans.
- Pros:
1. Affordable Pricing: This is the best part of Hostinger as they are probably the most affordable web hosting service out there with great options for small businesses and individual users.
2. User friendly functionality: The control panel provided is very user friendly and makes it very easy for the customers to manage their websites and hosting accounts.
3. Great Uptime: Hostinger boasts of a great uptime like no other service and the customer engagement is amazing.
- Cons:
1. Customer support: Most of the issues are directed to articles or documents to refer from before getting hold of a real customer care executive to talk to. This can be tiring sometimes.
2. Add-ons: Though the hosting plans have a lot of things covered and are pretty much enough for you to go ahead, there can be a few add-ons that you may have to purchase like website building tools and plans like email hosting individually.
Some Common Questions about Hostinger:
- Which is the best Hostinger plan?
The best Hostinger web service plan totally depends on your personal needs and budget. If you are a beginner starting out and looking to start a website the Single Web Hosting plan may be enough for you. If you are running a small business with some customer base and data the Business Web Hosting plan may be the best option. If you are going to face a lot of traffic with a growing business and you require multiple resources you may go for the Cloud Hosting Plan. The most popular is however the Premium Hosting Plan which is the best of the both worlds offering adequate features and storage for you to make it big to increase your storage space, traffic and resources.
- Why is Hostinger So Cheap?
So many features at such affordable price points. Hostinger makes this possible because they offer shared hosting services through which multiple users are hosted on the same server. This allows the company to spread the cost of hardware, support and maintenance across customers leading to a much lower cost for a generic customer. The company operates on low margins and provides the services at a low price making it an attractive option for small businesses to host their websites.
- What are the best Alternatives to Hostinger?
Some of the best alternatives for Hostinger could be Bluehost, SiteGround, GoDaddy, A2 Hosting, InMotion Hosting, DreamHost and many more which offer similar features. Things that makes Hostinger different from others are their affordable price points, variety that makes it feasible for the customer to choose a tailor made plan for their needs.
Payment Methods:
Hostinger offers a variety of payment methods that completely depend on the country you are buying from. Most common payment methods are via Credit/Debit/Prepaid cards like Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Maestro etc. They also accept eWallets such as PayPal, Google Pay, Paytm, Phonepe, UPI options and Apple Pay. Some countries also offer the customers to pay via Crypto currency.
Global Hostinger Payment methods:
Credit/Debit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, JCB, DinnersClub, Maestro
eWallets: PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, AliPay
Other Payment Methods: Crypto currency
Refund Policy:
Hostinger offers up to 30 days of time from the date of the transaction for you to cancel your order if you are not satisfied with the plan or products that you choose to buy. After the 30 day period, no products are eligible for refund under any circumstances.
The below products are eligible for Refunds:
- All Hosting Plans except the first free trial payment
- Domain Transfers except .eu transfers
- SSL Certificates
- Daily Backups
- CloudFlare
- Hostinger Email
- Titan Email
- Priority Support
- NordVPN 6 and 12-month plans
- Windows VPS
- Minecraft VPS
- Linux VPS
Check their refund policy page for more detailed information on products that are not eligible for refunds and products that have some special conditions to be met to be eligible for refunds.
Customer Support:
Hostinger offers the below ways you can get help:
- 24/7 customer support
- Documents, articles and tutorials
- Control Panel that is easy to use
- Community forum
Hostinger offers a variety of support options to ensure that the customers have access to the help they need whenever they need it. You can reach out to them 24/7 via live chat, email or phone. Most of the issues are addressed with the help of Documents, articles and tutorials that are recommended to you when you raise an issue.
Their user friendly control panel makes it easy for you to manage your website and access all the support resources you need within seconds. Most of your tools and features are simplified giving you a friendly hosting experience. You can also use the Community forum where you can connect with other clients and share tips and advice.
Conclusion:
We have put together a lot of information for you to review before going ahead with your purchase on Hostinger. The web hosting service is undoubtedly worth your bucks if you are starting out and want to explore the best options for your business. Go ahead and try the trial version before buying an annual plan to be sure that the product is meeting your specific needs and requirements.
That’s a detailed review about Hostinger webhosting. Thanks.