• +233 536962249

  • Accra - Ghana

  • 9:30 AM - 7:00 PM

How good is Hostinger

Hostinger can be a great choice for various users as it offers affordable prices, good performance, and ease of use.

To help you decide if this provider is the right choice for you, together with the Cybernews research team I have conducted a thorough Hostinger review, evaluating it on key aspects such as features, ease of use, performance, security, pricing, and customer support.

Note: the rating and insights in this article are based on personal experience and testing, aimed at users to get a better understanding of how we see and rate the product. Users are urged to make their own decisions whether Hostinger is the right choice for their needs.

⭐ Rating:
4.8
💵 Price:From $2.54/month
📑 Uptime guarantee:100%
⚙️ Hosting types:Shared, WordPress, VPS, cloud, and email hosting
🌎 Server locations:The US, the UK, Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Brazil, Singapore, and India
👨‍💻 24/7 live support:Yes
🔥 Coupons:Hostinger coupon 78% OFF

Cybernews evaluation: Hostinger pros and cons

Hostinger is a web hosting provider known for its affordable pricing, strong performance, and advanced security features, and it could be a good choice for small to medium-sized websites, blogs, and e-commerce sites.

Web builder included in all hosting plans

Free domain registration all plans for 1 year

Free business email comes with all web hosting plans

Unlimited free SSLs

Intuitive custom control panel – hPanel

Servers in 4 continents and 8 countries for best performance

Free weekly or daily backups for emergencies

LiteSpeed Web Servers

hPanel can occasionally be laggy

VPS hosting not suitable for beginners

Renewal prices without discount (quite common with other providers as well)

Shared storage amount for all email accounts

Visit Hostinger to learn more about the features

Hostinger pricing and hosting plans

By far the most popular and affordable option offered by Hostinger is shared hosting – its starting price is just $2.54 a month. Other options include cheap WordPress plans, Cloud hosting, and VPS.

Type of hostingBest for
Shared hostingStartups and small businesses, freelancers, blogs
WordPress hostingSmall websites built on WordPress
Cloud hostingSmall businesses and blogs that are experiencing growth
VPS hostingSmall and medium-sized businesses experiencing massive growth

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

Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with all of its web hosting plans. However, please note that payments made using cryptocurrencies are non-refundable.

More about Hostinger’s pricing

Hosting pricing is usually quite a complex and broad topic, which is why we have a separate guide for it: Hostinger pricing: everything you need to know. In it, we’ve covered all the main aspects related to pricing — starting price, renewals, special deals, domain registration and email hosting costs, refunds, and even payment methods. Additionally, we advise which hosting plan you should pick for different projects.

Hosting management – is Hostinger easy to use?

When it comes to ease of use, Hostinger is incredibly easy to manage as it is designed with beginners in mind. Automatic wizards will take care of setting up websites, emails, domains, and VPS services.

More so, its control panel is not just good-looking – it combines great simplicity and functionality too.

Hosting setup process

First and foremost, you must decide what type of hosting you need and select the web hosting provider that offers it. For instance, Hostinger has Shared, Cloud, VPS, WordPress, and Minecraft hosting types.

After making these decisions, the process of setting up hosting is rather easy and doesn’t need an abundance of technical expertise. Here’s how you set up a hosting plan:

  1. Once you subscribe to Hostinger, find the Setup option in your control panel
  2. When the Hello! page opens, hit Start now and provide additional information about your web hosting project
  3. Choose whether you want to create a new website or migrate an existing one. You may create a new website using Hostinger Website Builder, WordPress, and other website builderssetting up a website on Hostinger
  4. Name your website by choosing a new domain name or using the one you already own
  5. Review the summary of the setup process to see if any changes need to be made, and finish up the setup

Now that your hosting plan is set up, you’re ready to create your website.

Creating a website with Hostinger

Creating a website with Hostinger is very easy, as it uses AI to simplify the process. Its free AI Assistant is available with the Web Business and other plans. You can add this plugin to your existing WordPress site or when creating a new one.

Here’s how to create a website with Hostinger:

  1. After setting up an account, go to the Websites tab in the menu at the top
  2. Click Add website and choose WordPresshostinger create wordpress website
  3. You will need to answer some questions about the type of website you’re creating, how you want to start building your website, which plugins you want to use, etc.hostinger create wordpress
  4. After answering these questions, you’ll need to wait a bit until Hostinger sets up WordPress for you and takes you to the main dashboardhostinger wordpress dashboard
  5. Now, you’re ready to manage your website. The dashboard shows you information about the website, including the domain, performance, email, and security

An alternative way to create a website is by using Hostinger’s AI-powered web builder. With this tool, your site can go live in just 3 easy steps, no web design or coding skills needed.

Hostinger hPanel and features within

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 its predecessors. If you’ve used cPanel before, this will be an upgrade, and you won’t be lost. Meanwhile, first-timers should not be scared either – Hostinger doesn’t lack recommendations.

explained functions on Hostinger panel

For example, you are guided to quickly improve your website performance or clear the cache with a single click.

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 convenient 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:

  • Using File Manager
  • Installing applications
  • Migrating your existing website
  • Checking databases
  • Adding websites
  • Setting the main domain
  • Using a website builder
  • Creating email accounts

Looking in detail, everything is well-organized. The only issue with hPanel is that it can get slow. However, other than this (occasional) annoyance, 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 are 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.

1-click installations in Hostinger new sc 2022

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

hostinger install wordpress

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.

Free website migration

Hostinger’s free website migration is very simple and depends on your preferred method.

If you want to do it through a migration request form, follow these steps:

  1. First, go to the Websites tab, click on Add website, and choose Migrate websitehostinger migrate website
  2. Add a domain name and confirm your ownership. You can also use an existing subdomainhostinger migration domain
  3. Choose if you want to provide WordPress Admin details and confirm a few more options. Aside from WordPress, you can also choose cPanel and WHM or a completely different panel
  4. Once Hostinger finishes the migration process, you’ll be able to continue using your website
Pro tip

If you want to migrate a website from a different Hostinger account or hosting plan, note that such internal migrations are not free and will have to be done manually. Hostinger provides a guide on how to do it.

Get Hostinger

The migration of your WordPress site through the request form is a simple automatic process – you only need to provide your login details. However, if you prefer, you can instead provide your existing website’s backup files, and Hostinger’s team will do it for you.

Essential features: free domain and website builder

Now, to make the website creation process even simpler, Hostinger includes all the necessary features like a free domain, email accounts, an SSL, and even a free website builder. A combination of all that makes this provider excellent for both personal and startup web hosting.

Hostinger’s shared hosting plans include free domain name registration, email hosting with 100 email accounts, and an SSL certificate. This means that even the cheapest shared plan is well suited for small businesses to start with – it’s cheap (from $2.54/month) and has all the necessities included, so you won’t need to spend extra.

The available free TLDs (top-level domains) include: .com, .net, .xyz, .online, .website, .space, and many others.

Another topic is how you’re going to build a website. WordPress is the #1 choice for many, but Hostinger also has another tool – Hostinger Website Builder.

Hostinger Website Builder editor

Generally, website builders are an easier and quicker way to launch a website. That’s because all design elements are readily available, and absolutely zero programming knowledge is needed.

Talking about Hostinger Website Builder specifically, here’s what you get:

  • Over 150 modern templates
  • Drag-and-drop editor functionality
  • AI builder that generates unique websites with every request
  • AI-generated website content
  • Integrated Google Analytics
  • Blogging, SEO, and email services tools
  • Prices that start at $1.79/month

You can also read our detailed Hostinger Website Builder review to learn more.

Overall, if you don’t have any experience with WordPress, Hostinger Website Builder might be the next best thing.

Hostinger business email

Having a business email account helps you to easily stay in touch with your colleagues as well as clients. Additionally, business emails add to your professional appearance. And they can even help you enhance your email marketing plan.

A professional email address usually consists of your name or specific noun and the company name, for instance, jane@companyname.com. And you surely can have a professional-looking email account with Hostinger. All plans can host up to 100 business mailboxes, with a 1GB storage limit per account.

What’s great is that the business email setup process is very easy with Hostinger. The provider offers detailed guides for this, and the overall process takes up to 5-10 minutes.

Here’s how you can set up a business email with Hostinger:

  1. Once you sign up for Hostinger’s web hosting plan, head to the hosting dashboard
  2. Click Email and select Email accounts
  3. Choose the domain and click Manage
  4. Select Create email accountstarting the email setup on Hostinger
  5. Fill in the required information, and click CreateInformation to create Hostinger email
  6. Pick the email app or a smartphone to configure the email account. Apple Mail users get an Automatic Apple device setup optionconfigurating Hostinger email
CyberNews Pro tip

We strongly encourage using this business mailbox feature. You will look more professional with a hello@yourbusiness.com email than with yourbusiness@gmail.com. The response rates will definitely be higher.

Now, in terms of the actual mailbox, it’s on the basic side but still better than what a lot of other providers are offering for free.

Hostinger webmail client

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 confidently say that Hostinger is a prime example of what web hosting performance should look like, regardless of the price point. This host is reputable, known for its stability, speed, and ability to handle a good amount of traffic even on its more affordable plans. To thoroughly evaluate Hostinger, I conducted three types of tests to identify any potential areas where this provider might struggle.

In fact, Hostinger is a dedicated web hosting provider, offering a range of services including cloud and VPS hosting. These services are ideal for anyone looking to get their website live, regardless of the website builder they use. Hostinger’s solid reputation is built on delivering reliable performance across all its hosting solutions, making it a trusted choice for both beginners and experienced users.

I did 3 types of tests to see if there’s any area where this provider faces difficulties.

Server uptime and response time

Hostinger maintained a perfect 100% throughout my testing period, which is higher than other top hosting providers, such as Bluehost and DreamHost. However, keeping 100% uptime is not possible in the long term, so you will see an occasional 1 or 2 minutes of downtime, which is normal.

Other than that, the host offers a 100% uptime guarantee. The tool also tracks and draws the average response time, which was 511ms, while the average of shared hosting is 600ms.

hostinger response time

Speed

Hostinger allows you to choose from 8 data center locations – the US, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Singapore, India, and Brazil. The best performance can be seen when testing from the US – just 479ms till Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). For visitors from Europe, this website would take around 1.3 seconds to load.

With a fully built website, LCP increases to 849ms. This result is lower than that of other popular hosting providers. For example, it took Bluehost and DreamHost 1.3s and 878ms, respectively, to load LCP. So if you’re looking for the fastest web hosting, Hostinger is a great choice.

Hostinger-page-load-speed-comparison

Stress testing

I’ve sent 50 visitors to my test website. As the number of visitors increased (gray line), response time (blue line) 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.

Hostinger stress testing

As a whole, 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.

What makes Hostinger load time fast?

I find it very interesting how such a 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 offering 8 server locations worldwide – the US, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Brazil, Singapore, and India. So when setting up your hosting account, pick the location that is closest to your audience.
  • Up-to-date technology. Hostinger keeps its tech upgraded – from SSD and NVMe drives to the latest PHP versions or fast LiteSpeed web servers. Once anything new comes up, Hostinger will follow the best practices.
  • 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: it offers the latest PHP version, both HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 (Quic) are there, IPv6 is enabled, and advanced caching is possible.

Is Hostinger a secure host?

Hostinger offers secure hosting with DDoS protection included even in the basic web hosting plans. Hostinger also ensures good security by monitoring servers 24/7, implementing a firewall, and utilizing advanced security modules like mod_security and Suhosin PHP hardening.

Hostinger also includes DDoS protection even with basic web hosting plans. Its team of security experts takes care of servers 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 detail?

Hostinger server-side security

Hostinger implements several different methods to ensure its server security:

  • 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 center locations are Tier-3 level or higher.
  • DDoS protection. There are several layers of protection against DDoS attacks. Traffic is analyzed and blocked through Wanguard which generates firewall rules. There are also Bitninja or Imunify360 web application firewalls on each server.
  • Malware scanner. It helps to protect hosted websites from cyberattacks and constantly monitors the hosting environment, including files, databases, and server configurations to detect any signs of malware.
hostinger malware scanner

Backups and SSL

To further improve its security, Hostinger offers daily and weekly website backups, email backups, and free SSL certificates:

  • Daily or weekly website backups. If there’s ever a major issue with your website that stops it from working properly, all you have to do is go to the backup manager and restore the latest version of your site that’s functioning. Weekly backups are included in all of the plans, while daily backups are provided for Business plan users.
  • Email backups. Regular email backups ensure that you don’t lose important conversations in the case of accidental deletions or security breaches. Hostinger provides backups for various file formats and email platforms, including Gmail and Outlook.
  • Free SSL. Each of Hostinger’s plans comes with unlimited free SSL certificates, and it took me just a few clicks to install one during the initial website setup. This feature encrypts all data that travels from and to your server so no third party can steal it. It also helps with Google rankings.

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. Such a variety of tools place Hostinger among top-3 most secure web hosting companies on our list.

Additional security features

Hostinger offers additional security features that greatly contribute to its overall security:

  • Two-factor authentication (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.
  • Secure Access Manager. For those who need to collaborate on a website or some other project, this feature helps to manage user access and permissions.
  • Domain privacy. This protects the personal information of domain owners in order to reduce spam and unsolicited contact.

All things considered, Hostinger has security essentials in all of its packages that are enough to protect your website from the most common vulnerabilities. Such a variety of tools places Hostinger among the top 3 most secure web hosting companies on our list.

What hosting types does Hostinger offer?

Since Hostinger seems to be a well-rounded provider, it’s no surprise that, in addition to shared hosting, it also offers many fairly priced solutions with helpful tools for businesses.

Managed WordPress hosting

Hostinger has Managed WordPress hosting plans that include a generous feature package similar to shared hosting. Starting from $2.54/month, you get free email accounts, SSL, WP-CLI integration, and WordPress-specific features such as WordPress dashboard with caching management with each plan.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting is a very scalable and powerful solution that works as a gateway to VPS and a private server. The packages start at $6.79/month and come with resources that go from 3GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, and 200GB NVMe storage to 12GB RAM, 6 CPU cores, and 300GB storage.

VPS hosting

Self-managed VPS hosting is suitable for advanced users and starts from $4.24/month. The resources can go from 1 vCPU, 4GB RAM, and 50GB NVMe storage to 8 vCPUs, 32GB RAM, and 400GB storage. Hostinger’s VPS plans offer more value for money compared to other top VPS providers. For example, Liquid Web is second on our list of the best VPS hosting providers, but it’s four times more expensive than Hostinger and offers less RAM, storage, and no free SSL.

Hostinger has the best Black Friday deal for VPS compared to other providers, so make sure to check it out.

Minecraft hosting

The resources of Minecraft hosting plans go from 4GB RAM and 1 vCPU for smaller Minecraft communities to 16GB RAM and 4 vCPUs for the possibility to monetize your server. The prices start from $6.99/month.

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, this 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.

Available payment methods when buying Hostinger

Secondly, when you purchase a plan from Hostinger, you don’t have to go through 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 why 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.

Adult sites hosting with Hostinger

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

Hostinger customer support

 Hostinger
24/7 live chat✅Yes
Email✅Yes
Ticketing system✅Yes
Phone line❌No
Knowledge base✅Yes

Like any other reputable hosting provider, Hostinger offers a great variety of customer support options. We’re talking about a 24/7 live chat, a ticketing system, email, and an extensive knowledge base. And while there is no phone support, the live chat was more than enough for me to not feel the lack of it.

While testing the 24/7 live chat, I found that Hostinger agents reply extra fast – sometimes even in less than a minute. Plus, all interactions were very helpful and professional. Every agent I talked to was very well trained and answered all my questions.

For example, after 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.

Hostinger also has a big knowledge base that is constantly updated. There are articles and tutorials on basic web hosting, such as software installation and marketing. Plus, there are many troubleshooting guides for common control panel or email problems.

All in all, Hostinger’s customer support service is excellent. The agents are knowledgeable and friendly, and they do their best to answer your questions in a timely manner. Plus, you can use Hostinger’s vast and helpful knowledge base if you prefer a DIY approach.