Hostinger vs. WestHost – Which One Is Actually Better? [2020]

When looking for budget-friendly shared hosting plans, Hostinger and WestHost may appear quite similar but they are not. There’re quite a few differences that you need to know about. I tested both these providers on multiple parameters and found Hostinger to be the winner.

You can click here for Hostinger’s latest deals or read on to find out how Hostinger wins this Hostinger vs. WestHost competition.

1. Plans and Pricing

Hostinger wins, thanks to its overall lower prices

Both these providers offer shared hosting plans with 3-tier pricing where WestHost has the pricier plans. While Hostinger’s best prices are available for the quadrennial term, WestHost’s are available for annual to triennial term. Renewal prices of both are more, with Hostinger’s being 1.2-2X and WestHost’s being 2.5-4X the lowest prices. WestHost’s WordPress plans are cheaper than Hostinger’s though the renewal prices of both are steeper (up to 2.5X and 2X for WestHost and Hostinger respectively). WestHost’s SSD VPS plans are pricier but have more resource allocations. Since Hostinger offers no dedicated servers, you’ll have to choose the managed or unmanaged dedicated servers of WestHost.  WestHost domains cost more than Hostinger but offer free domain privacy (for the first year) and a free (for the first month) 1-page website.

You’ll get a 30-day money-back guarantee with both these hosts.

Hostinger wins due to its overall lower prices.

2. Features

More plan variety and better resources win it for WestHost

You can host 1-unlimited websites with the shared plans of both these providers. With Hostinger’s plans, you’ll get CloudLinux OS, 10GB SSD-100GB SSD space, 100GB-unlimited bandwidth, 1-unlimited email accounts, custom-developed hPanel, LiteSpeed powered caching, a free SSL certificate, a free domain (with premium/business plans), daily/weekly data backups (plan-dependent), multiple PHP versions (5.2-7.4), 1-click installer, a website builder (free for 1 month), Cloudflare protected nameservers, and a custom cache manager.

WestHost’s plans come with Linux OS, 50GB-unlimited disk space, 1000GB-unlimited bandwidth, unlimited 10GB emails, free domain (with annual term for 2 higher plans), free SSL certificate (highest plan only), Softaculous auto-installer, a paid website builder, SEO tools, and SSH access. You’ll have to use WestHost Site Manager for your website’s management and maintenance.

To compare both these providers, check the comparison table below.

WestHost wins, thanks to its more resource allocations and features as well as better variety in plans on offer.

3. Performance

Hostinger wins with great uptime and loading speeds

Both these providers host their servers in Tier-3 datacenters. WestHost’s solitary, fully redundant datacenter is located 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Hostinger’s datacenters are positioned across 7 different global regions. While WestHost uses Cloudflare CDN with its WordPress plans, Hostinger uses LiteSpeed cache plugins, SSDs, GZIP compression, and optional Cloudflare CDN.

Hostinger aces this round with great uptime and loading speeds.

4. Security

Hostinger’s extensive security outshines WestHost’s 

Hostinger uses multiple security measures. These include SSL certificate, optional CDN, weekly/daily backups, RAID-10 for data redundancy, LVE containers (to enable account isolation), predictive and proactive server monitoring, Wanguard anti-DDoS protection, and Imunify360/Bitninja (WAF). WestHost offers a free and a paid Cloudflare plan along with 3 paid Sitelock malware detector plans. It also offers a paid managed security clean-up plan where its level 3 engineers will clean up your infected/compromised website, applications, or databases and minimize future risks.

Due to its extensive and robust security measures, Hostinger wins this round.

5. Support

Hostinger wins with its efficient and fast support

Hostinger offers 24/7 live chat support along with email and ticket support (for logged-in users). There’s a paid “Priority Support” too. I used Hostinger’s live chat support, which was quick and competent. For self-help, you can use multiple tutorials plus a knowledgebase and blog.

You can reach WestHost’s support desk via 24/7 chat. Phone, email, online contact form, and support tickets (for logged-in users) are other ways to get support. However, with long wait times (despite being #1 in the queue) and no reply, I found its live chat to be of no help. I found the same complaint in some of the WestHost reviews. A blog, an FAQ, quick-start guides and tutorials, and a knowledgebase do self-support duties.

Thanks to its competent and fast support, Hostinger wins again.

Hostinger Outshines WestHost Convincingly

Except for the features round where Hostinger loses by a whisker, it wins all the other rounds – from pricing and performance to security and support. So, I would recommend Hostinger for its affordable plans that offer value for money. If you’re still in a dilemma, knowing that Hostinger is at the top of our list of the best web hosting services​ may help.

Comparison Table

FAQ