In the time you’ve read this sentence, someone has just registered with Hostinger. Over 8,000 new customers sign up for Hostinger each day. Since 2004, over 29 million people in 178 countries have chosen Hostinger to host their website and for good reason.
Hostinger offers next-generation technology with servers deployed in seven regions globally over a network of Tier-3 data centers. What this means is that Hostinger clients enjoy near-perfect uptime, fantastic speeds, along with excellent data security.
In addition to shared hosting services, Hostinger also offers VPS Hosting and Cloud Hosting services. Their shared hosting plans provide excellent value at affordable rates and outstanding customer support. However, from personal experience, it appears that their WordPress auto-installer can be problematic which may cause issues for some site installs.
User Reviews
Great option for website hosting
HOSTINGER has been great for getting my site up and running. They have all the tools I need along with tons of help articles and a very fast support team. I was also able to get hosting for a better price and better options than I found anywhere else
. They even have simple tools to setup security options for your site.
Simple, efficient and a team of advisers there 24/7 to help out, they were able to assist with a lot of settings that would normally require you to hire an IT guy. This is exactly what you want to be looking for when creating your website.Thanks
I've built a number of websites throughout the years, and have dealt with several hosting services. Hostinger is by far the best hosting service I've ever used. Try out Hostinger, you'll never go back.
Hostinger offers robust shared hosting services that are perfect for webmasters of all skill levels. For beginners, they offer both a drag and drop website builder along with one-click auto installers. Those with more technical skills will appreciate unlimited FTP access along with compatibility with multiple PHP versions.
You also have Secure Socket Shell (SSH)access and Cron Job access to help you keep your website running optimally. All of these features and more come with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, weekly backups of your data, and free website migrations at no additional cost.
Optimized for WordPress
WordPress runs nearly 25% of the world’s websites, and Hostinger has you covered with servers that are optimized for WordPress, including custom-built caching plugins. Since Hostinger runs Solid State Drive (SSD) storage, your site will run faster than hosting services using standard Serial ATA (SATA) storage.
Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage
Both Premium Shared Hosting and Business Shared Hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth and storage along with the ability to host unlimited domains. This gives you the freedom to build anything from a single blog or small business site to a network of sites. While not unlimited, even the low-end Single Shared Hosting offers 10 GB of storage and 100GB of bandwidth monthly.
Multiple Security Features to Keep Your Website Safe
Hostinger offers multiple security features to help keep your website safe from hackers and malware. All plans include BitNinja, a program that constantly looks for suspicious activity from visitors such as webpage hammering, password cracking attempts, and more. Other security features that are available include Cloudflare protection, SSL certificates, and SpamAssassin. SpamAssassin regularly scans emails sent to your Hostinger email accounts and automatically removes spam. Note that some security features such as Cloudflare protection and SSL certificate may incur additional fees.
E-commerce Capabilities on All Plans
Unlike many web hosts, you’re not limited to the types of websites you can host at Hostinger. If you want to build a web-store on the Single Shared Plan, you can do so. The auto-installer includes multiple E-commerce tools, or you can install your own tools. In addition, free SSL certificates are offered with Business Shared Hosting and all Cloud Hosting plans.
Large Database Support with phpMyAdmin
If you are looking for a host allowing large database access, such as for large E-commerce customer databases, then Hostinger is for you. All plans allow for database sizes up to 3GB. Also, all plans come with phpMyAdmin that will enable you to configure your databases dynamically. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to use phpMyAdmin as there are plenty of tutorials available from support.
Unlimited Email Addresses
If you sign up for Premium or Business Hosting, you get unlimited email addresses with features that will help you better manage your email. They offer both an autoresponder and email forwarding to reroute messages from your website to your primary email account. Also, their email plans allow for webmail access for those that need to access their website email from anywhere.
Ease of Use
4.5/5
Ease of Use
Hostinger gives you the perfect balance of usability and advanced functionality. Unlike many web hosts, this platform has features designed with the beginner in mind, but with the tools that make this host appropriate for even the most advanced webmaster.
Website Builder With Nearly 200 Templates
If you have no experience in website design or coding, no problem. Hostinger offers a website builder with a selection of nearly 200 templates in 22 different categories. These templates all have drag and drop functionality, allowing you to create a site with no coding necessary. One thing I really like is that each template has its own online animated guide showing you how to use the individual template.
There’s good and bad with these templates. While I liked the designs of most of the templates, I felt that there was a lack of variety. For example, the Entertainment category only had seven templates with two club templates and two dedicated to theater. There were none for bands, concerts, or even sporting events. There are other builders, such as Wix, that offer much more variety in their template offerings.
Auto Installer With Over 100 Apps
If you would prefer to install WordPress or another CRM platform, you will likely find it in the auto-installer. There are over 100 apps you can install with a single click, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and more. There are also multiple E-commerce, community building, survey, and photo apps available in the auto-installer. While some hosts offer auto-installers with a larger app library, Hostinger’s auto-installer sticks with the apps that most commonly used by webmasters. Hostinger’s auto-installer is best suited for those with limited technical skills or those that don’t want to have to figure out how to install commonly used apps such as WordPress or PrestaShop. On average, installing an app with an auto-installer will take about five minutes, saving you time and effort.
Point and Click Management Tools Perfect for Beginners
Having used various hosting services over the years, it’s rare to find a service with a cPanel that’s as straightforward as Hostinger. It is not your standard cPanel, but instead is an icon-driven interface that’s simple to use for beginners and experienced webmasters alike. Tools are divided into categories and set up to allow for point and click management for all features. If there is a feature you don’t understand, there’s likely a tutorial available, or you can ask support for help. There’s going to be a learning curve for some features, but even beginners can competently use this hosting. Advanced users will have no problems navigating the cPanel.
Creating a New Account
The process of creating a new account with Hostinger is simple and can be completed in less than ten minutes. I signed up for the Single Shared Hosting Plan. Pricing for this plan is excellent, but I don’t like the fact they don’t offer a monthly plan. You can choose quarterly, or pay for 12, 24, or 48 months in advance.
While signing up, you’ll be presented options for paid upgrades. This includes Cloudflare protection, daily backups, and an SSL certificate for a fee. I’m not a fan of the extra charge for these services, especially the backups fee, which is a monthly fee. Many companies offer free backups, SSL certificates, and even Cloudflare protection, so this “nickel and dime” approach to services is going to make Hostinger more expensive than some other companies.
From there the signup is pretty standard. I chose to pay with PayPal and finished purchasing my hosting in just a few minutes. There was only one email from Hostinger during the process to verify my email, but I didn’t even get it until after I was done signing up. Overall, this was one of the smoothest signups I’ve experienced.
There are a few things to note during the account creation process. First, free domains are only available if you sign up for at least a year’s worth of service. If you need to register for a domain, you’ll pay $8.99 annually for a .com name. However, you can sign up for domains as cheap as .99 if you choose atypical domain suffixes such as .tech or .online.
Next, there are several features that are advertised as being free, but they actually incur an additional charge unless you purchase at least a year’s worth of Business Shared Hosting. Below are some of the features many webmasters will need to pay up to receive:
SSL Certificate – $14.99 for life of the site
Daily backups – $2.59 monthly
Cloudflare protection – $10 lifetime
Priority support – $4 monthly
If you’re looking for free marketing credits such as Google Adwords or Facebook Ads, you’re out of luck. They don’t offer any form of marketing credits with their plans.
When signing up for service, do yourself a favor and click the back button at least once. Often, Hostinger will offer a special discount to try and gain your business. My discount was 15% off the list price on each plan. It’s definitely worth clicking the back button once.
Hostinger makes it easy to pay for your hosting service. They accept all of the following:
Visa
MasterCard
American Express
Diners Club International
Discover
PayPal
JCB
bitcoin
Connecting Domain and Installing WordPress on Hostinger
Hostinger offers free domain names for Premium, Business, and all Cloud users who pay annually. As such, I had to pay to register a domain. Hostinger allows you to register for your own domain at average rates for .com and super low prices for .online and .tech domains. Signing up for the domain was simple, but the site didn’t activate automatically. I had to get support to activate the domain. Afterward, my hosting was set up and ready to go.
Hostinger comes with a one-click WordPress installer that is supposed to get you set up with just a few clicks. However, my experience with their auto-installer was less than smooth. It walked me through the process without issues and appeared to install fine, but I immediately started having problems. I kept getting 404 errors when trying to log in to the admin.
I ended up contacting support, and they had to move my hosting to another server and reinstall it themselves. That took about 20 minutes. Afterward, I had to use incognito mode in my browser just to access the admin page. Then the password I created at setup didn’t work. That sometimes happens, so I just requested a reset. The reset confirmation link sent multiple times via email kept failing.
Contacted support yet again, and they instructed me to reset through phpMyAdmin and gave me a tutorial on how to do so. That was quite helpful, and I was able to reset the password. However, when I tried to log in, I once again received a 404 message, and I was using incognito mode.
Support was able to access my site, and their only suggestion was to access it via another network. I hooked up my computer to my mobile hotspot, and I was indeed able to connect to my site. In all, it took nearly two hours to get my WordPress site active. Once I got the site active, everything worked smoothly.
One thing that stuck out to me is that support had a set of procedures already in place to resolve this problem quickly. That means that this is a common problem, and something you’re likely to run into with your WordPress setup. It is possible it is a “luck of the draw” problem, meaning that only a couple of their servers have this problem. My recommendation is to contact support immediately if you are having trouble accessing WordPress after running the auto-installer.
Support
4.9/5
Very Knowledgeable Support Staff With Outstanding Response Times
Hostinger offers efficient and knowledgeable support with outstanding response times. It starts with an excellent searchable knowledgeable divided into general topics, website topics, and domain topics. They offer a wide variety of tutorials that are perfect for beginners and those needing a little extra help in using certain features.
If you need additional support, you contact staff via email or live chat support. While the lack of phone support is a bit disappointing, they make up for it with competent live chat and email agents.
Testing Support
I contacted support on multiple occasions and as you can see from the below examples, I was impressed by both the response times and the knowledge of the agents.
Email
When I registered for my Single Shared Hosting account, I immediately received a bill for a quarterly plan despite paying for a monthly plan. I contacted support via email and inquired about this. The agent responded nearly immediately and removed the additional bill. Total response time, including the transfer of email both ways, was about 15 minutes. Considering that most email response averages four hours or more, I was very impressed.
Live Chat
I contacted support via Live Chat on two different occasions. The first was when my domain failed to setup correctly. The agent completed the installation for me in just a couple of minutes, and I was ready to go. The next time, I had a couple of questions about plan features. Again, they answered quickly and efficiently. I seldom run across live chat agents this efficient.
Pricing
4.9/5
Pricing
Hostinger offers three shared hosting plans, providing excellent value relative to your website needs. However, pay careful attention to pricing. Hostinger lures you in claiming that you can save from 50 to 87%, but it isn’t until you explore plan options that you discover that these prices require you to pay 48 months in advance.
Monthly terms are not available and the shortest term allowed is three months and in some cases, your monthly charge will be double what they advertise on their website. Despite this bait and switch type of mentality, their plans are still quite affordable compared to similar providers.
The Single plan is best for personal sites and small sites not requiring advanced security functions. Premium is a best for those hosting multiple websites as you get unlimited domains along with unlimited bandwidth.
However, if you want to host E-commerce stores or other sites requiring SSL certificates, you should upgrade to business. It offers free SSL certificates. You also get daily backups. All plans offer a simple sign up process, and you can pay using Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club International, Discover, PayPal, JCB, and bitcoin.
Cancellations and Refunds
All plans at Hostinger come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The only exception to this is if you choose to pay with bitcoin. Those purchases are non-refundable. Also, if you participate in a free trial and make your first payment after that trial, your purchase is non-refundable.
Some products and services are non-refundable. Redemption fees and domain renewal fees non-refundable. If you choose to purchase privacy protection, G suite, or the SEO toolkit, those are also non-refundable.
When it is time to cancel your plan, you can cancel directly from the cPanel. Cancellation does not give any form of emails or guarantees that you will be credited, so make sure you email customer services about your refund.
They claim that there’s a “no questions asked” policy, but instead of immediately refunding my fees they inquired on why I was canceling. After I explained it took four hours to do a simple five-minute install, they processed the request.
Cancellation FAQ
Can you cancel your host subscription online? Yes
How do you have to cancel your subscription? Online
What is their stated refund policy? 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked
What is the date you applied for a refund? 08/30/2018
What is the date you were promised a refund? No date was promised
What is the date you actually received the refund? 8/30/2018
How many days did it take to receive the refund? 0 days., approximately t 20 minutes
Hostinger is a robust website hosting platform that with services including Cloud, VPS, and shared hosting. They provide an excellent mix of usability and advanced features. The cPanel is user-friendly, and webmasters of all skill levels should have little problem using the product. While the WordPress auto-installer proved problematic, the superior customer service offered helped get me through the only significant hiccup that I experienced in this process.
Hostinger is one of the few providers that have found the near-perfect balance between features and usability. While Hostinger’s features are fantastic, the biggest selling point for their product is their support. They are remarkably knowledgeable and will help you create the best site possible.
For some, your initial startup costs are going to be average as you’ll have to pay for add-ons such as SSL certificates and Cloudflare protection. However, since some add-ons are one-time fees as opposed to monthly charges, you’ll save money over time by choosing Hostinger.
Hostinger is a robust website hosting platform that with services including Cloud, VPS, and shared hosting. They provide an excellent mix of usability and advanced features. The cPanel is user-friendly, and webmasters of all skill levels should have little problem using the product. While the WordPress auto-installer proved problematic, the superior customer service offered helped get me through the only significant hiccup that I experienced in this process.
Hostinger is one of the few providers that have found the near-perfect balance between features and usability. While Hostinger’s features are fantastic, the biggest selling point for their product is their support. They are remarkably knowledgeable and will help you create the best site possible.
For some, your initial startup costs are going to be average as you’ll have to pay for add-ons such as SSL certificates and Cloudflare protection. However, since some add-ons are one-time fees as opposed to monthly charges, you’ll save money over time by choosing Hostinger.
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