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HostingRaja Review 2024: Good Performance, Bad Support

Jack Kelly Jack Kelly Web Hosting Expert

HostingRaja is pretty cheap, its page loading times are amazing, and it has tons of plans to choose from. However, the speed and pricing of a web host aren’t everything, and the poor quality of the support drove me crazy.

We hosted the same WordPress website on the most popular web hosting platforms and measured their performance
Click here to see our results >>

Overview

Basic Hosting for Indian Customers

HostingRaja is based in India and specialises in budget VPS and shared hosting. It has a low price tag and some impressive WordPress features. Nice, but there’s one big catch – you can only use this host if you have an address in India.

If you are based in India, HostingRaja offers generous hosting plans. It’s website can be a bit difficult to use, but it the company offers support in six languages, including English, Tamil, and Hindi.

HostingRaja homepage
HostingRaja’s homepage has a few awkward typos.

HostingRaja uses an Indian data centre, which should give good performance for customers in Asia. But other aspects of its service are lacking in quality, and there’s no uptime guarantee, which could be an issue for your website in the long term.

To compare the best web hosts, we hosted the same WordPress website on each one and tested performance, customer service, and value for money. Check out the results here.

4.0

Features

Shared Hosting Plans with All the Basics

I signed up for a plan called Starter, but as of now, it looks like this plan no longer exists on the site. It has (or had) 40GB disk space, 5GB bandwidth, and cPanel.

HostingRaja’s WordPress hosting plans have a ‘loading time guarantee’, but I was disappointed to see that the shared hosting plans don’t. There’s also no free domain, and only ‘low priority support’. And the minimum term is a crazy 5-year contract.

Before you sign up for five years, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re getting – so let’s see what else is included in HostingRaja’s shared hosting plans.

There’s Free SSL

HostingRaja doesn’t make a big deal of this, but free SSL certificates are included, as I discovered here in the cPanel interface. SSL helps to keep your visitors’ browsing private and adds a basic layer of security by encrypting traffic between the browser and the server.

HostingRaja free SSL screen
In cPanel, you can set your free SSL certificate to auto-renew

Having SSL can also help with your search engine ranking, so this was a good start. And I was pleased to see that the certificate would auto-renew. That’s one less thing to worry about.

Enter the Site Builder(s)

Even though my plan info specifically said I wasn’t getting a site builder, there are actually two. Along with Site Publisher, which is quite common on cPanel hosts, there’s another site builder called SitePad.

SitePad website builder
SitePad offers a wizard to get your site online quickly

Both of these tools come with some free templates and a drag-and-drop editor. SitePad is just a little more user-friendly and has a wizard to get you started.

Backups are Only Monthly, Unless You DIY

HostingRaja claims to take monthly backups, but that just isn’t enough to offer peace of mind for anyone. I personally wouldn’t rely on them, given that the other plan details have proven to be inaccurate in places.

The good news is that you can create manual backups easily. The manual backup interface is pretty standard for cPanel and allows you to create backups of your files, databases, or email forwarders.

Backup management in cPanel
cPanel offers a number of backup tools, so you’re not stuck with HostingRaja’s very basic offer

This is not something I would rely on for day-to-day use because it doesn’t allow you to easily restore individual files. But hey, it’s easy to use and comes at no extra charge. You’ll just need enough space on your hard drive to store your backups.

1-Click Installer

HostingRaja has Softaculous on its cPanel plans, so you can easily install a number of applications, including WordPress.

3.8

Ease of use

Website Issues and Confusing Plans

As previously mentioned, you’ll need an address in India to sign up for HostingRaja. But before we get to that, let me just vent about a couple of things:

First of all, I had continual problems with my HostingRaja login and had to keep resetting the password to log in.

The content is also inconsistent. The uptime guarantee is reported as 99.9% on the website, but it’s actually 99% if you check the terms of service. And a 99% uptime guarantee is way below the industry standard.

There are other issues too. Some pages on the HostingRaja website have placeholder text instead of proper content. Some of the plans are presented in reverse price order. And some don’t have their own page on the site, so they’re difficult to locate.

We’re not off to a great start, but let’s soldier on a little longer.

Choosing a Domain

Fortunately, this part of the process is easy, and the domain selection here is pretty standard. If you have a domain, use the first form. If you want to buy one, use the second one.

It’s not as graceful as some hosts’ domain selection forms, but it works fine.

Domain name purchase form
Use your existing domain or buy a new one using the form

The next page is the sign-up form, which is self-explanatory.

HostingRaja sign-up form
Enter your personal details to complete registration

You’ll get an email once you’ve paid with your login details, and at that stage, you can move on to installing WordPress.

Installing WordPress

I used Softaculous for this, so the process was easy. From HostingRaja’s dashboard, all you have to do is navigate to cPanel for the hosting account you want to install WordPress on.

HostingRaja admin area
Locate your hosting account to launch cPanel

Once you locate Softaculous and find WordPress, you just click Install. After filling out some basic details about your site, you’re good to go.

Softaculous WordPress install screen
Install WordPress using the one-click installer
3.8

Performance

Amazing Loading Times Ruined by Terrible Uptime

I set up a real website with HostingRaja so I could test its performance. I have some good news, and some less-good news.

HostingRaja’s speed is darned good. Loading times on a Mumbai test server averaged 1.4 seconds, which is impressive when you consider the data wasn’t compressed very well. Global load times were 2.5 seconds, which is okay. The uptime hit 99.4%, which is not very good.

That was the short version. If you see all the stats and full test results, read on. If this type of information isn’t your idea of a good time, you can skip ahead to read about my experience with HostingRaja’s support (which was definitely not my idea of a good time).

I used three different tools to test HostingRaja: GTMetrix, the Sucuri Load Time Tester, and UptimeRobot. I’ve now deactivated the hosting account so that the host can’t make any changes that would affect performance, but it was originally live at www.autonomous-shoes-india-c.in.

If you want to learn more about how we test web hosts at Website Planet, we explain the whole process in this article.

GTMetrix

GTMetrix results were great, with an average fully loaded time of 1.4s. I tested the site nine times at different times of day from the Mumbai test server. Three of the tests came in at 0.8s, which is excellent. One hit 3.6, which dragged the average down.

But eight out of nine were 1.6s or less, which is super-speedy. Overall, this is the fastest Indian host I tested in GTMetrix.

HostingRaja GTMetrix results
HostingRaja was easily the fastest Indian host I tested

When I test web hosts, one of the first stages in my testing is to write to support and ask if they can help me optimize my page. This way, I can both see the quality of the support and give hosts a chance to do well in their performance tests (even if they don’t know it).

Most hosts managed to compress my 1.4MB homepage to below 1MB. HostingRaja was only able to bring the page size down to around 1.3MB – but still, the larger page size doesn’t seem to have negatively affected the loading time.

As mentioned above, HostingRaja’s WordPress plans have a ‘loading time guarantee’ – something I’ve never seen a web host offer before. The basic shared hosting plans don’t have this feature. So although my results look good, you might want to choose a WordPress plan if you need that reassurance.

Sucuri Load Time Tester

HostingRaja did brilliantly in this test too. My site’s average speed globally was 2.5 seconds. Sucuri measures the fully loaded time for a website from different data centres around the world, so this is a remarkable time to achieve.

Just one caveat, though. The results were not consistent. For example, the Bangalore data centre swung from being the fastest in some tests (0.75s) to the slowest in others (6.7s).

HostingRaja Sucuri test results
HostingRaja scored well in Sucuri overall

Singapore reported swift loading times of 0.6s and 0.76s. The Toronto data centre reported slow times in quite a few tests, around the 6.4-7.7s mark.

Still, occasional slow speeds didn’t pull the average down too much.

UptimeRobot

Here’s where things get messy. UptimeRobot measured 99.4% uptime over 30 days.

That’s an average of one hour of downtime each week. If this website was my real business site, I wouldn’t be happy if it was up and down like a yo-yo. This could mean a serious loss of revenue.

HostingRaja UptimeRobot test result
Uptime was poor, with an average of one hour downtime a week

HostingRaja has an 99% uptime guarantee. It’s not only much lower than the industry standard of 99.9%, it’s so unambitious that it’s barely even worth mentioning.

2.5

Support

Poor Support Tools and Availability Issues

HostingRaja’s support is available in English, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam. You can contact support via live chat, ticket, or phone. How well does that work?

Well, there two huge problems here that I need to mention before I get into the tests:

  • There are two separate live chat systems: sales and support. Be sure to use the right one every time.
  • The ticket system is pointlessly complicated and has no way to retrieve tickets already sent.

Any more problems? Oh yeah – on live chat, I rarely found anyone available to respond.

HostingRaja support chat
HostingRaja’s live chat could not provide support when I needed it

And when they did respond, they sometimes didn’t provide an answer. I’ve compressed this one into one screen, left to right:

HostingRaja support chat
I had issues getting answers to my basic questions

Uh, okay. One more try. This one will be the one. I can feel it.

HostingRaja support chat
Trying to get support from HostingRaja was like banging my head against a wall

Um… so I guess that’s a no. My plan included only ‘low priority’ support, but I was still expecting a better response on live chat.

Okay. Maybe they’re introverts and don’t want to talk to people live. It’s understandable. But when it was time to tackle the ticket system, I found this truly horrible login form awaiting me:

HostingRaja support ticket login screen
If I had to describe HostingRaja’s ticket support in a couple of words, I’d say, “It’s complicated.”

This. Is. Crazy. If you’re wondering what this all means, let me summarise. It means: ‘log in using the form on the left’.

After creating a ticket, I had to write down my ticket ID to get back to my query later. But the response time was good, at least. I got a reply to this query in 15 minutes. It’s not the most helpful reply, but at least it’s an answer.

HostingRaja support ticket
I had slightly better luck when opening a support ticket

There’s usually one method of contact that works well. But at HostingRaja, support was difficult to access no matter how I tried. I guess I’d use tickets rather than chat if I had to, but this whole experience needs work.

3.8

Pricing

Unfriendly Payment Terms and Long Contracts

HostingRaja is the most expensive Indian host I tested. This doesn’t mean it’s vastly more expensive, but you might save money with a cheaper Indian competitor like HostSoch.

You can pay for your hosting via credit card or bank transfer, but I have issues with the payment terms. First, some plans have a 5-year minimum term, with no free trial, which is absolutely crazy. (Yeah, more crazy. And not the fun kind.)

And second: the 30-day money back guarantee is not a guarantee.

If you paid with a credit card, can demonstrate a technical difficulty, and are not subscribed to a monthly billing cycle, you will receive a refund. This process resembles showing your mother that, indeed, it was your sister who took the cookie (and it really was!).

Check the terms of service carefully, because this could make your hosting plan difficult to wriggle out of if you don’t get good service.

HostingRaja Cancellation

You can’t cancel your HostingRaja plan from the dashboard, so I submitted a ticket.

HostingRaja support ticket form
HostingRaja’s plans are easy to cancel with through the ticket system

It’s not the most graceful way to cancel, but it worked fine. They cancelled it; I didn’t have to sue anyone.

Comparison

How does HostingRaja match up to the competition?

KamateraCompareOur Score4.8Compare
Liquid WebCompareOur Score4.8Compare
HostingRajaCompareOur Score3.9Compare
Tailor Made ServersCompareOur Score2.9Compare

HostingRaja REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE

HostingRaja achieved excellent loading times, and it has decent package features and ample resources on the shared hosting plans.

The rest of the experience was pretty rough. The website is awful, the support was consistently poor, and it has an uptime guarantee that may as well not exist.

The WordPress features are impressive, though, and it would be interesting to see if the WordPress-specific plans are better. But overall, I really think there are better choices to consider. MilesWeb was almost as fast in testing, and HostSoch offers a better experience overall. 

But if you want my top recommendation, go with Hostinger. It scored brilliantly on all our performance tests, and its prices are some of the cheapest on the market.

FAQ

What is the best host for India?

Many of our top-ranked web hosting providers in 2024 are also some of the best for hosting Indian websites. In fact, Hostinger is our top-rated global host and it’s also number one on our list of the best hosts for Indian websites.

HostingRaja is affordable and provides appealing features, but despite being built particularly for hosting websites targeting Indian audiences, you can discover superior alternatives in other places.

Does HostingRaja have cPanel?

Shared hosting plans from HostingRaja do include cPanel, whereas its VPS plans come with a proprietary control panel optimized for VPS hosting.

Do all HostingRaja plans include a free domain name?

You get a free domain name with HostingRaja Unlimited and Premium plans, but not with its lower-level shared hosting plans.

You can find deals on our coupons page for many top web hosts that will give you a free domain name even on entry-level shared hosting.

Does HostingRaja have good customer support?

Even though HostingRaja offers a number of support options (live chat, ticketing, and phone), it doesn’t do any of them well.

We tested its support service and found live chat difficult to get through to, and not very helpful when we finally did. Its ticketing system is unnecessarily complicated. And the response we eventually got to our request consisted of a link to a help article instead of a personalized response.
Jack Kelly Jack Kelly
Based in Melbourne, Jack is a long-time web developer and WordPress enthusiast, always interested not only in how things work, but how he can make them work better. You’ll typically find him glued to his computer screen at all hours of the day and night, but he does go outside every once in a while – mainly to play squash or do some surfing (or at least pretend to).
2.2
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Customer Service is Worst

The service they provide is very poor. They close tickets before resolving issues, and they may mislead you if you're not technically stong , After each message, we have to call them to resolve the issue, but the problem persists. Beacuse due them i lost many customers.

avatar
Harish, USA
January 28, 2024
1
Cheater

Hosting raja seems cheaper but after you host your websites , they looted money on each 15-20 days, every time a new excuse to take money. overall they are cheater. I am using Arvixe and Cloud4C , they both are professional. I am working from last 12+ years but I never find a crook like hosting raja.

avatar
Shailendra Shukla, India
November 07, 2022
1
Pathetic

Such a pathetic company. Their support is total useless. We used their service and all of sudden the server stopped working. The issue is never resolved and we lost complete data. Their support team is incapable, they just wanted to complete the support timing but least bother to close the issues, including entire hierarchy of their technical team has same level of knowledge. If you want to get vanished from your business use hostingraja services. They helps you to file bankruptcy.

avatar
Clinevo, India
August 15, 2022
1
I have no difficulty with their service

I have no difficulty with their service, it has been a great feeling so I can recommend anyone that they can get service from here. Their free SSL, customer support, and no downtime are simply excellent! They do a lot of extras for you when you need help. With the HostingRaja people, my website faces no downtime and its speed is really good. I use shared hosting it works well.

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Sudeep, India
September 16, 2021
5
Waste Of YOUR MONEY

!!! ATTENTION !!! Plz keep away from this panel!!! There is nothing special in this panel, but a clone of a cPanel. I bought this panel hoping for, something new feature but turns out to be a waste of money!! The support team is inefficient to give the proper answer to my questions...Also, these people have the worst hosting server.. which loads soo slow that even my 2-year toddler will start speaking by the time my website loads.

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Anusha Sureesh, India
August 09, 2021
1
Consistent in speed, security, and support response

I’ve been with HostingRaja for 3years, managing 4 websites on a shared service. I haven’t had any important problems with the service during that time. Compared to the other providers that I work with, HostingRaja consistently beats them, in speed, security, and support response. I am now actively thinking of moving to another site at HostingRaja under a premium VPS plan. Keep up the good work guys.

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Tanya, India
July 15, 2021
5
Very bad server hosting

very bad server hosting. Initially, the service is very good. but now very bad service. there OVI panel have a lot of bugs. and my server is down for the last 1 hour still down. no response to mail and phone. if we raise the problem some technical supporters will wash the brain.

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CTS, USA
July 02, 2021
1
Very easy for me to get started

I have been using hostingraja now for 10 months. I am new to websites and design. After reading many reviews and looking at other hosting sites I decided on hostingraja and I am sure glad I did! Everything has been running well and I am finding it easy to learn. Support has been excellent! I recommend hostingraja for all of your needs.

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Sonu, India
May 31, 2021
5
Family sharingMulti User SharingExpert SupportBackupSmart syncPersonal SolutionBusiness SolutionTeams optionsOffline foldersFile history and recovery Read more reviews
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