Excellent customer service and uptime, but no dedicated servers
Hostinger is a well-rounded web host that features high-quality customer service and uptime. But if you need powerful, dedicated servers, you'll have to look elsewhere.
The search for a high-quality web hosting service isn’t easy. There are many options, and your choice determines where your brand will live online for years to come. Hostinger is a worthy home for your website, as it offers excellent uptime and premium offerings for a decidedly non-premium price. That said, Hostinger’s plans lack some of the features you’d expect in a top-tier web host, such as dedicated hosting and telephone support. If you want those features, Editors’ Choice pick AccuWeb has what you need.
Hostinger, like many other web hosting services, offers shared web hosting. With this most basic hosting tier, your website lives on a server with other websites. In other words, the sites literally share a single server’s cost and resources. As a result, shared web hosting is often low-cost web hosting. The downside? Shared hosting isn’t very powerful hosting, so your site may slow, or become unavailable, if your content (or that of one of your cohabitants) receives, say, a big social media hit.
Hostinger has three Linux-powered shared web hosting plans: Single, Premium, and Business. The Single plan costs $9.49 per month, or $2.99 per month with a one-year commitment (it renews at $5.99 per month after the first year). In addition, Hostinger touts a low, $1.39 per month price tag, but that requires a four-year commitment. This Single plan lets you host just one website, and offers one email account (just one!), 100GB of monthly data transfers, 30GB of solid-state storage, and roughly 10,000 monthly visitors.
Next up the ladder is the Premium plan. It costs $10.95 per month, or $5.99 per month with a one-year commitment (it renews at $8.99 per month). The plan lets you create up to 100 websites and email addresses, and offers unlimited monthly data transfers and 100GB of storage. Premium also comes with a free domain name, free SSL, and processing power that can handle roughly 25,000 monthly visitors.
The Business plan is $15.99 per month, or $6.99 per month for the first year’s commitment (it renews at $10.99 per month). It builds upon the Premium plan by offering daily backups, a free CDN to speed up your site, and quadruple the processing power so that your site can handle approximately 100,000 monthly visitors.
Hostinger’s plans also offer two-year and four-year deals that grant significant discounts. Those are decent plans for a mom-and-pop shop that just wants to list its inventory, but the Editors’ Choice award-winning HostGator offers superior shared web hosting packages for a wider range of users. Not only does HostGator offer a choice of Linux and Windows servers, but it has unlimited storage, email, and monthly data transfers at each shared hosting tier. That’s impressive.
Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is the minimum web hosting tier you want if you’re serious about creating an online presence for your business. Compared with shared hosting, VPS hosting gives your website additional server resources to work with, as there are fewer websites on the server.
Hostinger has six Linux-based VPS plans. The entry-level Linux tier has 1GB of RAM, 20GB of storage, and 1,000GB of monthly data transfers for $9.95 per month, or a discounted $4.94 per month for a one-year commitment (rising to $9.05 per month after the first year). The top-tier Linux VPS plan includes 8GB of RAM, 160GB of storage, and 8,000GB of monthly data transfers for $109.99 monthly, or a discounted $58.99 per month for a one-year commitment (rising to $72.99 per month after the first year). Unfortunately, Hostinger no longer offers Windows-based VPS plans.
Those are good plans that would serve your business well, but Hostwinds remains the PCMag Editors’ Choice for VPS hosting. Hostwinds has wallet-friendly, well-rounded VPS offerings that start at $16.99 per month for 1GB of RAM, 30GB of disk space, and 1TB of monthly data transfers. Plans scale up to $574 per month for 96GB of RAM, 750GB of disk space, and 9TB of monthly data transfers. Hostwinds also has Windows-based VPS options, including some fully-managed VPS offerings.
Dedicated hosting is one of the most powerful forms of hosting you’ll encounter. A dedicated hosting plan places your website on a server all by itself, letting you leverage the server’s full power. If you expect high traffic volume, a dedicated server is an excellent choice. Hostinger doesn’t offer dedicated hosting, however.
You know who does? AccuWeb. In fact, it’s the Editors’ Choice for web hosting services. Please read that review to learn about AccuWeb’s excellent dedicated hosting offerings.
Hostinger may lack dedicated hosting, but it offers gamer-centric Minecraft hosting. There are five options for Minecraft hosting, starting at $19.95 per month, or $10.95 per month with a one-year commitment (renewing at $18.15 per month for the following year). The lowest-level plan gives you a server with 2GB of RAM, and 2x virtual CPU power. You can install your own game mods, establish rules, and even enable in-game advertising.
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system. Thanks to its simplicity and robust plug-in and theme ecosystems, WordPress is extremely easy to customize as you see fit—one of its key attractions.
Hostinger has multiple WordPress plans; four of them, in fact. They are Single, Starter, Business, and Pro. Hostinger’s WordPress and Shared hosting plans share some names, but they offer different specs. The Single plan ($7.99 month-to-month, $4.99 per month with a one-year commitment) supports a single website for 10,000 monthly visitors, with one email account and 30GB of SSD storage. The Starter plan ($14.99 per month, or $5.99 per month for the first year of an annual plan) includes support for 100 websites, 100GB of storage, the Jetpack plug-in for free, and unlimited monthly data. Business ($15.99 per month, or $10.99 per month with an annual plan) ups things with 200GB of storage and daily backups. Finally, the Pro plan ($29.00 per month, or $15.99 per month with a one-year commitment, renewing at $24.99 per month) tops them all with support for 300 websites, 300,000 monthly visitors, and Jetpack Personal.
Hostinger offers a super-easy onboarding flow that gets your site up and running in just a few minutes time. There’s also an option to migrate existing sites either manually or using a Hostinger agent.
Yet, A2, our Editors’ Choice for WordPress hosting, just edges Hostinger and the competition by offering three excellent WordPress hosting tiers—Lite, Swift, Turbo. They all feature unlimited storage, monthly data transfers, and email.
Cloud hosting is a form of web hosting in which your website is powered by several different servers. You can scale resources in real-time, as your site isn’t limited to physical server constraints.
Hostinger has three cloud hosting tiers: Cloud Startup, Cloud Professional, and the Google-powered Cloud Global. The entry-level tier starts at $29 per month, or $12.99 per month with a one-year commitment (renewing at $23.99 per month) comes with 3GB of RAM, 2 CPU cores, a meaty 200GB of SSD storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers. The middle-of-the-road tier starts at $58 per month, or $22.99 per month with a one-year commitment (renewing at $48.99 per month) ups the RAM to 6GB and the storage to 250GB. The high-end tier starts at $99.99 per month, or $79.99 per month with a one-year commitment (renewing at $95.99 per month) features 16GB of RAM and 300GB of storage. Hostinger’s cloud plans all come with a dedicated IP address, a free SSL certificate, and a 300-site capacity. Two-year and four-year plans are available for these plans, too.
That’s a good offering, but if you want truly powerful cloud hosting, 1&1 Ionos is the way to go. The co-Editors’ Choice has plans that start at $0.014 per hour (with a maximum $10 per month charge) for a single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 50GB of storage, and unlimited monthly transfers. The offerings max out at $0.486 per hour for a 16-core CPU, 48GB of RAM, 500GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers. There are managed and unmanaged options, as well as customizable plans.
DreamHost is our co-Editors’ Choice for smaller-scale sites that need a less-demanding cloud hosting service. Its plans start at $4.50 per month (for 512MB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers) and top out at $48 per month (for four CPU cores, 8GB of RAM, 100GB of storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers). Though DreamHost’s RAM and storage totals aren’t as high as those of 1&1 Ionos, you can select either Linux- or Windows-based servers. Where Hostinger excels is in the 200GB of SSD storage in the Startup plan; if you pick the four-year commitment, the $9.99 per month cost slots in quite well against the competition.
If you’re looking to get into the web hosting business yourself, but you don’t want to deal with infrastructure matters, check out Hostinger’s two reseller hosting packages: cPanel Reseller Starter and cPanel Reseller Business.
The Starter plan ($35.99 per month, with a three-month commitment) comes with 50 cPanel accounts, 50GB of storage, 500GB of month data transfers, and free SSL certificates. The Business plan ($33.99 per month, with a three-month commitment) ups the specs with 150 cPanel accounts, unlimited storage, and unlimited monthly data transfers.
As with other reseller hosting plans, Hostinger’s reseller plans let you apply your own company branding, for a personal touch. All plans come with automatic backups, too. However, Hostwinds remains the Editors’ Choice for reseller web hosting, as it offers unlimited storage and data transfers with every tier.
Hostinger has several options for building a website, including the company’s own website builder: Zyro. The free tool has many cool features, such as a logo builder, slogan builder, and business name generator.
Its coolest features, however, are its AI-powered ones. AI Writer generates unique copy based on a topic you select, while AI Heatmap provides insights on what website visitors will focus on when they visit your site. In our tests, Zyro produced truly solid starter text. We could see a company using AI Writer and tweaking the copy to suit its needs.
Making money online requires e-commerce tools, and Hostinger has them in abundance. By dipping into the Hostinger store, you can download popular and useful tools like OpenCart, PrestaShop, Simple Invoices, and ZenCart.
If you’re looking to secure your website, Hostinger has many tools that let you do just that. For example, you get a free Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate with some plans hosting plan or buy one separately. The technology secures the connection between your website and a visitor’s computer, which is vital for security (especially if you wish to sell products). You can also sign up for $19.99 Cloudflare protection, tech that safeguards your site against DDoS attacks and other threats. Note that Cloudfare is free with many Hostinger plans if you commit to at least a full year of service.
If you encounter a problem, or just have a question you’d like to ask Hostinger’s customer service squad, you can hit up the support crew via web chat on a 24/7 basis. We found the staff to be incredibly friendly and informative, and they answered our test questions with the appropriate links. Hostinger’s customer support team is the best we’ve encountered in the web hosting game, surpassing even GoDaddy‘s excellent team.
The one big caveat is that Hostinger lacks phone support. If you want to contact a human being, it’s web chat or bust. The company contends that web chat is faster and easier for customers versus phone support, so this might not be a problem for you. On the upside, Hostinger has a sizable knowledge database that answers common (and uncommon) web hosting questions. The company also has a wiki, https://hostingwiki.org/, that contains answers for many questions.
Hostinger’s plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is typical for a web hosting service. That said, DreamHost offers a sizeable 97-day money-back guarantee that gives you more time to explore its options.
Uptime is an extremely important web hosting element, as it’s a measure of your website’s availability. Sites with good uptime are considered dependable; sites with bad uptime are inaccessible and unreliable.
In our testing over a two-week period, Hostinger proved itself a reliable web hosting service. In fact, our test site didn’t go down once during the 14-day observation period. The company guarantees a 99.9% server uptime rate, so, you should be able to count on Hostinger to keep your website online.
Hostinger is a versatile web host that offers excellent uptime and customer service, as well as a mix of traditional and cloud-based hosting. It’s also easy to use, and has Minecraft servers if you want to explore the sandbox video game in a new way. However, Hostinger’s lack of dedicated servers dulls the experience a bit. If you’re looking for higher-powered dedicated web hosting, check out the Editors’ Choice award-winning AccuWeb, which has excellent dedicated hosting plans and Windows servers, as well as telephone-based support.
For more on web hosting, check out How to Create a Website and 10 Easy But Powerful SEO Tips to Boost Traffic to Your Website.
Hostinger is a well-rounded web host that features high-quality customer service and uptime. But if you need powerful, dedicated servers, you'll have to look elsewhere.
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Since 2004, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including the late, great 1UP; Laptop; Parenting; Sync; Wise Bread; and WWE. He now showcases his knowledge and skillset as the Managing Editor of PCMag’s Apps & Gaming team.
When he isn’t crunching copy or facedown in a spreadsheet, Jeff spins vinyl, plays the odd PC game, enjoys a craft brew or a shot of Mr. Black, fires up his Kindle, works the heavy bag, hops on his exercise bike, or dusts off an extremely dusty electric bass guitar.
In the past, Jeff’s appeared on a New York Comic Con panel (Geeks of Color Assemble!: Minorities in Fandom), created his own indie comic (Spin Cycle, Inc.), and put together a PAX East panel (Fragging Gamer Stereotypes). These days, Jeff’s working on a sci-fi novel.
For more than a decade, Mike Williams has covered video games, both on the industry and consumer sides. He got his start covering the business dealing of the video game industry at Gamesindustry.biz, before moving to USgamer, where he covered a host of games and game consoles as Reviews Editor. Now he comes to PCMag as an Analyst, bringing those game reviewing skills to bear. When he’s not reviewing games, Mike dives into all forms of entertainment, including comics, movies, television, anime, and the absolute wildness that is Japanese tokusatsu.
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