Hostinger Review : Is this European host any good?

Hostinger was founded in November of 2004, and they’ve become a web hosting powerhouse ever since.

They’ve shot up to over 29 million clients using Hostinger in 178 countries.

There’s a reason that 20,000 new clients sign up to use their services every day. The company allows you to create a website with complete freedom.

What is Hostinger? What Have They Done?

• In 2007, they became 000webhost.com, a free web hosting service with no advertising.
• Then, in 2011, the Hostinger web hosting brand was born. By 2012, the company had expanded internationally with a new incorporation in Cyprus.
• By May of 2014, Hostinger had already exceeded a user base of ten million people. By January of 2017, the user base had grown to 29 million people.

That’s pretty impressive growth in just over a decade. And the company boasts tons of unlimited and free features. But are all those extra perks truly unlimited and free?

We checked it out for ourselves so you wouldn’t have to, paying for a real, live plan with Hostinger. After that, we set up our own website and began to monitor its performance over the past few months.

Want to know how good (or bad) Hostinger really is? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of this web host.

Pros of Using Hostinger

Unlimited or free services don’t mean a thing if your site can’t stay online.

Our site with Hostinger had strong uptimes, fast speeds, great support, and more.

1. Bad December

Uptime is the most important thing to check out when considering a web host.

Hostinger seemed to perform pretty well in this area, until we finished December. December was horrific for our site. It experienced and uptime of 99.02%, which is about 7 hours of downtime for the month – BAD!

Last five-month average uptime

2017:

• August average uptime: 100%
• September average uptime: 99.99%
• October average uptime: 99.99%
• November average uptime: 99.92%
• December average uptime: 99.02%

2. Fast Load time – 468ms

Fast page loading times are vital for any website user’s experience with a site.

Have you ever headed to a web page only to get stuck waiting on the site to load for what seems like ages?

We all have.

And you probably didn’t stick around for long. If a website takes more than three seconds to load, 40% of people abandon it, according to Kissmetrics.

Hostinger boasts servers in the USA, Asia, and Europe (UK). And each is reportedly connected to a 1000 Mbps connection, which ensures that loading times are stable.

So how’d they fare in our tests?

Last three-month average load time 2017

• August average speed: 506ms
• September average speed: 479ms
• October average speed: 445ms
• November average speed: 441ms
• December average speed: 468ms

On average, page loading times were 468ms.

That’s 2.0x or 60% faster than the industry average of 1185ms!

3. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

Hostinger offers tons of different payment options like Visa, Paypal, Mastercard, Discover, Bitcoin, Maestro, American Express, and JCB.

They also offer a 30-day money back guarantee. So you can try them out and get your money back if the performance or experience is subpar.

However, not all products are available for refund, and some products have special refund terms, according to Hostinger’s Refund Policy.

But we’ll save that for the cons section below.

4. Tons of Customer Support Options

Customer support can either make or break a web host.

If your site is down for some reason, and you’re unable to get in touch with a customer support person ASAP, you might lose out on a ton of sales.

Hostinger doesn’t disappoint. The company offers live chat support, support tickets, and more.

Live chat is only accessible if you’re logged into a Hostinger account, though. (See con #1 for more details.)

We had to wait about 10 minutes to wait for a chat support agent, but Hostinger offered to create a ticket in the meantime.

Gytis Z. answered our questions quickly and with a great use of language.

To get in touch with Hostinger without being logged in, just click the “Contact Us” button at the bottom of their site.

Then, you’ll be taken to a page where you can choose whether you’re looking to support abuse or submit a general inquiry ticket.

To submit a ticket, you’ll have to submit your name, email, and your message.

Hostinger also has a huge knowledge base of tutorials, guides, and information where users can find answers to their questions on their own.

Users can search articles or choose between three categories:

• Website
• Domains
• General

5. Free Website Builder and Domain Name

You’ll also get a free website builder (although the popular website builders are better) with Hostinger’s services, no matter the plan you choose. There are tons of different templates to choose from, too.

Once you’ve chosen a template, you can customize everything about your pages right from Hostinger.

Free domain names are available with Premium and Business web hosting, which will save you a bit of money in the long run.

But you’ve got to pay extra for more than one domain. More on that later.

6. Easy to Use

Hostinger offers a modern, easy-to-use interface where you can find everything you need all in one location.

That way, you can track logins, update billing information, manage your domains, and monitor emails all from your dashboard.

The control panel isn’t a traditional cPanel, but large icons make it simple to find exactly what you need when you need it.

Some advanced users might miss cPanel. But otherwise, this version is great for beginners who don’t want to be a software engineer to figure out how to get a simple website up and running.

7. Unlimited Features with Premium and Business Plans

If you sign up for one of the top two Hostinger plans, you’ll gain access to unlimited email accounts for free.

And managing those accounts right from the control panel means that there’s no guesswork about spam filters, usage, and more.

You can set up autoresponders, enable or disable accounts, and forward emails sent to a customer’s domain.

Bandwidth and databases are also unlimited, unless you choose the “Single Web Hosting” plan.

Then, you’ll be limited to 10GB of disk space, 100GB of bandwidth, one MySQL database, and one email account.

Cons of Using Hostinger

There’s a lot to love about Hostinger’s uptime, loading speeds, support options, and features.

But there are some drawbacks to think about, too. Unfortunately, no perfect web host exists. They’ve all got drawbacks or warts. The trick is knowing which ones you can live with and which ones are deal breakers.

Here’s an overview of what’s not so perfect about Hostinger.

1. Must be Logged in to Access Live Chat

If a company doesn’t offer live chat, they’re seriously depriving their customers.

Hostinger’s live chat option is only available if you’re logged into a Hostinger account.

That means that if you’re not a Hostinger customer but you’ve got questions about migrating your site over to them, you can’t chat live with a customer service representative.

We’re glad that Hostinger offers live chat, but it would make more sense if they offered it to everyone. To access live chat, navigate to your Control Panel or Dashboard and click on the dragon, which says “Need Help?”

Then, click the “let’s chat” button to connect with customer service.

A staff member should connect with you in a matter of minutes.

2. Industry-Standard Pricing Tricks

Tons of web hosting companies promote their prices in a false light.

Hostinger is one of them.

For example, if you want to take advantage of the awesome $3.49 per month deal for Premium web hosting, you’ll have to commit to Hostinger for 48 months.

If you don’t want to be stuck with the same web host for two years, you’ll have to pay as much as $8.84 for just three months of service.

Unfortunately, there’s no true option to pay month-to-month, either.

So the low advertised prices might look good. But unfortunately, it’s too good to be true.

3. No Traditional cPanel

Hostinger has created their own control panel, making their web hosting easier to use than most.

But if you’re already accustomed to using a traditional control panel, like cPanel, you might not like their dashboard.

So advanced users might not love this part.

4. Nonstandard payment terms

Hostinger’s Refund Policy reveals a few exceptions to their “no questions asked money-back guarantee.”

Here are the products available for refund under standard terms:

• Hosting (all plans, except first payment after Free Trial)
• Domain Transfers (.eu transfers are an exception. EURid charges a non-refundable transfer fee. If the transfer fails for any reason, the customer must start over and pay the transfer fee again. .es transfers are also non-refundable.)
• SSL Certificates

Redemption fees, domain name renewals, and privacy protection are not refundable.

Most new domain name registrations are only refundable if canceled and processed within four days of registration, not 30 days.

So keep these in mind before moving forward.

The following ccTLD registries are not eligible for a refund, however:

• .be
• .br (including .com.br and .net.br)
• .ca
• .ch
• .cz
• .dk
• .es (including .com.es, .nom.es, and .org.es)
• .eu
• .fr
• .hu
• .it
• .nl
• .nu
• .pl
• .ru (including .com.ru, .net.ru, and .org.ru)
• .se

5. Must Pay for Extra Domains

One domain name registration is free for users who opt for the Premium or Business shared hosting plans.

However, additional domain registrations aren’t free. They’re definitely affordable, though.

Domains with the extensions “.com” and “.net” are under $10 per year, while a “.xyz” domain is only $0.99 per year.

A “.asia” extension will cost you the most, at $17.99 per year.

If you choose one of the two higher plans, you’ll get unlimited subdomains, but only one free domain name.

You can also renew an expired domain name at no extra cost if the domain is still in the Renewal Grace Period.

Afterward, you can still redeem the domain until day 67 with a redemption fee of $53, according to Hostinger’s Expired Registration Recovery Policy.

Hostinger Pricing, Hosting Plans & Quick Facts

Here’s a quick overview of the Hostinger plans that are available:

Personal free domains are included in Premium & Business web hosting plans!

Single Web Hosting: The cheapest available plan. You’ll pay as little as $2.15 per month for 48 months.

With this plan, you’ll get:

• 1 Website
• 10 GB Disk Space
• 100 GB Bandwidth
• 1 MySQL Database
• 1 FTP User
• 1 Email Account
• Easy Website Builder

Premium Web Hosting: This plan is the middle of the line. You’ll pay as little as $3.49 per month for 48 months.

With this plan, you’ll get:

• Unlimited Number of Websites
• Unlimited SSD Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited MySQL Databases
• Unlimited FTP Users
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Easy Website Builder
• 3X WordPress Optimized Speed
• Free Domain Name (with annual plan)

Business Web Hosting: This plan is the top of the line. You’ll pay as little as $7.95 per month for 48 months.

With this plan, you’ll get:

• Unlimited Number of Websites
• Unlimited SSD Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited MySQL Databases
• Unlimited FTP Users
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Easy Website builder
• 5X WordPress Optimized Speed
• Free Domain Name (with annual plan)
• Daily Backups
• Deluxe Live Support
• 2X Processing Power & Memory
• Free SSL Certificate to secure customer data & increase SEO rankings

Do We Recommend Hostinger?

Yes.

The entry-level, Single Web Hosting plan doesn’t offer many unlimited perks or free features.

But the Premium and Business Web Hosting plans have got a lot to offer.

Uptime and page loading speeds are faster than the industry average, and you’ll get your money back within 30 days if you’re unhappy with Hostinger.

Customer support is responsive, knowledgeable, and friendly.

We couldn’t recommend these plans more.