Dubbed as one of the cheapest shared hosting providers available in the market today, Hostinger is a serious contender for hosting your website. Many people who started out in the internet industry early might have known Hostinger as 000webhost.com. This was a free web hosting service that had no advertising.
Since then it has added paid plans, had a rebranding and now has a user base of about 29 million people. This is pretty impressive growth. There are lots of unlimited and free features that are also included with the app. But is Hostinger a great option when it comes to hosting your website? In this article, we will look at this question.
Hostinger Overview
Hostinger offers a wide range of services from shared servers to cloud hosting. It has a lot of deals that are on offer too. If you’re not looking for website hosting, and would rather just host your email, then you can use Hostinger as well.
Hostinger has had a few changes over the year. In 2007, it was known as 000webhost.com but changed that in about 2011. So while they’re not one of the oldest hosting platforms in the industry, they have the knowledge and skills that have allowed them to grow into a reputable platform.
Why Use Hostinger?
Hostinger has many features that might make you want to use them. For one, they have a fast loading time. At just 345ms, they’re one of the fastest hosts that is available. When every moment in time counts with performance, this can be a really useful benefit. Remember that rank is partly determined by website speed and that for every second your website takes to load, you’re losing visitors and revenue.
So, with a speed like that, you can expect your website to see better ranking and higher levels of traffic and conversions without a problem. And the speed isn’t just for US customers. Hostinger has servers across the world, including in Asia and the UK. Therefore, loading times across the world are fast and this is great for those businesses that want to reach an international audience.
Hostinger also has some of the best prices on the market. You can start with one website hosted for just $0.99 a month. This is rather limited, but getting into some of the higher-priced shared hosting packages isn’t going to be expensive either. Their Business Shared hosting is only $3.99 per month for the first year and then $15.99 per month after 12 months. This gives you up to 100 websites on a server and lots of features to take your website to the next level.
If you’re not happy with the service you’re getting either, you can claim your money back within 30 days of signing up. There are many ways you can pay as well with Visa, PayPal, Mastercard, Bitcoin and other options accepted.
Support with Hostinger is also one of the best for hosts. Not only is there a great live chat feature for those who are logged in, it is multilingual, which means that you can speak to someone in your own language, not just English. This is great for those hosting websites from European, Asian or another country that doesn’t speak English. You can understand what is being said far better and this can help you get to the root of the problem and solve the problem with ease.
Many plans also have a free website builder and domain name connected to them. This takes the cost out for you, making your project easier to get started. The website builder is easy to use and works like many other popular website plans. There are lots of templates that you can use to speed up the development of your website.
Hostinger also has a great interface that is going to be simple to read and understand. You will find everything that you need easily and it is accessible. You can track logins, update information, manage domains and monitor emails from one simple dashboard and not waste time. It isn’t the most traditional cPanel on offer, but it is something that many people, beginners included can easily use.
What are the Negatives of Using Hostinger?
There are a lot of features that are really good with Hostinger, but there are also some aspects that you need to be aware of. The first is their inconsistency with uptime. While the majority of the time they have good uptime, but in 2019/2020 there were some issues that meant their uptime dropped from an average of 99.9% to 99.74%. This is a big drop in terms of time being down from previous periods. Whether or not this is just a glitch will need to be determined at another time.
Another problem with Hostinger is the cPanel isn’t traditional. It has its own control panel, which can be good for some, but if you’re accustomed to the cPanel this might make it a little bewildering. And therefore a few experienced developers have often disliked this.
In addition, payment terms are a little less standard than usual. There are different things that are/aren’t included within the money-back guarantee and this can be confusing.
But apart from that, there isn’t much that Hostinger is really bad at.
Final Word: Is Hostinger a Good Choice?
Hostinger is a great option for some people and not for others. If you’re used to the cPanel and can’t believe that you’re going to get used to another system then Hostinger is not the right platform for you. At the same time, Hostinger has usually had good uptime, but in recent months this has dropped a little, but generally, their uptime is average within the industry.
For services, they offer really good speed, especially for shared servers. In addition, they have data centers across the world that can help you build your website. Their pricing plan is also kind. There are pricing points for all stages of a business with plans to match. Therefore, Hostinger can be a great option for many people, especially those who have never built or maintained a website before.
