What can you learn about Hostinger from this review?
Without a shadow of a doubt, Hostinger has proven itself to be the best WordPress Hosting in India in all regards, be it affordable prices, performance, or website speed.
Right now in India, all of a sudden people are exploring web host options as Siteground has dramatically increased the pricing of its web hosting plans.
Hostinger is at your rescue if you’re looking to migrating to an affordable host that is safe & fast.
For a newbie blogger especially it is very important to explore avenues for saving costs on the website. Because either way the website is not gonna be monetized anytime soon overspending on the host in the meantime doesn’t seem advisable.
In this Hostinger WordPress Hosting review you will learn why despite being so cheap this also turns out to be great; i.e., even if you are considering to purchase for a huge website. Keep reading, it’s Uptime test numbers will baffle you.
| Verdict | Best & Cheapest WordPress Hosting in India |
| Speed | 0.437s (TTFB) |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.022s |
| Uptime | 99.98% (Sept 2019 – Dec 2023) |
| Support | 24/7 Live Chat |
| Features | 100 GB Bandwidth, 10 GB Storage, Website Builder, 1 Email Account |
| Plans | Shared Cloud & VPS |
| Site Transfer | Single Free Site Transfer |
| Pricing | Starts at ₹149 per month |
| Server Location | USA, Asia, and Europe |
| Our Verdict | 9/10 |
A Quick Glance at Hostinger India Plans
It is very important to check the uptime of the web host you are choosing to go with. A web host with poor uptime can turn out disastrous for your website in terms of losing traffic.
Just imagine if you choose a web host with poor uptime for your e-commerce store. You can lose a lot of sales just because of poor uptime that host has.
That isn’t the case with Hostinger, the uptime is pretty solid; in fact Hostinger offers 99.9% uptime guarantee and it holds true trust me, I have data.
Here’s the last 6-month breakdown of uptime
April 2020 – 99.98%
May 2020 – 99.18%
June 2020 – 99.81%
July 2020 – 99.93%
August 2020 – 99.96%
September 2020 – 100%
Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?
Earlier when Decode Digital Market was hosted on Godaddy I could never go below the threshold of 7 seconds and that used to frustrate me a lot. The server response times were the poorest, like Pagespeed Insights used to flag that as an issue on my face.
It always used to point me in one direction alone and that was that I need to shift to a better host and so I executed on that.
Now after shifting to Hostinger hosting service; you can see how well the site in scoring in terms on performance and also core web vitals metrics.
Important thing to consider here is the fact that I have checked site speed from Canada’s Server Location and yet the performance of the webpage seems fantastic.
Another important thing to consider here is the fact that there are literally 11 images on this webpage that can drastically affect the page load time and yet the speed is fantastic, if I demonstrate a pagespeed test on a page having hardly 1 or 2 images then no doubt speed will appear fast, but in this page there are 11 images and yet the host can withstand all the requests that would be sent to download the images while search engine bots tries to crawl and render the webpage. The Hostinger India speed test results seems to show that from the hosting’s end the site does well for the performance. Which means that the server response time is pretty good.
It is incredibly important to optimize the website for high page speed more so in 2023 because Google is going ahead with Core Web Vitals that judges the website on 3 crucial metrics they are Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay & Cumulative Layout Shift
A website taking more than 3 seconds to load can make 40% of users abandon your website this is all the more reason to focus on website speed optimization.
In 2023 you have got to be ready with a website that receives green signals on core web vitals because Google will consider these as ranking signals.
I am not saying that migrating to a better host would alone boost up your website speed; there are tons of other optimizations that are required but choosing a good host is surely a factor that results in increased pagespeed and a better TTFB (time to first byte) that is the reason people look for best web host otherwise everyone would instead look for the cheapest web host. Quality matters.
To help you optimize for speed Hostinger is a partner of the Litespeed Cache plugin; use this plugin to skyrocket the speed of your website.
I was sold on two things, flexible payment options and a 30-day money-back guarantee. I literally bought it using Paytm UPI payment options.
A lot of web hosting platforms have credit cards as their only payment option or in addition, they will have Paypal to make payment.
But Hostinger India understands the trouble with payment options we have and hence here you will find various payment options like Credit cards, Debit Cards, UPI Payment, Paypal & Netbanking.
The 30-day money-back guarantee is another thing to feast your eyes upon. Web Hosting service is seen less as an expenditure that you bore and more as an investment that you make.
If there is a chance that you can withdraw investment within 30 days then that seems like an opportunity that you would want to take.
Since Hostinger has a proven track record of delivering a great experience to its users that’s why they have taken this bold step to offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Hostinger offers customer support on the website with a live chat application and it offers this support in multi-lingual languages.
It is important to see this feature in a prospective host company because you may need their help urgently at any time. Like maybe your site crashed or something when this happens you want to make sure that you can reach them ASAP.
The Live Chat functionality is only accessible to logged-in users. To chat find this icon in the bottom or contact page
Not that I recommend this option since I am a WordPress Fanatic; the suggestion would be to of course build your website on WordPress. Hostinger happens to come with this value-added functionality.
With their free website builder, you can choose from the various template and customize the website just the way you want it to appear as it goes live
I like this aspect quite a lot about Hostinger, their User Interface is quite impressive and super easy to use.
Unlike some old web hosting providers; Hostinger’s website user interface is quite modern in a way that makes it easier for you to navigate thereby offering a fantastic ease of use. The UI is built keeping human behavior in mind.
After logging in; in the website header, you will find pages like hosting, emails, domains, servers, SSL, Billing, Help, and store this is amazing because regardless of which page or location you are at the above mentioned pages are just a click away.
If you are thinking long-term and in terms of expansion then definitely go with the premium plan. The exclusive features that you access are simply unmissable.
Here’s what you get in the premium web hosting plan
- You can add 100 websites
- 100 email accounts
- The host would handle unlimited monthly visitors
- WordPress acceleration (LSCWP)
- Free SSL Certificate (Lifetime Value)
- Free Domain (₹1,089 per year value)
- 2X allocated resources
- Unlimited Bandwidth
In the premium plan, the security features are more advanced as you get 2X allocated resources and lifetime SSL Value.
If your core business caters to multiple countries that means you are gonna have to set up multiple websites, in that case, it makes sense to take up a plan that allows you to connect multiple websites; in Hostinger’s Premium plan you can add as many as 100 websites.
Does your website receive +10,000 visitors a month? If your answer is yes then you need this plan as it can manage unlimited users.
It would be a shame to lose potential traffic just because you chose a hosting plan that couldn’t handle more traffic.
While it does seem that they have deployed strategic pricing to make users take prolonged plans it does however turn out to be an even better deal.
For example, I grabbed the deal on Independence day and got a whopping 70% Discount and this offer is still on by the way.
One smart way to save money on web hosting is to always buy for more years rather than buying it for let’s say just 1 year. In the long run, you save a lot of money. If you’re confident that you will run a website for many years then why not buy it for more years at once? If the host turns out to be bad, you can anyways ask for a refund within 30 days.
This way you save more money in the long run, think about it.
As you can see in the above image; if you purchase the premium web hosting plan for 4 years, you have to pay only ₹ 6,740/-
However, if you buy the hosting for just 1 year
Then you pay nearly half the price of the 4 years plan. It just doesn’t make sense to buy it for 1 year because the pricing isn’t set evenly.
They are focusing on users that want to stay with them for long and as a result, they are rewarding them with crazy discounts.
If you’re a blogger that is just starting out and wants hosting for 1 website only then in that case I would highly recommend you to go with basic shared hosting plans like Single Web Hosting Plan. It’s more affordable for you.
The Single Web Hosting Plan for 4 years costs you just ₹ 3,342/- I mean that’s an insane discount.
This plan is also highly recommended for Local Business Website because they anyway don’t generate traffic +10,000 in a month; this plan is suitable for them. This in particular makes Hostinger a perfect Small Business Web Hosting.
This is what I love about Hostinger the most, I am using Hostinger Starter plan and as a result I get weekly backups.
Recently, I upgraded my website PHP version to the latest and that crashed my site I consulted with support and they suggested to restore backup and since Hostinger maintains weekly backups I was able to get my site back up and running.
If you are a huge e-commerce business or a large business that can be affected by a day’s delay then I strongly recommed you to go with Hostinger’s Business Plan because it maintains daily backups for you.
If any issue occurs on your website you can restore yesterday’s backup.
And restoring backups isn’t technical at all, it is very simple depending on the size of website it will restore your website in no time.
Everything that you have read so far would make you want to love this European Web Hosting Company, but life is not all rainbow and sunshine.
There are cons to Hostinger also, but it’s not that severe that you should drop the plan to purchase. At least I haven’t felt the need to cancel my 4-year hosting plan.
Anyways, let’s take a look at the cons of using this web host
This can be frustrating for the fact that you cannot chat with the support without being logged in.
But then getting logged in isn’t that big of a hassle because to log in as Hostinger has Google & Facebook Login APIs just in case you created your account that way.
You can chat with them even without logging but to do so you are gonna have to go to the Customer Care page that can be found in the footer all the way down.
That will take you to the page and there you will have to click on general inquiries and after that, you will have to fill up the contact information like name & email to begin the chat.
If you have long been a CPanel user then you might miss that interface, Hostinger has it’s own HPanel instead of CPanel. The look and feel are different which might confuse the new users. It takes some time to get acquainted with it.
On the flip side, the interface is easier to use than that of CPanel so there’s a silver lining right there.
The registration for 1st domain for premium and business plans users is free for shared and well as Hostinger cloud hosting plans.
However to add more domains a little cost will have to be incurred
Domains with the extensions “.com” and “.net” are under $10 per year, while a “.xyz”, “.online”, “.tech” domains are only $0.99 per year.
A quick glance at Hostinger pricing plans
A Big YES!
I couldn’t be happier for making the decision to buy Hostinger Hosting. I mean what’s not to like about it?
It is affordable, uptime is fantastic, you have three server locations to choose one of which happens to be from Asia which sorts out things for an Indian Website, website speed is awesome and support is great.
Even Neil Patel is recommending Hostinger in his blog ranking it at #5 as Low-Cost Shared Hosting options for Startups
Hostinger FAQ
1. WHICH IS BETTER GODADDY OR HOSTINGER?
Hostinger is better than Godaddy on every terms, it’s uptime is great, website runs much more faster on Hostinger and you get a Free SSL Certificate
2. WHERE ARE HOSTINGER SERVERS LOCATED?
Hostinger Servers are located in USA, Europe & Asia that’s what makes it a good choice in India because you can take Asia server and enjoy great speed
3. DOES HOSTINGER HAVE A CPANEL?
No, Hostinger doesn’t have a CPanel they have developed their own custom control panel and it’s called HPanel.
4. CAN I CONNECT WEBSITE TO CLOUDFLARE INSTEAD OF LET’S ENCRYPT ON HOSTINGER?
Yes, by default Hostinger comes with Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate but there’s also an option to switch to Cloudflare SSL
Kunjal Chawhan founder of Decode Digital Market, a Digital Marketer by profession, and a Digital Marketing Niche Blogger by passion, here to share my knowledge
Hi Kunjal,
About the free domain, if I buy plan for say 2 years from Hostinger, is it free only for 1st year and need to pay renewal charges from 2nd year? OR it is free for the duration we buy the Hosting plan?
Hello Amit,
Good Morning!
To answer your question, the free domain is for one year only regardless of how long you want to purchase the hosting.
I hope that answers you question 🙂
Hi Kunjal,
Can you please tell me the steps, How can I post a Web Hosting Review article on your site. Could you please tell me?
Regards,
Divya
Send your pitch to kunjal@decodedigitalmarket.com
Hi Kunjal,
Thanks for providing such amazing content. I also personally use Hostinger and found it really beneficial.
Cheers,
Nancy