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Hosting review

Hostinger review for budget-conscious UK small businesses

Low-cost shared, WordPress, cloud and VPS hosting with the hPanel control panel, AI site tools, a London data centre and free migrations, sold on long prepaid terms.

4.0/5
Shared hosting is advertised from £1.49/mo for Single on a 48-month prepaid term, renewing at £7.99/mo, with Premium at £2.99 renewing at £10.99 and Unlimited at £3.99 renewing at £13.99; all prices exclude VAT — confirm current figures with Hostinger.

Reviewed by UK Business Stack Editorial Team · Last reviewed · Hosting review

Independent editorial assessment based on workflow fit, UK small business suitability and implementation risk. Methodology notes are available on each category hub and comparison page.

Documentation-based analysis: this review is built from official Hostinger product, pricing and help documentation. No live Hostinger trial was run for it.

Affiliate relationships do not determine our editorial conclusions, ratings or recommendations.

Editorial methodology and independence standardsAffiliate disclosure

Quick verdict

Should Hostinger be on your shortlist?

Strongest use case
A UK sole trader, new business or side project that needs a working website or small store at the lowest possible headline cost and will not put a revenue-critical operation on the cheapest plan.
Main limitation
The advertised price depends on a 48-month upfront payment and roughly triples on renewal, while the cheapest plans carry weekly backups, tight resource caps and email sending limits. The cheap number is real, but it is a long-commitment, low-support, lower-resource product.
Who should investigate it
Budget-sensitive owners, startups and hobby or brochure sites that mainly need hosting to exist affordably and are comfortable self-serving through a panel, with chat support as the safety net.
When another approach makes more sense
Sites where downtime, slow pages or lost emails cost money, businesses that need predictable long-run pricing and generous resources, or operations that need phone support and daily backups — SiteGround, Cloudways or a premium WordPress host are better fits there.

Product at a glance

Hostinger in one view

Product type
Low-cost shared, WordPress, managed cloud and self-managed VPS hosting sold as self-service subscription hosting
Primary use
Get a website, blog or small store online cheaply, with an approachable panel and a path to VPS if technical needs grow
Best suited to
UK sole traders, startups, side projects and small businesses whose website is useful but not commercially critical
Pricing model
Deeply discounted introductory prices on long prepaid terms (commonly 48 months), renewing at the regular rate; all prices exclude VAT
Deployment and tooling
hPanel per-account control panel, one-click WordPress, an AI Builder in manual and agentic modes, staging on WordPress plans, SSH on some plans
Data centres
Multiple locations including a London data centre, selectable at setup; personal data may be processed in the UK, Netherlands, Lithuania or Cyprus
Support
24/7 live chat, WhatsApp and email/ticket support with an AI first response; no phone support
UK relevance
GBP pricing excluding VAT, a London data centre, a UK legal entity (Hostinger UK Limited) and a refund policy that excludes .uk domain registrations
Editorial rating
4.0 out of 5, assessed on pricing logic, feature depth at the price, implementation effort, support, UK fit and plan transparency
Affiliate relationship
This page uses an affiliate link — see the disclosure at the foot of the page

Definition

What is Hostinger?

Hostinger is a web hosting provider built around price and simplicity. Its core job is the same as any host: run the server that holds your website so you do not have to. You choose a plan, install WordPress or use the site builder, and Hostinger handles the web server, PHP, SSL, routine updates and the control panel. It is aimed at people launching something quickly and cheaply rather than at teams optimising a high-traffic estate.

The product spans a wider range than its budget reputation suggests. Shared and WordPress plans (Single, Premium and Unlimited) cover one to three sites and simple to growing workloads; managed cloud plans add dedicated resources; and KVM VPS plans give root access for those who want to run their own stack. The whole family is managed through hPanel, Hostinger's own control panel, and sits alongside an AI Builder that can generate a site from a prompt in agentic mode or from a template in manual mode.

What Hostinger is not matters for the buying decision. It is not a managed WordPress specialist like Kinsta or WP Engine, and it does not offer the depth of support or the plan transparency of a mid-market host such as SiteGround. It is also not a fully managed cloud platform in the Cloudways sense — its cloud plans are still fixed-resource subscriptions, and VPS is self-managed. UK Business Stack classifies Hostinger as the entry tier of the hosting stack: the right tool when the goal is to be online affordably, and a poor fit when the website is the business.

Stack position

How Hostinger fits into a small-business stack

Hostinger sits at the bottom of the website stack, holding the server while everything else — WordPress, the theme, the store, analytics and email — runs on top. Its role is to be cheap and good enough rather than to be a hub, so the integrations that matter are the practical ones: a domain and DNS, free SSL, a CDN, and email either through the bundled mailboxes or a separate provider.

Because Hostinger also sells domains, email marketing (Hostinger Reach), ecommerce and the AI Builder, there is a pull towards keeping more of the small-business stack inside one account. That can be convenient and cheap for a sole trader, but it also concentrates risk and lock-in in a single budget provider, and the bundled email in particular is not a substitute for a dedicated email platform.

The practical stack question is therefore about criticality. If the site is a brochure or a side project, hosting it cheaply alongside a domain and a couple of mailboxes is sensible. If the site takes payments, captures leads or carries the brand, the savings on a budget host are usually outweighed by the cost of slow pages, thin support and limited backups — and the stack should place a more robust host underneath.

  1. Domain and DNSHostinger or an external registrar
  2. HostingerhPanel, WordPress, AI Builder, SSL, CDN, email
  3. Site and storeWordPress, builder site or small ecommerce
  4. Business toolsEmail, analytics and marketing elsewhere
Hostinger holds the website and a lightweight set of extras; the business tools above it usually stay separate.
Support-led small-business hosts

SiteGround costs more but offers staging from higher tiers, 24/7 phone support, a UK phone line and better plan transparency. It suits sites that need to be managed rather than just hosted.

Other budget hosts

Bluehost and IONOS compete on similar entry pricing with different trade-offs. IONOS is strong on cheap domains and bundled extras; Bluehost is WordPress-recommended but US-centric for shared hosting.

Managed cloud platforms

Cloudways lets you choose an infrastructure provider and scale vertically, which is more flexible but more hands-on and does not bundle email. It suits growing sites beyond shared hosting.

Email providers

Hostinger mailboxes carry hard sending limits. Even budget-conscious businesses that rely on email should plan for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or a dedicated email platform.

Core workflow

How Hostinger works

The flow below reflects Hostinger's documented product behaviour and published help-centre guidance. UK Business Stack has not run a live Hostinger account for this review, so treat these steps as documented behaviour rather than independently tested behaviour.

Step 1

Choose a plan and a term

Pick Single, Premium or Unlimited, or a cloud plan, and select a term. The lowest prices require 48 months paid upfront, so the plan's total cost matters more than the monthly figure.

Step 2

Select a data centre and set up

Choose a server location, including London for UK audiences. Register or connect a domain — free for one year on Premium and above — and point DNS at Hostinger.

Step 3

Build or install the site

Use one-click WordPress, the AI Builder in manual drag-and-drop mode, or the agentic mode for prompt-driven generation, then apply a template or theme and add content.

Step 4

Migrate an existing site if needed

Request a free migration through the migration team. WordPress moves are typically quick; closed builder platforms such as Wix, Squarespace and Shopify cannot be migrated, and only five requests can be active at once.

Step 5

Configure SSL, backups and email

Free SSL is installed automatically. Confirm the backup schedule for your plan — weekly on Single and Premium, daily on Unlimited and above — and create mailboxes in line with the plan's mailbox count and daily sending cap.

Step 6

Manage, update and scale

Use hPanel to monitor resource use and update the site. As traffic or requirements grow, upgrade from shared to cloud hosting or move to a VPS, noting that the plan tier determines resources, backup frequency and mailbox count.

Capabilities

Key features that actually matter

1

Low-cost shared and WordPress hosting

Single, Premium and Unlimited cover one to unlimited websites with 10 GB to 50 GB storage and published CPU, RAM and inode limits. WordPress hosting uses the same plans with WordPress-specific tuning, one-click staging and a LiteSpeed-based stack.

Trade-off: Unlimited is subject to a fair use policy and inode limits. The cheapest plans carry tight CPU, RAM and bandwidth allocations, so a site that outgrows them has to move up rather than simply being throttled gracefully.

2

hPanel control panel

Hostinger's own control panel covers domains, email, SSL, databases, file management, backups and site settings in a modern interface designed for non-specialists.

Trade-off: It is not cPanel, so scripts, guides and migration tools that assume cPanel paths may need adapting. Some advanced server settings are only exposed on VPS plans.

3

AI Builder

A single builder with a manual drag-and-drop mode and a prompt-driven agentic mode that can generate a site and backend. Manual mode is included with most web and cloud plans, while the agentic mode needs a separate credit-based subscription.

Trade-off: The agentic builder is a paid add-on rather than part of the hosting price, and a generated site still needs editing, SEO work and content. It is a fast start, not a finished business website.

4

Backups and restore

Weekly backups on Single and Premium (retained about six weeks) and daily backups on Unlimited and above (retained about seven days), with on-demand backups available on Cloud Startup. Restores are performed from hPanel.

Trade-off: The cheapest plans get only weekly copies, and manual/on-demand backups require Unlimited or higher, or a paid add-on. A site that changes daily on a weekly backup can lose almost a week of work.

5

Email hosting

Bundled mailboxes scale with the plan — one on Single, two per website on Premium, five per website on Unlimited (free for a year) and ten per website on cloud plans — with larger standalone Business Email plans available.

Trade-off: Hosting-plan email is sent through a server limit of ten messages a minute and a maximum of 100 a day, after which sending is temporarily disabled. That makes it unsuitable for anything beyond light personal or business correspondence.

6

Free migrations

The vendor advertises free, effectively unlimited website migrations handled by its team, with WordPress moves typically completed quickly and cPanel-based moves taking longer.

Trade-off: Closed builder platforms cannot be migrated, only one request per website is allowed, a maximum of five requests can be active at once, and bulk migration is not permitted. DNS propagation can cause brief downtime after the move.

7

Security and compliance

Free auto-installed SSL, a web application firewall on managed plans, continuous malware scanning with automatic removal, DDoS filtering and enhanced DDoS protection on higher tiers. The vendor trust centre lists ISO 27001:2022, GDPR and PCI DSS 4.0.1, and offers a DPA covering UK GDPR.

Trade-off: Certification applies to the platform and its controls, not to your site's own security. WordPress sites still depend on updates, plugins and passwords, and HIPAA is explicitly not supported.

8

VPS and root access

KVM VPS plans offer full root access, dedicated vCPU and RAM, NVMe storage and a choice of data centres, giving a path to run custom applications beyond shared hosting.

Trade-off: VPS is self-managed. Patching, security hardening and backups become the customer's responsibility, which is a meaningful jump in effort from shared hosting.

9

Support

24/7 live chat, WhatsApp and email/ticket support, with an AI agent handling the first response and human specialists joining as needed. The vendor claims the agent resolves a large share of interactions independently.

Trade-off: There is no phone support, email replies can take up to a business day, and human support is primarily English with machine translation for other languages. For a business in trouble, chat-only support is a real limitation.

Best use cases

When Hostinger earns its place

A first or side-project website

A sole trader, hobby or new venture that needs a site online for very little money and is happy to prepay and self-serve. The AI Builder shortens the path from idea to published page.

A low-stakes brochure or local site

A small business whose website is informative rather than transactional can host affordably, accepting weekly backups and lighter support in exchange for the lowest price.

A starter WordPress blog

A content site on a tight budget fits Premium or Unlimited, with staging and daily backups from Unlimited upward, provided traffic stays within the plan's resource guidance.

A simple online store

A small store with modest transaction volumes can run on shared or cloud hosting, with the ecommerce add-on billed separately. Higher-volume shops should look at more robust platforms.

A technically comfortable owner wanting a cheap VPS

Someone who can manage a server themselves can use a KVM VPS with root access for a small application at a low monthly cost, taking on patching and security.

Agency or freelancer testing ideas

The low entry cost and free migrations make Hostinger practical for prototypes, campaign sites and client experiments where price is the main constraint.

Buyer fit

Who should consider Hostinger?

Price-driven UK small businesses

Owners whose website is useful but not commercially critical, and who would rather pay little and self-serve than pay more for managed hand-holding.

New businesses and side projects

Startups that need a presence now and can revisit hosting once revenue justifies better resources, support and backups.

Buyers who can prepay and plan ahead

Someone willing to pay 48 months upfront to access the lowest price and model the renewal before committing will get the most from the pricing structure.

Users of WordPress and the AI Builder

Businesses that want a quick build and a familiar WordPress or builder experience, with staging and daily backups on the higher shared plans.

Those wanting a path to VPS

Technical owners who may eventually need root access or custom software can grow from shared to VPS within the same provider.

Charities and community groups on tiny budgets

Where the goal is simply to be online affordably, the entry pricing and free domain on Premium and above cover a lot of ground.

Buyer fit

Who should probably not choose Hostinger?

Revenue-critical websites

If downtime, slow pages or a lost email costs sales, the cheapest plans are the wrong place to host. Dedicated resources, better backups and phone support belong elsewhere.

Businesses needing predictable long-run pricing

Renewals are several times the introduction and plan structures shift between promotions. Buyers who want stable annual costs should compare mid-market hosts.

Anyone who needs phone support

There is no phone support. Businesses that want to speak to someone during an outage should choose a host that offers it.

Sites changing daily on the cheapest plan

Weekly backups on Single and Premium mean up to a week of content can be lost. Frequent editors should be on Unlimited or above, or use a different host.

Heavy email senders

The 100-a-day server sending cap rules out newsletters and high-volume transactional mail. A dedicated email platform is required.

Large multi-site or high-traffic estates

Shared and fixed cloud plans are not built for heavy, concurrent or multi-region workloads; an unmanaged VPS fleet or a managed cloud platform is a better architecture.

Alternative approach

Hostinger vs doing it another way

Hosting is a market where the headline price hides the real cost. Before choosing a budget host, it is worth teasing apart the alternatives by what they actually demand of you.

Ordinary alternatives to Hostinger, compared on what each route actually involves.
Alternative routeWhat it involves in practice
A support-led mid-market hostSiteGround costs materially more but offers 24/7 phone support, staging and clearer plan distinctions. It suits sites that need to be managed, not merely hosted, and where the price difference is small next to the cost of an outage.
A premium managed WordPress hostKinsta, WP Engine and similar hosts optimise heavily for WordPress performance and developer workflow. They cost more from day one but remove the discounted-first-year complexity and often include staging and daily backups.
A managed cloud platformCloudways lets you select an infrastructure provider and scale vertically, which suits growing sites that have outgrown shared hosting but do not want to run a server. It is more hands-on and does not bundle email.
A website builder with hosting includedSquarespace, Wix and similar bundle the site and the hosting. They are quick for a template site but harder to leave and less flexible than WordPress, and Hostinger cannot migrate a closed builder site for you.
An unmanaged VPS or cloud instanceThe cheapest raw capacity is an unmanaged server, but the true cost is patching, hardening, caching and backups — all of which become your job. This only makes sense with the skills to run it.

Rollout

Implementation and adoption

  1. Compare total term cost, not monthly price

    The lowest monthly figures require a 48-month upfront payment. Compare the total you pay in year one and over the term, and write down the renewal rate, before deciding which plan looks cheapest.

  2. Match the backup policy to your editing habits

    Weekly backups on Single and Premium are fine for a static site and dangerous for one that changes daily. If you edit often, budget for Unlimited or above, or choose a host with daily backups on every tier.

  3. Choose the data centre at setup

    Select London if your audience is mainly UK. Changing location later can be disruptive, and the processing locations named in the privacy policy include the UK, Netherlands, Lithuania and Cyprus.

  4. Plan email separately

    The server sending cap of ten a minute and 100 a day is easy to hit. Use bundled mailboxes only for light correspondence and arrange a dedicated email provider for anything more.

  5. Check migration eligibility first

    Free migration covers WordPress and cPanel-style sites, but not closed builder platforms. Confirm your current platform is movable, and remember only five requests can be active at once.

  6. Test the AI Builder against a real template

    The agentic builder is a paid extra. If you plan to use it, budget for it separately and trial the output against a normal template before committing a whole site to it.

  7. Set a renewal reminder

    Because renewals rise sharply and are easy to miss amidst promotional pricing, diarise the renewal date and review the plan and price a month beforehand.

UK context

UK small-business considerations

  • GBP pricing excluding VAT. The UK storefront bills in pounds and displays prices excluding tax, with UK VAT at 20% applied. VAT-registered businesses can enter a VAT number for cross-border treatments, but VAT already charged is not refundable.
  • A London data centre. Hostinger offers a UK (London) location across web, cloud and VPS hosting, selectable at setup, which helps UK-visitor performance. Processing may still occur in the Netherlands, Lithuania or Cyprus per the privacy policy.
  • UK legal entity and DPA. Hostinger UK Limited provides the UK contracting entity, and the vendor publishes a Data Processing Addendum covering UK GDPR and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
  • Support hours without a UK phone line. Support is 24/7 by chat, WhatsApp and ticket, which covers UK hours, but there is no UK phone line and human support is primarily English. Businesses that value a phone call during an incident should weigh this.
  • UK domain refunds are restricted. The refund policy excludes .uk and .co.uk registrations, domain renewals and completed transfers. If a free or paid UK domain is part of the deal, treat its fee as non-refundable.
  • Certification and compliance posture. The vendor trust centre lists ISO 27001:2022, GDPR and PCI DSS 4.0.1, and HIPAA is explicitly not offered. These are platform-level certifications; your site's own security and compliance remain your responsibility.

Buying guidance

Pricing and value considerations

Hostinger's pricing is built on deeply discounted introductory rates tied to long prepaid terms. As displayed on the UK site in October 2026 and excluding VAT, the headline shared prices were Single at £1.49 a month renewing at £7.99, Premium at £2.99 renewing at £10.99 and Unlimited at £3.99 renewing at £13.99, based on a 48-month upfront payment. Cloud Startup was shown at £7.99 renewing at £20.99, and KVM VPS plans start around £4.99 a month renewing near £10.99.

The critical commercial point is that the cheap monthly figure is a function of paying 48 months in advance. Over a multi-year horizon the renewal rate is what you actually pay, so a fair comparison against SiteGround or IONOS is the two-to-three-year cost, including the email and ecommerce subscriptions Hostinger sells separately. Promotions also change, and plan names and inclusions shift between them, so check the current table and your renewal date rather than relying on a remembered price.

1

What drives value

  • Among the lowest entry prices in mainstream hosting, with a London data centre at little or no premium
  • Free domain for one year on Premium and above, free SSL, CDN on higher plans and free migrations
  • A clean panel and AI Builder reduce the time and skill needed to launch a simple site
  • A single provider can cover hosting, domain, some email and ecommerce for a small business
  • A 30-day money-back window on hosting reduces the cost of testing the platform
2

What drives cost

  • The lowest prices require 48 months paid upfront, and renewals are roughly three to four times the introduction
  • The agentic AI Builder, ecommerce and standalone email plans are separate paid subscriptions
  • Daily backups and manual backups need Unlimited or above, or an add-on, on the cheaper tiers
  • VAT is added on top of advertised prices, and .uk domain fees are non-refundable
  • Moving up a tier for more resources, mailboxes or backup frequency quickly erodes the entry-price advantage
3

Check before you buy

  • The current intro price, the term it requires, and the renewal price for every plan you are considering
  • The total cost over two to three years, including any ecommerce, AI Builder or email subscriptions
  • The backup frequency and retention on your chosen plan against how often you change the site
  • The mailbox count and the server sending limits against how you actually use email
  • Whether migration from your current platform is supported, and the request limits
  • The refund exclusions, especially .uk domain fees, and the length of the money-back window

Check current plans

See what Hostinger offers today

Plans, allowances and features change. Confirm the current position directly with Hostinger before you commit.

Check Hostinger plans and pricing

Trade-offs

Important limitations of Hostinger

  • Long prepayment for the advertised price. The headline monthly rates assume 48 months paid upfront. That is a large commitment for a new business and locks you in before you know whether the platform suits you.
  • Renewal shock is documented on the vendor's own pages. Premium was shown renewing at £10.99 against a £2.99 introduction, roughly a fourfold increase. Buyers who budget from the advert will find the renewal materially higher.
  • The cheapest plans are resource- and backup-poor. Single and Premium have tight CPU, RAM and bandwidth allocations and only weekly backups. A site that grows or changes frequently will need to upgrade or accept real recovery gaps.
  • No phone support. Support is chat, WhatsApp and ticket only, with an AI first response and email replies that can take up to a business day. During an outage this is a meaningful disadvantage.
  • Email is capped hard. A server sending limit of ten messages a minute and 100 a day makes bundled email unsuitable for newsletters or bulk transactional mail, so a second email provider is usually necessary.
  • Plan volatility complicates comparison. Hostinger renames and re-slots plans between promotions, so inclusion lists and prices shift. What a plan contained last year is not a reliable guide to what it contains now.
  • Certification is platform-level, not site-level. ISO 27001:2022 and PCI DSS listing describe the platform. Your WordPress site's own security, plugin hygiene and data handling remain your responsibility.

Decision framework

Deciding on Hostinger

Consider Hostinger if

  • You need a website online for as little money as possible and can pay 48 months upfront
  • The site is a brochure, side project or starter store rather than a revenue-critical operation
  • You are comfortable self-serving through a panel and using chat support
  • A London data centre and GBP pricing matter to you
  • You want a path from shared hosting to VPS within the same provider
  • You have modelled and accepted the renewal price as the true long-run cost

Look elsewhere if

  • The website directly drives revenue and needs guaranteed resources and daily backups
  • You need phone support or faster human response during incidents
  • You require predictable annual pricing rather than discounted first terms
  • You send high email volumes or run newsletters from the hosting account
  • Your site changes daily but you would be on a weekly-backup plan
  • You need app-level caching depth and managed tooling closer to a premium WordPress host

Pros

  • One of the lowest genuine entry prices among mainstream hosts, with a London data centre for UK audiences
  • A clean, modern hPanel and an AI builder that get a simple site live quickly without technical skill
  • Free website migrations (with documented limits) and a 30-day money-back window on new hosting purchases
  • ISO 27001:2022 certification, GDPR support and PCI DSS listed on the vendor trust centre, which is better-documented than several budget rivals
  • A clear upgrade path from shared hosting through managed WordPress and cloud plans to self-managed VPS with root access

Cons

  • Headline prices require paying 48 months upfront, and renewals are roughly three to four times the introduction
  • Backups are only weekly on the cheapest plans, with daily backups and manual backups needing an upgrade or add-on
  • Support is 24/7 chat, WhatsApp and ticket only, with no phone support and an AI-first first response
  • Bundled email is tightly capped, with a 10-per-minute and 100-per-day server sending limit on hosting plans
  • Plan names and inclusions change between promotions, which makes like-for-like comparison over time difficult

Final verdict

Where Hostinger makes sense

Hostinger does the budget-hosting job well. It gets a site online cheaply and quickly, the hPanel and AI Builder lower the skill barrier, free migrations and a London data centre make it practical for UK projects, and the vendor's certification and DPA position is better documented than several rivals at this price. For a sole trader, a side project or a genuinely low-stakes brochure site, it is one of the most sensible low-cost routes available.

The compromises are the ones that come with the price, and they should be chosen knowingly. The headline rate needs 48 months upfront and roughly triples on renewal. The cheapest plans get weekly backups and lean resources. Support is chat-only with an AI first response. Bundled email has a hard 100-a-day sending cap. Plan names shift between promotions. None of these is hidden, but together they mean the cheapest plan is a bad home for anything the business actually depends on.

Before buying, verify four things with Hostinger: the total cost of your chosen term and the renewal rate; the backup frequency and mailbox limits on that plan; the migration eligibility of your current platform; and the refund exclusions for domains. If you are hosting a low-stakes site and can prepay, Hostinger delivers excellent value. If the website is the business, spend the difference on a host that answers the phone and backs up daily.

Next step

See Hostinger for yourself

Review Hostinger plans, features and current pricing on the official website.

Visit Hostinger

Sources and verification

Sources behind this Hostinger review

Last checked:

Official sources used to verify

  • Pricing structure: Single, Premium and Unlimited first-term and renewal prices on a 48-month term, cloud and VPS starting prices, excluded VAT, and the 30-day refund window
  • Plan features and limits: storage and website counts, CPU, RAM and inode limits, staging, free domain on Premium and above, free SSL and CDN inclusion
  • Backup policy: weekly backups on Single and Premium, daily on Unlimited and Cloud Startup, retention periods, and manual/on-demand backup gating
  • Email: mailbox counts per plan, the 10-per-minute and 100-per-day server sending limits, and standalone Business Email parameters
  • Tooling: hPanel, one-click WordPress, the AI Builder manual and agentic modes, and the separate credit-based agentic subscription
  • Migrations: free migration process, WordPress and cPanel timeframes, closed-builder exclusions, and the limits of one request per site and five active requests
  • Data centres: the location list including London, and the UK, Netherlands, Lithuania and Cyprus processing locations from the privacy policy
  • Security and compliance: free SSL, WAF, malware scanning, ISO 27001:2022, GDPR and PCI DSS 4.0.1 listing, the UK DPA, and the explicit exclusion of HIPAA
  • Support: 24/7 chat, WhatsApp and ticket channels, the absence of phone support, and the AI-first response model

External source links

Verification basis

Documentation-based review: built from the official sources listed above, checked in October 2026. UK Business Stack did not run a live Hostinger account or host a site on the platform for this review, so behaviour described here is vendor-documented rather than independently tested. Prices, plan names and limits change frequently and are promotion-sensitive; confirm current pricing, term requirements, backup and email limits, migration eligibility and certification status directly with Hostinger.

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Score Hostinger against SiteGround, Bluehost and IONOS on one consistent framework.

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FAQ

Common questions

Is Hostinger good for a UK small business website?

It can be, especially for a brochure, side project or starter store where price matters more than resources and support. Hostinger offers GBP pricing excluding VAT, a London data centre and free migrations. The main caveats are that headline prices need 48 months upfront, renewals roughly triple, the cheapest plans get weekly backups and tight resources, and support is chat-only with no phone line.

How much does Hostinger cost in the UK?

As displayed in October 2026 and excluding VAT, shared hosting started at £1.49 a month for Single on a 48-month term renewing at £7.99, with Premium at £2.99 renewing at £10.99 and Unlimited at £3.99 renewing at £13.99. Cloud hosting started at £7.99 renewing at £20.99. Confirm current prices and term requirements with Hostinger, because the introductory rate depends on long prepayment.

Does Hostinger have a free plan?

No. There is no permanent free hosting tier. Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back window on new hosting purchases, with .uk and .co.uk domain registrations, domain renewals and completed transfers excluded from refunds. A free domain for one year is available on Premium and above.

Does Hostinger include email hosting?

It includes a small number of mailboxes that scales with the plan — one on Single, two per website on Premium, five per website on Unlimited (free for a year) and ten per website on cloud plans — plus separate paid Business Email plans. Crucially, hosting-plan email is limited to ten messages a minute and 100 a day, so it is unsuitable for newsletters or bulk mail.

How often does Hostinger back up my site?

Single and Premium get weekly backups, retained for about six weeks, while Unlimited and Cloud Startup get daily backups retained for about seven days. Manual and on-demand backups need Unlimited or higher, or a paid add-on. If your site changes often, plan for a tier with daily backups.

Which Hostinger plan do I need?

Single suits one low-traffic site with the fewest resources and weekly backups. Premium adds more storage, three websites and mailboxes. Unlimited adds daily backups, manual backups, more resources and unlimited websites. Cloud plans add dedicated resources; KVM VPS adds root access for self-managed workloads.

Can Hostinger migrate my existing website?

Hostinger advertises free website migrations handled by its team, with WordPress moves typically quick and cPanel-based moves slower. Closed builder platforms such as Wix, Squarespace and Shopify cannot be migrated, only one request per website is allowed, a maximum of five requests can be active at once, and bulk migration is not permitted.

What should I check before buying Hostinger?

Check the intro price, the term it requires and the renewal price; the total cost over two to three years including any ecommerce, AI Builder or email subscriptions; the backup frequency and mailbox limits on your chosen plan; whether your current platform can be migrated; and the refund exclusions, especially for .uk domains. Modelling the renewal rate, not the advert, is the fairest comparison.

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