Hostinger is a well-known name in the web hosting world, and it’s for a reason. The company has been on the market since 2011, constantly updating its technology, improving customer support, and fine-tuning its custom hPanel. We recognize them for lightning-fast website speeds, seamless management tools, and dedicated 24/7 assistance. Hostinger also offers a wide range of services, including self-managed VPS (Virtual Private Server), with dedicated resources to scale.
You might have started your hosting journey with a shared hosting plan. But what happens when you exceed the capabilities of your package? With insufficient resources, your visitors will face slower speeds and downtime; worst case scenario, they might leave and never return. Therefore, you are losing SEO rankings and profits. So, the smartest move you can make is to upgrade to a VPS, granting you more power on a budget.
Today, we’ll review Hostinger’s offer on VPS. You’ll learn about its reliability, support, features, pros, and cons to decide whether it’s the right solution for you.
Getting Started with Hostinger VPS Plans
Hostinger’s website is super easy to navigate. You can immediately find its VPS offer on the Menu, next to CyberPanel hosting and Minecraft server hosting.
And if English is not your strong side, you can always choose from over 40 available languages. Now, let’s dig in deeper.
Hostinger offers eight self-managed VPS plans based on OVZ virtualization technology, from VPS 1 to VPS 8. Self-managed (or unmanaged) service implies you will be responsible for configuring and managing your VPS. Due to this, you’ll notice far cheaper prices than managed VPS.
This is perfect for experienced users, designers, and developers, as it allows you to fully customize your server and, at the same time, save money. But is it good for beginners? Probably not.
You’ll need technical experience and understanding to use your VPS to its full potential. Improper configuration can lead to poor performance and security breaches. So, if you don’t have the skill, you might as well consider a managed service. Another alternative is to hire an in-house IT team to handle the technical aspects while you focus on expanding your core business.
Hostinger grants you full root access to configure all server settings to your preference, install any supported operating system you see fit, and utilize the power of dedicated CPU, RAM, and disk space, to work on resource-heavy projects, web apps, online game servers, WordPress multi-sites, and similar complex projects.
You can choose from multiple OS templates, including CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and Suse. But unfortunately, Hostinger doesn’t offer Windows VPS plans.
The entry-level plan comes with 1GB RAM, 20GB SSD disk space, and 1TB bandwidth. As your needs increase, you can upgrade to the most powerful VPS with 16GB RAM, 250GB SSD disk space, and 12TB bandwidth.
What we love about Hostinger is that it offers simple scalability; you can use the web hosting control panel to upgrade to another VPS plan and add more power on demand without transferring files or risking any downtime. If that’s still insufficient for your needs, you can also go for its cloud hosting offer for large-scale projects or hosting for agencies, made with developer business in mind.
Apart from the resources, there’s no difference in the remaining features. All Hostinger VPS plans include a dedicated IP, full root access, 100 Mb/s networks, IPv4 & IPv6 support, and 24/7/365 customer assistance, which is good as you can always expect a high-end service. Better yet, all VPS packages include a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Testing
As usual, it’s time for testing. What better way to review a brand than purchase its product first-hand? I’ll get the VPS 1, the cheapest VPS alternative, since the only difference with the most expensive alternative is the number of resources I’ll get. And since I won’t host any site or app, the entry-level package will suffice.
Once you click on ‘Select,’ you’ll get to the following screen.
Hostinger allows you to purchase VPS hosting monthly, for 12 months, 24 months, or 48 months. As you can notice, you’ll benefit from significant discounts on the longer-term plans. For instance, you can pay less than half the price if you commit to a year, and it only gets better from that point and on.
However, beware that you must pre-pay the plan. So, say you get the 48-month plan. Hostinger will not divide the full amount in installments. Instead, you will have to pay $167.52 in advance. If, however, you are paying month-by-month, this amount will accumulate to $431.52 in four years; essentially, you are saving $264 or 61%.
The best way to take advantage of the promotion is to commit long-term and reap the benefits longer (i.e., 48 months instead of 12 months).
Now, back to the purchase. I will choose the monthly term, as I am here for testing. We highly recommend the remaining billing terms if you intend to host your site or app.
Once you choose a period, the next step is to create your account. Here, you can use your email address or even Facebook or Google for increased convenience.
Third and last, select payment; you can choose from a credit card (Visa, Discover Global Network, American Express, Mastercard), PayPay, Google Pay, AliPay, or Coingate. Finally, click on ‘Submit Secure Payment.’
And voila! That’s all about it. Three simple steps, and I am ready to go; Hostinger has created my VPS account in less than a minute.
Setting Up a Hostinger VPS Plan
First things first, verify your email address.
Log in to your email, find the message, and click the ‘Verify Email’ button; it’s as simple as that.
Upon verification, you can set up your VPS server plan.
Once you click on ‘Setup,’ you’ll see the following.
Hostinger grants you a guided setup to get your VPS ready in a few minutes. Click ‘Start Now.’
Select a location and ‘Continue.’ We’ll explain the location’s effect on your website speed in the following section. As for now, select the location closest to your target audience.
Next, choose an operating system. At this point, you have three options. You can get a plain OS if you are an experienced user, an OS with a control panel for easier management, or a game server (Multicraft for Minecraft or Game Panel).
Since a game server is pretty narrow, and developers that select a plain OS probably know what they are doing (and don’t need my step-to-step explanations), I will go for an OS with a control panel.
Hostinger will recommend a control panel. However, you can also choose a different one.
In my case, the provider recommends using CentOS 7 64bit with CyberPanel. The remaining options include CentOS 7 64bit with CentOS Panel, DirectAdmin, Plesk Onyx, VestaCP control panel, Webmin, Webmin/Virtualmin/LAMP, Webuzo control panel, cPanel and WHM.
You can also select Debian 10 with HestiaCP, Debian 11 with HestiaCP, Debian 9 64bit with VestaCP control panel, Webmin, or Webmin/Virtualmin/LAMP, as well as Ubuntu 16.04 64bit with LXDE Desktop, Webmin, Webmin/Virtualmin/LAMP, or Webuzo control panel, Ubuntu 18.04 64bit with Plesk Onyx, VestaCP control panel, Webmin, Webmin/Virtualmin/LAMP, or Ubuntu 18.04 with HestiaCP.
I’ll get the CentOS 7 64bit with cPanel and WHM.
The fourth step is to create a hostname, password and SSH key (optional) for your new server.
At last, review your information and finish the setup.
The setup took approximately five minutes, which is incredible.
Here, you have three options. You can either get a license for the control panel, in my case, cPanel with WHM, or use Hostinger’s custom-made dashboard. And if you already have a license key, you can add it directly to your chosen panel.
I’ll go with Hostinger’s in-house developed hPanel. Here’s a quick preview of the Home tab. If you have multiple servers, you can manage them from a single point. However, I have only one, further simplifying the explanations.
Once you click on ‘Manage,’ Hostinger will take you to the Menu. You can find Overview, Settings, Server Usage, Snapshots & Backups, Latest Actions, Operating System, and Help listed on the left side.
Home, Hosting, Emails, Domains, VPS, and Billing are part of the top Menu. Here, you can also adjust the language and find the Store, Notifications, Help, and Account. Let’s review them all one by one.
In the Overview, you can find VPS information, VPS access, and Plan details.
VPS information consists of your IP address, Status, VPS uptime, current operating system, location, and Node. Here, you can reboot or stop your VPS.
VPS access includes your SSH IP, SSH username, SSH password, default SSH port, IPv6 and Terminal.
In plan details, you can find your current plan, expiration date, number of CPU cores, memory, bandwidth, and disk space.
If you scroll a bit down, you can also find a VPS overview, including your CPU, memory, disk, and bandwidth usage; this is especially handy since it’s an indicator of when you need to upgrade. As you slowly reach the limits, you can purchase a more powerful VPS plan to avoid experiencing the slower performance.
As mentioned earlier, you can upgrade your VPS straight from the dashboard, hassle-free.
The Overview also includes the expiration date and the option to renew your plan.
Settings include Main settings, IP address, Emergency Mode, and SSH keys.
In Main settings, you can change your VPS root password, change your DNS resolvers to custom ones or use the default, reset your server’s firewall configuration, reset SSH, change your current VPS hostname, or delete unnecessary logs.
You can also find Disk Quota, NFS support, and TUN/TAP Adapter as part of the Main settings.
IP address includes your IP addresses, types, and reverse DNS. Here, you can also set PTR records.
Going on, you can activate Emergency Mode if your VPS is damaged, meaning some actions will become unavailable, but you will still be able to access your server using SSH access and your login details.
Finally, you can manage SSH keys from Settings.
In Server Usage, you can assess your VPS’s performance in the last 24 hours, week, month, or year. Hostinger includes analytics regarding load average, CPU usage, RAM usage, number of processes, disk space, disk inodes, outgoing traffic, incoming traffic, incoming packets, and outgoing packets. All is nicely portrayed and organized in graphs for easy navigation and understanding of the data.
Snapshots & Backups offer an additional security layer to preserve your VPS and data. By default, you get automated weekly backups and the option to create manual snapshots. Here, you can find your snapshots and backup list (but as you can see, I have none at the moment because I have had my VPS for less than a few hours, not even a day).
You can manage automated backups in the Auto-backups settings and choose how often they will be made (either weekly or not).
Furthermore, you can upgrade to daily backups and choose from seven billing terms; 1 month, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, or 48 months, with better discounts on the latter. As with the VPS plan, you need to pre-pay the entire amount. You can use the same payment method or add a new one.
The latest actions remind you of all you have done with the particular VPS, which is helpful if you have a busy schedule or more than a single server.
In the Operating System tab, you can get an OS license, review your current OS, WHM login, secure WHM login, cPanel login, and secure cPanel login, and change your operating system (to OS with control panel, OS only, or game server), or reinstall your operating system.
Finally, in Help, you can find FAQ divided into multiple categories, but more on that later.
You can purchase a plan in Hosting (from the top Menu) and get started.
Emails enable you to get a professional email address to increase your brand’s trust.
You can choose from Business or Enterprise email and adjust the number of accounts (for example, username@domain.com) from one to 10,000.
The Business Email includes 10GB of email storage, read receipts, email templates, follow-up reminders, and all remaining features from the free email plan. The Enterprise Email takes things to another level with 30GB of email storage and all features from the Business Email plan.
In Domains, you can transfer a domain or get a new domain.
Hostinger will assist you with the transfer; you can expect a straightforward guide and requirements for the process.
In VPS, you can get a VPS operating system license and review all your servers in one place, including their status and expiry date.
Billing displays your unpaid invoices, services, and payment history. You can also find, add, or change your payment method here.
In Services, you can enable/disable auto-renewal for your services. By default, this option is enabled. You can also change the billing period.
The Store includes Hostinger’s entire offer, from hosting to domains, email, VPS, services, and others.
For instance, you can get Fiverr Logo Maker, Logo Design, Website Design, Website Development, Web Programming, SEO, Articles & Blog Posts, Web Speed Optimization, and Banner Design.
In addition, Hostinger offers NordPass - Password Manager, NordVPN, Priority Support, SEO Marketing Panel, and Whatagraph Data Analytics.
What’s new lets you stay up-to-date with the newest releases and options.
Help takes you to FAQs and Tutorials. You can also check the status of the servers or subscribe to Hostinger’s status page.
At last, Account consists of Account Information, Security, Account Sharing, Account Activity, Earn with us, Services, and Get Help.
Account Information includes personal information, account settings, social logins, communication permissions, and the option to delete your account or download profile data.
You can enable an app authentication method or email authentication method in Security.
Hostinger also allows you to grant other users access to your Hostinger account or request access to another account.
You can track login history and account activity in the last tab for further protection.
Hostinger also offers a referral program, allowing you to profit effortlessly with two simple steps. All you need is to invite people to sign up using various resources and channels and earn up to 20% of the amount your referred customer spends with Hostinger.
To reap these rewards, you need to generate a referral link using the hPanel. Your referred customer then needs to purchase a hosting plan for at least a year, remain active for at least 45 days, and don’t request a refund. It’s as simple as that!
Overall Reliability – Performance and Security
With Hostinger, you can expect high-performance levels; you’ll get dedicated server resources so that you won’t have to worry about other people’s site traffic affecting your website performance.
The provider has multiple data centers worldwide, including Lithuania, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. You can choose a server close to your target audience, ensure maximum reliability, and reduce latency. As a bonus, you’ll get Network File System support so that you can forget location limitations and access all data through the NFS.
Furthermore, Hostinger utilizes the latest Intel Xeon processors, terabytes of NVMe SSD storage, and 512GB RAM for each VPS, delivering sufficient processing power for medium to large-scale projects. Still, if you are a blogger, startup, or have any kind of small website, you might be better off with shared hosting due to its cheaper price and ease of use.
As a customer, you’ll also benefit from a 99.9% server uptime guarantee, meaning you won’t have to worry about unexpected downtimes. Essentially, when your site is inaccessible, it cannot perform its core task; your visitors cannot access your content, which is bad in every sense.
Regarding security, you can expect a dedicated IP address, full-stack server protection, built-in advanced DDoS protection, automated backups, and manual live snapshots, which come in handy if your site fails and you need to restore the content.
Hostinger VPS Customer Support
You’ll get a self-managed VPS, meaning you’ll need to take care of your server. Fortunately, you’ll benefit from a user-friendly dashboard simplifying server management. In addition, you can browse Hostinger’s tutorial base for all VPS-related things, from managing your VPS to creating your WordPress website on VPS.
Furthermore, you can contact Hostinger’s support team 24/7 for any general questions you might have via email or live chat. You can also get the Priority Support add-on from the Store in the dashboard.
Testing the money-back guarantee
I’ll go a step further and test Hostinger’s money-back guarantee.
First, log in to your dashboard and open the Help page from the top Menu.
Here, you should find ‘Payments & Refunds.’
Select the first option; I want to get a refund. Then, request a refund.
Hostinger will take you to the following screen.
At this point, you can choose to disable auto-renewal and keep the service active until the expiration date or pursue the refund and terminate the service immediately.
I’ll go on with the refund.
At last, Hostinger will request feedback, i.e., the reason you are leaving before you Submit your request.
Specific Features of Hostinger VPS
Let’s sum up what makes Hostinger a go-to solution for many VPS users:
- Instant deployment for your VPS web hosting with multiple OS templates
- Several data centers worldwide and leading technology for high performance + NFS support
- 100 Mb/s network and a 99.9% server uptime guarantee
- Full control and flexibility with full root access for tech-savvy users
- Easy hosting management and simple scalability
- A user-friendly custom web hosting control panel
- Bitninja’s full-stack server protection, DDoS protection, dedicated IPv6, backups, and snapshots
- Option to install custom software (as long as it doesn’t require modifying the VPS kernel)
- Comprehensive knowledgebase (self-help) and 24/7 support assistance
- A 30-day money-back guarantee with a simple refund process
Pros and Cons of Hostinger VPS
Pros:
- Instant setup and easy navigation
- Simple scalability from the dashboard
- One of the most affordable VPS offers
- Full control and freedom over your server
- Suitable for medium to large-scale projects
- Top-notch protection and performance
- Helpful customer support 24/7
Cons:
- No Windows VPS hosting services
- No managed VPS support is available
- Daily automated backups cost extra
- Prices increase on renewal (still, it’s very affordable)
Summary
I’m pretty impressed with Hostinger’s VPS offer. While the provider offers a self-managed service, it’s still super user-friendly and easy to navigate. All is straightforward, easy to find, and operate.
Hostinger offers one of the best value for money on the market since you are paying a cheap price and getting top-notch quality.
It’s suitable for just about anyone looking for extra computing power and control on a budget. Although, it is not the right choice for beginners or busy individuals looking for a fully-managed VPS or those needing a Windows VPS.
If you’re still wondering what’s the right choice, we give Hostinger the green light!
