Hostinger vs HostGator
Hostinger and HostGator compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Hostinger scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. Rankings come from the published methodology and sourced data, not from commissions. Disclosure.
Verdict
HostingerWins overall
Very cheap on a 48-month term, with an easy custom panel; the entry plan cuts backups and email
Newfold's Texas-born cPanel host: four shared tiers on a 36-month term with a free domain, Cloudflare CDN and staging
Hostinger wins 5 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (8.0 vs 7.4).
How do the scores compare?
Hostinger leads on 5 sub-scores, HostGator on 0. Higher is better.
Which one is faster and more reliable?
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Hostinger is cheaper ($10.99/mo vs $10.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
What does each include?
| Hostinger | HostGator | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year only, on 12-month and longer terms | First year on every plan; $22.99 is deducted from a refund if you cancel within the year |
| Free SSL | Yes | Let's Encrypt, auto-renewed |
| Backups | Weekly on Premium; daily on Unlimited and Cloud Startup | Weekly courtesy backups, restorable with one click; the terms call them a courtesy, so keep your own |
| Email hosting | 2 mailboxes per website on Premium, unlimited on the other plans; free for the first year | Not stated |
| CDN | Included on Unlimited and Cloud Startup; listed as available on Premium | Not stated |
| Control panel | hPanel, Hostinger's own panel, with an AI assistant | Not stated |
| AI tools | AI website builder credits: 5 on Premium, 15 on the other plans, one-time | Not stated |
| Ecommerce | Available on every plan | Not stated |
| Fair usage limits | 3 GB per database, 300 databases, 300 FTP accounts, 400 cron jobs | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.9% per month; 5% credit of that month's fee, claimed within 30 days | The plan page says 99 percent; the terms we read contain no uptime clause or credit schedule |
| Choice of data center | 12 regions across North America, Europe, Asia and South America | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | Baby, Business and Pro; Hatchling is chat only |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Free migration | Not stated | A free site migration tool is listed on the plan cards; the comparison table on the same page says paid migration is available |
| Free CDN | Not stated | Cloudflare with Argo routing on every plan |
| Caching | Not stated | Static content caching and object caching on every plan; the feature list names an NGINX caching layer |
| Staging | Not stated | WordPress staging site on every plan |
| SSH and languages | Not stated | SSH, WP-CLI, cron, PHP 8.2, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, unlimited MySQL and SFTP users |
| Resource limits | Not stated | No |
| Data center choice | Not stated | No |
| Security | Not stated | Malware scanning, AI-powered detection and removal from Baby up, web application firewall, DDoS protection, DDoS scrub center |
| Not stated | Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes with SpamAssassin; Pro Email is a paid product after a free trial |