When launching a new website, choosing a hosting service can be a difficult process given the high number of choices at your disposal. Two top choices you might be considering are Hostinger vs SiteGround, both high-speed hosting services with affordable options for the entrepreneurs or anyone interested in starting a new site. While these choices are in the same category of consumer friendly hosting services, there are a number of differences you should be aware of before you make your decision.
From different types of hosting available to differences in offered site builders, this guide will walk you through the key features and pros and cons of Hostinger vs SiteGround so you can choose the best service for your new website. Read on for the top pros and cons or jump to the section most pertinent to your decision.
Pros and Cons: Hostinger vs SiteGround
These are the key strengths and weaknesses of Hostinger and SiteGround you should know but these pros and cons don’t reveal the full extent of both hosting services’ offerings. Read the following sections for more details about Hostinger and SiteGround to make your final choice of hosting service.
| Hostinger | SiteGround | |
| Pros | Cheaper plans than SiteGround. 99.9% uptime guarantee or else 5% your monthly fee. Live chat and email support. | Higher uptime of 99.99% . Faster speed in the United States and Canada. Better support with a phone hotline. |
| Cons | No phone support. No reseller or enterprise hosting. Slightly slower speeds | No VPS hosting Slightly more expensive than Hostinger. Less branding and instructions for custom site builder. |
Read on to learn the features that Hostinger and SiteGround offer.
Features: Hosting, Email Servers, and Site Builders
Hostinger and SiteGround offer comparable hosting services with some key distinctions as well as a few other offerings you should know before you make your choice between Hostinger vs SiteGround.
Hostinger Hosting Offerings
Hostinger is primarily known for affordable premium and business hosting with excellent uptime of 99.9%. While Hostinger doesn’t offer dedicated hosting, which are dedicated servers just for your properties in contrast to shared hosting, it does offer virtual private server (VPS) hosting which mimics dedicated server hosting.
VPS plans from Hostinger will allow pages to be loaded faster and have higher uptime than shared web hosting. While VPS plans from Hostinger provide these benefits, they’re less beginner friendly and are best if you’re a developer or have one available.
Hostinger also offers inexpensive WordPress hosting which will help you get your blog or new site up even faster and run with increased speed. Each Hostinger plan comes with upgraded offerings which provide faster load times, more storage, unlimited bandwidth, free domains, and free backups.
Hostinger Email Hosting and Site Builder
In addition to affordable and fast hosting, Hostinger offers email hosting to allow you to run custom email either through Hostinger or Gmail so that your emails are professional and have a custom domain. Hostinger also offers their custom website builder, Zyro, a simple solution to building your website which will be detailed in a later section of this guide.
SiteGround Hosting Offerings
SiteGround offers four main types of hosting. These offerings include web hosting which includes hosting for WordPress.org, WooCommerce, and other types of managed websites. This web hosting is hosted on Google Cloud, in contrast to Cloud Hosting plans, which are hosted on SiteGround’s own cloud. Cloud Hosting costs more and starts at $80 a month and runs up to $240 a month for dedicated CPU cores and more memory, storage space, and 5 TB data transfers.
SiteGround also offers Reseller Hosting for agencies which manage clients’ sites and Enterprise Hosting which comes with custom plans and pricing for higher traffic sites. SiteGround doesn’t offer VPS hosting like Hostinger.
SiteGround Other Features
SiteGround’s main other offering is its custom site builder powered by Weebly which will be covered in a later section. SiteGround offers email management with its Web Hosting plans but doesn’t offer email servers like Hostinger.
Key Takeaway: Hostinger and SiteGround offer similar hosting services for similar price ranges but Hostinger offers VPS hosting, which SiteGround does not, and SiteGround offers Reseller and Enterprise Hosting, which Hostinger does not. Hostinger also offers Email Server Hosting, which SiteGround does not.
Pricing: 99 cents to $250+ per month plans
While price shouldn’t be your top priority when choosing a hosting service, monthly fees can add up especially if you’re launching a website for a new business or portfolio site. Both Hostinger and SiteGround offer affordable hosting services but Hostinger pulls ahead with more affordable plans for most sites. Despite this fact, you should evaluate the offerings of both hosting services to determine which will be right for your site needs.
Hostinger Plans and Pricing
Hostinger offers shared, cloud, and VPS (virtual private server) hosting as well as Windows-specific VPS hosting with plans maxing out at $250 per month. Hostinger has sub-plans for each of these hosting options and your pricing can vary depending on whether you want maximal speed and performance.
| Shared Web Hosting | Cloud Hosting | WordPress Hosting | VPS Hosting | Windows VPS Hosting |
| 99 cents to $3.99 per month | $9.99 to $56.99 per month | $1.99 to $11.59 per month | $3.95 to $23.95 per month | $26 to $250 per month |
| Different sites are hosted on a single server and you have an allotted share of server resources. 1 to 100 sites managed. 100 gb to Unlimited bandwidth. | More control than shared web hosting. Allocated resources just for your sites. Dedicated ip address. 300 websites managed across plans. Unlimited bandwidth across plans. | WordPress-specific hosting with 99.99% uptime. 1 to 300 websites hosted. 10,000 to 300,000 monthly visits. 1 email account for basic plan and unlimited accounts for plans from $2.99 a month. | 30x faster than shared web hosting. 100% uptime. 1 to 4 Cores of CPU. 1 to 4 TB of Bandwidth. | Windows server system which makes hosting easier and offers upgraded application installation and driver compatibility. 4 Cores of CPU. 4 to 7 TB of Bandwidth. |
Hostinger also offers email server hosting which can cost from 99 cents to $6 a month if you choose Gmail email hosting.
| Email Hosting |
| 99 cents to $6 per month |
| Email hosting with plans from 99 cents for business email hosting to $2.49 for enterprise hosting per inbox with features like multiple aliases and antivirus. Hostinger also offers Gmail email hosting for $6 a month. |
SiteGround Plans and Pricing
SiteGround’s plans are more expensive than Hostinger’s offerings, starting at $6.99 a month with comparable or less features. SiteGround also doesn’t offer VPS or Windows VPS hosting. One offering SiteGround has a custom plan for is WooCommerce hosting.
| Web Hosting | WordPress Hosting | WooCommerce Hosting | Cloud Hosting |
| $6.99 to $14.99 per month | $6.99 to $14.99 per month | $6.99 to $14.99 per month | $80 to $160 per month |
| Web hosting for 1 to unlimited websites. 10,000 to 100,000 visits. 30-day Money Back Guarantee across plans. | Hosting for WordPress.org specifically. 1 to unlimited websites depending on plan. 10,000 to 100,000 visits. 30-day Money Back Guarantee across plans. | Hosting for WooCommerce specifically. 1 to unlimited websites depending on plan. 10,000 to 100,000 visits. 30-day Money Back Guarantee across plans. | Dedicated cloud hosting for sites which have outgrown shared web hosting. 3 to 5 CPU Cores. 6 to 10 gb memory and 40 to 70 gb of SSD space. 5 TB data transfer across plans. |
Despite more expensive plans, SiteGround’s WordPress and WooCommerce hosting comes recommended by Yoast, WordPress, and WooCommerce.
Is SiteGround expensive?
SiteGround is slightly more expensive than some hosting services but it delivers fast speeds, excellent customer support, and the recommendation of WordPress and WooCommerce.
Other SiteGround Plans and Pricing
SiteGround does offer Reseller Hosting and Enterprise Hosting which could be highly useful if you respectively are an agency managing other websites or if you want custom hosting infrastructure.
| Reseller Hosting | Enterprise Hosting |
| $9.99 to $80 a month | Variable Cost |
| Hosting for agencies that manage client sites. Unlimited hosted websites across plans. 20 to 40+ gb of storage. | Custom hosting infrastructure for sites with large traffic and security needs. Custom onboarding. Assigned account managers. |
Key Takeaway: Overall, Hostinger offers cheaper plans for comparable features but both hosting services come with distinct plans you may want specifically for your sites. If you need VPS hosting, you should go with Hostinger but if you want a WooCommerce-specific hosting service or are a reseller or have enterprise needs, you should go with SiteGround.
Setup: Hostinger vs SiteGround
If this is your first time setting up hosting and you’re nontechnical, you may be concerned about the difficulty of the process. Fortunately, Hostinger and SiteGround want to make the setup process as seamless as possible and have thorough documentation of how to get your site up and running. This section will detail the steps both services have in place to assist with setup.
Hostinger details the setup process for hosting your new website in their full How to Use Hostinger guide. Some of Hostinger’s plans come with a free domain for a year but if your chosen plan doesn’t, the walkthrough will explain how to connect your existing domain with Hostinger’s services and connect your website management system to hosting.
You can ask any questions about setup through Hostinger’s live chat or email support. If you plan to use WordPress with your new Hostinger hosting, they also walk through the process in their WordPress installation guide. The full setup process for Hostinger should take up to two hours.
SiteGround’s setup experience is similarly quick and easy. The hosting service details the three primary steps in their setup guide. SiteGround walks you through how to connect or select a new domain, create a new website, and set up a SSL certificate to encrypt traffic through your site.
SiteGround also provides specific instructions for WordPress installation like Hostinger. If you have any questions during your setup process with SiteGround, you can submit a ticket, ask a question of live chat, or reach out via phone support. The full process should take you a couple hours at most.
Key Takeaway: Hostinger and SiteGround offer similar setup guides, WordPress installation articles, and support during the process.
Site Builder: Hostinger and SiteGround’s Custom Builders
Hostinger and SiteGround both offer in-house solutions for building a website, as well as prioritizing WordPress.org installation support. There are some key differences between Hostinger’s website builder, Zyro, and SiteGround’s Weebly-powered site builder you should know.
Hostinger’s website builder, Zyro, also makes it easy to create a simple website but as a key difference, charges for its services. For personal brands, Zyro costs $1.99 a month with cool features like designer templates and AI-powered SEO copy. For businesses, Zyro costs $3.99 a month with unlimited bandwidth and storage, and a free domain.
Zyro is highly user-friendly, uses a drag and drop builder, and comes packed with beautiful templates and free images that will make your website pop.
You can also install WordPress.org on your domain relatively simply through Hostinger and choose a free or premium template. Hostinger explains how with their free WordPress installation guide.
SiteGround offers a free website builder powered by Weebly for customers to build their own website. While this builder doesn’t come with its own flashy branding like Zyro, Weebly is a great and user-friendly drag-and-drop builder which will help you make a professional, customized website from scratch or template.
As mentioned, SiteGround is also a WordPress.org and WooCommerce recommended hosting service and installation of either of these free website management system’s will be easy through SiteGround. With WordPress.org and WooCommerce, you’ll be able to create a regular or ecommerce website with thousands of templates and plugins at your disposal.
Key Takeaway: SiteGround edges out Hostinger in this section by providing a more advanced but free site builder powered by Weebly. SiteGround is also a favored WordPress and WooCommerce hosting service if you’d rather not use their solution.
Hosting Speed: Hostinger vs SiteGround
Speed is an important factor when choosing a hosting service as longer page load times can drive away visitors or potential customers. Both Hostinger and SiteGround offer fast load times far below Google’s recommended speed for international hosting of 200 ms (meter per second). This section covers the speed of Hostinger and SiteGround and their uptimes.
SiteGround is a fast hosting service with an average international speed of 129.8 ms. Canada’s speed is particularly quick with 1 ms site load time. The eastern United States is also very fast at 3ms and the western United States is slower at 56 ms.
SiteGround’s uptime is 99.99% which is exceptional and on-par with Hostinger which similarly logs a 99.90% uptime. In previous years, SiteGround has even logged 100% uptime.
Is SiteGround faster than Hostinger?
SiteGround is a faster hosting service than Hostinger, on average. Specifically, SiteGround has a speed of 56 ms in the western United States and 3 ms in the eastern United States compared with Hostinger’s respective speeds of 69 ms and 28 ms.
Hostinger offers a lower international average speed of 143.1 ms with lower speed in the western United States at 69 ms versus the east’s 28 ms. SiteGround beats Hostinger’s average and both eastern and western United States speeds by at least 10 ms. SiteGround beats Hostinger’s Canada speed by 37 ms.
Hostinger’s uptime is 99.9% which is the same as SiteGround.
Key Takeaway: While Hostinger and SiteGround have the same average uptime, SiteGround’s average speed far exceeds Hostinger’s speed in the United States and Canada.
Customer Support: Hostinger vs SiteGround
Setting up hosting for your site can be a complicated business and a dedicated line of customer support is essential to make the process as painless as possible. Hostinger and SiteGround have both prioritized support for their customers with 24/7 service but there are some key differences you should know about their support offerings.
Hostinger offers stellar support with email and live chat options to answer your questions 24/7 every day of the year, regardless of your payment tier. These are impressive support options as you can quickly reach a support agent for any query right away.
In addition, Hostinger offers a thorough FAQ center with answered questions for every type of question category from getting started to sending emails through the platform.
SiteGround’s customer support is a bit more comprehensive than Hostinger’s with multiple lines of support for every type of customer. SiteGround offers Instant Self-Help with pinned help on every client-facing page as well as a smart AI chat bot for specific questions as well as a rapid response for submitted tickets which will analyze your query and attempt to answer your question.
SiteGround also offers 24/7 live support by live chat, phone support, and HelpDesk tickets to answer more complicated questions. SiteGround’s offering of phone support will be particularly useful for some customers and sets the hosting service apart from Hostinger which doesn’t offer this type of support.
Key Takeaway: SiteGround’s customer support is more advanced than Hostinger’s by offering both AI-powered quick solutions and human support through email, live chat, and phone.
Final Takeaway: Hostinger vs SiteGround
Hostinger and SiteGround both excel as fast, affordable hosting services that will keep your website running with a minimum of 99.9% uptime. The differences between Hostinger vs SiteGround come down to a few distinct features and offerings which could better serve your new website.
Hostinger is a better choice if you need simple, affordable web hosting or need a VPS, specifically, for hosting. Hostinger could also be if you need an email server for your new website.
SiteGround is a better choice if you prioritize speed and want one of the fastest hosting services available. SiteGround could also be right for you if you need enterprise hosting for your high-traffic website or reseller hosting services for a client.
Ultimately, both of these websites would make excellent choices for your website and leave little room for improvement. Effective hosting is vital for your new website and it’s important you choose wisely but either of these hosting services will serve your website well.