Verdict record
hostinger.com
Prices verified September 2026, from Hostinger, Wix, Squarespace, and Cloudways pricing and help-center pages, cross-checked against WebsiteBuilderExpert, Tooltester, and SiteBuilderReport price trackers. US prices; builders show different prices by region.. Hosting prices change often, check the provider's own page before you buy.
"Website hosting" gets used for three different products, and small business owners compare them as if they were the same thing.
A website builder like Wix or Squarespace is software you rent: design tools, hosting, and security bundled into one monthly fee. Shared hosting like Hostinger is server space you install WordPress (or a builder) on. Managed cloud like Cloudways is a dedicated slice of a cloud server that someone else maintains.
Each one wins for a different kind of business. The price gap between them is also much wider than the monthly sticker suggests.
I run other sites on Hostinger's hosting, and that is noted where it applies. I have not used Hostinger's Website Builder, Wix, Squarespace, or Cloudways on a paid account, so those sections are built from each company's own pricing and help-center pages plus independent price trackers, named below.
All four companies run affiliate programs, and this site earns a commission on the Hostinger link, disclosed at the bottom of every page. Weigh the tables here more than any star rating, including ours.
If you already know you want classic shared hosting and just need to pick between Hostinger, Bluehost, and SiteGround, our small business hosting comparison covers that head-to-head. Start here if you have not picked the type yet: builder, shared, or cloud.
The three types, in one sentence each
Website builder: you pay monthly, you never touch a server, and you accept the platform's limits on design, export, and apps.
Shared hosting: you pay far less, you own your files, and you (or a plugin) handle updates and backups beyond what the host includes.
Managed cloud: you pay by server size with no intro discount, get dedicated resources and staging, and still own everything.
Plan limits, two tiers per provider
| Provider | Plan | Websites | Storage | Email included | Online store | Backups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger hosting | Premium | 3 | 20 GB SSD | 2 per site | Yes, via WooCommerce | Weekly |
| Hostinger hosting | Business | up to 50 | NVMe | up to 25 | Yes, via WooCommerce | Daily |
| Hostinger Website Builder | Premium | 1 | 2 GB | 1 (free 1st year) | No | Included |
| Hostinger Website Builder | Business | up to 50 | 50 GB | 5 (free 1st year) | Yes, up to 1,000 products | Included |
| Wix | Light | 1 | 2 GB | None | No | Site History (30 versions) |
| Wix | Core | 1 | 50 GB | None | Yes | Site History (30 versions) |
| Squarespace | Basic | 1 | Unlimited | None | Yes, 2% fee | No full-site backup |
| Squarespace | Core | 1 | Unlimited | 1 Google Workspace (free 1st year) | Yes, 0% fee | No full-site backup |
| Cloudways | Entry DigitalOcean server | Unlimited | 50 GB | None ($1.50/mailbox add-on) | Yes, via WooCommerce | Daily default, hourly to weekly |
| Cloudways | 8 GB DigitalOcean server | Unlimited | 160 GB | None ($1.50/mailbox add-on) | Yes, via WooCommerce | Daily default, hourly to weekly |
Two rows deserve a closer look before price even enters the picture.
Wix Light and Hostinger Website Builder Premium cannot run a store at all. If you plan to sell anything online, the real entry point on both is one tier up.
Squarespace lists storage and bandwidth as unlimited on every plan. Its limits show up elsewhere: 2 contributors and 30 minutes of video on Basic, versus unlimited contributors and 5 hours of video on Core.
On Cloudways, the entry spec has shifted over time. Its own pricing page lists the entry DigitalOcean server at $11/mo with 2 GB RAM, 50 GB storage, and 2 TB bandwidth as of September 2026, while older trackers list 1 GB RAM and 25 GB at the same price. Check the live page before you size anything.
Signup price versus what you pay later
| Provider | Plan | Signup price | Later price | Term for lowest price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger hosting | Premium | $2.99/mo | $10.99/mo | 48 months |
| Hostinger Website Builder | Business | $2.99/mo | $16.99/mo | 48 months (plus 3 bonus months) |
| Wix | Core | $29/mo | Wix says renewal "may differ", no figure given | 12 months |
| Squarespace | Core | $29/mo | Same list price, domain and email renew separately | 12 months |
| Cloudways | Entry server | $11/mo | $11/mo | None, billed monthly |
Hostinger's model is the familiar hosting one: a deep discount for a long prepaid term, then a renewal rate several times higher.
Wix and Squarespace work the other way. The monthly price is high from day one, and Wix's own small print says the displayed price covers the first term only, per Tooltester's September 2026 pricing breakdown.
Cloudways has no intro rate at all. You pay the same per-server price from month one to month thirty-six, and you can cancel any month.
Monthly billing on the builders costs more. Tooltester measured Wix's monthly option at up to 41% above annual, and WebsiteBuilderExpert lists Squarespace Core at $39/mo billed monthly versus $29 billed yearly.
What three years actually costs
This is the number to decide on. Each row uses that provider's lowest-rate term and counts only the platform fee.
| Provider | Plan | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger hosting | Premium (48-mo) | $35.88 | $35.88 | $35.88 | $107.64 |
| Hostinger Website Builder | Business (48-mo) | $35.88 | $35.88 | $35.88 | $107.64 |
| Cloudways | Entry server | $132.00 | $132.00 | $132.00 | $396.00 |
| Wix | Core (annual) | $348.00 | $348.00 | $348.00 | $1,044.00 |
| Squarespace | Core (annual) | $348.00 | $348.00 | $348.00 | $1,044.00 |
The Wix row assumes the list price holds at renewal, which Wix does not promise.
Then add the extras that differ by platform. After year one, a domain renews at about $17.35/yr on Wix and $20 or more on Squarespace, per Tooltester and WebsiteBuilderExpert.
Email adds up too. Google Workspace through Wix runs about $6 per user per month, and Squarespace's included Workspace seat renews at $7 to $22 per user per month after the free first year.
On Cloudways, three Rackspace mailboxes add $54 per year. Even with that, it stays well under half the cost of either builder.
The honest read: builders charge roughly ten times what Hostinger's hosting charges over three years. That premium buys you no maintenance and a polished editor. Whether that is worth $900 depends on how much you value your own time.
Performance and uptime
Hostinger states a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Independent monitoring reports I cited in our Hostinger review put measured uptime near 99.98%, with a 43 ms average response time.
Wix also guarantees 99.9%. Cybernews measured 99.88% over a month of monitoring in its 2026 Wix vs Squarespace comparison, slightly under the guarantee.
The same Cybernews test found the gap is bigger on speed than uptime. A fully built Wix test site rendered its Largest Contentful Paint in about 6.8 seconds, against 3.6 seconds for Squarespace.
Uptrue's public tracker shows squarespace.com at 99.85% uptime over a recent 30-day window, with average response times between 115 and 168 ms. That tracks Squarespace's own homepage, not customer sites, so treat it as a rough signal only.
Cloudways runs on the cloud provider you pick. DigitalOcean, the most common choice, publishes a 99.99% monthly uptime SLA for its servers.
None of these numbers are my own measurements. The practical takeaway is simpler: every option here stays up; builders differ more on page speed than on availability.
Security and backups
Every provider here includes free SSL on custom domains. The differences are in who patches what, and how you get your site back after a mistake.
Wix and Squarespace handle all server and software security for you. Both state PCI DSS Level 1 compliance for checkout and DDoS mitigation. There are no plugins for you to forget to update.
Backups are where the builders get thin. Wix's Site History keeps up to 30 saved versions you can preview and restore. Per Wix's help center, a restore does not bring back form submissions, blog comments, or orders placed after that version.
Squarespace has no full-site backup or restore at all. Deleted pages sit in a trash for 30 days, and page-level version history covers recent edits, but there is no snapshot to roll the whole site back to.
Hostinger includes an in-house web application firewall, a malware scanner, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification on every plan. Backups run weekly on Premium and daily on Business, with self-service restores in hPanel. In my own use, restores have not needed a support ticket.
Cloudways includes the Imunify360 server firewall on every server. Backups run every 24 hours by default, and you can set them anywhere from hourly to every 7 days, with 1 to 4 weeks of retention.
Malware protection on Cloudways is a $4 per app per month add-on, not included by default.
With WordPress on Hostinger or Cloudways, updating plugins and themes is your job. That is the main security cost of owning your files.
Migration: getting in, and getting out
Moving in is easy everywhere. Moving out is where these platforms differ most, and it matters more for a business than for a hobby site.
Wix is the hardest to leave. Wix's help center states a site cannot be exported or hosted elsewhere. You can download images and copy text, but pages and design must be rebuilt.
Squarespace exports partially. Its export produces a WordPress-compatible XML file. It includes regular pages, one blog, and gallery pages.
Store pages, product blocks, style settings, custom CSS, and audio and video blocks do not export. Products can come out separately as a CSV file.
Hostinger and Cloudways are the easiest to leave, because a WordPress site is just files plus a database. Any WordPress host can import them.
Both also offer free migration in. Hostinger's is a self-service tool in hPanel. Cloudways lists free migration on its pricing page.
When I moved a static site to Hostinger, it was a file upload with no database, and there was no downtime I noticed. Whichever direction you move, keep the old account live until DNS has fully switched over.
Support channels
| Provider | Live chat | Phone | Email or tickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | 24/7 | No | Yes |
| Wix | Weekdays, 2 AM to 6 PM ET (English) | 24/7 callback on request | Yes |
| Squarespace | Weekdays, 4 AM to 8 PM ET | No, by policy | 24/7 |
| Cloudways | 24/7 | No | 24/7 tickets, paid Advanced tier from $100/mo |
Wix is the only one here with a phone option. There is no number to dial, but you can request a callback from your dashboard, and independent guides report typical waits of 2 to 3 minutes.
Squarespace publishes a help article explaining why it has never offered phone support. Its argument is that website problems are visual, so written support lets an agent look at your actual screen.
Hostinger's chat has answered account-level questions within minutes in my experience, but trackers report waits of up to an hour at busy times. Cloudways support covers the server; deep plugin or theme debugging moves to its paid tier.
Who each one is actually for
Pick Hostinger hosting if you want the lowest 3-year cost, want to own your files, and are fine running WordPress. It is also the one I can vouch for from ongoing use.
Pick Hostinger Website Builder Business if you want the builder experience but not builder pricing. It allows up to 50 sites and 1,000 products at the same $107.64 three-year cost, but the $16.99/mo renewal is steep.
Pick Squarespace Core if design matters more than price, you sell a modest catalog, and nobody on your team wants to maintain software. The 0% store fee and bundled Workspace seat soften the $29/mo.
Pick Wix Core if you want the most apps and the only phone callback here. Go in knowing the site can never leave Wix.
Pick Cloudways if your shared plan slows down during sales, or you need staging and hourly backups. You get monthly billing with no renewal jump, but you add email yourself.
Who should look elsewhere
A store with thousands of products and inventory syncing across marketplaces is outgrowing all four. That is dedicated ecommerce platform territory, which our upcoming ecommerce hosting guide covers.
A business that needs one simple page and a contact form is overpaying on all of these. Hostinger Website Builder Premium, at $1.99/mo on a 48-month term, is the cheapest real option, but it cannot sell.
And if you have no one to handle WordPress updates, skip Hostinger hosting and Cloudways. A builder's higher price is cheaper than a hacked site.
Where to start
For most small businesses reading this, the choice comes down to one question: will you maintain WordPress, or pay a builder to do it?
If yes, Hostinger's hosting costs a fraction of any builder over three years, and you keep the freedom to leave. Register your domain separately using our best domain registrar guide, so the site and the name never depend on the same company.
If no, Squarespace Core is the cleaner builder bet, because it at least lets part of your site out the door. Wix gives you more features but keeps everything inside.
Whichever you pick, do the renewal math on the tables above before you pay. The signup price is only year one.
What held up
- Hostinger's 48-month terms bring 3 years of hosting to about $108, roughly a tenth of a $29/mo builder plan over the same period
- Squarespace Core charges 0% platform fee on store sales and includes one Google Workspace account free for the first year
- Wix Site History keeps up to 30 saved versions you can preview and restore in one click
- Cloudways bills monthly with no intro-price cliff and lets you schedule backups anywhere from hourly to weekly
What to watch
- Hostinger's plans renew at $10.99/mo (Premium hosting) and $16.99/mo (Website Builder Business), 3.7x to 5.7x the signup rate
- Wix sites cannot be exported to another host, per Wix's own help center, so leaving means rebuilding
- Squarespace Basic adds a 2% fee on store sales, and its export skips store pages and all but one blog
- Cloudways includes no email at all; Rackspace mailboxes cost $1.50 each per month on top of the server
Frequently asked
Is a website builder or web hosting better for a small business?
A builder (Wix, Squarespace, Hostinger Website Builder) is better if nobody on your team wants to update software or plugins. Traditional hosting with WordPress is better if you want to own your files, switch hosts later, or pay less over several years. The 3-year cost table below shows the price gap is large: about $108 on Hostinger's hosting versus about $1,044 on a $29/mo builder plan.
Which option is cheapest for a small business website over three years?
Hostinger's Premium web hosting or Website Builder Business on a 48-month term, at about $107.64 for three years, because the whole period sits inside the discounted term. Cloudways' entry server costs about $396 over the same three years. Wix Core and Squarespace Core both land near $1,044.
Can I move a Wix site to another host later?
No. Wix's own help center states that a Wix site cannot be exported or hosted elsewhere. You can copy text, download images, and export some data like product lists, but the design and pages have to be rebuilt on the new platform.
Can I move a Squarespace site to another host later?
Partly. Squarespace exports a WordPress-compatible XML file with regular pages, one blog, and gallery pages. Store pages, product blocks, style settings, custom CSS, audio, and video blocks do not export, so a store still needs a manual rebuild of its catalog and design.
Do website builders charge transaction fees on sales?
Some do. Squarespace Basic takes 2% of store sales and 7% of digital product sales, Core drops the store fee to 0%. Wix does not add its own fee on paid plans that can sell. Hostinger Website Builder Business states zero transaction fees. Card processing (around 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction) applies on all of them.
Do any of these include a business email address?
Hostinger includes mailboxes with its plans (2 per site on Premium hosting, 5 on Website Builder Business, free for the first year on the builder). Squarespace Core includes one Google Workspace account free for the first year. Wix Light and Cloudways include none, so budget for Google Workspace or Rackspace separately.
When does a small business actually need managed cloud hosting like Cloudways?
When a shared plan starts slowing down during sales or traffic spikes, or when you want staging, hourly backups, and dedicated server resources. For a brochure site with a few hundred visits a month, shared hosting or a builder is enough.
What happens to my domain if I switch platforms?
If you registered the domain separately, nothing. You point it at the new host. If the domain came free with a builder or hosting plan, it stays yours but renews at that company's registrar price after year one (about $17 to $20 per year on Wix and Squarespace). Our best domain registrar guide covers where registration is cheaper.