Hostinger is cheaper by a distance — but only if you pay for four years today and do not need daily backups at the entry tier.
- Hostinger Premium is $2.99/mo on a 48-month term, which is $143.52 payable up front. Renewal is $10.99/mo.
- Cloudways is $11/mo with no contract. Four years costs $528, or about $600 with a mailbox.
- Hostinger includes a free domain for year one, email, SSL and CDN. Cloudways includes none of those.
- Cloudways includes staging and daily backups at entry; Hostinger’s Premium plan does not list either.
On price alone this is not close. Hostinger’s four-year cost is roughly a quarter of Cloudways’. The question worth asking is what the discount is attached to — because the advertised rate is tied to a commitment most small businesses would not make for any other service.
All figures are from published pricing on 23 September 2026.
What the $2.99 actually requires
Hostinger’s Premium plan advertises $2.99/mo. That rate applies to a 48-month term costing $143.52 today. A 12-month term is available at a higher monthly rate, and after the term ends the plan renews at $10.99/mo. Unlimited follows the same pattern at $3.99/mo renewing to $16.99, and Cloud Startup at $7.99 renewing to $25.99.
Cloudways bills monthly at $11 with no term at all. Over 48 months that is $528 — more than three times Hostinger’s prepaid figure. What you get for the difference is the ability to stop at any point, plus staging, daily backups and a server you can resize.
Cloudways vs Hostinger
| CloudwaysDigitalOcean 2GB | HostingerPremium | HostingerUnlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introductory price | $11/mo | $2.99/mo | $3.99/mo |
| Term for that price | None | 48 months | 48 months |
| Payable up front | $11 | $143.52 | $191.52 |
| Renewal price | $11/mo | $10.99/mo | $16.99/mo |
| Websites | Multiple apps per server | 3 | Unlimited |
| Storage | 50 GB | 20 GB SSD | 50 GB NVMe |
| Free domain (1st year) | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email included | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily backups | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Staging | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Free trial | 3 days, no card | ✕ | ✕ |
| Money-back guarantee | Not stated | 30 days | 30 days |
| Four-year cost | $528 | $143.52 | $191.52 |
| View pricing | View pricing | View pricing |
Checked 23 September 2026. Hostinger four-year figures assume the 48-month prepayment; renewal after that term is higher.
A four-year prepayment is a bet that the site, the business and the platform all still suit you in 2030. That is often fine for a brochure site. It is a worse fit if you are likely to rebuild, migrate to a different stack, or hand the site to an agency with its own hosting.
Where Cloudways earns the extra cost
- Daily backups at entry. Hostinger’s Premium plan does not list daily backups. If you take orders or publish daily, the gap between a daily and a weekly restore point is the gap between losing a day and losing a week.
- Staging. Cloudways includes it at $11/mo. Hostinger does not list staging on its shared plans, so changes get tested on the live site or not at all.
- Resources you can name. 2 GB RAM and 1 vCPU is a specification you can reason about and resize. Shared hosting performance depends on neighbours you cannot see.
- No lock-in. Month to month means a bad experience costs you one month, not four years.
Hostinger
- By far the lowest four-year cost at $143.52
- Free domain for the first year, plus SSL, email and CDN
- Three sites on Premium, unlimited on the tier above
- NVMe storage from the Unlimited plan up
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- The advertised rate needs a 48-month prepayment
- Renewal at $10.99/mo is a 267% increase
- No daily backups listed on Premium
- No staging on the shared plans
- 20 GB storage on Premium
Verdict: The right answer when budget is the binding constraint and the site is straightforward.
Cloudways
- No contract — leave any month
- Staging and daily backups included at $11/mo
- Named, resizable resources rather than shared capacity
- 3-day trial with no card
- Price does not rise at renewal
- Roughly 3.7x Hostinger’s four-year cost
- No free domain and no mailboxes without paying extra
- Backup storage and excess bandwidth billed separately
- Assumes some comfort with servers
- No stated money-back guarantee
Verdict: Worth it if the site earns money, changes often, or needs to be handed between people.
Which should you choose?
The verdict
$143.52 covers four years with a domain and email included. Nothing else here comes close.
Check Hostinger pricingDaily backups and staging at entry, and no commitment if you need to change direction.
Start the 3-day trialMonth to month costs $11 to find out. A 48-month term costs $143.52 to discover you were wrong.
Try CloudwaysSources
Taken from Cloudways pricing and Hostinger web hosting on 23 September 2026. We have not run independent performance tests on either host, so no speed or uptime claims are made here.
Promotional and renewal pricing changes without notice and varies by region. Confirm on the provider’s page before purchasing.
Before you move host, it is worth knowing whether the build is the bottleneck. We audit and rebuild small business websites across the UAE and Africa.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hostinger cheaper than Cloudways?
Yes, substantially. Hostinger Premium is $143.52 for four years against Cloudways at $528. The catch is that Hostinger’s rate requires paying for all 48 months up front, while Cloudways is month to month.
Does Hostinger include daily backups?
Daily backups are not listed on the entry Premium plan. Cloudways includes daily backups at its $11/mo entry tier. Check the current plan page before buying, as inclusions change.
What happens when my Hostinger term ends?
The plan renews at the standard rate — $10.99/mo for Premium, $16.99 for Unlimited and $25.99 for Cloud Startup. That is when Hostinger’s cost advantage narrows considerably.
Can I get a refund if I commit to four years?
Hostinger advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee, so the decision is reversible within that window. Cloudways does not state a money-back guarantee, but offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card instead.
Which is better for a WooCommerce store?
A store changes daily and loses money when it breaks, which favours Cloudways’ daily backups, staging and resizable resources. If the store is small and budget is the constraint, Hostinger will run it — just plan your own backup routine.
Keep reading
- Cloudways vs Hostinger vs SiteGround — all three, with four-year costs side by side.
- Cloudways vs SiteGround — visit caps against resource-based scaling.
- Cloudways review — a closer look at the platform.
- Our web development service — build and hosting handled together.
Related reading
Kelvin Wambugu leads Nuru Digital Marketing, a Dubai-based creative growth agency serving brands across the UAE, MENA and Africa. His work spans SEO, paid media, brand strategy, conversion-focused web design and AI automation across e-commerce, hospitality, tourism, professional services and regional trade initiatives.
