It’s been about one week since I switched to Hostinger. In my last post, I explained why I ditched Bluehost and provided a little background to how I made the decision. I wanted to share my initial thoughts and observations leading up to today in this article. Was it worth it? Did I make the right decisions? If you want to know…yes!
Let’s just right in and talk about it.
Initial reactions
- It was quick and easy to set up my account after purchase
- I got a receipt within seconds, which is a huge plus!
- It’s fairly simple to find your way around the dashboard
- The widgets are an interesting touch to the dashboard
The first thing that blew my mind was how easy it was to get going after I purchased the Hostinger Cloud Startup Plan. The cost was $24.99, which wasn’t bad for testing out a new hosting service. From a UX standpoint, Hostinger knocked it out of the park. I opted for the one-month plan to try the service out first.
As you can see below, there are options to save money by locking in longer-term plans.
I couldn’t believe how quick and simple it was to go from the purchase page through setup. My old site was up and running in about an hour. The emails were very welcoming, offering assistance and guides at the onset. It’s a good thing I am somewhat tech-savvy already.
Site migration was quick and easy
Seconds after the purchase, I received a receipt email and was ushered to a page asking if I wanted to create or migrate a website. At each prompt, I was asked a simple question to confirm my choice. It was pretty simple and very similar to the iPhone setup process.
One small hiccup and an easy fix
I did have one small hiccup during the process; however, it was quickly resolved. As you may now know, Hostinger takes you through a short series of pages as part of the migration process. One of those pages is a WordPress login page.
At this prompt, I could not remember my WordPress password. Thinking back, I did not have to remember as I would normally sign into WordPress from inside Bluehost.
So what did I do? I performed a simple password reset, applied the new password, and kept it moving. Remember this particular prompt, as it may throw some people off.
The Hostinger dashboard is very intuitive
Hostinger’s dashboard is intuitive and offers many different ways to see the information that matters the most to you. Coming from Bluehost, it’s refreshing to be able to see the information you need right away.
Bluehost’s dashboard is very simple, but it has some interesting quirks. I did not miss Bluehost’s upsells before getting to your dashboard, and I totally get it—it’s a business. This is just my personal take on user experience.
In a future post, I will cover my experience with the Bluehost dashboard and compare it against Hostinger’s dashboard, such as widgets and navigation tips. Overall, Hostinger’s main dashboard is very good and easy to navigate.
In conclusion…
A week into usage, I am still very happy that I made the decision and learning new things about the platform. Switching to Hostinger has been easily one of the best purchasing decisions I’ve made for my blogging business. Unfortunately, one of the things that goes unsaid in this business of buying web hosting is trial and error, which can be costly depending on your needs and wants. Thankfully, this hasn’t been one of those decisions.
In hindsight, I learned that it is okay to try out different web hosting services to find the best fit for your needs. Quite frankly, this process has helped me determine which sites I may want to keep with Hostinger for the long run and potentially other sites that I may want to keep elsewhere.
One last thing before I close: I’d be remiss not to share my experience, which should save you time and money if you decide to switch to Hostinger. The first bullet point is definitely an understatement and one that I highly recommend.
Buy longer-term plans to save more
I was reluctant to spend a couple hundred bucks on them, but I wish I had instead of the one-month plan. It’s not a huge deal, but every dollar counts if you’re like me. It’s also a good way to gauge the amount of space and speed you need. From there, you can plan any potential blog growth or expansion strategies that you may see fit. They’re worth it.
Opt for the Managed WordPress hosting plans
This is another great recommendation. Shared hosting plans are great if you need cheap web hosting to start. However, they do come with some tradeoffs that I am not willing to make at this stage of my blogging career. They’re still relatively inexpensive and will give you a great mix of space, speed, and security. Again, they’re not the cheapest, but they are well worth it. With Managed WordPress plans, you benefit from the optimization that Hostinger provides.
Check if everything on your site is working
This means assessing but not limited to testing the site on different devices and browsers. This may be a good time to check that you have the latest plugin versions, site speeds, DNS, and NS to ensure everything matches up. If you have WooCommerce, it may be advisable to check if that process is seamless or needs any updates.
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