Hostinger Website Builder Review 2023 [Tried & Tested]

Hostinger Website Builder Review

Product Name: Hostinger Website Builder

Summary

Overall, the Hostinger Website Builder provides a convenient solution, but it does have some limitations to consider. I found it to be an affordable and user-friendly option for individuals looking to create small websites or online stores. The pricing is attractive, and the essential features needed for smooth website operation are readily available. 

However, it’s important to note that the builder falls short when it comes to complex design customizations. If you’re content with template-generated designs, this website builder can meet your needs effectively.  If you require more extensive design flexibility, it might be worth considering the given option to export the designed website to WordPress with the same data. 

Use the special coupon: BPHWB48 to get Hostinger Website Builder for just $2.65/mo

In a world filled with ChatGPT and other AI website builders, Hostinger Website Builder is rapidly gaining popularity.

But you should make a wise and right choice. 

I tested and even created a site with the help of Hostinger Website Builder. 

And I am ready to share my experience. Plus also helps you to understand in which situation you should go for Hostinger website builder and when to avoid it.

Without further delay, let’s get started with the review!

An Introduction to Hostinger Website Builder

Hostinger recently merged their website builder product  Zyro website builder – Meaning you will find all the same features inside Hostinger website builder. So when referring to the Hostinger website builder, it includes the features and capabilities of Zyro as well.

The most highlighted benefit Hostinger offers through their page builder is – Integration with ChatGPT. 

By combining the features, and templates of Zyro and ChatGPT AI system into the website builder, Hostinger has been promising users that they will build their professional site in less than a minute. 

Zyro’s existing customer base and popularity are the best in the market. But I was curious about How Hostinger reformed this website builder with the help of the ChatGPT artificial intelligence system. 

Does it become more powerful?

Let’s discover…

Hostinger Website Builder Review: The Key Considerations

Should You Use Hostinger Website Builder? (The Summary)

Hostinger Website Builder is surely a considerable website builder tool for building small websites and online stores at very affordable pricing.  All the essential features one small online store or blog must have for smooth running are present. 

In a nutshell, Hostinger website builder works best for small to mid scale websites. But this website builder is currently not suitable for achieving complex design customizations. If you think you will be satisfied with template-generated designs, then this website builder can meet your needs effectively. Else you can choose to build using WordPress.

While it lacks some advanced eCommerce and SEO features, it is still a viable option for building blogs, portfolio sites, and online stores with ease. Design customization options for developers are limited, as you cannot directly add custom CSS or JS into the editor. 

Additionally, there is room for improvement regarding available elements and supported third-party integrations.

The drag and drop editor functions flawlessly, and the available templates are sufficient. The ChatGPT AI builder approach is the best and produces perfect results. The user can save time both ways.

To access advanced eCommerce, SEO, and design features, users can conveniently export their designed website to WordPress or other CMS platforms within the Hostinger interface, without any extra charge.

Hostinger Website Builder Pros and Cons:

Quick note: Use the below special discounted link to get Hostinger website builder at just $2.65/mo. Claim the discount by putting the “BPHWB48” code at the checkout.

Available Templates

Rating: 4.6/5

The 100+ collection of customizable professional templates is available for users. The templates are divided into these primary categories: Online Store, Portfolio, Landing Page, and Blog.

At this stage, The category which offers the maximum number of templates is eCommerce (Store).

I explored some of the template categories, and usually like four out of five. The fonts, images, color schemes, and literally everything is customizable in a template.

You can even start with a blank site in which you get a blank canvas and all you get is a support of drag & drop editor. This is especially beneficial to those web designers who want to start from scratch and look to create a custom website design for their clients. The real creativity begins here. 

Everything is cool about Hostinger Website Builder templates. No complaints.

Integration with ChatGPT: Useful or Not?

Rating: 4.9/5

Don’t want to use available website design templates? Are you short on time? Then try Hostinger AI website builder which works similarly to the ChatGPT website builder approach.

I asked Hostinger AI website builder to design my site template based on my given requirements.

Let’s see the results.

I tried the Hostinger AI website builder approach too.

So yes, Hostinger free website builder is integrated with ChatGPT to offer users a more personalized website designing experience. I experimented with this AI approach, and I must say Hostinger did a great job by integrating their system with ChatGPT. 

Literally, I created my customized website through this approach in hardly 2 minutes. The personalized experience I expected had been perfectly produced by the Hostinger website builder. 

Overall ratings would be 4.9/5 from my side to this newly revolutionized website designing approach.

The Hostinger AI website designing process begins as soon as you tap on the “start creating” button. (Shown in the above image).

Once you proceed, this below prompt will open up. Basically, this is your Hostinger AI builder that asks you a few things related to your website such as Brand name, Website type, and Description.

Hostinger website builder is a versatile tool and it will design different types of sites (including Online stores, blogs, Business sites, portfolios, etc) with ease. During my experiment, I chose to set up an online store.

Quick note: The website description from the user side is going to be more important here. The user prompt given to a website builder will directly impact the final result. The better descriptive prompt you give, the better website design result you get.

I supplied different website description prompts a couple of times, Actually I wanted to see how many things this AI website builder will catch up easily. 

For an online store, I provided Hostinger free website builder following things 

• Store Description: The name and the niche of the store. 
• Website Type: Online Store
• Layout description: Product categories
• Other things

You can also define font types, color palettes, custom design, location details, and other requirements as well.

Because the Hostinger website builder AI system is powered by ChatGPT, the understanding capability is pretty decent. 

Even if you don’t define the fonts, color palette requirements, layout information, etc. The AI builder with the help of its own understanding will decide all the things on its own and produce the best output possible.

Read my prompt in the above image: I kept my website description prompt short and straightforward. I only supplied my online store name, the products I am going to sell, transaction requirements, and a few other details. 

And as a result, Hostinger website builder gave me:

• 3 complete website design templates, 
• Unique content photos (as per my website niche), 
• Generated colors schemes,
• Generated font styles,
• Layout design 
• Generated a few web pages (Home, Online Store, Cart, Refund Policy)
• Generated Product pages examples
• Generated engaging headings
• Added a Newsletter & Contact form for email marketing
• Location Widget
• Social Buttons
• Payment Mechanism
• Testimonials

I didn’t supply photos, colors, or font style info in the first place. But Hostinger AI builder understood my website niche and did a job on its own. 

Quick note: Doesn’t like the Hostinger AI website builder output? Simply, go back in one click, modify the description and try again.

In the finalized result, I liked the headings, product page examples, chosen photos, fonts, testimonials, pre-added newsletter form, etc. I got almost everything an online store needs to have. 

Just look at these pictures Hostinger website builder automatically added based on my online store niche. 99% Accuracy maintained. Although some images are irrelevant. 

I think this is not a problem because even ChatGPT-powered AI is constantly improving and reducing the chances of mistakes. All other AI website builders work exactly like this. The chances of human involvement OR multiple attempts are gonna be there. Always.

In a nutshell, This AI approach of Hostinger website builder has proved to be a good and quick solution for people who don’t want to mess their heads with pre-defined templates and rather ask AI to generate a complete website design based on their given prompt. 

This whole approach from defining prompts to website design generation is going to be a great help for beginners. It surely saves plenty of hours of designing work.

And from this point, users can apply new customization on a generated template through the Hostinger website builder interface at any time.

The Hostinger website builder lacks some eCommerce features which I mentioned in the upcoming section.

The Hostinger Website Builder Editor

Rating: 4.6/5

Just like any other website builder, Hostinger website builder also supports drag and drop working. Either you can start with an AI approach or a templates approach, the website editor is gonna be the same.

Hostinger website builder editor surely is beginner friendly and I can confidently say that it has revolutionized my online store experience. It follows the same rows and column principle for designing a webpage.

The organization of features is correct. All the main tabs which you’re gonna spend most of your time on can be accessible from the left sidebar: Add Elements, Pages & Navigation, Website Styles, Blogs, and Online Store.

What I like about Hostinger Website Builder Editor:

• The changes are saved in a real-time
• Users can easily toggle between desktop or mobile preview
• The elements can be moved freely without any grid restrictions. 
• The editor supports “snap to grids” as well
• The elements such as Button, Add to bag, Image, Video, and Shape can be added in a single click
• All the Blog pages and Product pages can be accessed from the left sidebar with a single click.
• The HTML “Embed code” element can be placed anywhere on the selected section
• Option to inject custom code inside the header as well as the body. Helps to integrate Google Analytics, etc.
• The navigation bar comes attached to all templates. You can always modify, and add new categories, pages, links, and dropdowns easily
• The margins, padding, text styles, and background colors of all sections & elements are changeable with mouse clicks
• Website styles have a dedicated tab from where you can manage colors, typography, and animations of your entire site 
• Users can also use built-in SERP preview to learn how their web page appears in search engines.
• Dedicated options to access “Store Manager” & “Website Manager” anytime are located at the sidebar of the interface
• For any help & support, a dedicated support tab is available at the left sidebar. From it, users can access knowledge base articles, keyboard shortcuts, and even take a tour to learn everything from scratch.

What I don’t like about Hostinger Website Builder Editor:

• The customization or options for developers is limited. For example, you cannot add custom CSS code directly just like you can do in the WordPress Gutenberg editor
• The lack of elements can’t be ignored

Some Screenshots:

Key takeaway:

After exploring all the options in the Hostinger website builder’s editor, it seems that this editor would be more beneficial to new website owners. 

During the whole designing process, the user only needs to work on a single page type editor which ultimately makes it easy for users to grasp and learn every option about the editor quickly. 

Whether you’re setting up an eCommerce site or a blog, you won’t face any issues with design customization using Hostinger’s website builder. The real hero of this editor is its left sidebar, where users can find all the essential options and tabs they need to customize their site’s design to their heart’s content.

Unlike other builders such as Wix, WordPress. Hostinger website builder requires a short learning curve. The designing options are limited and hence can be learned easily from this knowledge base.

Indeed, if you are a developer and wish to make custom changes through coding or add a custom script to your website, you will need to access the website’s code via FTP with Hostinger. 

Unfortunately, the website builder editor itself does not allow you to make changes to the code or add custom scripts. This limitation can be a significant challenge for developers seeking greater flexibility and control over their website’s functionality.

eCommerce Aspect

Rating: 4.8/5

Does Hostinger Website Builder have enough eCommerce features? Is it enough for maintaining a large eCommerce website? Can I sell digital products?

If I have to answer this in one line, Hostinger website builder offers enough eCommerce oriented features for running a small store. 8/10 users won’t face a single problem. 

It has product catalogs, custom checkout, discounts, marketing features, tax management, shipping management, inventory tracking, marketing app integrations, multiple currencies, live chat, and whatnot. What else do you need?

The user can sell both digital and physical products. They can enable appointments and donations too. 

However, it lacks some advanced eCommerce features. For example, Wix website builder offers Multichannel selling, Abandoned cart recovery, recurring payments, Integration with dozens of eCommerce apps, etc.

You don’t have to worry if this is your first small eCommerce store. Yes, you may require advanced eCommerce features when you’re scaling your operations in the future. 

The Good news is Hostinger is expanding its features in the website builder at a high rocket speed. You can totally request any new feature through their roadmap page.

“The Store Manager” is a dedicated backend tab accessible from the Hostinger Builder where you’ll find everything to manage your entire store.

It’s a single tab to add products, manage inventory, orders, appointments, review payments, etc.

Here is a list of eCommerce features Hostinger Website Builder Offers:

• Add upto 500 products
• Accept 20+ Payment options with no transaction fees
• Easy store management from the single place 
• Manual Payments such as COD, Money orders, or even Bank transfers can be set up
• Supported appointments without any third party paid tool
• Donation collection is possible
• Products categories are there
• Supported discounts feature at a checkout page
• Testimonials blocks are available with all the templates. Easily hooked on the online store.
• Customers can access and manage their cart from the cart icon easily
• Newsletters, Social Icons, and Location Widgets are pre-installed.
• Fields on the checkout page are customizable
• Invoices, Taxes, and Shipping info are all manageable at ease from their dedicated tabs
• Marketing Integrations available: Google Ads, Google AdSense, Facebook Ads, Pinterest Ads, Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, etc

SEO Aspect 

Rating: 4/5

It is crucial for small business owners who are considering optimizing their website for SEO and aiming to gain traffic to be aware of the SEO features before purchasing a website builder. 

Neglecting to do so could potentially be a significant mistake.

Hostinger website builder offers only basic SEO options such as:

• Keywords optimization
• Add Meta titles & Meta description tags
• Featured Image Optimization
• Alt tags optimization
• URL optimization (dofollow, nofollow)
• Page de-indexation
• Language (hreflang) tag optimization
• Sitemap Generation
• Google Analytics & Search Console integration

Hostinger Website Builder lacks essential advanced SEO features such as:

• Schema Markup
• Redirection
• Custom SEO tags. Example Open Graph, Canonical
• Site audits
• Image optimization
• AMP optimization
• Local SEO optimization
• More…

I rated this website builder 4/5 for their SEO features because it gives users the freedom to migrate from Hostinger website builder to WordPress and other CMS.

WordPress or other website builders offer more advanced SEO options than Hostinger website builders. There is no denying this fact. 

If you see WordPress, you will find tons of SEO plugins that allow you to perform basic to advance SEO optimization on all of your web pages without any code.

Even Non WordPress CMS like Wix or Squarespace have in-house SEO-built tools & add-ons which surely make them a winner in SEO perspective.

But here is a great thing, You can consider Hostinger website builder absolutely risk-free. Because if you feel a need for missing SEO features, you can always export your website design on WordPress or another CMS. Your site design, data, settings, etc will be retained.

Integrations

Rating: 4/5

“Integrations” is another important aspect one should review carefully inside a Website Builder.

Compared to some other website builders, the Hostinger website builder has a more limited selection of third-party integrations and plugins. While it covers the essentials, those seeking extensive customization options through integrations may find it slightly restrictive. Shopify or Wix really excels at this.

On the integrations page, you will see the list of built-in supported integrations: Google Analytics, Hotjar, Facebook Pixel, Facebook Chat (support), WhatsApp, AdSense, etc.

The available built-in marketing integrations could be a great help for your eCommerce business.

If you can’t find the app of your choice, then you can also connect it by adding its script into the <head> or <body> tag via the “Custom code” widget. Please note, some of the apps may not be configured correctly via this feature.

Lots of integrations are yet to come. The list is usually updated weekly. You can track the releases of new integrations through the roadmap page.

Special AI Tools

The ChatGPT based editor is not the only AI gem. Hostinger also offers 3 more amazing AI tools built right into their website builder: Logo Maker, AI Writer, and AI Heatmap.

AI Writer: Hostinger’s AI writer doesn’t work like standalone AI writing tools. It is simple and helps you to generate quick text for pre-defined categories & topics that you can use as a starting point. For example, Menu Description, Restaurant about us paragraph, etc.

AI Heatmap: Ever heard of heatmap A/B testing tools like Microsoft Clarity? This is exactly like this. Hostinger gives it free of cost which is a huge plus because generally, heatmap tools cost huge.

Logo Maker: A basic logo maker, not so useful for now, but new fonts and designs keep updating regularly.

Performance

Rating: 4.5/5

I have hosted several websites on Hostinger hosting over the past couple of years. The performance of Hostinger’s server is great. The better plan you choose, the better speed & overall performance you’ll get.

The detailed speed & performance test of the Hostinger server is mentioned in our separate Hostinger review. For quick information, I always get an 85+ speed score in Google Page Insights & GTMetrix.

Pricing

Rating: 5/5

Is Hostinger Website Builder expensive?

The answer is not at all.

Hostinger is known for its affordable web hosting services in the market. And Hostinger builder pricing is exactly the same as their hosting plans. 

Hostinger offered only 1 special “premium website builder” plan for just $2.99/mo. 

Remember, this pricing applies when you buy a subscription straight for 4 years in a row. The following things you’ll get inside this plan:

• 100 Websites
• 500 Products per website
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Free Domain and Hosting
• 24/7 live chat customer support
• Marketing Features
• AI Features
• Weekly Backups
• 99.99 uptime
• AI ChatGPT powered Builder 

By reviewing this website builder pricing with other established players in the market such as Wix and Squarespace, I found their pricing is almost 5 times more than Hostinger website builder. 

For example, Wix plans start from $16/month. But with Hostinger plans, you can create upto 100 websites with their builder for just $2.99/mo. One free domain name is always a free perk available here. 

Have a look at this top website builder pricing graph, you get it all by yourself.

FAQs

Related Resources:

Final Words

We have tested the Hostinger website builder at its max potential. The results are good. Some features are absent and hopefully, they will come soon. We can surely recommend it for small-to-mid-level websites.

Here is a wrap-up of today’s review:

• Templates: 4.6/5
• AI Builder Approach: 4.9/5
• Website Builder Editor: 4.6/5
• eCommerce Aspect: 4.8/5
• SEO Aspect: 4/5
• Integrations: 4/5
• Pricing: 5/5

We would love to hear your thoughts on Hostinger web hosting! Did our comprehensive Hostinger web hosting review provide you with valuable insights?

Feel free to share your feedback or ask any questions in the comments section below.