Hostinger International
Type of businessPrivate
Founded2004 (as Hosting Media)
2011 (rebranded to Hostinger)
HeadquartersKaunas, Lithuania
No. of locationsVilnius, Lithuania
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Florianópolis, Brazil
Area servedWorldwide
ChairmanArnas Stuopelis, Chairman of the Board
CEODaugirdas Jankus, CEO
Key peopleKristina Strimaitė, CMO

Domantas Beržanskis, CFO

Aivaras Šimkus, COO
IndustryWeb hosting
ServicesWeb hosting, shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS, email, Minecraft hosting, Windows VPS, managed WordPress hosting, domains
Revenue€69.6 million (2022)[1]
Employees~1000 (2022)[2]
Subsidiaries000webhost
Hosting24
Niagahoster
Zyro
URLwww.hostinger.com

Hostinger International Ltd is a globally recognized web hosting company that provides hosting solutions. Established in 2004, the company is headquartered in Lithuania and employs more than 1,000 people. Hostinger is the parent company of 000webhost, Hosting24, Zyro, and Niagahoster.[citation needed]

History

Hostinger was founded in 2004 as Hosting Media.[3]

In 2007, Hosting Media’s paid hosting offer was joined by a free web hosting service when the company founded 000webhost.[4]

In 2008, the company launched Hosting24, a cPanel-based web hosting brand, in the United States. The data centers were located in Asheville, North Carolina, and the United Kingdom.

In 2011, Arnas Stuopelis joined the company as CEO.[5] In the same year Hosting Media rebranded to Hostinger.

In 2013, Hostinger launched its subsidiary Niagahoster in Indonesia. It became one of the first hosting providers to offer tier-4 data centers.

In 2014, the company launched a Brazilian subsidiary, Weblink.

In 2019, Hostinger introduced a no-code, drag-and-drop website builder. Launched as a subsidiary under the name Zyro, the builder is supported by Hostinger’s hosting infrastructure and is aimed at small to medium-sized enterprises.[6]

In 2023, Hostinger launched the AI Website Builder, a platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate a custom site from scratch. AI Builder automatically writes unique content, selects royalty-free stock images, and chooses a color palette and fonts that best suit the description.[7]

In 2023, Daugirdas Jankus becomes Hostinger CEO. Arnas Stuopelis continues as Chairman of the Board.[8]

Acquisitions

In 2019, the company partnered with LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS).[9] It also partnered with Google Cloud Platform in 2020.[10]

In 2021, private equity company ConHostinger acquired an approximately 31% controlling stake in Hostinger with the goal of enhancing the growth of the company.[11] In the same year, Hostinger joint-founded the Lithuanian unicorn association, Unicorns Lithuania,[12] and expanded its payment processing capabilities. It partnered with Credorax to provide smart acquiring services and facilitate cross-border payments.[13] In 2022, Hostinger started accepting Cryptocurrency payments via CoinGate.[14]

Services

Hostinger's web hosting services are divided into four categories: shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and email hosting. LiteSpeed servers and the Linux operating system power all of the company's services. The Cloud Startup plan, which is powered by the Google Cloud Platform, is not included.

Hostinger provides an in-house control panel called hPanel for users to manage their hosting. Except for VPS, it is available on all hosting plans.

Email hosting via Titan Email and Google Workspace, domain registration and transfer, SSL certificates, and a website builder are among the other services offered by Hostinger.

Hostinger has ten data centres in eight countries: Brazil, Indonesia, India, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Awards

Every year since 2019, The Financial Times has been listing Hostinger as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe.[15][16] It was also named one of the fastest-growing hosting providers by Bitcatcha in 2020 and again by Cyber News in 2021.[17]

In 2021, Hostinger was listed in Yahoo’s Hosting Market Report as one of the key players in the hosting market.[18]

Philanthropy

Hostinger sponsors the organization Save the Children Lithuania, which began in 2020 to contribute computers and other homeschooling tools to the charity organization Mokykla Namuose.[19]

In 2021, Hostinger sponsored the prize for the most innovative idea in the Technorama 2021 competition[20] and rebuilt a school in Sumba, Indonesia.[21]  

Criticism

In 2015, a security researcher discovered a collection of 13 million leaked plaintext passwords belonging to users of 000Webhost. 000Webhost addressed the breach in a Facebook post citing an exploit in an old version of PHP.[22]

In 2023, The Cyber Crime Information Center reports Hostinger entered the top 5 Phishing hosts as measured by their Phishing Attack Score. [23] The phishing attack score takes into account the raw number of phishing attacks relative to the size of the Hosting Network.[24] Security firm Netcraft reported in 2015 that 90% of Steam Phishing sites they stopped were hosted by Hostinger. Netcraft reported they stopped 1,400 Steam phishing URLs in one month comprising 331 different websites, all hosted by Hostinger.[25] In 2022, Cyware Social reported that Hostinger's website preview feature was being exploited by criminals via phishing sites. Authors contend that once an account is created with Hostinger, the preview URLs were active for a maximum of 120 hours allowing phishing sites to proliferate.[26] On blog Review Signal, authors accused Hostinger of manipulating review ratings via reviews by company employees.[27]

References

  1. ^ "Hostinger's revenue grew 64% to €69.6 million in 2022". 20 June 2022.
  2. ^ "Hostinger Welcomes Its 1000th Employee". 15 October 2021.
  3. ^ Povilaitis, Nerijus. "Auganti Kauno IT bendrovė plečiasi: biure įrengė burbulų baseiną, vitamino D lempas". DELFI (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  4. ^ "000WebHost | Free Hosting | Comparison | Review | 2022". MrDustBin. 27 January 2022.
  5. ^ Pukenė, Unicorns Lithuania/ Rūta. ""Hostinger" vadovas A.Stuopelis: visos idėjos, kurios skirtos tik Lietuvos rinkai, nevertos laiko gaišimo". 15min.lt/verslas (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  6. ^ Degutis, Gintautas (2020-02-06). ""Hostinger" imasi interneto svetainių kūrimo verslo". VZ.lt.
  7. ^ Hostinger. "AI Website Builder – Create Stunning Sites Instantly". Hostinger. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  8. ^ Viluckas, Paulius. "„Hostinger" vadovu tapo D. Jankus, A. Stuopelis dirbs valdyboje". vz.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  9. ^ "LiteSpeed Partners - LiteSpeed Technologies". www.litespeedtech.com. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  10. ^ "Hostinger declared a partnership with Google Cloud platform | Cloud Host News". 2020-03-28. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  11. ^ Bonta, Bianca (2021-05-28). "Deal 5: ConHostinger Partner Thomas Strohe on Acquisition of 31% Stake in Hostinger".
  12. ^ "Unicorns". unicorns.lt. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  13. ^ "Credorax Partners with Hostinger to Provide Smart Acquiring Services, Facilitate Cross-Border Payments". www.businesswire.com. 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  14. ^ "Hostinger Starts Accepting Cryptocurrency Payments Via CoinGate". 2021-08-25. Archived from the original on 2021-08-25. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  15. ^ Kelly, Maxine (2021-03-02). "FT 1000: the fifth annual list of Europe's fastest-growing companies". Financial Times. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  16. ^ Kelly, Maxine (2020-03-02). "FT 1000: the fourth annual list of Europe's fastest-growing companies". Financial Times. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  17. ^ "Fastest-Growing Web Hosting Providers of 2021".
  18. ^ "Web Hosting Services Market Rising at 18.0% CAGR to Reach USD 267.10 Billion by 2028". 2021-07-23. Archived from the original on 2021-07-23. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  19. ^ "Mokykla namuose".
  20. ^ "#tech pokalbiai: kompanija "Hostinger" – 1000 darbuotojų kompanija, išlaikiusi startuolio veržlumą ir lankstumą". Technorama (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  21. ^ "Indonesia: Turning an Unsafe Bamboo Construction into a Safe, Proper Learning Environment". 2021-06-23. Archived from the original on 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  22. ^ "13 million plaintext passwords belonging to webhost users leaked online". 2015-10-29. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  23. ^ "Phishing Domain Scores".
  24. ^ "Ranking of Hosting Networks (ASNs) by Phishing Attack Score".
  25. ^ "Hostinger hosts over 90% of all Steam phishing sites".
  26. ^ "Cybercriminals Exploit Hostinger's Preview Domain Feature For Phishing".
  27. ^ "Hostinger's Fake Reviews – A Guide on How NOT to Promote Your Company".
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