How to start a WordPress site on Hostinger (2026 walkthrough)

Hostinger is the host we recommend most often to people building their first site, mostly because its setup is so short. You can go from checkout to a working WordPress dashboard in one sitting, without ever opening a DNS settings page.

This guide walks through the whole thing in order: choosing a plan, getting a domain, installing WordPress, locking it down, setting it up properly, publishing a first page and turning on the speed features. Set aside about an hour. Most of that is decisions, not waiting.

Pick a plan

Hostinger’s shared hosting comes in a few tiers. The entry-level Single plan looks tempting, but it’s tight: one website and no free domain. Once you add a domain yourself, most of the saving is gone.

Premium is the right starting point for most blogs, portfolios and small business sites. It covers more than one site, includes a free domain for the first year on longer terms, and comes with email. Pick Business instead if you’re building an online store or already expect steady traffic; it adds daily backups and more server resources. You can always upgrade later from inside hPanel without moving your site.

The term matters as much as the plan. The lowest monthly price only applies to the longest prepay, and every plan renews at a higher rate. Our guide to hosting renewal prices explains why that matters, and the card below shows the current pricing.

Before you pay, look at the cart carefully. Add-ons such as extra security tools or paid email upgrades are often pre-selected. Most first sites don’t need them, so untick anything you don’t recognize. It’s also worth checking our Hostinger coupons page first, since a code can take a little more off the first term.

Claim your domain

Once you’ve paid, Hostinger asks you to claim the free domain if your plan includes one. Search for the name you want and register it straight from your account. Because the domain and hosting live in the same place, Hostinger points the domain at your site automatically. That’s the step that trips beginners up at other hosts, and here you skip it.

A few tips for choosing the name:

• Go for a .com if it’s available. It’s what people type by default.
• Keep it short, easy to spell out loud, and free of hyphens and numbers.
• Remember the domain is free for the first year only. It renews at the standard rate after that.

Already own a domain somewhere else? You can connect it instead. Either change its nameservers to Hostinger’s or point its records at your new hosting. Hostinger shows the values you need in hPanel. DNS changes can take a few hours to spread, so do this early.

Install WordPress

The first time you log in to hPanel, the setup wizard asks what you’re building and whether you want WordPress. Say yes. It asks for an admin email, username and password for your WordPress dashboard, and then installs everything for you: WordPress itself, a database and the LiteSpeed Cache plugin.

A few choices you may see along the way:

• Admin username: don’t use “admin”. Pick something less guessable.
• Password: use a long, unique password and store it in a password manager.
• AI builder or starter template: optional. Fine for a quick draft, but you can skip it and choose a theme yourself.
• Extra plugins: the wizard may offer a handful. Install only what you know you’ll use. You can always add plugins later.

When the wizard finishes, you’ll find your site in the WordPress section of hPanel, with a button to open the WordPress dashboard. Bookmark yourdomain.com/wp-admin too. That’s where you’ll log in from now on.

Secure it

Do this before you publish anything. It takes ten minutes and saves you from the most common problems.

SSL

Hostinger includes a free SSL certificate and normally installs it on its own once your domain points at the site. Check the security area of hPanel to confirm it’s active, then visit your site and look for the padlock in the address bar. If the certificate is still pending, give it a little time after DNS changes. If some pages show a “not fully secure” warning, an image or script is still loading over plain http; updating those links fixes it. Our guide to free SSL certificates covers the details.

Updates

Out-of-date plugins are the usual way WordPress sites get hacked. In the WordPress dashboard, go to Updates and install anything pending. Then turn on automatic updates for plugins you trust from the Plugins screen. Delete plugins and themes you aren’t using rather than leaving them deactivated.

Backups

Hostinger keeps backups for you. How often depends on your plan: daily backups come with the higher tiers, and lower tiers back up less often. Find them in the backups section of hPanel and check you know how to restore one. On Premium, consider adding a free backup plugin that saves copies to cloud storage you control. A backup that lives only with your host is better than nothing, but not by much.

First settings

A fresh WordPress install needs a few adjustments before it feels like your site. All of these are in the WordPress dashboard.

1. Site title and tagline: Settings, then General. The title shows in browser tabs and search results. Clear the tagline if you don’t want one.
2. Permalinks: Settings, then Permalinks. Choose “Post name” so your URLs read like /my-first-post/ instead of a string of numbers. Do this now; changing it after you’ve published breaks old links.
3. Time zone and language: also under General. These control post dates and scheduled posts.
4. Sample content: delete the “Hello world” post, the sample page and the default comment.
5. Comments: under Settings, then Discussion. If you don’t want comments, switch them off before the spam starts.

Choosing a theme

Go to Appearance, then Themes, then Add New. Start with a lightweight, well-maintained free theme. The current default WordPress theme is a perfectly good choice, and popular options such as Astra, Kadence or GeneratePress are fast and flexible. Avoid giant multipurpose themes that bundle dozens of plugins; they slow sites down and are hard to leave later.

Don’t spend a week on design at this stage. Pick something clean and readable, set your colors and logo, and move on. Content matters more than layout for a new site.

Publish your first page

Most sites need the same few pages to start: Home, About and Contact. If you plan to blog, you’ll also want a page that lists your posts.

1. Go to Pages, then Add New. The block editor opens.
2. Type a title, then add blocks with the plus button: paragraphs, headings, images, buttons.
3. Use Preview to see it as a visitor would, on desktop and mobile.
4. Click Publish.
5. To make it your homepage, go to Settings, then Reading, and choose “A static page”.

Then add the page to your menu. Depending on your theme, that’s under Appearance, then Menus, or inside the Site Editor’s navigation block. A contact form plugin is worth adding at this point too, so you aren’t publishing your email address for spammers to collect.

Speed basics

Hostinger runs the LiteSpeed web server, and the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is installed with WordPress. Together they handle page caching, which is the single biggest speed win for most sites. The default settings are sensible, so the main rule is: leave it on, and don’t install a second caching plugin on top.

A few more habits keep a site quick:

• Resize images before uploading. A photo straight off a phone is far bigger than any web page needs. LiteSpeed Cache can also convert images to WebP.
• Keep plugins lean. Every plugin adds code. If two do overlapping jobs, keep one.
• Purge the cache after big changes. If an edit doesn’t show up, clear the cache from the LiteSpeed Cache menu in the WordPress toolbar.
• Pick a data center near your visitors if hPanel offers the choice when you set up the site.

If you’re curious how Hostinger compares with other hosts on speed, our Hostinger review includes the speed chart from our monitoring, and how we test explains the setup.

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