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Hostinger

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Hostinger
FormerlyHosting Media (2004–2011)
Type of businessPrivate
Founded2004 as Hosting Media
HeadquartersVilnius, Lithuania
Area servedWorldwide
ChairmanArnas Stuopelis
CEOGiedrius Zakaitis [1]
Key peopleDaugirdas Jankus, Deputy CEO
Kristina 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€275.4 million (2025)[2]
Employees1000+ (2026)
SubsidiariesHosting24
Niagahoster
URLhostinger.com

Hostinger is a Lithuanian web hosting company headquartered in Vilnius.

History

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Hostinger was founded in Kaunas in 2004 as Hosting Media.[3] In 2007, Hosting Media founded a free web hosting service, 000webhost. In 2008, the company launched Hosting24, a cPanel-based web hosting brand with data centers located in Asheville, North Carolina, US, and the United Kingdom. In 2011, Arnas Stuopelis joined the company as CEO.[4] In the same year, Hosting Media renamed as Hostinger. In 2013, Hostinger launched its subsidiary Niagahoster in Indonesia. [citation needed][5] In 2014, the company launched a Brazilian subsidiary, Weblink. In 2019, Hostinger introduced a no-code, drag-and-drop website builder Zyro.[6]

In 2021, ConHostinger acquired a 31% stake in Hostinger.[7] In the same year, Hostinger joint-founded the Lithuanian unicorn association, Unicorns Lithuania.[8]

In 2023, Daugirdas Jankus became Hostinger CEO. Arnas Stuopelis continues as Chairman of the Board.[9] In 2024, 000webhost, a free web hosting brand powered by Hostinger, shut down its operations.[10]

Philanthropy

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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.[11] In 2021, Hostinger sponsored the prize for the most innovative idea in the Technorama 2021 competition[12] and rebuilt a school in Sumba, Indonesia.[13]  

Reception

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In 2015, a security researcher discovered a collection of 13 million leaked plaintext passwords belonging to users of 000Webhost.[14] 000Webhost addressed the breach in a Facebook post citing an exploit in an old version of PHP.[15] 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.[16] On the Review Signal blog in 2017, the authors accused Hostinger of manipulating review ratings via reviews by company employees.[17] In 2019, a data breach happened and according to Hostinger, it affected approximately 14 million customers.[18][19]

In 2022, Hostinger's website preview feature was exploited by criminals via phishing sites.[20] It was reported that once an account is created with Hostinger, the preview URLs are active for a maximum of 120 hours allowing phishing sites to proliferate.[21] In 2023, the Cybercrime Information Center reported that Hostinger entered the top five phishing hosts as measured by their Phishing Attack Score.[22] By April 2026 Hostinger had dropped out of the top 20.[23] The Phishing Attack Score takes into account the raw number of phishing attacks relative to the size of the Hosting Network.[24]

References

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  1. ↑ "Hostinger reports 51% revenue growth in 2025, reaches €275.4 million". webhosting.today. 18 February 2026.
  2. ↑ "Hostinger reports 51% revenue growth in 2025, reaches €275.4 million". webhosting.today. 18 February 2026.
  3. ↑ Povilaitis, Nerijus. "Auganti Kauno IT bendrovė plečiasi: biure įrengė burbulų baseiną, vitamino D lempas". DELFI (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  4. ↑ Pukenė, Unicorns Lithuania/ Rūta. ""Hostinger" vadovas A.Stuopelis: visos idėjos, kurios skirtos tik Lietuvos rinkai, nevertos laiko gaišimo". 15min.lt/verslas (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  5. ↑ "Hostinger: A Success Story of Innovation and Resilience in the Web Hosting Industry". News Diaries. 6 April 2025. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  6. ↑ Degutis, Gintautas (6 February 2020). ""Hostinger" imasi interneto svetainių kūrimo verslo". VZ.lt.
  7. ↑ Bonta, Bianca (28 May 2021). "Deal 5: ConHostinger Partner Thomas Strohe on Acquisition of 31% Stake in Hostinger".
  8. ↑ "Unicorns". unicorns.lt. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  9. ↑ Viluckas, Paulius. ""Hostinger" vadovu tapo D. Jankus, A. Stuopelis dirbs valdyboje". vz.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  10. ↑ Kołosowski, Kamil (26 July 2024). "000webhost shuts down after 17 years". webhosting.today. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
  11. ↑ "Mokykla namuose". schoolandcollegelistings.com.
  12. ↑ "#tech pokalbiai: kompanija "Hostinger" – 1000 darbuotojų kompanija, išlaikiusi startuolio veržlumą ir lankstumą". Technorama (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Indonesia: Turning an Unsafe Bamboo Construction into a Safe, Proper Learning Environment". 23 June 2021. Archived from the original on 23 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  14. ↑ Seals, Tara (28 October 2015). "13.5Mn User Accounts May Be Compromised in 000Webhost Breach". Infosecurity Magazine.
  15. ↑ "13 million plaintext passwords belonging to webhost users leaked online". Ars Technica. 29 October 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "Hostinger hosts over 90% of all Steam phishing sites". Netcraft. 28 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "Hostinger's Fake Reviews – A Guide on How NOT to Promote Your Company". Review Signal. 6 December 2017.
  18. ↑ Whittaker, Zack (25 August 2019). "Web host Hostinger says 14 million affected by data breach". TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  19. ↑ "Saugumo krizė debesyse – 14-os milijonų lietuvių įmonės „Hostinger" vartotojų duomenims iškilo grėsmė". lrt.lt. 26 August 2019.
  20. ↑ Mascellino, Alessandro (5 August 2022). "Hackers Exploit Hostinger's Preview Domain Feature to Launch Phishing Campaigns". Infosecurity Magazine.
  21. ↑ "Cybercriminals Exploit Hostinger's Preview Domain Feature For Phishing". cyware.com.
  22. ↑ "Phishing Domain Scores". cybercrimeinfocenter.squarespace.com.
  23. ↑ "Phishing Activity in Hosting Networks (ASNs) February 1, 2026 - April 30, 2026". Cybercrime Information Center.
  24. ↑ "Phishing Activity in Hosting Networks May - July 2023". Cybercrime Information Center.
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