Hostinger Ecommerce: From Nothing to Online Store in Two Hours

Hostinger Ecommerce offers a fast, easy way to build an online store. I recently used it to create a mockup shop called Apex Warrior Training, and the whole process took me about two hours. Compared to more established options like Shopify and WooCommerce, I found Hostinger Ecommerce to be more beginner-friendly and easier to navigate. I recommend it to anyone building their first online store.

Its biggest advantage is its intuitive dashboard, which is accessed from (and deeply influenced by) Hostinger’s hPanel. It has everything a new online store owner needs to configure: products, taxes, shipping, payments, discounts, legal pages, email confirmation templates, and more.

The main downside is that the default “instant store” it builds is generic and lacks even basic customization. Luckily, you’re not stuck with it (more on that later), but it’d be nice if Hostinger let you at least pick a color scheme and font pairing.

That’s the TL;DR. To get the full Hostinger Ecommerce review, keep reading. I’ll break down its features, plans, pricing, and pros and cons. I’ll also walk you through what it looks like to build an online store with it using screenshots from my own build. Here’s what you can expect:

Hostinger Ecommerce overview 🔎

Plans and pricing 💰

Hostinger Ecommerce comes in three plans:

• Starter plan: starts at $2.99 per month, lets you sell five physical or digital products, and is primarily geared toward selling through social media channels.
• Growth plan: starts at $7.99 per month, lets you sell 300 products of various types, manage three businesses, connect three sales channels, and is ideal for most ecommerce operations.
• Scale plan: starts at $19.99 per month, lets you sell unlimited products of various types, manage unlimited businesses, connect unlimited sales channels, and is designed for very large-scale operations.

How to quickly build and launch a simple online store with Hostinger Ecommerce

As I mentioned in the introduction, I used Hostinger Ecommerce to build a small online store called Apex Warrior Training. I built it to test the service so I could write this review and demonstrate how to use it.

Before I give you the steps, I want to point out something important about Hostinger Ecommerce: it is not a website builder in the traditional sense. Its primary purpose is to let you manage your product inventory, tax rates, shipping rules, customer lists, and all the other variables that go into running an ecommerce business. In other words, it is a backend system.

However, starting from the tier-two Growth plan, Hostinger Ecommerce lets you connect up to three “sales channels” to your account. These act as the frontend of your business (i.e., your website) and come in three options:

• Use an AI-generated one-page store (automatic; zero effort)
• Use Hostinger’s AI builder to make a custom website (very beginner-friendly; low effort)
• Build your own custom frontend and connect it (requires technical know-how; high effort)

If I were using Hostinger Ecommerce to launch an actual business, I’d opt for the third approach. However, that doesn’t affect the process outlined below, which is meant to be a baseline for getting started, irrespective of which of the three approaches you take. You may need to take additional steps based on your business and the products or services you intend to sell.

Step one: sign up for a Hostinger Ecommerce plan and navigate to it

To get started, head to the Hostinger Ecommerce page and choose a plan. If you don’t already have a general Hostinger account, then you’ll need to provide some basic information and make a payment.

Once you’re logged in, use the hPanel left-side menu to navigate to the Hostinger apps section. There you’ll find a choice for Ecommerce. Click on it, and you’ll get an internal landing page with a button inviting you to Create your first store:

Step two: complete the store setup wizard

Clicking the Create your first store button opens up a three-step setup wizard.

The first step asks you to upload up to five product images:

For my store, I added images of fitness equipment like kettlebells, gymnastics rings, a barbell, and a pullup bar.

After you upload your product images, Hostinger Ecommerce asks you to name your store and provides some suggestions, with the option to create your own. I didn’t find the suggested names very exciting, so I provided my own: Apex Warrior Training.

For the final setup wizard step, you can either set up payment methods or head straight to the Hostinger Ecommerce dashboard:

I went straight to the dashboard. If you’re not ready for this step yet, you can do the same.

The Payments screen is easily accessible, so kicking it down the road doesn’t cause any issues. To pull it up later, go to the Setup section in the dashboard, and you’ll find it under Settings → Payments:

There you’ll see three main portals: Stripe, PayPal, and dLocal Go. Though “three” is a bit of a misnomer, because Stripe and dLocal Go unlock hundreds of ways to accept payments.

Step three: review and edit AI-generated product descriptions and prices

The next thing I did was audit my product catalog. Hostinger Ecommerce leverages AI to auto-generate product descriptions and prices for whatever product images you upload during the first step of the setup wizard. These speed up the overall process of creating your catalog, but they aren’t flawless. It’s important to check each item one by one.

Here’s how I did it and how you can, too:

From the dashboard, go to Catalog → Products. Then click the three horizontal dots next to each product item and click again on Edit in the submenu that pops up:

On the next screen, you can change the product name, adjust its subtitle and description, or add a ribbon. Ribbons are labels like “New Arrival” or “Sale” that make your product stand out on the page.

You can also adjust the price, add a discounted price or a SKU number, and set a threshold for flagging when an item needs to be restocked in your inventory:

Step four: edit your store’s business details and add a logo

After editing my product descriptions and prices, I moved on to customizing my entire store by going to Setup → Settings → Store settings:

Here I was able to add a logo, set my currency, pick my store language, and put my business contact information. Everything here is self-explanatory. Click the Save button on the bottom right when you finish:

Step five: add tax rules

Handling taxes is probably the least exciting part of managing an online store, but much like everything else, Hostinger Ecommerce makes it easy.

I didn’t fully complete this step since I was only building a demo store, but I did get far enough that I was able to understand what it feels like to do it for real.

To do it yourself, go to the Setup section, click on Settings, and then again on Taxes. Then tap on the purple Add tax rules button:

Once you’ve unlocked the tax rules, click on Add Country to find the country (or countries) relevant to you (i.e., where your business is registered and where you anticipate that you’ll owe taxes):

After selecting your tax region(s), do the following:

• Provide a name for your tax rate (e.g., sales tax).
• Set the percentage amount.
• Choose whether to apply it to the total shipping cost or only the item itself.

The last tax-related decision you need to make has to do with timing.

• Do you want the tax to be applied upfront, so customers can see it directly when they view a product?
• Or do you want to apply it at checkout so customers don’t see the final price until they’re about to pay?

Make your selection and move on to the next step.

Step six: create and activate checkout policies

Of all the steps in this mini-tutorial, this is the one where Hostinger Ecommerce helps you the least, but understandably so. Hostinger has no idea what your store’s privacy policy, refund policy, or terms and conditions are. Those are decisions you need to make yourself.

The way the step is designed presumes that you don’t intend to rely on the automatically-generated instant store to be your business’ store front. It’s essentially just a series of placeholders that ask you to provide a link to a webpage that corresponds to each policy:

If, for whatever reason, you find the instant store sufficient and you don’t intend on building a separate website, then the easiest approach here is to place your policies into individual Google Docs. Afterwards, make each document publicly viewable by clicking on File → Share → Publish to web:

Google Docs will give you the link. Copy and paste it into the appropriate slot on the Checkout policies page and this step is done.

Step seven (if applicable): set up shipping

Setting up shipping policies and processes only applies for those selling physical goods, which means it applied to me because my example store had five types of workout equipment for sale.

If you also plan to sell physical goods, here’s how to handle the shipping:

Go to Setup → Settings → Shipping. Then click the purple Create zone button:

On the next screen, click the Add option button on the right. This will open a pop-up window where you can create a shipping rate, name it (e.g., Standard USPS, FedEx Standard Overnight, UPS Ground, etc.), set the amount, and add triggering conditions. The conditions can be based on order price or order weight.

When you finish, click the purple Add button on the bottom right of the pop-up:

To add additional rates, simply repeat the process, starting with the Add option button.

In addition to shipping rates, you may also want to integrate Shippo with your store. This will automate your shipping labels by tapping into a network of over 40 carriers. Plus it’ll update tracking information by syncing information directly from each carrier.

To set it up, go to Setup → Integrations. As of the time of this writing, there are only two, so you don’t have to sift through a catalog. Pick Shippo, click on Get started. When you get the Shippo pop-up window, just click on Add Shippo to activate it:

What I didn’t show you

The seven-step process above is what I followed to build my Apex Warrior Training online store demo. It covers the baseline most store owners need to launch an ecommerce business. However, there are also nuances related to what you plan on selling. For example, a store with digital products isn’t going to function the same way as a store selling appointments or a store selling print-on-demand T-shirts.

In other words, you’ll need to make your own slight adjustments here and there.

There are also other features inside of Hostinger Ecommerce that I didn’t show (e.g., discount codes) because they’re minor and you’ll come across them as you build your store.

Finally, as I mentioned at the start of this walk-through, if I were launching this store as a real business, I would build a custom storefront. The instant store Hostinger Ecommerce auto-generates is functional, but it’s bland. It looks like this:

If that works for you, then by all means stick with it. Otherwise, use Hostinger’s AI builder to make a more aesthetic website for your business and get to selling.

Last word 💬

Hostinger Ecommerce tells you exactly what its purpose is right in the name. That clarity permeates across the entire service, from building your store to picking one of its three plans. I can’t recall the last time I used an ecommerce platform that was this easy to set up and use. This makes it an ideal choice for beginners or anyone who wants a smooth navigation experience.

For most of you reading this, the mid-tier Growth plan will likely meet your requirements, but to help you make a final decision, here’s a quick recap:

• The Starter plan is a no-brainer if you don’t need a website and want a service to manage your products, customers, and your business’s backend. Generate checkout links for payments, embed them wherever you’re pitching, and make money.
• If you’re looking to launch a bona fide online store, then you’re looking at the Growth plan. It supports physical and digital products, and also print-on-demand products, subscriptions, and appointments. Plus, you can sell up to 300 products using up to three sales channels. It covers most use cases.
• For ecommerce operations with high sales volume but low structural complexity, the Scale plan makes the most sense. This includes high-volume dropshippers, non-technical solopreneurs (or small teams), or retailers that have a low-complexity, high-SKU product catalog.

If you’re interested in exploring other ecommerce options, check out our roundup of the best open-source ecommerce platforms or our list of the best cheap ecommerce platforms. We also have an excellent tutorial on how to build an ecommerce website with WordPress if you decide to go down that road instead.

Do you have any questions about Hostinger Ecommerce, or have you used it yourself? Let me know in the comments.

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