Wix vs Hostinger Website Builder: pricing, features, AI and ecommerce

Hostinger's website builder is much cheaper than Wix up front, and the gap narrows a good deal at renewal. As of October 2026, Hostinger advertises $2.99 to $7.99 per month, but those prices require paying for 48 months in advance, and the plans renew at $10.99 to $25.99 per month. Wix's plans are $17 to $159 per month on a yearly subscription. To compare fairly, you have to look at the renewal rate, the length of the commitment and what each plan leaves out.

The products differ too. Hostinger now presents a single builder called AI Builder with two modes: Manual, a drag-and-drop editor, and Agentic, where you build by prompting an AI. Its plans cover multiple websites and include mailboxes for a year. Wix covers one site per plan and includes a deeper set of built-in tools, especially for SEO and selling.

This article compares price, features, AI, SEO and ecommerce, using each vendor's own pages, and notes where those pages contradict themselves.

Pricing: promo price, renewal price and term

The two vendors publish prices on different terms, so a single "per month" column would mislead. This table keeps the term visible. Figures are US prices in USD before tax from wix.com/plans and hostinger.com/website-builder in October 2026.

The Wix up-front figures are 12 times the monthly price, since Wix states that yearly subscriptions are "paid in full at the time of purchase."

How to read the Hostinger prices

• The low price is for four years, prepaid. Hostinger's page shows the 48-month option. Prices for 1-, 12- and 24-month terms aren't shown on the builder page. They appear in the cart and may differ, so check there before comparing with Wix's yearly price.
• Renewal is about three to four times the promo rate. Premium goes from $2.99 to $10.99 per month, Unlimited from $3.99 to $16.99 and Cloud Startup from $7.99 to $25.99. Hostinger's pricing page words it as renewing "for the same term," so the renewal rate also assumes a 48-month payment.
• Even at renewal, Hostinger costs less. Premium at $10.99 per month is below Wix Light at $17.

How to read the Wix prices

• The term is one year. Wix also sells monthly and multi-year subscriptions, but shows those prices only at checkout.
• Renewal isn't published. Wix says anything bought on sale "renews at the standard rate." Check your renewal amount under Premium Subscriptions in your account.

We break down the Wix plans in Wix plans compared and the full running costs in how much a Wix website costs.

Trials and refunds

Wix has no free trial for paid plans but offers a 14-day money-back guarantee on a first plan purchase. Hostinger has no free plan. Its pages disagree on the trial length: the builder page FAQ says "we do offer a 14-day free trial," while the help center says "The trial lasts 7 days." During the trial a site can't be published. Hostinger shows a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan, and its AI Builder page adds a condition: "as long as fewer than 30 credits have been used."

Features side by side

Two rows favor Hostinger for a very small business: mailboxes and multiple sites. Wix sells email separately as Google Workspace, which we explain in business email on a Wix site. Note that Hostinger's included mailboxes are free for the first year and then renew at a per-mailbox price.

Building and AI

Hostinger: one builder, two modes

Hostinger states: "From now on, Hostinger offers a single website and app builder called AI Builder, with two building modes: Manual (drag-and-drop) and Agentic (vibe coding)." A plan gives you both.

• Manual mode is the drag-and-drop website builder: "a visual, 100% no-code editor" suited to portfolios, blogs, company sites and stores. It includes AI tools for writing, images, logos and SEO text, and it doesn't use AI credits. Elements appear on mobile in the order you added them on desktop, and you can reorder them for mobile.
• Agentic mode builds from prompts, with the AI generating code. Hostinger positions it for web apps, dashboards and client portals. Each action uses credits. Plans include a one-time gift of 5 or 15 credits that doesn't renew, and Hostinger says ongoing use of Agentic mode requires a separate credit-based subscription.

Switching is one-way. A Manual site can be recreated in Agentic mode, but Hostinger says switching from Agentic back to Manual isn't supported, and sites using Ecommerce can't make the switch.

Wix: three editors, AI inside them

Wix offers the Wix Editor (free-form drag and drop with a separate mobile view), the Harmony Editor (released January 2026, automatically responsive, with an AI assistant named Aria) and the Studio Editor for professional responsive work. Wix can also generate a starting site with AI from details you provide. Wix's plans page lists AI creation tools as included in all paid plans.

SEO controls

Both builders let you set page titles, meta descriptions, URLs and alt text, and both generate a sitemap. Past the basics, Hostinger's own help center lists limits that matter for some sites.

On robots.txt, a Hostinger help article says websites created with its builder don't have robots.txt files, while its feature page says the builder "creates sitemap.xml and robots.txt files for every project published." Check a live site at yourdomain.com/robots.txt to see which applies to you.

A canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the main version of a page. A 301 redirect sends visitors and search engines from an old URL to a new one. For a site being moved from another platform, with existing rankings and old URLs to preserve, they matter a lot. Wix documents both: see our guides to canonical tags on Wix and 301 redirects on Wix.

Ecommerce

Wix

Selling is part of the site plan from Core ($29 per month on a yearly subscription). Light can't accept payments. Core and above include a catalog of up to 50,000 products, abandoned cart recovery, and selling on marketplaces and social channels. Automated sales tax starts on Business. Wix Payments in the US charges 2.9% + $0.30 for credit and debit cards other than American Express. The full picture is in our Wix Stores guide.

Hostinger

Hostinger Ecommerce is its own subscription, billed separately from the builder plan. The plan tooltip reads: "Add Hostinger Ecommerce for $1 for 3 months, renews at $8.99/mo."

Hostinger says its store charges no platform transaction fees and accepts "100+ secure ways to get paid," naming Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe and PayPal. It can sell physical and digital products, subscriptions, gift cards and appointments.

On catalog size, Hostinger's pages differ. Its help center says a Manual mode store supports "up to 1,000 products." Its Ecommerce page says "Unlimited products." If you expect more than 1,000 products, ask Hostinger which applies before you commit.

Pricing a small store

A Hostinger store has two bills, as of October 2026. The builder plan renews at $10.99 per month on Premium, charged for another 48-month term. Hostinger Ecommerce is listed on its own page at $5.99 per month on a 12-month term, renewing at $8.99. Hostinger's builder page marks "Ecommerce available" on Unlimited and Cloud Startup only, while its main pricing page marks it on Premium too, so confirm in the cart which plan you need. Wix Core is one bill, $29 per month on a yearly subscription. Because the terms differ, compare the totals each cart shows for the period you'd really buy. None of these figures includes payment processing or tax.

Leaving later

Neither builder exports a working copy of a drag-and-drop site.

• Wix: a site must run on Wix's servers. Blog posts can't be exported. Store products and CMS collections export to CSV.
• Hostinger Manual mode: there's an export to WordPress for pages, text and images, but not style, layout, the store, forms or SEO settings. Any other destination is manual copy and paste. Agentic-mode projects can export code as a Node.js project.

One difference in what happens when you stop paying. A Wix site whose plan lapses isn't deleted. It drops to the free plan on its wixsite.com address. Hostinger says a project "becomes unavailable immediately if your hosting plan expires," and that stored data is deleted if the plan isn't renewed within the retention period.

Choose Wix if, choose Hostinger if

Choose Wix if:

• You're moving an existing site and need redirects and canonical control.
• You want selling, bookings and marketing tools included in one plan.
• You'd rather commit a year at a time than four.
• You need more than four languages or automatic translation.
• You want a free plan to build on, and a site that stays online if a payment lapses.

Choose Hostinger if:

• Lowest total cost is the priority and you're comfortable prepaying a long term.
• You need several simple sites under one plan.
• You want mailboxes bundled for the first year.
• The site is new, small and doesn't depend on advanced SEO settings.

Conclusion

Hostinger's published plan prices are lower than Wix's at both the promotional rate and renewal, and it adds multi-site plans and first-year mailboxes. Wix costs more and includes more: a free plan, a store inside the plan, more documented SEO controls and a one-year commitment. Compare the renewal price over the years you expect to run the site, add Hostinger's ecommerce subscription if you sell, and check the SEO limits against your plans. If you choose Wix and want help setting it up, see our Wix website services. More guides are in our Wix hub.

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