Hostinger vs Raff: which is right for you?
The choice comes down to hosting convenience versus cloud infrastructure control. Hostinger is stronger when templates, global VPS locations, and AI-assisted hPanel management matter. Raff is stronger when predictable monthly pricing, unmetered transfer, US-East throughput, and managed app-platform services matter.
- Choose Hostinger for template convenience - Hostinger's VPS catalog includes app, panel, and OS templates such as WordPress, Docker, n8n, Plesk, CyberPanel, CloudPanel, and many Linux distributions.
- Choose Hostinger for non-US regions - Hostinger lists VPS data centers across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.
- Choose Hostinger for disk-IOPS-heavy workloads - the preserved benchmark shows Hostinger ahead on fio 4K random IOPS, 64K random IOPS, sysbench file I/O, and sequential disk throughput.
- Choose Hostinger for 24-month renewal economics - KVM 2 renews at $14.99/mo for a 24-month term, but the first-term promo monthly equivalent should not be used as the main comparison.
- Choose Raff for no-commit monthly pricing - Raff General Purpose is $9.99/mo at 2 vCPU / 4 GB and $21.99/mo at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, with no long upfront term required.
- Choose Raff for unmetered traffic - Raff includes unmetered VM bandwidth at 3 Gbps standard port speed; Hostinger meters VPS traffic by plan.
- Choose Raff for cloud platform services - Raff now includes managed Kubernetes, managed databases, functions/serverless, Raff Apps, object storage, VPC, backups, API/CLI, and Terraform.
Hostinger's promotional prices are disclosed below but are not used as the primary comparison anchor because they require upfront term payment and change at renewal. Raff is evaluated using its standard monthly VM prices.
Hostinger overview
Hostinger is a consumer-and-prosumer hosting company founded in 2004. Its VPS product is an AI-managed KVM VPS line built around AMD EPYC processors, NVMe SSD storage, weekly backups, firewall management, 1 Gbps network speed, public API access, AI Web Terminal, templates, and hPanel server workflows.
Hostinger's strongest fit is convenient self-managed VPS hosting. A buyer can choose a KVM plan, pick an OS or app template, use hPanel, and manage the server with Hostinger's Kodee AI assistant and web terminal. Hostinger also sells web hosting, cloud hosting, domains, business email, website builder products, and app/agent hosting tools, so the account experience is broader than a pure cloud VM provider.
The pricing model needs careful reading. Hostinger advertises first-term promotional monthly equivalents, but it also states that all plans are paid upfront and that the monthly rate reflects the total plan price divided by the number of months in the plan. For comparison work, the low first-term promo price is not the real monthly payment a buyer should anchor on.
Raff overview
Raff Technologies is a US-focused cloud platform for teams that want cloud VMs, storage, private networking, app deployment, managed services, backups, and automation in one place. Raff VM plans include NVMe SSD, DDR5 RAM, snapshots, automated backups, firewall controls, private networking, VNC console, root access, API/CLI access, custom OS support, and Terraform support.
Raff now covers the managed platform layer that Hostinger's VPS line does not cover directly. Raff includes managed Kubernetes, managed databases, functions/serverless, Raff Apps, S3-compatible object storage, block storage volumes, VPC/private networking, snapshots, automated backups, and VM marketplace workflows. That makes Raff a stronger fit for teams that want cloud primitives and application services rather than a hosting-style panel workflow.
Raff operates from Vint Hill, Virginia, runs 10,000+ production VMs, and has a public Trustpilot profile rated 4.5/5. Hostinger is much older and has a much larger public review base. Raff's advantage is narrower: transparent monthly infrastructure pricing, unmetered VM bandwidth, US-East throughput, cloud networking, object storage, managed Kubernetes, databases, serverless, and app deployment.
Hostinger pricing vs Raff pricing
This comparison does not use Hostinger's first-term promotional monthly equivalents as the main comparison. Hostinger's public VPS card shows three numbers that matter: the pre-discount card price, the promo monthly equivalent, and the renewal monthly rate for a 24-month term. Raff's comparison price is the real monthly VM price.
| Comparison point | Raff General Purpose | Hostinger KVM card price | Hostinger 24-month renewal | Hostinger first-term promo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry tier | $5.99/mo - 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB / unmetered | $19.49/mo - KVM 1, 1 vCPU / 4 GB / 50 GB / 4 TB | $11.99/mo | $6.49/mo |
| 2 vCPU comparison | $9.99/mo - 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB / unmetered | $24.49/mo - KVM 2, 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB / 8 TB | $14.99/mo | $8.79/mo |
| 8 GB matched-RAM | $21.99/mo - 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 160 GB / unmetered | $24.49/mo - KVM 2, 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB / 8 TB | $14.99/mo | $8.79/mo |
| 16 GB RAM | $42.99/mo - 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 320 GB / unmetered | $42.99/mo - KVM 4, 4 vCPU / 16 GB / 200 GB / 16 TB | $28.99/mo | $12.99/mo |
| 32 GB RAM | $92.99/mo - 16 vCPU / 32 GB / 640 GB / unmetered | $73.99/mo - KVM 8, 8 vCPU / 32 GB / 400 GB / 32 TB | $49.99/mo | $25.99/mo |
The fair reading is not one-sided. Raff wins clearly on no-commit monthly pricing at the 4 GB and 8 GB comparison points. Hostinger becomes cheaper if the buyer accepts a long upfront term and later renews on a 24-month basis. Hostinger also bundles more RAM at low vCPU counts, while Raff offers more vCPU and storage at the 8 GB matched-RAM tier.
The first-term promo column should be disclosed, not used as the comparison anchor. Those prices require upfront payment for a longer term and change at renewal. The primary pricing comparison should use Raff's monthly VM prices against Hostinger's real card price and renewal context.
Raff also offers CPU-Optimized VMs with dedicated vCPU starting at $3.99/mo for 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB, $13.99/mo for 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 50 GB, and $19.99/mo for 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB. The pricing table above uses Raff General Purpose because Hostinger KVM VPS is closer to a shared-resource VPS class.
Automated backups
Hostinger includes free weekly automated backups on every VPS plan. Daily backups are a paid upgrade. Hostinger's snapshot workflow allows one manual snapshot per VPS and that snapshot is time-limited.
Raff includes 3 automated backup slots per VM and supports on-demand snapshots for operational workflows such as staging, rollback, and migration. Hostinger is convenient if weekly backups are enough. Raff is stronger if you want multiple backup points, snapshot-driven workflow, or provider-level backup controls tied to cloud infrastructure.
Pricing methodology
Hostinger prices were checked against the public Hostinger VPS page on July 9, 2026. The page lists KVM 1, KVM 2, KVM 4, and KVM 8 promotional monthly equivalents, renewal rates, and the note that all plans are paid upfront. Raff prices come from the current Raff pricing reference for General Purpose and CPU-Optimized VMs.
Bandwidth and transfer policy
Raff includes unmetered bandwidth on VM plans at 3 Gbps standard port speed. That means normal VM egress does not create a per-GB transfer bill.
Hostinger meters VPS bandwidth by plan: 4 TB on KVM 1, 8 TB on KVM 2, 16 TB on KVM 4, and 32 TB on KVM 8. Hostinger also publishes 1 Gbps network speed for VPS plans. That is still enough for many websites, apps, and automation workloads, but it is a different operating model from Raff's unmetered VM bandwidth.
| Monthly transfer | Raff 2 vCPU / 4 GB GP | Hostinger KVM 2 | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 TB | $9.99/mo | Within KVM 2 allowance | Both fit the base plan |
| 5 TB | $9.99/mo | Within KVM 2 allowance | Hostinger still fits the 8 TB cap |
| 8 TB | $9.99/mo | At KVM 2 cap | Hostinger reaches the published allowance |
| 10 TB | $9.99/mo | Above KVM 2 allowance | Hostinger overage or policy handling matters |
| 25 TB | $9.99/mo | Above KVM 2 allowance | Raff remains flat, Hostinger is less predictable |
For low-traffic sites, bandwidth may not decide the provider. For file delivery, logs, backups, AI agents, data sync, game servers, media-heavy apps, or multi-TB monthly traffic, Raff's unmetered model is easier to budget.
Feature comparison: Hostinger vs Raff
Compute
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Shared vCPU VMs | General Purpose | KVM VPS |
| Dedicated vCPU VMs | CPU-Optimized | Not positioned as a dedicated-vCPU cloud line |
| Entry VM price | $5.99/mo GP or $3.99/mo CPU-Optimized | $19.49/mo card price for KVM 1; $6.49/mo first-term promo |
| 2 vCPU comparison | $9.99/mo - 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB | $24.49/mo card price - KVM 2, 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 100 GB |
| CPU family | AMD EPYC | AMD EPYC |
| Memory generation | DDR5 | Not publicly specified on VPS page |
| Custom OS images | Yes | Template-catalog workflow |
| Instant resize | Up and down resize | Upgrade-focused VPS flow |
Hostinger wins when the buyer wants more RAM per vCPU and a templated VPS setup. Raff wins when the buyer wants lower monthly VM pricing, CPU-Optimized options, custom images, and cloud-style resizing.
Networking
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth policy | Unmetered VM bandwidth | Metered 4 TB to 32 TB by plan |
| Published port speed | 3 Gbps standard port speed | 1 Gbps network speed |
| IPv4 + IPv6 | Yes | Yes |
| DDoS protection | Yes | Yes |
| Private networking / VPC | Yes | Not publicly listed for VPS |
| Firewall controls | Yes | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
Hostinger wins on broader geographic VPS placement. Raff wins on unmetered transfer, higher published standard port speed, and private networking primitives.
Storage and backups
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| VM disk | NVMe SSD | NVMe SSD |
| Storage model | Distributed block storage | Local NVMe VPS storage |
| Block storage volumes | Yes | Not publicly listed for VPS |
| Snapshots | Yes | One manual snapshot, time-limited |
| Live migration | Yes | No, local-storage VPS model |
| Automated backups | 3 backup slots included per VM | Free weekly backups; daily backups paid |
| Object storage | S3-compatible object storage | Not listed as a VPS-line product |
The storage tradeoff is real. Hostinger's local NVMe wins on disk IOPS in the existing benchmark. Raff's distributed storage supports cloud operations such as snapshots, live migration, and attached block storage volumes.
Platform
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Managed Kubernetes | Yes | No first-party managed Kubernetes in the VPS line |
| Managed databases | Yes | No VPS-line managed database product |
| Functions / serverless | Yes | No VPS-line serverless functions product |
| Raff Apps / app deployment | Yes | hPanel templates and one-click app catalog |
| Object storage | Yes | Not listed as a VPS-line product |
| REST API | Yes | Yes |
| CLI | Yes | Public API and account tooling; not the same cloud CLI surface |
| Terraform provider | Yes | No official Terraform provider published for VPS |
| AI assistant | No equivalent positioning | Kodee AI assistant and AI Web Terminal |
Hostinger is stronger for template-led VPS hosting, while Raff is stronger for teams that want VMs plus managed Kubernetes, managed databases, serverless functions, apps, object storage, and cloud networking.
Pricing and billing
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly pricing | Yes | Yes, but discounted rates require upfront term payment |
| Hourly billing | Yes | No for standard VPS terms |
| Entry plan price | $3.99/mo CPU-Optimized or $5.99/mo General Purpose | $19.49/mo card price, $6.49/mo first-term promo for KVM 1 |
| 2 vCPU class price | $9.99/mo at 2 vCPU / 4 GB GP | $24.49/mo card price for KVM 2 |
| Money-back guarantee | 14 days | 30 days |
| Backup baseline | 3 backup slots included | Weekly backups included |
Hostinger wins on guarantee length and long-term renewal pricing after promo if the buyer accepts a 24-month term. Raff wins on simpler month-to-month infrastructure pricing.
Trust and operations
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot rating | 4.5/5 across 16 reviews | 4.7/5 across 70K+ reviews |
| Production scale | 10,000+ production VMs | 5M+ users claimed on Hostinger VPS page |
| Founded | Early 2025 | 2004 |
| Support model | Human support included | 24/7 support plus Kodee AI assistant |
| Operating history | Newer platform | Much longer operating history |
Hostinger wins on age, public review volume, and hosting brand recognition. Raff has a smaller review base and shorter history, but a clear public VM footprint and a focused cloud infrastructure product.
Infrastructure
| Feature | Raff | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Primary region fit | Vint Hill, Virginia, USA | North America, Europe, Asia, South America |
| US-East workloads | Strong | Strong when US region is selected |
| EU/APAC/South America placement | No public region | Yes |
| Instant provisioning | Yes | Yes |
| Product style | Cloud infrastructure platform | Hosting control panel and VPS platform |
Hostinger wins geography. Raff wins if your target workload is US-East and you want a smaller cloud platform with unmetered bandwidth and managed app services.
Performance benchmarks: Raff vs Hostinger
The performance section below uses the April 2026 test data from the Raff comparison. The pricing and product-positioning analysis is separate from the recorded benchmark numbers.
Methodology
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Test date | Raff: April 2026 / Hostinger: April 13, 2026 |
| Raff VM spec | General Purpose 2 vCPU / 4 GB DDR5 / 50 GB NVMe benchmark instance; current closest production plan is 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB at $9.99/mo |
| Raff region | Vint Hill, Virginia, USA |
| Hostinger VM spec | KVM 2 / 2 vCPU / 7.8 GB / 101.5 GB NVMe - $24.49/mo card price |
| Hostinger region | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| OS | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on both sides |
| CPU | AMD EPYC on both sides |
| Tools | sysbench 1.0.20, fio 3.36, iperf3 3.16, Geekbench 6 |
| Run count | Single-pass VPSBenchmarks-style run |
| Test cost | Paid at standard rates by Raff Technologies; no sponsorship or rebate from Hostinger |
Real-application workloads were tested with a Rails web-run load test that sends HTTP requests at controlled rates against a database-intensive Rails application running on the VPS under test. Single-run numbers vary based on host load, region, and neighboring VM activity.
Results
| Benchmark | Raff GP 2 vCPU benchmark instance | Hostinger KVM 2 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single-core | 2,266 | 1,976 | Raff 15% higher |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core | 4,057 | 3,583 | Raff 13% higher |
| sysbench CPU single-thread | 2,171 events/s | 1,677 events/s | Raff 29% faster |
| sysbench CPU multi-thread | 4,320 events/s | 3,350 events/s | Raff 29% faster |
| sysbench memory read | 17.79 GiB/s | 11.15 GiB/s | Raff 59% faster |
| sysbench memory read 1MB block | 135.98 GiB/s | 107.84 GiB/s | Raff 26% faster |
| sysbench memory write | 11.42 GiB/s | 4.60 GiB/s | Raff 2.5x faster |
| sysbench memory write 1MB block | 47.08 GiB/s | 48.42 GiB/s | Tied, Hostinger 3% higher |
| fio 4K random read | 48.67k IOPS | 60.5k IOPS | Hostinger 24% faster |
| fio 4K random write | 48.80k IOPS | 60.7k IOPS | Hostinger 24% faster |
| fio 64K random read | 22.81k IOPS | 49.59k IOPS | Hostinger 2.2x faster |
| fio 64K random write | 22.93k IOPS | 49.85k IOPS | Hostinger 2.2x faster |
| sysbench fileio random read 4K | 52.31 MiB/s | 143.42 MiB/s | Hostinger 2.7x faster |
| sysbench fileio sequential read 128K | 1,730 MiB/s | 2,616 MiB/s | Hostinger 51% faster |
| sysbench fileio sequential write 128K | 664.85 MiB/s | 990.77 MiB/s | Hostinger 49% faster |
| iperf3 to NYC Leaseweb download | 3,635 Mbps | 1,024 Mbps | Raff 3.5x faster |
| iperf3 to NYC Leaseweb upload | 9,574 Mbps | 1,034 Mbps | Raff 9.3x faster |
| iperf3 to London Clouvider download | 2,693 Mbps | 959 Mbps | Raff 2.8x faster |
| iperf3 to Los Angeles Clouvider download | 3,430 Mbps | 962 Mbps | Raff 3.6x faster |
| Rails web-run saturation point | ~60-70 req/s | ~60-70 req/s | Comparable saturation |
| Rails web-run timeouts at 70 req/s | 729 of 20,801 | 1,365 of 21,000 | Raff fewer errors at saturation |
What the results tell us
Raff's strongest results are CPU, memory bandwidth, and network throughput. Raff measured 29% faster sysbench CPU events/sec in both single-threaded and multi-threaded runs. Raff also measured 2.5x faster default-block memory write throughput, which matters for Redis, Memcached, in-memory caches, session stores, queues, and API services.
Hostinger's strongest results are local-NVMe disk I/O. Hostinger measured 24% higher fio 4K random read and write IOPS, 2.2x higher 64K IOPS, 2.7x higher sysbench fileio random-read throughput, and about 50% higher sequential read and write throughput. That matters for disk-IOPS-bound databases, synchronous small-block writes, and local-storage-heavy applications.
For HTTP services, APIs, workers, and cache-heavy apps, Raff's CPU, memory, and network profile is usually more visible than raw local-NVMe IOPS. For database engines that bottleneck on QD1 synchronous fsync or small-block random I/O, Hostinger's local storage profile is honestly stronger.
Caveats
Performance varies based on neighboring VM activity, region selection, and time of day. The numbers above are single-pass snapshots from April 2026. A multi-pass refresh should be scheduled before the next quarterly comparison update.
When you should choose Hostinger over Raff
- You want long-term promo economics - Hostinger's first-term promo prices are lower, but they require upfront term payment and renew at higher 24-month rates.
- You need more RAM per low-vCPU tier - Hostinger KVM 2 includes 8 GB RAM at 2 vCPU; Raff's closest 8 GB GP tier has 4 vCPU.
- You need non-US VPS regions - Hostinger lists VPS locations across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.
- You use template-led server setup - Hostinger hPanel has a large OS, app, control-panel, and AI-agent catalog.
- You value AI-assisted VPS management - Hostinger's Kodee AI assistant and AI Web Terminal are part of its VPS positioning.
- You run disk-IOPS-bound workloads - Hostinger wins the preserved fio and sysbench file I/O tests.
- You want a longer refund window - Hostinger offers a 30-day money-back guarantee; Raff offers 14 days.
When you should choose Raff over Hostinger
- You want real monthly pricing - Raff's $9.99/mo 2 vCPU / 4 GB GP plan does not require a 24-month upfront term.
- You want unmetered VM bandwidth - Raff includes unmetered traffic at 3 Gbps standard port speed.
- You need stronger CPU throughput - Raff measured 2,171 vs 1,677 sysbench single-thread events/sec and 4,320 vs 3,350 multi-thread events/sec.
- You need stronger memory throughput - Raff measured 11.42 GiB/s memory write versus Hostinger's 4.60 GiB/s.
- You need stronger US-East network throughput - Raff measured 9,574 Mbps upload to NYC versus Hostinger's 1,034 Mbps.
- You want cloud primitives - Raff includes private networking, block storage, S3-compatible object storage, snapshots, backups, API/CLI, and Terraform.
- You want managed platform services - Raff now includes managed Kubernetes, managed databases, functions/serverless, and Raff Apps.
- You want verified public trust signals - Raff is rated 4.5/5 across 16 Trustpilot reviews and runs 10,000+ production VMs.
Migrating from Hostinger to Raff
-
Inventory Hostinger instances - record region, KVM plan, OS template, hPanel app template, public IPs, firewall settings, DNS records, backups, snapshots, cron jobs, and application dependencies.
-
Provision matching Raff VMs - match by CPU, RAM, and disk. For Hostinger KVM 2, use Raff General Purpose 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 160 GB at $21.99/mo for RAM parity, or Raff General Purpose 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB at $9.99/mo if the app does not need 8 GB RAM.
-
Do not rely on Hostinger backup portability - Hostinger's backups and hPanel snapshots are not a direct Raff restore source. Use
rsyncfor application files and native database exports for stateful services. -
Transfer application data - use
rsync -avzover SSH for app files. Usepg_dump,mysqldump, or application-native export tools for databases. For large archives, use Raff object storage as a temporary transfer point. -
Update DNS with a short TTL - lower DNS TTL to 300 seconds before the migration window. Move A/AAAA records to the Raff IP only after application health checks pass.
-
Verify and decommission Hostinger - test HTTP health checks, SSH access, firewall rules, backups, database connections, logs, cron jobs, and email behavior. Keep the Hostinger VPS running for 48-72 hours after cutover if rollback risk exists.
For stateful workloads, plan a short maintenance window during the final database sync and DNS cutover. Stateless services behind a load balancer can move gradually by shifting traffic after each health check passes.
About Hostinger
Hostinger International Ltd. is a hosting company associated with the Hostinger brand, founded in 2004 and widely known for shared hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud hosting, domains, email, website builder tools, and KVM-based VPS. Its VPS product uses AMD EPYC processors, NVMe SSD storage, hPanel workflows, public API access, AI-assisted server management, weekly backups, and global data center placement. Read more on the official Hostinger VPS website.
Conclusion: Hostinger or Raff?
The comparison resolves across four measured axes:
- Cost - Raff is $9.99/mo at 2 vCPU / 4 GB with no long upfront term; Hostinger KVM 2 is $24.49/mo as the non-promo card price, $14.99/mo renewal on a 24-month term, and $8.79/mo only as a first-term promo equivalent.
- Performance - Raff wins CPU, memory bandwidth, and network throughput; Hostinger wins disk IOPS and sequential disk throughput in the preserved April 2026 benchmark.
- Platform - Raff now includes managed Kubernetes, managed databases, functions/serverless, Raff Apps, object storage, VPC, backups, API/CLI, and Terraform; Hostinger wins on hPanel, templates, AI-assisted VPS management, and broader hosting products.
- Geography - Hostinger wins for Europe, Asia, and South America; Raff is the clearer fit for US-East workloads from Virginia.
If you want a templated VPS workflow, AI-assisted panel management, lower long-term renewal pricing, and non-US regions, choose Hostinger. If you want real monthly pricing, unmetered VM bandwidth, stronger CPU/memory/network benchmark results, cloud primitives, and managed platform services, choose Raff.
Verified rating: Raff Technologies is rated 4.5/5 across 16 reviews on Trustpilot, with 10,000+ production VMs running on the platform.