Hostinger provider with offshore tails: how not to fall for the scam

“We are a web hosting provider whose goal is to bring success to everyone who comes online,” an advertisement for the popular provider Hostinger tells us. Some time ago, the entire Internet was seeded with their offers, and even those who were never interested in developing their own website could see them. But if you don’t want to end up with a low-quality service and have problems with payments, you should read the material below, which will tell you about all the pitfalls of Hostinger.

Hostinger is a provider registered in Lithuania and headquartered in Riga, established in 2004. There are several subsidiaries, particularly in Brazil and Indonesia. Their official page reports that the service is available in more than 150 countries around the world, and the annual revenue growth is almost 60%.

Hostinger’s management consists of Lithuanian citizens Daugirdas Jankus, Arnas Stuopelis, Aivaras Simkus and Balis Kriksiunas. However, despite statements that the company is Lithuanian, it was still hidden in offshore Cyprus, through which all financial transactions are carried out.

In 2012, Hostinger International Ltd was registered in Cyprus, which is managed directly by the director of Hostinger, Aivaras Simkus, and another Cypriot offshore company, KKP secretarial services LTD. That is, for the last 12 years the provider has been operating finances in a tax-free zone.

Until February 2022, Hostinger provided services including in Russia, despite the occupation of Crimea and Donbas in 2014. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company published a press release in which it announced the cessation of work in the aggressor country. However, there still remains a certain opportunity to provide services to Russians. At least, reviews of the company’s work indicate that any Russian can buy the Hostinger service with the help of a VPN and a crypto wallet.

Reviews about Hostinger are the most interesting thing, because they are diametrically different from how the company positions itself.

“The worst host in the world!!!! I don’t recommend it. They blocked me 70 domains for no reason. I’m already waiting for the fifth day, and no one has unlocked anything,” notes a recent review from June 2024.

“Their business system is based on racketeering. Money was stolen from the card when auto renewal was cancelled. They don’t want to return the money, citing their regulations,” adds another user.

“The crappiest service in the world. First, the letter came to me for payment - without a link to payment. In order to receive the link, the developer had to write to technical support. He hasn’t responded to us for 2 days now. The “payment” button inside the system simply did not work and gave an error. In addition to all this, we paid not 350 hryvnia for the domain, but 2600, and also took some kind of commission (with the fact that it didn’t work from the very beginning). Run away from them, guys!” writes another user.

Hostinger customers complain more about poor technical support, which sometimes does not respond for several days. And this despite the fact that if the site stops working, then you need to get help from the provider in a matter of minutes.

Other customers complain about slow speed and very poor feedback. Relatively speaking, if a news site is built on the WordPress platform, which is a fairly lightweight option, then sometimes the Hostinger provider cannot even cope with opening it.

On the fraud rating scale, Hostinger has a rating of 33%, which clearly does not describe the company as reliable. “We consider Hostinger International Limited to have a potential medium risk of fraud, meaning that web traffic from this provider has a potential medium risk of being fraudulent,” Scamalytics experts say. Note that the analysts analyzed the Cypriot company Hostinger International Limited, and not the Lithuanian Hostinger.

Cyprus is not the only offshore where Hostinger hid its financial activities. In the London company registers you can find the company Hostinger UK limited, created in December 2018.

The firm’s fixed balance sheet in 2023 was £463,295. However, the amount of loans that Hostinger UK limited had to repay last year reaches £609,508.

The heads of the company with an office in London are the above-mentioned Aivaras Simkus and Balis Kriksiunas. Together with them, the founders are the Cypriot Hadjimikael Angelos and the companies Entity central corporate services (UK) limited, Northwestern management services limited.

The latter is run by two citizens of the Seychelles, which, as you know, is also an offshore zone, which is chosen for registration due to the lack of taxation. Seychelles is a neutral country that often does not join harsh international sanctions and guarantees complete secrecy to foreign businesses.

A lot of negative reviews, work in Russia after the annexation of Crimea and military operations in the Donbas, financial transactions through offshore zones - this is all the reality of the Hostinger provider. And no matter how well the advertising talks about low prices and high quality, unfortunately, this does not at all coincide with the service that Hostinger actually provides.

Author: Olena Dobrodiy