The Honest Story — Why I Built This Site
In early 2022, I wanted to start a website. I had a topic I knew well, some time to write, and a lot of enthusiasm. What I didn't have was any idea which web host to choose.
I spent nearly two weeks reading review sites. Every single one said different things. Some called GoDaddy the best. Others said Bluehost was number one. A few ranked some host I'd never heard of at the top. The reviews all sounded similar — positive about everything, full of "pros and cons" that were mostly the same across every article.
I eventually picked a random cheap host based on one of those reviews. Big mistake. The site was slow — like, embarrassingly slow. 4-5 seconds to load a simple page. Support took 18 hours to reply to a basic question. When I finally got my first 200 visitors in a month, the server went down for 3 hours right in the middle of the day.
I switched to Hostinger after a recommendation from someone in a blogging forum. The difference was immediate and obvious — my pages loaded in under 1.5 seconds, support replied in under 3 minutes, and the control panel (hPanel) actually made sense. I remember thinking: why didn't the reviews I read tell me this?
That's when I started writing my own notes about hosting. Those notes eventually became HostLaunch.
"I didn't build this site to make money first. I built it because I was genuinely annoyed at how unhelpful existing hosting reviews were. The income came later — from people who found my honest assessments more useful than the standard stuff."
— Tabid, HostLaunch founderWhat I Actually Do — My Testing Process
I'm not a professional reviewer with a lab full of servers. I'm a person who runs real websites and pays real money for hosting. Here's what my testing actually looks like:
- I set up real WordPress sites on each host — same Astra theme, same plugins, same content — so I'm comparing apples to apples
- I use UptimeRobot to monitor every minute of every day — it texts me when a site goes down, which is how I got that 3am downtime notification that made me switch hosts in the first place
- I run GTmetrix speed tests weekly from 4 locations — New York, London, Singapore, Sydney — and average the results over months, not just one good day
- I actually contact support with real technical questions — not "how do I sign up" but things like "my PHP memory limit isn't updating" — and I time how long it takes to get a useful answer
- I pay for the hosting myself — I don't use free trial accounts for testing. The sites I use to generate test data are the same sites I rely on for my own income
This process is slower and more expensive than what most review sites do. But it produces results I can actually stand behind.
My Timeline — How HostLaunch Grew
Started my first website on a cheap host — regretted it immediately
4-5 second load times, unreliable support, one memorable 3-hour outage. Switched to Hostinger after a forum recommendation. Night and day difference. Started keeping notes.
Set up test sites on 8 different hosts simultaneously
Wanted real comparison data. Monitored all 8 for 4 months. Wrote up the honest results. Posted them online. People found them useful.
Joined Hostinger affiliate program — first commission earned
Applied after 6 months of publishing reviews. Got approved. My first affiliate commission came 3 weeks later from someone who read my GoDaddy vs Hostinger comparison. That was a big moment — proof that honest writing actually converts.
Expanded to 100+ articles, country-specific reviews, AdSense guides
Started covering topics I was getting questions about — hosting for Nigeria, India, Philippines, Pakistan — because the standard reviews completely ignored regional concerns like payment methods and server latency.
HostLaunch reaches 260+ articles — still testing, still updating
Currently monitoring 12 hosts simultaneously. Four of my personal sites are on Hostinger. I update articles when pricing or features change — not just when a new year hits.
What I Will and Won't Do
✅ Things I commit to on every article:
- Share real test data — actual GTmetrix scores, actual uptime numbers, actual support response times
- Tell you when a competitor is better than Hostinger for a specific use case
- Update prices and features when they change — not leave outdated info sitting there
- Disclose affiliate relationships clearly, at the top of every relevant article
- Write in plain language — no jargon, no technical flexing
❌ Things I will never do:
- Accept money to write a positive review or change a negative one
- Rank a host higher because they pay better affiliate commissions
- Pretend I haven't tested something when I haven't
- Use a different host for my own sites while recommending something else to readers
- Accept free hosting in exchange for positive coverage without disclosing it
About the Affiliate Relationship with Hostinger
I want to be completely transparent about this because it's important.
Yes — I earn a commission when you buy Hostinger through my links. That commission is real money that pays for the hosting, the tools, and the time I put into this site. Without it, HostLaunch wouldn't exist.
But here's what the commission doesn't do: it doesn't change what I write. I recommended Hostinger before I joined their affiliate program, because my own experience with it was genuinely better than the alternatives I'd tested at the same price. The commission confirmed it was worth continuing to recommend — it didn't create the recommendation.
If Hostinger's quality dropped significantly, or if a competitor consistently outperformed them at the same price point, I would update my recommendations accordingly. My income from this site depends on readers trusting what I write — not on protecting any single hosting company's ranking.
Questions or Corrections?
If you find an error in one of my articles — wrong price, outdated feature, incorrect comparison — I genuinely want to know. Send me a message through the contact page and I'll verify and update it.
If you have a question about which hosting plan is right for your specific situation, I try to answer those too. I don't always have time to respond to everyone but I read every message.