Hostinger Domain Redirect Missing? Here's the Fix That Finally Worked

I recently needed to redirect several domains to a single primary website. Most of the domains worked immediately using Hostinger's built in 301 redirect feature. However, one domain behaved completely differently and took much longer to troubleshoot than expected.

If you are using Hostinger and cannot find the Redirects option for one of your domains, or your domain continues loading a website instead of redirecting, this guide may save you several hours.

The Problem

I had multiple domains that all needed to redirect to a primary domain.

• malirosa.de → malirosa.lk
• malirosa.at → malirosa.lk
• malirosa.ch → malirosa.lk
• malirosa.ae → malirosa.lk

Every domain redirected correctly except malirosa.com.

Even though the DNS records were identical, the .com domain continued loading a website instead of redirecting.

The First Mistake

My first assumption was that the DNS records were incorrect. I compared the working domains with the failing one.

A     @     2.57.91.91
AAAA  @     2a02:4780:84::32
CNAME www   malirosa.com

Everything matched perfectly.

Running DNS checks confirmed the records were resolving correctly.

dig malirosa.com
dig www.malirosa.com

DNS was not the problem.

The Second Clue

I then inspected the HTTP response.

curl -I https://malirosa.com

Instead of returning a permanent redirect:

HTTP/2 301
Location: https://malirosa.lk

Hostinger returned:

HTTP/2 200 OK
x-powered-by: Hostinger Horizons

This indicated that Hostinger was still serving a website instead of applying a redirect.

The Real Cause

After comparing the working domains, I noticed something interesting.

Every working domain contained a Redirects section inside the Domain settings.

The .com domain did not.

The reason was simple: the domain was still attached to a Hostinger website created using Hostinger Horizons.

As long as the website remained connected, Hostinger treated the domain as an active website instead of a redirect-only domain.

The Fix

1. Disconnect the domain from the existing website.
2. Return to the Domain settings.
3. The Redirects menu becomes available.
4. Create a Permanent (301) redirect.
5. Point the domain to the desired destination.

After configuring the redirect, the domain may continue serving the old website for a short period because Hostinger's CDN cache needs time to refresh.

Verify the Redirect

Do not rely only on your browser. Instead, verify using curl.

curl -I https://yourdomain.com

A successful redirect should return:

HTTP/2 301
Location: https://your-new-domain.com

If you still receive HTTP/2 200, the old website is still being served, or the CDN cache has not yet updated.

Lessons Learned

• DNS records can be completely correct while redirects still fail.
• If the Redirects menu is missing, check whether the domain is attached to a website.
• Always verify redirects with curl instead of only using a browser.
• Allow some time for Hostinger's CDN cache to update after changing redirect settings.

Final Thoughts

The issue turned out not to be DNS, SSL, or incorrect records. It was simply that the domain was still connected to an active website, preventing Hostinger from exposing the redirect feature.

If you encounter the same behavior, checking the website attachment before troubleshooting DNS can save a significant amount of time.

Written by A.M. Rinas