HostPapa Review

HostPapa is a Canadian hosting provider that has helped thousands of bloggers, small business owners, and digital experts host and design their websites.

Founded in Burlington, Canada, by Jamie Opalchuk in 2006, HostPapa offers the following hosting services:

We’ve been monitoring HostPapa since 2017 and are in a position to break down the company’s advantages and disadvantages when it comes to pricing, features, and performance.

So do we recommend this affordable web host? Read our HostPapa review to find out.

An Overview of HostPapa

Advantages of Using HostPapa

There are quite a few reasons to host your website with HostPapa. It provides a great uptime, extensive support options, adequate security measures, and good value.

You’ll find a detailed breakdown of each of these advantages below:

1. Excellent Uptime

Between January 2022 and December 2022, HostPapa’s average uptime registered at 99.97%, consistent with its 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Its lowest-performing month was May 2022, at 99.86% uptime, which translated to roughly 36 minutes of total downtime.

The rest of the year, HostPapa’s uptime ranged from 99.95% to 100%. And it’s not like that 100% was a fluke, either. HostPapa managed to score a perfect 100% for four months in 2022 (February, September, November, and December).

Not too shabby.

2. Average Response Time

Page load speed (or response time) is another important thing to look for in a web host.

Also, page speed is connected to the overall user experience.

According to Littledata, 280 ms is a speedy response time, while anything above 826 ms is slow. Anything in between the two is just average.

HostPapa had an average page loading time of 600 ms in 2022, slightly below the average of 456 ms.

In other words, pretty good — but nowhere near the loading speeds of some of its competitors, like Hostinger (318 ms) and A2 Hosting (295 ms).

HostPapa has over 150 data centers. Server locations are spread over 50 countries, including the United States, China, South Africa, and Australia. Shared hosting servers have a 100 Mbps connection, which is slightly above the average speed most internet users need.

3. Extensive Support Options

HostPapa support services are among the best. The customer support team offers extensive options to assist customers. These options include:

• A huge knowledge base filled with articles and videos. One thing that sets HostPapa apart from its competitors is that its self-service resources are available in four languages — English, French, Spanish, and German — making the host inclusive of different customer groups.

However, HostPapa’s YouTube channel, which hosts its video tutorials, needs updating. The last video was uploaded in October 2021.

The knowledge base page also needs to be updated. HostPapa’s branding has changed, but the knowledge base hasn’t changed to reflect that.

We also observed some things that needed to be corrected, especially in information regarding renewal pricing. The knowledge base article (updated in November 2022) says renewal pricing starts at $8.99/month, while HostPapa’s renewal pricing page says pricing starts at $11.99/month.

• 24/7 phone, email, mail, fax, and live chat support. HostPapa is among the few web hosting companies to provide phone, email, mail, and fax support. Like the web host’s knowledge base, these are all available in multiple languages.

Most hosting providers nowadays forego phone support, but HostPapa makes it available in 18 countries, which might be the most we’ve seen from any company.

We had the chance to test HostPapa’s live chat feature when we clarified its renewal pricing — and we were impressed. A customer support staff member responded to us within two minutes, unlike Hostinger or GoDaddy’s customer support, which is inconsistent at best.

As if that’s not enough, HostPapa also allows you to book a one-on-one video training session with a HostPapa expert. These guided walkthroughs are particularly useful if you’re just starting out as a website owner or building your first business website.

4. Proactive Security Features

HostPapa gives you one less thing to worry about by handling security details like spam protection.

HostPapa’s basic shared hosting plans come packed with numerous security features, such as:

• Server firewall, monitoring, and intrusion detection
• Free standard SSL certificate
• Network monitoring
• Brute-force attack detection
• RAID-10 redundancy

Higher-tiered plans include:

• DDoS attack prevention and responses
• Dedicated IP addresses
• Automatic backups
• Domain privacy protection
• Premium SSL certificate

5. Good Value for Money

Pricing for HostPapa’s basic plan starts at $2.95/month for the first three years (or $106.20 at checkout).

The good news is that HostPapa throws in a lot of value for this initial pricing.

Like most basic web hosting plans, you get one website that comes with:

• Free domain name registration
• Free SSL certificate
• 100 GB SSD storage
• 10 email accounts that are configurable with popular apps like Gmail and Outlook
• Unmetered bandwidth

Other than that, you’ll also get HostPapa’s “Essential Features,” which include:

• Free website migration
• Cloudflare CDN compatibility
• cPanel control panel
• WordPress installation and updates
• Access to HostPapa’s site builder and 400+ apps

It’s a good deal overall. However, some web hosts, like HostGator, do it better for less.

For only $2.75/month, HostGator offers you unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth, plus a free domain and SSL certificate.

6. No-Fuss Money-Back Guarantee

HostPapa offers an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee for most hosting plans, but your refund depends on its Refund and Cancelation Policy.

For instance, products that are billed a year or more can be canceled within 30 days of the transaction. But those that are billed less than one year (e.g., three-month and six-month plans) can only be canceled within 48 hours.

Note that some services aren’t eligible for refunds, like domain name registrations, renewals, and transfers. So if you bought and canceled a hosting plan with a free domain, HostPapa would deduct the cost of the domain from the total amount you paid.

7. Green Hosting

When people look for web hosting services, they usually look at things like page loading speed and uptime; few consider the environmental impact.

Truth is, running a hosting platform 24/7 requires a lot of power. When you consider that a data center contains thousands of servers, you can imagine how expensive and energy-intensive they are.

Conscientious web hosting companies like HostPapa look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint while reducing electricity costs. In turn, they can offer cheaper hosting plans because of the amount they save on electricity.

According to HostPapa, it was one of the first web hosting providers to commit publicly to sustainable business practices. By purchasing green certificates to offset the power used in its data centers and offices, HostPapa helps support and promote wind and solar power.

Disadvantages of Using HostPapa

HostPapa has its strengths, like its excellent customer service and quick uptime. But it’s not a perfect web host.

Here are some downsides of hosting your website with HostPapa:

1. High Renewal Price

The HostPapa entry-level plan starts at $2.95/month for a three-year commitment.

Once the period ends, you’ll have to pay four times that amount. For instance, the cheapest Starter Plan will renew at $11.99/month.

Check out the signup and renewal rates of other HostPapa plans:

And with a three-year commitment, you’ll have to pay a lot upfront.

If you plan on hosting a website for more than three years, the renewal prices and features don’t have as good a value anymore.

2. Expensive Add-ons

After choosing your plan at the checkout page, HostPapa will offer you four high-priced “website essentials” as add-ons:

• Protection Power Website Security — $19.95/year
• Automated Website Backup — $29.95/year
• Paid SSL Certificate — $24.95/year
• PapaCare+ — $49.95/month

All these are optional, but HostPapa automatically adds the first two to your basket.

If you’re not careful, how much you’ll have to pay at checkout may surprise you.

Quick Facts

• Free Domain: Yes, for the 1st year.
• Ease of Signup: Very easy signup process.
• Payment Methods: Credit Card, PayPal.
• Money Back: 30-day money-back guarantee.
• Hidden Fees and Clauses: Advertised price is only for the first payment term. Renewals are much more expensive.
• Account Activation: Instant activation in most cases. If you registered a new domain name, it could take 24 to 72 hours for this to appear.
• Control Panel and Dashboard Experience: cPanel.
• Installation of Apps and CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.): One-click installer to install popular apps and CMSs.

Do We Recommend HostPapa?

Yes, we do.

As you can see from our HostPapa review, this hosting provider delivers excellent uptime, acceptable loading speeds, and quality customer service.

On top of that, HostPapa has:

• A range of hosting plans for different types of websites: from small and medium-sized businesses to e-commerce stores
• Green web hosting
• Robust security features
• Free Cloudflare CDN and free SSL certificates on all plans

However, HostPapa’s pricing plans aren’t attractive in the long run. After the 36-month introductory rate, the renewal rate increases up to four times, no matter the plan duration you choose. Other web hosting services like DreamHost offer much cheaper renewal fees.

Still, the low introductory prices allow you to try out HostPapa’s hosting services while you decide if it’s a good long-term option for you.