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Brad Smith

Hosting Reviewer

HostPapa is a Canadian-based hosting company that provides shared, VPS, reseller, and WordPress hosting.

HostPapa was founded in 2006 by Jamie Opalchuck and by 2016 it offered hosting services for more than 180,000 websites.hostpapa review

One potential explanation for their rise could be their various customer service options, offering phone support in a few different languages including English, French, Spanish, and German to both domestic and international clients.

In order to find out how good HostPapa’s services are we purchased the ‘Starter Plan’ and set-up a simple WordPress website to monitor their uptime and speed over an extended period of time.

Did HostPapa perform well enough to get our recommendation?

Read on to find out.

General Info & Hosting Overview

Our Rating:

Our Verdict: 4.5
SPEED: 570 ms (April 2020 to March 2021)
UPTIME: 99.98% (April 2020 to March 2021)
SUPPORT: 24/7 Live Chat, Phone, Email, Mail, Fax, and Knowledge Base
APPS: 1-Click Installs for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal+Softaculous App Installer for 400+ Apps
FEATURES: Unlimited Bandwidth, 100 GB Storage, Two Websites, Free Domain Registration, 100 Email Accounts, SpamAssassin, Free SSL Certificate, cPanel, 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee,
HOSTING PLANS: Shared, WordPress, VPS, and Reseller Hosting
SITE TRANSFER: Free
PRICING: Starting at $2.95/mo (renews at $9.99/mo)

Pros of Using HostPapa Hosting

Upon signing up, we were excited to see what makes them tick. What could possibly cause such a quick ascent?

At first, we were pleasantly surprised by their great uptime (as you’ll see). They also offer a plethora of customer support options to choose from.

So far so good! But can they live up to the hype? Let’s take a look.

1. Great Uptime 99.98%

We’re happy to report that HostPapa’s uptime has been good since day one.

They’ve posted a 12-month average of 99.98% uptime with only two hours of downtime.

While it sounds trite and obvious, you’d be surprised just how many web hosts struggle with the most foundational element of actually hosting a website — keeping the thing live!

HostPapa last 12-month uptime and speed statistics
HostPapa average uptime | See stats

Last 12-month average uptime:

  • March 2021: 99.88%
  • February 2021: 99.96%
  • January 2021: 99.99%
  • December 2020: 100%
  • November 2020: 99.99%
  • October 2020: 99.97%
  • September 2020: 100%
  • August 2020: 100%
  • July 2020: 100%
  • June 2020: 100%
  • May 2020: 100%
  • April 2020: 99.94%

During the whole testing period, they only had one poor month (March 2021) where the uptime was a below-average of 99.88%.

2. Good Page Loading Speed 570 ms

Fast page speed is definitely something to look for in a host. Especially since it’s strongly connected to the overall user experience (slower sites increase visitor bounce probability).

Moreover, page speed is a landing page factor for Google Search and Ads already since 2010 (for desktop searches) and 2018 (for mobile searches).

Over the last 12 months, they had an average page load time of posting 570 ms, which is fast enough to have a place in our pros section.

HostPapa Page Speed Apr. 2020 - Mar. 2021
HostPapa average speed | See stats

Also, HostPapa’s loading time has been very steady throughout the whole year.

Again, not as fast as A2 Hosting or Hostinger, but definitely faster than many others.

3. Extensive Support Options

HostPapa offers extensive support options to help customers in a variety of ways.

You can browse their huge library of self-help videos. They offer 24/7 support through phone, mail, email, ticketing, live chat, and even fax (!).

hostpapa support options

They provide phone support in 18 countries (which might be the most we’ve seen from any company). They’re one of the only hosts to provide support in different languages, including English, French, Spanish, and German.

As if that’s not enough, they also provide an interesting support feature allowing you to connect in a one-on-one session with ‘Papa Squad Experts’, which are essentially guided walkthroughs using video or telephone conference.

We also tested out their live chat and received a response in less than a minute from their support staff. Answers to questions were provided within a modest two minutes.

hostpapa live chat

4. Proactive Security Features

HostPapa’s shared hosting plans come packed with numerous security features. Just to name a few: server firewall, monitoring, and intrusion detection, DDoS attack prevention and responses, RAID-10 redundancy, Let’s Encrypt SSL, network monitoring, brute force detection, and more.

What’s even better?

All the abovementioned features are also included in their cheapest plan.

If you decide to upgrade to their Business Pro plan, then it will come with more additional features including domain privacy protection, a premium Wildcard SSL certificate, a dedicated IP address, and automated website backups.

The last thing you need to worry about is security details like spam protection. It’s nice to have someone else watch your back.

5. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee & Free Site Migration+Domain Name

HostPapa offers an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee for most of their hosting plans.

In addition, they’ll gladly help you transfer an existing website from another host with no downtime.

Moreover, you’ll also get a free domain name for the 1st year. However, this only applies when you sign up with them for a minimum of one year.

6. Good Value for the Starter Price

HostPapa’s basic pricing starts at $2.95 for the first three years.

The good news is that they do throw in a lot of value for this initial pricing. You get two websites, compared to just one that most other hosts offer. You also get free domain registration, 100 GB SSD storage, 10 email accounts, and unmetered bandwidth.

Pretty good, right?

But that’s not all. You’ll also get their “Essential Features” which includes a free website migration, Cloudflare CDN, SSL certificate, and access to their 400+ apps and website builder.

So overall, it’s a pretty good value. Other hosts would make you pay for this stuff, easily pushing the monthly price up well above this initial $2.95/month range.

7. Green Hosting

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly host, then HostPapa might be for you.

According to their website, they were one of the first companies to make a public commitment to going green.

HostPapa has taken the initiative of going green by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power their servers, office computers, laptops, and office space.

HostPapa green energy

8. Easy-to-Use Control Panel

HostPapa’s client area is logical to use. From there you can manage your profile, domains, services, websites, and billing settings. Basically, anything related to your hosting account is done from there.

HostPapa client area

For a control panel, HostPapa uses the popular cPanel which is accessible from your client area by clicking on “My cPanel”. It’s the most popular control panel for a reason – it’s very easy to use and innovative which should suit both – beginners and advanced users.

Cons of Using HostPapa Hosting

HostPapa started out strong, delivering fast page loading speed and uptime. Moreover, their customer support is knowledgeable and polite.

However, there are some downsides that need to be mentioned.

Take a look.

1. High Renewal Prices

HostPapa entry price starts at $2.95/month with a three-year commitment. As mentioned before they offer a good value for that price.

However, once the initial period ends, you’d have to pay double the price. For example, the cheapest Starter Plan will renew at $9.99/month, Business Plan at $14.99/month, and Business Pro Plan at $23.99/month. And that’s with a three-year commitment, which means you’d have to pay a lot of money in advance.

Seeing the renewal prices and features offered with that cost, the money-value ratio doesn’t seem so good anymore.

Overview of HostPapa Hosting Plans & Quick Facts

Below is a quick overview of HostPapa’s three shared hosting plans.

Please note: Pricing tends to fluctuate often, and these low advertised prices required a three-year sign-up.

Starter Plan Business Plan Business Pro Plan
Pricing $2.95/month
Renews at $9.99/mo		 $2.95/month
Renews at $14.99/mo		 $11.95/month
Renews at $23.99/mo
Websites 2 Unlimited Unlimited
Bandwidth Unmetered Unmetered Unmetered
Storage 100GB Unmetered Unmetered
Email Accounts 100 Unlimited Unlimited
Other Features – • Unlimited MYSQL Databases
• 2x More CPU and MYSQL Resources		 • 4x More CPU and MYSQL Resources
• Domain Privacy
• Automated Website Backup
• Premium Wildcard SSL and SiteLock Detect

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. You will be charged a setup fee of $29.99 if you make use of their refund policy.
  • Upsells: A few upsells.
  • Account Activation: Activation can take a while.
  • 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.

HostPapa has improved its service quite a bit over the past year.

Their uptime is almost perfect and loading time is fast. They have a ton of different support options available, and we personally had a positive experience.

Moreover, they’re ecologically friendly.

The only downside is their high renewal prices. However, if money is not an issue, then HostPapa is a good option for you.

Visit www.HostPapa.com

Best alternatives for HostPapa:

Further reading: The 10 Best Web Hosting Services (In 2021)

What’s your experience been like with HostPapa? We’d love to hear about it, no matter if it’s positive or negative (as long as it’s transparent and honest).

71 user reviews for HostPapa

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    Leonardo E

    5  — April 8, 2021

    Finally! A Reliable Provider!

    As an owner of a webDev company, I’ve been through the highest-rated to cheapest provider. W/ clients in the US,CAN,AUS,JAP, and PH, It’s just now that I’ve experienced the right peace of mind. Not perfect but it’s the best so far since 2005 up to now.

    Terri S

    5  — February 28, 2021

    website hosted

    Everything seems to be working and I appreciate talking to technical support to make sure I was loading it and setting up email properly.

    Terri

    Nisarg

    1  — February 28, 2021

    Bad service from HostPapa

    This is the first time I am writing a review about any host and I am fed up with their false claims of high resource usage.
    I have three examples for this. I have two websites hosted on my hostpapa server. I suggested my two clients for the hostpapa and they have the same opinion now. We went for shared business hosting and being a developer I know the features are more than enough for our starter informative website.
    My websites are not even getting 10 visitors a day and these morons are claiming that I have high resource usage so I need to upgrade the plan. My client’s websites are not even getting much traffic and these bastards threaten him to upgrade else they will suspend his account.
    These people will first lure you by offering hosting at a low amount with some black Friday or Christmas sale. You will be happy to have the hosting at a good price. After a month or two they will start mailing you your hosting is using high resources and you must upgrade else we will suspend. and you will be helpless.

    Jason H

    1  — February 2, 2021

    Fraudulently changed my DNS records

    No ability to self serve DNS records if you do not have hosting with them.
    I just submitted a ticket last week to add google site verification, which took forever.

    Mike

    2  — January 31, 2021

    Going downhill?

    I was with Lunarpages for 10+ years with little or no issues. Since they were bought out by hostpapa 6 months back, my email has been out 3 times for more than a day each time. The current problem is reporting back to all senders that my address is spam.

    They weren’t even aware of my issue until I reported it and the cpanel for my domain shows everything healthy including email. They had another issue affecting all email customers today and they thought they fixed everyone, but the email services for my domain remain down and now I see they’ve put my support ticket on hold.

    I’m seriously thinking about a more reliable alternative.

    James

    5  — January 29, 2021

    Great Experience! – Hassle Free Migration

    My previous host (with a similar name) was slow and was getting expensive. I did a lot of research and found HostPapa to come out top. The things that appealed to me were the free SSL with Let’s Encrypt for all my domains, performance and free migration of sites from my current domain.

    I had a good experience speaking to customer services prior to switching who did not upsell their product.

    The signup process was easy.

    I was a little skeptical about the free migration, but my input was minimal in the process and all my sites and email accounts were transferred with no issues!

    I have seen a good speed increase as well compared to my old host.

    Based on my experience I would definitely recommend them!

    Adam Z

    4  — December 23, 2020

    So far, so good

    I was formerly a Lunarpages client, which was assimilated by Hostpapa. So far, my experience overall has been good. While retaining the same plan and settings that I already had, sites seem to work faster and more reliably. No complaints on the technical end. Customer service for me has been responsive and eager to find solutions for the few things I reached out about.

     

    Having read other reviews, I offer to Hostpapa that they read the reviews and pay attention to them. There is merit to some of the posts. In particular, email correspondences are a bit more frequent than what I am used to. I suggest that they have an option (checkboxes?) to select how much and what kinds of messages would like to be received from them. That way, if I choose to only receive critical messages (payment due, technical problems, etc.), I can without getting what I consider junk mail.

     

    Overall, so far, I do recommend them, but more so because I have experienced poor web hosting service, and so far, Hostpapa has been accommodating with good reliable uptimes and great server speeds (at least for my sites).

    Ben

    5  — December 17, 2020

    Website hosting

    Before selecting HostPapa I had searched for several website hosting providers which I found expensive, complicated to create-myself the website, and payment terms weren’t flexible for my shallow pocket. So once I went through the online tutorials I easily managed to select from a quality and theme adaptable HostPapa templates. I managed to adjust and post my poor quality photos without problems. I now and again edit the contents of my website without difficulty at any time. The subscriptions fees are reasonable and even me whose website is not commercial can afford to pay year after year. Although I’m not able to use all the features provided (because of my own technical ignorance), I feel satisfied with the service of HostPapa. Subscription reminders are timely and I haven’t experienced a problem for over 5 solid years.

    Guillaume

    5  — December 11, 2020

    Seamless Transition

    I’m only new to HostPapa. Having said that, they just completed my site/domain/email migration and it all went without a hitch.
    I didn’t make it easy for them as I registered the wrong domain (typo) and I’d left it very late (4 days before my current service expiration).
    For one they spotted the typo on the domain name and fixed it, but most importantly they jumped on my case straight away and completed the migration well ahead off the short deadline.
    Great job so far guys, keep it up!

    Donna

    5  — December 11, 2020

    Excellent Customer Care

    I have hosted with other companies but HostPapa is by far the most user-friendly service provider by far. And, when I’ve had (on occasion) to ask for assistance, the online chat has been expeditious, courteous and offered a bevy of options to help resolve my matter. Others hosting companies have tried to lure me back with wild incentives but I will stick with what works exceedingly WELL for me.

    Mark D

    4  — December 10, 2020

    New Account

    Having Googled the top ten hosting companies, Hostpapa came 2nd and was slightly cheaper than Number 1. They had a good deal which was 36 months for approximately the same prices as the renewal for one year with our current provider. Any time that i needed help there was a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable person on the end of a phone within a couple of minutes. I have received several helpful emails when they have noticed things that needed attention. I anticipate 3 years of good service with this company. All the information that i needed was supplied. The transfer process from my previous hosting supplier was easy.

    Kevin M

    5  — December 9, 2020

    HostPapa to the Rescue

    HostPapa has hosted my website for a decade.  During that time the quality of service was such that it was unnecessary to contact them to resolve a single issue.  As my hosting and domain fees were automatically  paid I never gave HostPapa a moment’s thought, which is exactly what you want when running an internet cafe!<br>But then COVID19 struck and government restrictions closed my business for months.  I recently returned from closure to discover my credit card details had expired and my website was suspended/deleted.  Disaster.  Well, it would have been a disaster were it not for the magnificent guys and girls at HostPapa who recovered the site and had it up and running again in 3 days.  I cannot thank them enough. Seasons greetings to you all.

    Christian N

    5  — December 2, 2020

    Very good customer services

    Their customer service is nothing but excellent, and also the IT department is always available 24/7 and to help customers.

    Brent P

    5  — December 2, 2020

    So far so good

    I am new to owning a domain & setting up email, but I have tinkered with creating a page using a web builder, not to the point of publishing… The free web builder is fairly basic & restricted, but I was able to produce a passable site for my purposes. I had several minor issues publishing the page, those were handled smoothly by HostPapa. All in all I found the task wasn’t too hard, or too expensive. Now to see what the future holds for a new company under the rule of Covid19 – Good luck to us all

    Isko A

    5  — November 30, 2020

    Highly recommended, at a reduced price

    I have been using their plans for several years and I can highly recommend it. However, I must say that for the use I make of it (little) I could only recommend it to someone like me, if you get it at a very reduced price (Cyber Friday).

    Wilbert

    5  — November 30, 2020

    Customer Service

    I’ve been with them for many years. Price is fair and they have always been able to find a solution for my desires and issues.

    William S

    5  — November 23, 2020

    Support desk folks make HostPapa sing!

    I came to HostPapa from a truly awful hosting site that continued to bill me for a Gone Forever site after they had a meltdown. I had to struggle to get paid back.

    HostPapa has a decent package for my needs of unlimited upload space, as I maintain a number of \”fan pages\” for my interests.

    Every single problem I encountered along the way, from subtle effects of PHP and HTTPS, or Ajax or Database or Javascript flavours … I solved quickly with the help of the folks on chat and via Support Tickets.

    For a medium-skilled self-taught web page maker, HostPapa supplied everything they promised, and more. I am happy to pay my invoices!

    Priti C

    5  — November 18, 2020

    Excellent

    Hostpapa is a superb website/domain service provider. Their assistance for setting up or resolving any issues is unbelievable. They are very quick. I have two websites from them. I have also recommended it to some of my friends.

    Brooke M

    5  — November 18, 2020

    Amazing customer service

    I’ve been with Hostpapa for around 3 years now after using other services in the past, they’re amazing. Whether contacting from the UK or Aus they are always happy to help and have people there on call whenever you need!

    Annemarie O

    5  — November 10, 2020

    Great Tech Support – Thanks!

    I transferred my .com.au domain name to HostPapa and found them really helpful to get everything set up. It did take some time, and a few different contacts back with HostPapa tech support to organise the new redirects and domain name changes, but in the end, they sorted out all my issues and my automatic redirect is working and they are a lot cheaper than I used to pay. Thanks a lot to the team.