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Brad Smith

Hosting Reviewer

HostPapa hosts over 500,000 websites on its data centers in the US and Canada.

That’s impressive considering they’ve only been around since 2006 (founded by Jamie Opalchuck).

hostpapa review

One potential explanation for their meteoric 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.

They must be doing something right to have grown so quickly over the past few years.

In order to find out, we purchased the HostPapa ‘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: 565 ms (February 2020 to January 2021)
UPTIME: 99.99% (February 2020 to January 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 99.99%

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

They’ve posted a 12-month average of 99.99% uptime with only an hour 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 damn thing live!

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

Last 12-month average uptime:

  • 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%
  • March 2020: 99.96%
  • February 2020: 100%

HostPapa’s uptime is on the same level as SiteGround’s uptime. Not bad.

2. Good Page Loading Speed

HostPapa’s uptime was great and their page loading speed is also decent.

Over the last 12 months, they had an average page load time of posting 565 ms, which is fast enough to have a place in our pros section.

HostPapa Speed Feb 2020 - Jan 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 with Panda Cloud antispam protection enabled, as well as a server firewall, monitoring, and intrusion detection. Over 37,000 websites get hacked daily, so HostPapa’s proactive security measures are reassuring.

Their Business Pro plan also comes with additional features including domain privacy protection, a free 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

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 (while also throwing in a free domain name too).

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, 100GB SSD storage, 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.

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 Unlimited 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.
  • 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.

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).

68 user reviews for HostPapa

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    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.

    John

    1  — October 15, 2020

    Stay away if you consider yourself intelligent

    I read reviews that said Hostpapa support was great and I believed them. This review is somewhat reflective of some of the experiences I’ve had. Sometimes you will receive a reply from a support request within a few hours. They prefer support via email and usually will answer in about 12 hours. If the support request is brain-dead easy then usually their replies are correct. If it involves even a minute amount of complexity then your support issue can be dragged out for days. If you’re considering Hostpapa to host your business website and you are having issues expect it to be down for days. I’m currently dealing with an issue that is now in it’s 7th day. I’ve received conflicting suggestions on which is the correct setting I should use from different support people. None of them worked. I’ve received the same suggestion fix that failed 2 days ago because the support person couldn’t be bothered to read the support thread. I sometimes will receive a support reply well past midnight. I will reply to that email and then must wait another 24 hours for a response. Twice I’ve been promised a phone call at a specific time and I cancelled plans and waited for the call, but both times no one called. If you tell them you want to purchase one of their products, you will get a call within an hour. They want your money but couldn’t care less about you or your website.

    Steve Z

    5  — October 14, 2020

    Impressive!

    I recently moved my account to Host Papa and was very impressed with both the speed and ease in which my websites were migrated. Fine and attentive tech support and 24/7 online help were greatly appreciated. All in all, a very good experience.

    Martin J

    4  — September 21, 2020

    Reliable service –

    I’ve been using Hostpapa for over five years now. I’ve tried others and been disappointed. Hostpapa has given me good support and provides some useful, efficient facilities. I particularly like their file manager and appreciate the ability to add sub-domains at minimal cost.

    Server performance and reliability is satisfactory. I recommend Hostpapa without reservation