Jimmy ParkerHostPapa
HostPapa is a reliable and secure web hosting company offering a wide range of hosting services, from shared hosting to VPS and dedicated server solutions. They provide their customers with an easy-to-use control panel along with a variety of free applications and tools, making it easy to create and manage websites. HostPapa also offers one-click installation of popular content management systems such as WordPress and Joomla, ensuring a smooth start to website management. They also provide 24/7 customer support and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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Pros
- Reliable and secure hosting services
- Easy-to-use control panel
- Variety of free applications and tools
- 24/7 customer support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Renewal rates are a bit high, but reasonable
The value HostPapa offers for the cost is fantastic in our opinion. Reliable hosting, quality support, affordable… definitely a thumbs up from us!
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Table of Contents
About HostPapa
HostPapa has been around for a long time. It started in 2002, although it only offered its web hosting services in 2005. It was in 2006 when it was officially established as the company it is today.
You’re probably familiar with HostPapa by now since it’s quite difficult to miss. It has a catchy name and logo, right? Well, the logo is actually the result of a Who’s Your Papa logo contest in 2012 – yes, their current logo is the designated winner of that event.
HostPapa is based in Canada and is, in our opinion, one of the best Canadian web hosting companies. Its headquarters is situated in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. They operate in many different places, however, like the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Singapore, India, and more. So even if you’re looking for a good web host for Malaysia for example, these guys could work quite well.
If you’re looking for a green hosting company, HostPapa is also one of those environment-conscious companies. They’re using renewable energy to power their servers and data centers and are engaged in other environment-friendly projects.
As a web hosting company, they’re offering a lot of services like shared, VPS, and reseller hosting. However, for this review, we’re just going to take up their most popular product – which is shared hosting.
Pricing
1. Start
HostPapa’s starter pack carries all the essential features you need to create a simple website. Its current introductory price is $5.95 per month but its renewal rate (regular price) is $8.95 per month.
You can host 1 websites with this plan and it comes with 100GB of SSD storage space and unlimited bandwidth.
2. Plus
If you need more than essential features, go for HostPapa’s Business plan. It comes with more advanced features and is definitely more powerful than their Starter plan. You can host 10 websites with it, and it also includes 100 GB SSD storage space and unlimited bandwidth.
You can get HostPapa’s Business package for only $5.95 per month right now. However, when you renew your plan, you’ll have to pay the regular price of $10.95 per month.
3. Pro
With the $5.95/mo Pro plan, you’ll get unlimited websites, SSD storage, and bandwidth.
4. Ultra
The most expensive plan, at $12.95/mo, gives you very similar features compared to the Pro plan, but you get double the amount of server resources to maximise performance.
Here are some things to keep in mind on HostPapa’s pricing system:
- When choosing from HostPapa’s pricing plans, always remember that their main differences consist of the number of websites you’re allowed to have and their respective storage spaces and bandwidth. The overall performance and power of more expensive plans are greater than the cheaper ones.
- HostPapa uses SSD storage spaces which are better (faster) than traditional hard disks.
- You can get a free domain from HostPapa if you get their annual payment plan (or longer). This applies to all plans – but the domain name is only valid for a year (you’ll have to renew it yourself every year after that).
Support
You’ll be glad to know that HostPapa takes their customer support function seriously. They even have a cute name for their support team – they’re called Papa Squad experts. And it’s not just their name – their support people live up to their name by providing good services.
If you want to get in touch with HostPapa people, you can reach them through e-mail, live chat, phone, and fax. Their response times are also commendable as you can get instant replies from them via live chat and phone. Their e-mail (ticketing service) is also good, but not as good as their live chat and phone support. If you’re going to reach them via e-mail, expect a few minutes of waiting time to get a reply (yes, it’s still good).
What sets HostPapa’s customer support from other web hosting companies is their multi-lingual support options. Aside from English, their customer service team can also speak Spanish, French, German, etc.
HostPapa also has a knowledge base on its official website. You can go there to search for articles, tutorials, guides, and more. It’s easy to find your way on their knowledge base as topics are listed by categories. If you’re into self-help for minor issues, it’s the first place you should go to.
Pros
1. Great customer support
We just talked about how efficient and helpful Papa Squad experts are, right? If you don’t know it by now, customer support is one of the first things you should look for in a hosting company. You’re bound to encounter some problems and issues with your website and it’s assuring to know that there’s available help 24/7 from your chosen web host.
2. They have environment-friendly hosting
HostPapa employs a lot of green measures to help save the environment. They use wind energy, sustainable energy, and conscious of carbon offsetting. They also buy renewable energy from other green companies.
3. Money-back guarantee
If you want to try out HostPapa, you can do so by taking advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee. You’ll have every opportunity to cancel your plan and get a refund as long as you do so within 30 days.
4. Value for money
We find HostPapa’s pricing plans to be reasonable and competitive. You can even save some money on their introductory prices. For this, we suggest getting a long plan to maximize your savings on their discounts. Remember, their regular prices will apply when you renew your plan. Also, take special notice of the introductory price of their Business plan. See, it’s the same with their Starter plan but you’ll actually get more features and savings with it.
5. Beginner-friendly
HostPapa has a user-friendly interface and even beginners will find it easy to use. Of course, if you’re an advanced user, you’ll also find their whole set up easy-peasy.
6. Free website transfers
New accounts are treated with free migration services. So, if you’re transferring your site from another hosting company to HostPapa, their experts will help you with the whole process.
7. Great uptime record
HostPapa has an uptime guarantee of 99.9% and they can deliver on this. However, they’re not offering any credits for downtimes as other web hosts do. This really shouldn’t bother you, however, as they have a good record of keeping their hosted domains online all the time (very few downtimes, if any).
8. Free CDN
Having the option to use the Content Delivery Network (CDN) is advantageous to websites as this will ease up server loads. You can expect more reliable speeds when you have CDN (HostPapa has a partnership with CloudFlare). Keep in mind, however, that this free feature is only available for Business and Business Pro users.
9. Great security system
Security is another one of HostPapa’s priorities. All their plans come with anti-spam apps, firewalls, threat detection and monitoring, and the like.
10. Use of classic control panel
You’ll be using a standard cPanel when you decide to get one of HostPapa’s plans. If you’re an advanced user, we’re sure you’ll already familiar with this. And if you’re a beginner, rest assured that you will find your first experience with a standard cPanel not too difficult.
11. Own website builder
HostPapa has a built-in website builder that you can use to create your website. It uses the now-famous drag and drop interface – you can literally just drag and drop features to their proper places on your editor. Having a website builder is a great option for beginners and for those who are in a hurry to put up a site (it still comes with customization features).
Cons
1. No backup features on their cheapest plans
Backups are important so as not to lose data in cases of crashes and similar situations. If you’re going to get HostPapa’s Start or Plus plan, this will be an additional cost to you (it’s free on their more expensive plans).
3. Low prices only on long-term plans
HostPapa does have really low introductory prices on all their plans. However, you can only enjoy those big discounts when you pay for 2 to 3 years in advance.
Conclusion
As you can see, HostPapa’s pros greatly outnumber their cons because they’re simply that good as a Canadian hosting company. They have great uptime, great customer service, freebies, money-back guarantees, and a lot more.
The only real issue with us is the loading speed on their cheapest plan (the Starter package). It already comes with a lot of limitations, but loading speed will affect your SEO efforts and also result in poor customer experience.
Having a CDN feature can help solve the problem with speeds – but note that HostPapa’s Starter plan doesn’t come with this. Therefore, we advise going for their Business plan as it does carry the CDN feature. HostPapa’s Business plan also has the same introductory price as their Starter plan – so we suggest taking advantage of the huge savings on this.
As with other hosting companies, know that you can always upgrade or downgrade your plan as you go. If you follow our suggestion and get their Business plan, you’ll be in the middle of their set up – with room to grow and room to downgrade as well.