HostPapa Review: 7 important points to know (2021 Customer Reviews)
Are they really best for small businesses?
Average hosting services for small businesses having shared and VPS hosting plans starting at $3.95/mo. Give you above average speed, industry average server up-time, great amount of features, free domain and SSL Certificate.
Low quality customer support, security features not enough, renewal prices are very high.
- Pricing
- Features
- Speed
- Up-time
- Security
- Easy to Use
- Support
Overall HostPapa hosting is average hosting service which you can get from most hosting providers out there even better services can find from some hosting providers in same or even low price like Hostinger, iPage, BlueHost, InterServer, A2 Hosting, SiteGround and inMotion Hosting
Table of Contents
About HostPapa
HostPapa’s story start in 2006 writer was Jamie Opalchuck since they already have 500k website under their hosting plans.
HostPapa has 2 datacenters first USA second in Canada.
Their customer base growth quite impressive withing sort time I think that because their hosting offers and multilingual customer support which available in English as well as German, French, Spanish languages.
Overview
I introduced with HostPapa near 2016 and tried their services for my client the overall experience was good for that short time until I completed my work.
I decided to track down their long term performance and till than I have collected 24 months up-time and response time statistics which was not that impressive but also matches industry average shared hosting performance states.
HostPapa has great support system which I loved because they are not limited in terms or Language you can have their support in multiple languages like Spanish, German and French which make HostPapa quite different than others.
In this review I will reveal their features, usability, security and reliability, I will share my as well as other HostPapa customers experiences to define where HostPapa actually stands for.
Who Should Consider HostPapa?
I mean their tagline says “Small Business Web Hosting” which I think they already defined who is their priority.
HostPapa Response Time
As we know speed is the important when it comes to user experience because if your site doesn’t load under 3 second most probably you will lost visitor and may be the future customer.
So from last 3 years I am collecting HostPapa response time (page load speed) data which really helpful if you are thinking to go with HostPapa.
736 ms is the average response time in last 24 months but if you see last 12 months they are continuously improved their response time performance because they started upgrading their servers with latest technologies.
See bellow pas 24 months of response time (page load speed) history, check out specially last 12 months which are really good news for HostPapa.
HostPapa Up-time Peformance
We’re happy to report that HostPapa’s uptime has been good since day one.
They’ve posted a 24-month average of 99.95% uptime.
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!
I stick with HostPapa from last 5 years and not having any major issues with their hosting servers like up-time.
Up-time of the HostPapa is matching industry standard which is 99.95% which I got from last 24 months of up-time tracking history.
It is not easy to any hosting provider to maintain 100% up-time because of so many reasons like electricity, technical issues, maintenance, upgrade and software updates so you will see most hosting providers up-time is in between 99.90% to 99.96% but still there is few hosting provider which are above average like Hostinger and SiteGround.
Here we have 24 months up-time history chart for HostPapa shared hosting server.
HostPapa Hosting Plans and Pricing
Because HostPapa’s main targeting customers are small business which you can see in their hosting plans also they offering 2 types of web hosting plans shared and VPS.
HostPapa Shared Hosting Plans
Shared hosting starts from $3.95/mo but their second plan with higher resource and unlimited websites is also have same price which is quite interesting offer to attract new customer for their middle range shared hosting plan.
Note: The promotional price is only applied if you signup for 3 year contract otherwise prices are bit higher, I need to clear this here because some time it looks like they are cheating but this is old and well know strategy used by all most all hosting providers.
Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Panel | Number of Sites | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
STARTER | 100 GB SSD Storage | Unlimited | cPanel | 2 | $3.95 |
BUSINESS | Unlimited SSD Storage | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $3.95 |
BUSINESS PRO | Unlimited SSD Storage | Unlimited | cPanel | Unlimited | $12.95 |

All shared plans also includes following features by default:
- Free Domain for 1 year or longer
- Easy to use website builder
- 400+ 1-click install applications
- cPanel as your control panel
- SuperMicro server with Cloudflare CDN
- Free unlimited email address branded by your domain
- Daily server scanning for malware attack protection
- Free Wildcard SSL Certificate
- Daily automatic backups
- 99.99% up-time guarantee
- Free domain and website transfer
HostPapa VPS Hosting Plans
For growing businesses HostPapa has high powered VPS plans .
Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | RAM | CPU | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mercury | 60 GB SSD Storage | 1TB transfer | 2 GB | 4 Core CPU | $19.99/mo |
Venus | 150 GB SSD Storage | 2TB transfer | 4 GB | 4 Core CPU | $59.99/mo |
Earth | 250 GB SSD Storage | 2TB transfer | 8 GB | 8 Core CPU | $109.99/mo |
Mars | 500 GB SSD Storage | 4TB transfer | 16 GB | 8 Core CPU | $169.99/mo |
Jupiter | 1 TB SSD Storage | 8TB transfer | 32 GB | 12 Core CPU | $249.99/mo |

VPS Hosting comes with more advanced features as bellow:
- Unlimited domains and website hosting
- Dedicated resource guaranteed
- Easy resource upgrade and plan upgrade
- Single dashboard to manage all servers
- High security features and eCommerce optimization
HostPapa Optimized WordPress Hosting Plans
For WordPress HostPapa has special Optimized WordPress Hosting plans comes with pre-installed WordPress with more power and optimized resources for website loading performance also they have special WordPress support team you connect by live chat.
Plan Name | Space | Bandwidth | Number of Sites | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|
WP Starter | 100 GB SSD Storage | Unlimited | 2 | $3.99/mo |
WP Business | Unlimited SSD Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | $5.95/mo |
WP Business Pro | Unlimited SSD Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | $12.95/mo |

Some HostPapa’s WordPress Hosting common features for all plan:
- Pre-Installed WordPress website with 100+ free themes by Jetpack
- WordPress caching enabled for better page loading speed
- Free Cloudflare CDN for enhanced performance
- Jetpack enabled which included some essential features for your website marketing, speed and image CDN
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate to secure website connection for your visitors safety
- 24/7 malware protection (WP Business Pro)
- 99.9% up-time guarantee
- 24/7 Customer Support
HostPapa Reseller Hosting Plans
If you are interested in hosting business you have Reseller hosting package from HostPapa which includes 5 plans starting at $29.99/mo.
Plan Name | cPanel Accounts | Space | Bandwidth | RAM | CPU | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bronze | 20 | 50GB SSD storage | 500GB bandwidth | 2GB | 4 Core CPU | $29.99/mo |
Silver | 40 | 100 GB SSD Storage | 1TB bandwidth | 4 GB | 4 Core CPU | $39.99/mo |
Gold | 60 | 150 GB SSD Storage | 1.5TB bandwidth | 8 GB | 8 Core CPU | $64.99/mo |
Platinum | 100 | 200 GB SSD Storage | 2TB bandwidth | 16 GB | 8 Core CPU | $89.99/mo |
Titanium | 150 | 250 GB SSD Storage | 2.5TB bandwidth | 32 GB | 8 Core CPU | $119.99/mo |

Some common features which you get with any reseller plan from above:
- Single Dashboard to manage your client’s websites and domains
- SSD Storage for fast loading websites with RAID array with CacheCade and CDN
- WHMCS included for easy invoice management
- Scale easy as you grow
HostPapa Features
Great advantages of HostPapa is give you multiple free features to create, manage and secure your website with their cheapest plan. You can have your website in few minutes using their SohoLaunch drag and drop website builder also for more advanced features there is 400+ one click install application which includes so many popular open source web apps like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla even Magento for online store creation in as single click. Also they provide great features to protect your website from DDoS and Malware attacks with high quality security and last but not least they’re green hosting provider by using renewable energy for their all most all operations.
Let’s digin for HostPapa’s feature details
Free Domain Registration
Yes for first year you don’t need to pay for single penny for your business domain (From second year you can renew domain at standard price).
Free SohoLaunch Website Builder
HostPapa hosting plan comes with free drag and drop easy to use website builder including hundreds of unique ready to use fully responsive templates which can be great start for any website you just need to replace your content by using website builder drag and drop feature no coding knowledge required to create your own website.
1-click application install
Get over 400 1-click install application access to create your blog, website or online store like WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla and many more.
Cloudflare CDN
They included Cloudflare CDN to boost up your website speed
Free SSL Certificate
To keep customer data safe you get free SSL certificate. Now day’s you need SSL certificate to gain customers trust on your website otherwise they will see your connection tagged with “Not Secure” and this can be responsible for your customer lost and also search engines also prefer secure connection website first.
Backup & Restore
You will always have your website latest copy backup which taken by HostPapa daily automatic backup feature. Also this feature can restore your latest version content within a minute if you lost your data by any accidental events.
Quick Notes
All plan included free domain name for 1 year
Simple and easy registration process and instant activation on payment completion.
HostPapa support two Payment Methods PayPal and Credit Card
Upsells: very low
All hosting plan comes with cPanel control panel to manage all your hosting features.
Hidden Agenda: multiple things are not clear but we do it:
- Promotional prices only for new customers.
- Renewal prices are heavily expensive.
- Under refund policy you get charged $29.99 as setup fees if you claim money back withing guarantee time period, I think loosing part of HostPapa.
HostPapa Security Features
You get 2 security features with you shared hosting plan Free SSL Certificate and Automatic Backup feature. There is more security features like SiteLock and Protection Power which are leading server security service provider but these features you can add in your package as extra add-on feature. SiteLock and Protection Power security features by HostPapa is starting at $2.99/mo which helps to protect your website data from malware attack, DDoS attack and also some extra features you get Content Delivery Network (CDN), Vulnerability Scan, Trust Seal and more.

Overall HostPapa comes with huge amount of protection features but mostly are paid which I don’t think I prefer to recommend in my opinion most security features must included with each plan server security is the duty of Hosting provider.
Easy to Use?
No worry they give you cPanel to manage your hosting features. cPanel is most commonly used by Hosting Providers so having large collection of learning tutorials you can find very easily your questions answers over the internet but I don’t think anyone need more help because cPanel is built on point which gives you very easy to use interface also you can manage interface as per your need using drag and drop section so most useful feature you can put on top.
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
It’s like you get 30 day to test HostPapa hosting services but if you don’t like or change your mind you can ask for refund.
Note: Free domain with hosting plan not covered with 30 money back guarantee. Domain setup fees will deducted from your refund amount.
Customer Support
As usual I went through their Live chat support asked few questions related to shared hosting plans features and renewal prices got straight answers without wasting time so overall my personal experience is good with HostPapa support but does this for all?

Customer support must be good with experienced experts by relevant department otherwise service providers definitely loos their customers.
I checked out what real customers and Better Business Bureau (BBB) say about HostPapa it looks average ratting with BBB A+ certificate.

Conclusion
HostPapa has a fair deal for small and medium scale businesses where you get so many useful features which might you need to start your website within minutes like Free Domain, Free SSL Certificate with easy to install feature you get website builder having 200+ pre-built professional full responsive website template for all type of businesses. 1-click install application for more advanced websites which includes WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, OpenCart and 400+ other open source web application platforms.
Let’s give you quick review by 7 important points:
Response Time 736 ms for last 24 months but from last 12 months I can see huge improvement in response time states which are 527 ms.
Up-time is 99.94% an average up-time not great and bad.
Pricing fair, cheap and affordable.
Features available to create, manage and secure your website.
Security is basic with hosting plan which can be extend with paid add-on features. Little disappointment all security features must available for all.
Yes they have Easy to Use cPanel.
30-day money back guarantee is good for test hosting services before still long term.
How HostPapa can Improve?
I have some suggestions for HostPapa to improve their services:
- Add more real professional by relevant department in customer support.
- Security is kind your hosts responsibility which must be for all for free.
- Up-time can be improved.
If you are a current or old customer of HostPapa you can add your real experience here in the review section, Please make sure you add only your real experiences with the particular host.
Top HostPapa Alternatives
If you are thinking to go with after reading my review you should check below alternatives first which may change your mind:
BlueHost: it is largely trusted by customers and WordPress.org it’self specially for WordPress hosting.
A2 Hosting: Better speed and response time in almost same price which also includes better security features too.
Hostinger: Cheapest hosting option. Don’t underestimate by pricing they already passed our 7 important points.
Average hosting services for small businesses having shared and VPS hosting plans starting at $3.95/mo. Give you above average speed, industry average server up-time, great amount of features, free domain and SSL Certificate.
Low quality customer support, security features not enough, renewal prices are very high.
- Pricing
- Features
- Speed
- Up-time
- Security
- Easy to Use
- Support
Overall HostPapa hosting is average hosting service which you can get from most hosting providers out there even better services can find from some hosting providers in same or even low price like Hostinger, iPage, BlueHost, InterServer, A2 Hosting, SiteGround and inMotion Hosting