If you've ever searched for cheap website hosting, then HostPapa is likely one of the brands you'll have come across. Based in Ontario, Canada, the company has been around for close to two decades.
After a series of aggressive acquisitions, HostPapa today has become one of the bigger hosting brands around. It's what I like to call a one-stop shop, offering everything website owners need, from hosting to security and more.
HostPapa hosting plans and prices
HostPapa offers shared, VPS, dedicated, and reseller hosting. Because of its popularity, several WordPress plans are also available. These are built on different platforms, from shared to VPS. Additionally, you can get email hosting, Microsoft 365, premium SSL certificates, and more.
Shared hosting plans range between $2.95/mo and $9.95/mo. These are the rates for 3-year terms. Following that, renewals cost from $8.99/mo to $27.99/mo, depending on your subscribed plan.
The lowest shared hosting plan (Essentials) offers decent specifications for a single website: 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, and 25GB of NVMe storage. However, remember that this is shared hosting, so hosting resources aren't yours alone.
There's also what HostPapa calls Optimized WordPress hosting, which simply means they pre-install WordPress on your shared hosting account. The prices are identical, as are the specifications.
VPS and Managed WordPress Hosting
HostPapa offers managed and unmanaged VPS hosting. These plans are a step up from shared hosting. You'll find performance on VPS more consistent, since all the specified resources are yours alone.
The unmanaged VPS plans at HostPapa are, honestly, very cheap. Prices range from $5.95/mo to $59.95/mo, depending on resources provided. The cheapest plan (Start) offers 2 vCPUs, 2GB RAM, and 50GB of storage.
Managed VPS plans are meant for those who don't have the skills (or time) to manage a barebones virtual server. For this, you pay premium rates at HostPapa, ranging from $36.95/mo to $86.95/mo.
The last offering in the VPS segment is HostPapa's Managed WordPress plans. Think of this as Managed VPS plans, which are restricted to WordPress only. As such, prices fall between $19.95/mo to $114.95/mo.
Dedicated Servers and Reseller Hosting
If you're one of those with much higher hosting requirements, then HostPapa's dedicated servers are what you'll need. These plans offer you a custom-configured server, with specifications that would make boyish hearts go "Whopee!"
Prices on these range from $59.95/mo to $219.95/mo for unmanaged servers. If you want a managed dedicated server, be prepared to fork out the big bucks. Prices in this category range between $109.95/mo to $269.95/mo. The most interesting part here is that there is no price hike on renewal for dedicated server plans.
Reseller hosting ranges between $14.95/mo to $57.95/mo. The specifications for these plans are rather modest since the focus is on white-label services and the number of cPanel accounts assigned to you.
Note: HostPapa does not offer a temporary domain name, so you must either have a domain name already registered or buy one from them to get started.
Getting started at HostPapa
Once you've decided which hosting plan you want, click the "Buy Now" button below that plan. You'll then head to a screen where you fill in your billing details and finalize the configuration for your hosting plan.
There are two key things you have to note here:
- Only those opting for shared hosting can choose their data center location. There are three locations available: The United States, Canada, and Europe.
- Pay attention to the optional add-ons. PapaCare Lite is selected by default. If you don't unselect that option, you'll find a significant amount getting billed monthly after the first month.
Onboarding process
Unfortunately, things don't start moving quickly once you've made your payment. With most other hosts, I've gotten onboarding emails almost immediately. HostPapa made me wait 5 minutes before emailing me an identity verification request.
This means you'll have to scan an ID document and scan your face, either on your phone or via webcam. If you wear glasses and can't see without them, things can get problematic since the facial scan requires you to remove them.
When all of this is done, you can finally access your user dashboard. This is where the magic happens. To get started with your website, click "My cPanel." I used it to install WordPress, which completed in a few minutes.
Speed and reliability
When testing web hosts, we typically sign up for the cheapest plan available. For HostPapa, that was the Essential shared hosting plan. We then upload a pre-built WooCommerce website to standardize our tests.
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CPU & Memory | Operations with large text data | 9.07 |
| Row 1 - Cell 0 | Random binary data operations | 7.3 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Recursive mathematical calculations | 4.83 |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | Iterative mathematical calculations | 7.86 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Floating point operations | 5.64 |
Filesystem | Filesystem write ability | |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Local file copy and access speed | |
| Row 7 - Cell 0 | Small file IO test | |
Database | Importing large amount of data to database | 7.75 |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | Simple queries on single table | 8.56 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Complex database queries on multiple tables | 4.52 |
Object cache | Persistent object cache enabled | |
Wordpress core | Shortcode processing | 4.91 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Wordpress Hooks | 7.69 |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | Wordpress option manipulation | 7.9 |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | REGEX string processing | |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | Taxonomy benchmark | 7.33 |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Object capability benchmark | 6.74 |
| Row 18 - Cell 0 | Content filtering | 2.09 |
| Row 19 - Cell 0 | JSON manipulations | 7.92 |
Network | Network download speed test | |
Overall | Your server score | 5.3 |
Typically, when an entire test category fails, it indicates that the host may have disabled certain operations. In this case, HostPapa seems to disallow filesystem operation and network speed tests. This has somewhat skewed our HostPapa system benchmark.
However, given the other parameters indicate healthy server operations. HostPapa's shared hosting performed well on CPU and memory operations and showcased impressive database times. All in, that's great news for WordPress fans.
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Concurrent users | 5 | 9 | 15 |
Transactions | 1542 | 2562 | 4210 |
Availability | 100.00 | 100.00 | 95.64 |
Elapsed time | 299.01 | 299.99 | 299.93 |
Data transferred | 64.77 | 112.61 | 181.76 |
Response time | 0.97 | 1.05 | 1.07 |
Transaction rate | 5.16 | 8.64 | 14.04 |
Throughput | 0.22 | 0.38 | 0.61 |
Concurrency | 4.99 | 8.98 | 14.97 |
Successful transactions | 1542 | 2562 | 4225 |
Failed transactions | 192 | ||
Longest transaction | 4.56 | 8.11 | 11.05 |
Shortest transaction | 0.72 | 0.72 | 0.36 |
Siege is our benchmark of choice for load testing. It sends multiple requests according to our parameters to test the server's ability to handle simultaneous transactions. Impressively, HostPapa's cheapest shared hosting account performed quite well.
It handled up to 9 concurrent users easily, with 100% successful transactions. However, this came at a small sacrifice in performance as increased loads resulted in some transactions being somewhat delayed beyond the norm.
Once we hit the server with 15 concurrent users, HostPapa began to struggle. There was a slight uptick in failed transactions and longer completion times for some transactions. Still, a 95% success rate for shared hosting is good.
Customer support and knowledge base
HostPapa has one of the most extensive knowledge bases I've come across. Much of the content is helpful, especially the short guides that teach novices simple things like DNS pointing and basic WordPress tutorials. For those more visual, there are also various video tutorials.
It also offers great customer support via live chat, email, phone, or a ticketing system. If you need more assistance, sign up for one of their short one-to-one training sessions (for free!).
Who should consider using HostPapa?
Let me be honest. HostPapa is cheap and offers decent performance. However, once the cheap introductory pricing wears off, you'll be better off elsewhere. Given the cost of their VPS plans, it would be far more cost-effective to sign on with Cloudways.
Or, if you prefer, consider a WordPress-only expert like WP Engine or Kinsta. They might be more expensive, but you'll get the powerful hosting that you'll need to squeeze every bit of performance out of your WordPress website.
I'd recommend HostPapa only if you're:
- Brand new to web hosting.
- Have price as one of your key considerations.
- Require lots of help getting started with hosting.
Final verdict
While writing this review, I had to remind myself that I was on a web hosting plan that costs $2.95/mo. For that price, HostPapa demonstrated performance that, to me, felt good. However, the onboarding process did turn me off because of the email delays, and the emails didn't come in a logical order which may leave some new users slightly confused.
There are many more pros than cons to this web host, and unless you're playing in the big leagues, the plans here are worth a go. Give it a shot for yourself and see what I mean.
HostPapa FAQs
Who owns HostPapa?
HostPapa is owned by Jamie Opalchuk, the guy who started the company back in 2006. He's the CEO of the company and has overseen all stages of its growth, from initial teething to several mergers and acquisitions.
What is HostPapa used for?
HostPapa is a web hosting company. It offers a full range of hosting plans, from cheap web hosting to powerful dedicated servers. The company also offers several associated services, such as Google Workspace, AI-based marketing, and more.
Is HostPapa a good company?
HostPapa is one of the best cheap web hosting providers around. It offers users a wide range of web hosting solutions. It's great for new users, since it still provides cPanel on shared hosting, despite increased licensing costs.
Where is HostPapa located?
HostPapa is a Canada-based company. However, its products and services are available worldwide. The company has several overseas addresses as well, including in Australia, Germany, and the UK.
Is HostPapa good for beginners?
HostPapa products are very GUI-driven, making it easy for beginners to use. You can set up a website in a few clicks, even on shared hosting, thanks to cPanel. If you sign up for WordPress hosting, things are even simpler.
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