Is HostPapa Worth the Hype? Our Honest 2025 Review

Looking for straightforward HostPapa reviews? You’ve come to the right place. This premium hosting service from Canada offers fantastic speeds and performance, uptime, customer service, security, and impressive features. All of this makes it one of our top hosting choices.

This company started back in 2006, and they have grown quite fast since then. I’m going to break down why this company has become our de facto number one choice in the Canada hosting space. (Hint: it has to do with their stellar customer service, among other factors.)

These days, they host more than 500,000 websites across the world.

Let’s see how they measure up to other hosting companies, paying close attention to:

• Prices
• Support
• Speed
• Uptime
• Features

Ready? Let’s dive in.

HostPapa is easily our favourite web host — and it isn’t just because they’re a Canadian company. Though, I have to mention that you will see faster speeds than most other hosting services because its servers are located in Canada. They also have incredible starting prices, over 400 business management tools, and stellar customer support.

Want someone to be crazy thorough in their HostPapa reviews? You’ve come to the right place. If you want to dive into the nitty-gritty details, keep on reading.

A closer look at the website speeds

Here we go, stats nerds. It’s time to dig into the mathematics of web hosting in this HostPapa review. All the tests were run within Canada, to help get an accurate mix of results across the country.

For a start, I checked the connection latency by performing the traceroute to our server's IP. On average, it was 4.857 ms.

Since this metric showed decent results, I decided to monitor the uptime for a bit longer. Check out the results below from our four testing locations.

So, what do these numbers mean? Let’s break down the terminology:

Traceroute Results:

Effectively shows the connection latency between your network and the target server.

The results depend on the physical distance, internet provider, and network configuration. That is why it’s important to check speeds from the location where you and your website visitors are located.

Uptime

When I discuss uptime on hostingcanada.org, it refers to a measure of how consistent the hosting provider’s services are. This is presented as a percentage to indicate the overall time the hosting provider is functioning normally.

HostPapa performed with 99.93% uptime from Montreal testing locations. This means its services were unavailable for only .07% percent of the time for Montreal users. With uptime performance, even a fraction of a percentage point can make a significant difference to your website’s availability. Uptime over 98% is strong, with anything below, being classified poor.

Load Times Overview

The load times compiled for the sake of this review are an average, from months of testing on this platform, using browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Times are measured in milliseconds and cover the length of a full request and response to a cloud web server.

Keep in mind that your website’s end users may see some variation in response times due to factors, like local network speed, browser behaviour, and server traffic. Overall, HostPapa’s load speeds performed well above average, when compared to other common providers available in Canada. Here are some key factors to understand:

• Load times that average at 2,000 milliseconds or lower are considered high performance, minimizing delays for webpage loading.
• Hosting providers with slower response times may cost you customers or readers.
• Since HostPapa has data centres all over Canada, website speeds are particularly strong for Canadians (even though other factors contribute too).

These factors can really help a host to stand out. Is it convenient to use their control panel? How long does it take to launch a website? Is the dashboard difficult to navigate?

The web hosting plans include the cPanel, where you have everything you need: file management, DNS settings, backups, and many more.

WordPress-specific plans include some very helpful features to make managing your site easy. There are variations depending on which plan type and tier you choose - but they can range from automatic offsite backups, to Jetpack Premium, to fully managed web application firewall, and more.

Not a fan of WordPress? Not a problem. HostPapa plans also have Softaculous script library, where tons of other CMS and frameworks available. So, you can enjoy hundreds of scripts with any functionality to launch your perfect website.

More tech-savvy users find it convenient to manage the hosting plan with SSH. Unfortunately, HostPapa does not support it with their shared web hosting services. However, you can check out their VPS plans, to enjoy a fully fledged command-line experience. For beginners, however, managing their accounts with a graphic user interface like cPanel, will be more than enough.

Zooming in on the pricing

Overall, cloud computing costs have dropped in recent years. This is a direct result of the highly over-saturated market. This means the market is well-primed for you to get a great deal when launching your new website.

HostPapa's offering is aimed at small business customers. They break their services into four plans, depending on the level of resources you plan to use.

Keep in mind, that renewal prices are typically much higher than the initial start-up price. That said, if you renew with a longer contract, (36 months) you get better value, with a discounted price. So, plan accordingly. The four plans for basic cPanel web hosting services can be summarized as follows:

Essentials: $2.95/month

• 50GB NVMe storage
• 2 websites
• 10 email addresses
• 1GB inbox storage

Growth: $6.95/month

• Free website builder
• Free domain registration
• 100GB NVMe storage
• 100 email addresses
• Website staging, and more

Premium: $6.95/month (limited offer)

• 200GB NVMe storage
• Unlimited email addresses
• 2GB inbox
• Extra security features
• Extra server resources
• 300 email sends an hour and more

Elite: $14.95/month

• Unmetered NVMe storage
• The most advanced security features
• Full access to Protection Power Tool
• 10GB automatic website backup
• Most advanced server resources
• 20,000MB mailbox storage
• 600 email sends per hour and more

Furthermore, all plans come with 24/7 support, over 400 free apps, 99.9% uptime, and an SSL certificate, as well as basic security features.

Cracking down on the security

No one wants their website hacked or attacked. Fortunately, HostPapa comes with anti-spam protection, a server firewall, constant monitoring, and intrusion detection. The standard security features that come with all tiers and plans, reads as follows:

• DDoS attack responses and preventions
• Multi-factor biometrics access for their data centre
• Redundant network carriers
• Brute force detection
• CloudLinux O/S protections

If you want to go a step further, you can also select the Protection Power add-on. It supports daily account scans, real-time alerts, CDN to speed up the delivery, and assistance in removing malware. Higher Protection Power, which comes at no additional cost with the Pro and Ultra packages, support additional add-ons to bolster security.

These days, security is a huge concern. There are plenty of plugins to use for security enhancement, but it is a huge relief to have extra protection from your hosting service.

HostPapa customer service, please help!

When you first browse to the main homepage, a little chat window opens asking what you need help with. Is there a real human being behind that window?

Yes.

Although the rep that is helping you is being represented by a stock photo, I made sure that there was a real person chatting with us.

What I got was concise and helpful answers, that were always in relation to the question I had asked. This was enough to convince me.

Of course, that's just the entry-level support — let's see what else HostPapa has to offer:

This provider also has a HUGE library of support videos and articles to teach you how to resolve any issue you might encounter. You can also use the 24/7 live support. This is available not only through the live chat function but also:

• Fax
• Regular Mail
• Phone
•  Email

That's right folks, they even offer fax support. Finally, customers can connect with a squad member to a video or phone conference. All this included, I can safely say that HostPapa has one of the best customer support services out of all the web hosting companies.

Some extra goodies to take into account

HostPapa offers fantastic extra features. There are tons of add-ons and extras to get your idealized website working the way you want it. These include:

• Domain services
• Custom email addresses
• Google Workspace tools for small businesses
• PapaCare managed web hosting that gives you the “white glove treatment”
• Customer care support across various formats

Though this HostPapa review is primarily for web hosting, it would be criminal not to mention the website builder tools available. There is a do-it-yourself version, or you can have the provider do it for you if you don’t want the hassle.

Some of the website builder features include:

• Drag-and-drop editor
• Several templates to choose from
• Stock photo selection
• Online store and social media selling options
• Performance and analytics tools
• Appointment-booking capabilities
• Colour palettes, icons, and fonts to choose from

I always aim to give you the most accurate analysis of different hosting providers and their offers. To accomplish that, I base my findings on a set of metrics and tests that help determine how well each provider performs in key areas.

Head here to see Hosting Canada’s full, four-step review process. Still not sure? Find the live tracking here.

In the case of HostPapa, we’ve tested their services from all over Canada, even the provinces which are difficult to pronounce (I’m looking at you, Saskatchewan!).

But at the end of the day, this is just one review. What do other customers think? Scouring various forums, blogs, and other sources of unbiased reviews, here are the general pros and cons that keep coming up.

What people love about HostPapa:

• The customer service really is that good
• Excellent uptime
• Leading website speeds
• Consistent eco-friendly practices with a focus on sustainability
• Multiple hosting options to accommodate a variety of needs
• Simple to use website builder

What people don’t love about HostPapa:

• Reviewers have not been impressed with the large jump from the initial price, to the renewal price
• While it does have plenty of bonuses, people do not like that many features are only accessible through add-ons

There’s never a one size fits all solution for hosting. Here are some other well-respected hosting services you could consider, as well as how they stack up next to HostPapa:

*   Note: Prices reflect current starting deals and are subject to change with time and renewal increases

The technology industry is flooded with cloud computing companies, all claiming to offer you the top speeds, performance, and customer service.

That is why every review takes hours to compile and delves deeply into testing and rating every minute detail. At the end, it’s safe to say that HostPapa is one of the best Canadian web hosts I have come across – especially for those just starting out. If uptime and customer service are important to your business, it is certainly a great choice for you.