HostPapa Review 2024

This premium hosting service from Canada offers fantastic speeds and performance, uptime, customer service, security, and features that we will get into in this HostPapa review, making it one of our top hosting choices.

When I first heard of HostPapa, I actually got a little bit hungry…

I don’t eat as much pizza as I did when I was a freshman at McGill, cramming for finals. Nevertheless, the name HostPapa conjured up images of a warm, cheesy pepperoni deep dish, fresh out of the oven. Mmm…

As it would happen, HostPapa is a hosting company – not a pizza chain. But, just like the best pizza companies of my day, they truly deliver.

In this HostPapa review, I’m going to break down why this fairly new 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.)

HostPapa started back in 2006, and they have grown quite fast since then. Today, they host more than 500,000 websites across the world.

Let’s see how they measure up to other hosting companies, looking at their prices, support, speed, and uptime.

Ready? Let’s dive in.

TLDR

HostPapa is easily our favorite web host — and it isn’t just because they’re a Canadian company.

You will see the faster speeds than the majority of other hosting services available because HostPapa’s servers are located in Canada.

Since HostPapa loves Canada as much as we do, they are offering huge discounts to all our readers. Nearly half the price of their regular hosting packages and free upgrades that are otherwise a bit pricey.

The discount they are offering makes a premium choice like HostPapa as inexpensive as some of the cheapest plans. .

Thanks to the discount Hosting Canada readers can enjoy 73% off regular pricing + free domain registration.

Beyond that, HostPapa Canada offers amazing customer support and fantastic security along with a handful of extra features.

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

To get started, we have 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, we decided to get a website running and monitor the uptime for a bit longer time. 

Check out the results below from our four testing locations.

So, what do these numbers actually mean?

Well, first it’s important to understand the terminology.

Traceroute results show 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 it from the location where you and the visitors of your website are located. 

While it’s an important factor to confirm there are no connectivity issues at a given time ( like the destination IP is not blocked by your ISP and the connection reaches the server), it does not mean the fast loading speed of your website.

That’s why we created a website and monitored the server uptime from four locations to get the results close to real life.

When we talk about an uptime on hostingcanada.org, it refers to a measure of how consistent the hosting provider’s services are.

The statistic is presented as a percentage to indicate the overall time that the hosting provider is online and functioning normally.

For example, HostPapa has performed with 99.93% uptime from Montreal testing locations.

This means that in all of the data we’ve collected in our Hostpapa review, HostPapa’s services were unable for only .07% percent of the time for Montreal users.

The math equates to a barely 5 hours of downtime over the course of a year – almost nothing.

When gauging uptime performance, even a fraction of a percentage point can make a significant difference to your website’s availability. We consider uptime metrics of over 98% to be strong, with anything below that classified as poor.

The very best hosting companies guarantee 99% uptime or else will refund you some of your payments if that expectation is not met. 

HostPapa is one of those companies that provides such a guarantee.

For sure, as with any hosting company, there may be some outages, during which the hosting may go down, and here it’s important to check the provider’s transparency in communication. 

With HostPapa, you can easily find information about maintenance and incidents on their status page. 

In case of scheduled maintenance, they also send you an email notification, so that you know when your website may not be available in advance. 

Now in switching gears to load times, our focus shifts from overall availability to actual speed measurements.

The numbers compiled by Hosting Canada are an average over months of testing with HostPapa’s platform with various browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Times provided above 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 seem some variation in response times due to a variety of factors, including local network speed, browser behavior, and server traffic.

Overall, HostPapa’s load time speeds performed well above average when compared to other common providers available in Canada.

Load times that average at 2,000 milliseconds or less are considered to be high performance, as it means the end user will face very little delay when loading the webpage.

Hosting providers with slower response times are risky to use. Your readers and customers may get annoyed with the delays and choose to browse other sites instead.

Since HostPapa has data centers all over Canada, website speeds are excellent on all hosting plans for Canadians but the high performance of the web host isn’t just due to location.

HostPapa runs SDD on all servers and uses Intel Scalable CPU which reduces memory addresses that the processor needs to handle.

Their shared hosting servers are running on CloudLinux OS. That’s the best option for shared environments as it effectively isolates user accounts from one another.

This setup increases server reliability and limits consumption within the allocated resources. So you don’t need to worry that your website goes down if there’s some abusive activity of other users hosted on the same server. 

By default, all plans come with a shared IP address. But at $6.95/mo, you can get a dedicated IP to improve the email reputation and SEO rankings. 

As for web servers, Hostpapa offers Apache on the shared servers.  It’s a good balance of customizations, optimization, and security. These days, many providers have started providing Litespeed and Nginx as alternatives.

 If you plan to run a website on WordPress, you may consider Managed WordPress hosting or Optimized WordPress hosting from HostPapa. These types of hosting are powered by Litespeed.

Another key feature when it comes to finding your perfect hosting provider is usability. Is it convenient to use their control panel? How long does it take to launch a website with this hosting? Is the dashboard hard to navigate?

Folks at HostPapa do their best to simplify hosting management. 

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

For WordPress users, there’s a WP toolkit included with all web hosting plans. It’s a convenient interface that allows you to manage everything WordPress-related in one place. You can install, update, backup, or restore a WordPress website in several clicks.  

Also, for multiple websites owners, it’s easy to have an overview of all WordPress installations and their states. Here, you will be able to detect and troubleshoot issues, create custom theme and plugin sets, and do other routine tasks. All of that, with no need to log in to each WordPress admin dashboard separately.

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. 

Some more tech-savvy users find it convenient to manage the hosting plan with SSH. If this feature is critical for you, unfortunately, HostPapa does not support it with their shared web hosting, but you can check out their VPS plans to enjoy a fully-fledged command-line experience. 

But for the majority of users, especially beginners, managing their accounts with a graphic user interface like cPanel will be more than enough. 

Overall, cloud computing costs have dropped in recent years. This is a result of a saturation of the market, with so many different hosting providers offering similar services.

Still, when launching a new website, it’s very important to take financial matters into account.

You need to take the details of what a provider is going to charge you and analyze it alongside the record of how that company performs in terms of speed and reliability.

HostPapa is aimed at small business customers, but they break their offerings into four plans depending on the level of resources you plan to use.

Their cheapest option is the Start plan is great for beginners or solopreneurs with 1 website. The plan includes 10 email accounts and 100 GB of space It will cost you $2.95 per month if you commit to a 3-year subscription, which is 75% off the regular $8.95/mo. 

The Plus plan is for small companies which may need to operate multiple websites or domains on a single account. Customers can also upgrade to a Pro or Ultra package for an additional monthly fee if they need more resources than initially expected.

The most attractive deals are valid for all plans with longer billing cycles. But with the discount HostPapa has provided Hosting Canada readers, you can enjoy even lower fees.

Click here to see HostPapa’s discounted pricing.

If for whatever reason, you’re not happy with HostPapa, the company will refund your money with their 30-day money-back guarantee.

No one wants their website hacked or attacked. That leads to loss of readers or customers as well as a lot of frustration.

HostPapa comes with anti-spam protection, a server firewall, constant monitoring, and intrusion detection.

If you want to go a step further, you can consider their Protection Power addon. It supports daily account scans, real-time alerts, CDN to speed up the delivery, and assistance in removing malware. 

Higher Protection Power addons also support DDoS protection, help with improving email delivery reputation if the domain is included in spam blacklists, and dedicated cyber security specialists. 

Protection Power comes at no additional cost with their Pro and Ultra packages. If you opt for one of these plans, you also get domain privacy protection and automated website backups. 

When using WordPress or a different CMS, security is a huge concern. There are plenty of plugins to use for security on the platforms but at the end of the day, it is a huge relief to have extra security layers from your hosting service.

HostPapa offers fantastic extra features.

We dug into their Essential Features, Advanced Features, and Enhancements to help you understand what you’re actually paying for and what extra add-ons are included with HostPapa’s packages.

The Start, Plus, Pro, and Ultra plans from HostPapa all include basic SSL support using a Let’s Encrypt certificate.

HostPapa also includes free domain registration. You can search for a new domain name through HostPapa, like a .com or .net address and receive a free year with your chosen domain.

If you already have one, HostPapa will connect it to your new hosting for free.

If you are completely new to designing websites, it is nice to know that HostPapa offers a building tool that lets you drag and drop elements to put together a dynamic web page.

With the Start and Plus plans, you get limited access to their website building, while the Pro and Ultra options will provide more features and functionality.

It’s important to note, that HostPapa’s website building software tool falls well short of actually using WordPress. That is to be expected as no hosting service has a substantial website builder.

Host Papa’s builder works for basic landing pages or other simple website design.

When you first browse to HostPapa’s 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, we made sure that there was a real person chatting with us.

Concise and helpful answers, that were always in relation to the question we had asked, were more than enough to convince us.

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

First off, they offer a HUGE library of support videos and articles that are bound to teach you how to fix any issue you might encounter.

If you are too busy, or you simply don't want to trouble yourself with such problems, you can always use the 24/7 live support that HostPapa offers.

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 have access to a bonus support feature - "Papa Squad Experts".

Now that's a cool name.

Using this, you will be able to connect with a squad member to a video or phone conference. That way, you can fix all of your issues right away with professional guidance, completely free of charge.

All this included, we can safely say that HostPapa has one of the best customer support services out of all the web hosting companies.

At hostingcanada.org, our priority is giving our readers the most accurate analysis of different hosting providers.

How do we do that?

We base our findings on a set of metrics and tests to help determine how well each provider performs at key activities. Head here to see our full, four-step review process. You can see the live tracking here.

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

(Please note that we have not deducted any points from HostPapa on account of their branding and name, which makes it look like you are signing up for a pizza delivery service, not a professional web hosting service.)

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

But of course each provider has its strengths and weaknesses. That’s where Hosting Canada comes in handy.

Every member of our team has more than a half a decade of experience reviewing hosting services.

These hardcore professionals have dedicated hours of their time to testing and rating all of the most popular hosting websites available.

We’ve reviewed HostPapa alongside the other top web hosting providers against the same set of criteria in order to set the true contenders apart from the rest.

With our reviews, you’ll get a holistic understanding of what to look for and what to avoid when shopping for a new website host. And we aim to keep it simple and stick to the facts.

You can depend on Hosting Canada to deliver the information you need, because we’ve been a part of the industry for so long. Our unique, data-driven approach allows us to study key metrics about web hosting companies.

Our goal is simple: to give your website a home that’s fast and reliable, all without breaking your bank account.

HostPapa is the best Canadian web host when compared to other hosting providers in the Canadian market. If uptime and pricing are important to your business, HostPapa should be the choice for you.