HostPapa Hosting Review: Affordable Hosting for Small Businesses

In this HostPapa hosting review, we will consider the range of plans, packages, and tools that HostPapa provides to help you create, host and secure your website. Aimed at small to medium businesses as well as individual bloggers, HostPapa will support you through every step of your site’s development. And although HostPapa provides hosting for all website’s, with their WordPress hosting options and low prices, there is plenty for WordPress website owners to get excited about.

In this HostPapa hosting review, we will discuss the features HostPapa offers, and test out the performance and loading times its servers provide. We will then look in more depth at the individual plans and packages that you can choose from, as well as check out the user experience and set up process. Let’s get started…

HostPapa Hosting Review: An Overview

HostPapa is one of the fastest growing tech companies in Canada. Privately owned, HostPapa operates out of countries across the globe, including the US, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, and many more. Founded in 2002, HostPapa now hosts over 500,000 websites worldwide.

HostPapa provides a safe and reliable platform that will ensure your site’s performance and security. A combination of HostPapa’s SuperMicro servers, housed in state-of-the-art data centers, and Cloudflare’s CDN, means HostPapa can guarantee 99.9% uptime for your site and fast loading speeds. All servers also have enhanced security features, including firewalls and intrusion detection.

We tested our demo WordPress website with Pingdom and GTmetrix using local test servers. Here are the results…

Pingdom

GTmetrix

As you can see, our test site was recorded having impressive loading times of 388ms which is faster than 98% of sites (Pingdom). GTmetrix also graded it an A (97%) for page speed. (It is worth noting that these results are based on a demo site with a fresh installation, using the Twenty Seventeen theme).

So now we know how HostPapa performs. Let’s next consider some of the essential features that HostPapa has built its reputation on…

HostPapa Features

There are a number of key features and tools that HostPapa prides itself on providing. Let’s take a look…

• 100% Green – HostPapa is powered by certified green renewable energy sources.
• Domain Name – ICANN certified, you can find and buy a domain name for your new website through HostPapa, or transfer it for free.
• Migration – Migrate your site from another host to HostPapa for free, with support every step of the way.
• Pre Installed WordPress – HostPapa’s pre-installed WordPress setup makes it quick and easy to create and publish your new website.
• SSL Certificate – All HostPapa plans provide an SSL certificate for your site.
• Easy-to-Use Website Builder – The HostPapa drag-and-drop website builder is included free with hosting and comes with hundreds of mobile-friendly customizable templates.
• Affordable Email Hosting – HostPapa provides professional email functionality using a company domain name, alongside other email and office tools including Office 365 and G Suite.
• SiteLock Security – Secure your website with the SiteLock Seal, leading firewall protection, malware detection and removal technology, and much more.
• Automated Backup – Protect your site with automatic daily backups and a quick restore function.
• Professional Web Design – Let HostPapa design your site for you with their Do-It-For-Me web design service.
• Support – HostPapa offers impressive 24/7 support via their Customer Care Center, including video tutorials, guides, a support ticket system, live chat, and phone. All newbies also receive a free one-to-one dedicated session with a PapaSquad expert.

So now we know a bit about what HostPapa provides in terms of features, let’s next look more closely at the plans they offer…

HostPapa Hosting Review: Hosting Plans

Ideal for bloggers, small to medium businesses, and eCommerce stores, HostPapa offers four types of hosting plans…

• Shared Hosting
• WordPress Hosting
• VPS Hosting
• Reseller Hosting

Let’s take a look at these plans and their packages…

Shared Hosting

The entry-level packages available from HostPapa are their shared hosting plans. Catering for basic blogs, up to medium/large businesses, these plans all provide unlimited bandwidth and a range of essential features including hosting on high-performance servers and equipment, access to Cloudflare’s CDN, use of HostPapa’s website builder, email, and much more.

If you opt for either of the Business plans, you will also receive unlimited disk space, and unlimited MYSQL databases. And for extra performance and security enhancements, including rocket fast servers and a trust seal from SiteLock, select the Business Pro package. All the shared hosting packages offer a competitive introductory rate, making them a very good deal.

WordPress Hosting

The WordPress hosting plans from HostPapa all provide WordPress pre-installed, ensuring your website setup is hassle-free. All three packages will host your sites on WordPress optimized servers, and use built-in WordPress security and monitoring. Other WordPress related features include enhanced content caching and automatic WordPress updates. Purchasing Hostpapa’s WordPress hosting will also mean you have access to live expert WordPress support 24/7. Upgrade to the business plans to benefit from further SEO functionality, as well as advanced security and automatic backups.

VPS Hosting

The enterprise-grade VPS hosting from HostPapa is offered via five different hosting packages. Using robust Virtual Private Servers, these plans will give you the power, control, and support you need to quickly grow your business. Each upgraded package is scaled, providing more memory, storage, and bandwidth than the last. And with round the clock support from PapaSquad VPS experts, these plans are perfect for expanding companies that have outgrown shared hosting.

HostPapa Hosting Review: User Experience

For WordPress site owners, opting for WordPress specific hosting is the best course of action. So let’s now explorer the user experience for those considering purchasing WordPress hosting with HostPapa…

SignUp

Signing up with HostPapa is quick and easy. Firstly, select whether you would like a new domain name, or would like to transfer an existing domain.

Next, choose your plan, payment term, and any extras you would like to purchase, including SiteLock Security Seal and automated backup.

Lastly, complete the payment information and then sit back and wait for HostPapa to create your hosting account.

Pre Installed WordPress

For those of you creating a new website, WordPress comes pre-installed with HostPapa. This means as soon as your account is live you will have your very own WordPress website or blog set up and ready to go. This is a great feature, saving you time and the effort of having to install WordPress yourself.

HostPapa Dashboard

Once you have logged into the HostPapa account dashboard, you’ll have the ability to manage your account. Here you will find a quick link to the cPanel, be able to purchase further domains, pay invoices, and access live chat and ticketed support. There is also a network status widget that lets you see at a glance if there are any potential problems with your site’s hosting.

cPanel

The cPanel is very well organized, enabling you to easily navigate around and find the features or tools you need. Let’s take a look at a couple of the functions that you might want to use…

• File Manager – Select File Manager to access the files on your server space. Here you have the ability to edit, upload and delete files, which can be useful if you want to edit your theme files or upload custom content.

• Add a Domain – If your plan includes support for multiple domains you can add the extra domains through the cPanel. You can also create subdomains that can be useful for creating test sites.

• Softaculous- If you want to install WordPress on another domain or subdomain, scroll down through the cPanel to Softaculous Apps Installer. Select WordPress from the list of available software and then simply install it in a couple of clicks.

Evidently, HostPapa provides a positive user experience, with an easy to navigate dashboard and cPanel. And of course, support is always to hand if you need it.

HostPapa Hosting Review Final Thoughts

If you are looking for affordable, yet high quality hosting for your small business, then this HostPapa hosting review has shown that HostPapa is definitely worth considering. With fast load times and numerous extra tools to support the design of your website and its consequent growth, it is clear to see why HostPapa continues to expand its customer base year after year.

Have you got any questions about the service HostPapa provides? If so, please ask in the comments below…