HostPapa Introduction
HostPapa is a Canadian based web hosting company with a focus on providing environmentally friendly shared web hosting. It was founded in Oakville with a goal to provide fully-featured web hosting packages backed up by green energy.
The privately-owned company was set up in 2006. Beyond that, company information is quite hard to come by.
HostPapa Hosting Plans
HostPapa provides Linux based web hosting via a shared hosting plan and a plan for resellers.
● The shared hosting plan provides unlimited disk space and bandwidth and the ability to host unlimited domain names with your account. The plan is priced based on the number of years web hosting you buy. Customers can sign up for one to three years, with a three year contract working out as the cheapest.
● Whilst shared hosting appears to be their specialist area, HostPapa does offer a reseller hosting option. There are 5 reseller hosting plans: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium. Each allows for unlimited domain names, MySQL databases and 3 IP addresses, and plans are priced based on how much disk space and bandwidth you need. You can purchase up to 200 GB disk space and 1.4 TB bandwidth.
HostPapa Uptime/Downtime
HostPapa offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, although it do not offer any refunds should that promise be broken.
The HostPapa data centre is located in Toronto and manned with security 24/7. It has a UPS power system backed up by diesel generators. Hostpapa also has round-the-clock network monitoring at their data centre.
Servers are backed up backed up regularly, but these backups are for use by HostPapa in the event of a system failure, so they’re not available to customers. Like many other web hosting companies, HostPapa recommends that customers back up their sites regularly, just in case.
HostPapa Support
HostPapa provides 24/7 live chat, phone and email support for customers. Staff are also able to provide multilingual support including English, Spanish and French, suggesting that the host could be a good choice for clients who need multilingual support, although there is no indication of where the technical support staff are physically located.
Hostpapa offers free-phone numbers for a host of countries, plus country-specific help desk contacts and snail mail addresses. This is a nice touch and suggests that their support staff are capable of serving a wide range of non-English speaking users.
Customers can submit and review support tickets, search a knowledge base and access a variety of video tutorials (all multi-lingual) for a number of features and plugins. There is also a status page and a forum for users to share information.
There is a HostPapa Facebook page which is regularly updated articles, blogs and other information. Staff use a Twitter account and quickly respond to customer issues and queries. There is a HostPapa YouTube channel which includes ‘how to’ videos and user reviews. Finally, HostPapa has a Google+ account.
HostPapa in the News
HostPapa has not featured in many news articles, either good or bad, so we can only assume that their service is relatively reliable and they’ve not had any major outages or hacks.
HostPapa Control Panel
HostPapa uses the cPanel control panel as standard for their plans. The reseller plans also make use of WHM alongside cPanel.
HostPapa Extras
● HostPapa provides a free domain name for life as well as free website setup when you sign up for an account. It also offer a wide range of marketing credits including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Bing/Yahoo!, Miva and Bidvertiser.
● Web hosting includes free SEO tools and the Fantastico script installer supporting Wordpress, Joomla, wikis and more.
● HostPapa also offer a goMOBI application to help create a mobile version of your site. There is a free 30 day trial available, but after that, you’ll pay for the service.
● HostPapa has also partnered with Google Apps for business. This provides users with easy access to Google Apps and straightforward integration options.
● Importantly, HostPapa is 100% green energy backed and offers green tags to place on customer websites.
● There is a highly rewarding affiliates programme available at HostPapa which provides customers with a dedicated programme manager and access to marketing support.
HostPapa Money Back Guarantee / Cancellation Policy
HostPapa offers a standard 30 day money-back guarantee which covers both shared and reseller hosting fees, although domain names, privacy, set up fees, mobile fees and other add-on features are not included. Your account can be cancelled using the web based tool provided by HostPapa.
HostPapa Summary
HostPapa is a web hosting company with a very international feel to the services they provide. Their website, support and tutorials are available in a variety of languages, which is a really nice touch. Its focus is on shared web hosting, branching out into reseller hosting. The reseller hosting plans also offer more flexibility than many other shared hosting companies.
The company purchases green energy tags from solar and wind energy suppliers to account for 100% of their energy consumption, including office computers, laptops and office space. This boosts their green credentials; other companies purchasing wind energy credits only do this to cover their data centre.
These services offered by HostPapa will definitely appeal to many small and medium sized businesses, particularly those which span different countries, and are ideal for those who are keen to incorporate Google Apps or try out a new tool to build mobile websites.
honestly pathetic
support is pathetic...world class is a joke and spam
the live chat have no idea, point you to the email,
I would describe the phone staff best as rude/sleepy, certainly not helpful
Email staff - hopeless, ask 3 simple,clear questions
get half an answer to 1.
took me over 20 emails to get 3 problems solved...a joke.
everyone...stay away!