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A HostPapa Alternative: How does WHC compare?

Web Hosting Canada and HostPapa both provide Canadian businesses with eco-friendly web hosting and domain registration services, so it’s not surprising that the two are often compared. However, many of the “comparisons” that exist on the web either don’t delve into enough (or any!) detail or simply rank hosts based on which one pays out the highest referral fees. We’ve decided to prepare a complete HostPapa vs Web Hosting Canada comparison and review in order to help answer a simple question: which provider is best suited to host your website?

Quick Summary

Don’t have time to read through all these geeky details? We understand!
Here’s a visual summary, including a 5-star rating, that shows the strength of each company in every category:

Web Hosting Canada HostPapa
features Hosting Essentials
pricing Pricing
email Email & Communication
security Security & Backups
performance Performance
marketing Marketing & SEO
support Support & Service
growth Potential For Growth
Web hosts are assigned stars based on the number and/or quality of features they offer in each category. Read the full comparison for more details.

Our Method

To avoid bias, we focused all comparisons on measurable metrics rather than personal opinion. We either collected and measured data that is available to the general public, or simply referred to the information already listed on the provider’s website.

We compared our most popular product, the Web Hosting Pro plan, with a similarly priced service offered by HostPapa, their Business Plan

The result is meant to be an informative comparison, broken down by topic, and intended to help you find the best web host for your needs.

The data collected is actual as of March 29, 2021, and may have changed since.

Company

Company Basics

Web Hosting Canada HostPapa
Year Founded 2003 2006
Company Headquarters Canada (Montreal) Canada (Oakville)
Website Address WHC.ca HostPapa.ca
Features

Hosting Essentials

Hosting essentials include important features such as how many websites you can publish, how big each website can be and how many people can visit them each month. Understanding these hosting essentials is important before any hosting purchase, because if you exceed these limitations you may find your service disabled or you may be asked to upgrade to a more expensive plan.

Hosting Essentials Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
Disk Space Unlimited Unlimited
Bandwidth Unlimited Unlimited
Number of Sites Unlimited Unlimited
Free Domain Registration or Transfer Included Included

Both plans have the same core hosting essentials.

Pricing

Pricing

Pricing features include the total price of the first term, total renewal price, and whether or not the company charges in Canadian dollars. Paying for recurring services like web hosting in Canadian currency can save Canadian businesses quite a bit in the long run, and in most cases companies that don’t charge in Canadian dollars are not Canadian-based.

The renewal price is another critical factor many people who are new to web hosting fail to consider. It is common practice for web hosts to offer a discounted price for the first payment term, with a significantly higher renewal price.

Pricing Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
Intro Price $3.92 $3.95
Renewal Price $7.99 $15.99
Charges in CAD?

While WHC strives to keep costs as low as possible even on the renewal price, HostPapa’s price structure significantly increases the cost come renewal time. While this is a common practice among many web hosts, WHC goes against the grain here by offering affordable solutions across time.

Email

Email & Communication

This includes features such as the total number of email accounts you may have on a hosting account, and the amount of space available for each email account. Email accounts (and the size of the inboxes) can be crucial for businesses that have large teams or send/receive many emails on a daily basis. Email storage is also an area where many web hosts strive to save money.

Email & Communication Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
Email Accounts Unlimited Unlimited
Email Capacity 2GB per box unlimited total 500MB per box 5GB total
Number of Emails/Hour 200 250
Newsletters Tool? 500 contacts

HostPapa’s 500MB per inbox storage limit can become a problem. In terms of size, this is only 25% of the 2GB inboxes allowed by Web Hosting Canada. In other words, with WHC you’ll spend a lot less time choosing between and downloading/deleting important emails.

WHC has slightly fewer emails per hour, but 200 is likely more than enough for average small business usage, and helps protect your account in case of breach. WHC also includes free email marketing software so you can keep in touch regularly with up to 500 contacts.

security

Security & Backups

Security and backups are a key feature which many web hosts either leave up to you or charge extra for. Having daily backups is important for the integrity of any live website, and maintaining security and encryption are essential for creating trust with your website’s visitors.

Security & Backups Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
Daily Backups & Restores Included $35.88/yr
Integrated Security Imunify360 protection included Imunify360 protection included
SSL Certificate Included Included

WHC’s daily backups are included in the base price, saving you nearly $40 per year. While that may not seem like a large annual charge, the cost of backups alone nearly double the overall annual price of the hosting. For a business or website that’s just getting started, those dollars could be better spent elsewhere.

Performance

Performance

Performance is arguably one of the most important categories in this comparison. While things like security and emails can be essential in many situations, if your website doesn’t perform well, no one will want to visit it.

That’s why Web Hosting Canada takes website performance so seriously, from the server hardware all the way up to the web application level.

Performance Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
LiteSpeed Acceleration
Full-SSD Servers
Eco-Friendly Datacenters
Canadian Servers & Infrastructure Some

WHC runs all of our hosting on LiteSpeed webserver, which can be 3-6x faster than Apache (used by HostPapa). This is according to cPanel, the company that provides the control panel software most used by both WHC and HostPapa.

Both hosts use eco-friendly datacenters (a win for Canadians overall), but WHC offers a larger number of Canadian points of presence, allowing for faster load times in your local area.

Marketing

Marketing & SEO

Once you have a safe, stable, high-performing website, it’s important to get some visitors to it. That’s where the marketing and SEO aspects come in. SEO stands for search engine optimization, which is the process of creating content that will rank on page one of Google and other search engines. Other methods of driving traffic to websites include social media marketing and SEM (search engine marketing).

Marketing & SEO Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
SEO Assistance 30-day trial
Google Ads Credit
Green Hosting Badge

In order to get customers started with their search engine marketing, both WHC and HostPapa offer Google Ads credits as a bonus incentive. But only WHC has SEO assistance and green hosting badges available. A little push can mean a lot when you’re getting started with SEO, and a green hosting badge is a significant trust factor that will boost visitors’ confidence in your site.

Support

Support & Service

For many web hosting customers, having excellent support and service is crucial. If you don’t have a working knowledge of web hosting and the web apps you’re using, it’s easy to run into problems. That’s where having experienced, knowledgeable support available 24/7 becomes so important.

Support & Service Web Hosting Canada
Pro Plan
HostPapa
Business Plan
Bilingual 24/7 Phone Support
24/7 Chat Support
24/7 Email/Ticket Support
Free Website Migration
Public Google Rating 4.9/5 N/A
Public Facebook Rating 4.9/5 N/A

Because support and service are so essential, it’s unsurprising that most of this category is even. WHC and HostPapa both provide 24/7 phone, chat, and ticket support, as well as free website migrations. Migrating a website, especially a large one, can be a tricky technical process best handled by experts, so this is a big benefit to less tech-savvy customers.

But looking at the services provided does not reveal the whole picture. It’s also important to consider the quality of those services, and according to public opinion, WHC is the clear winner. WHC's Google My Business, has a high ratings and over a thousand total reviews. WHC also has a great public rating on Facebook, while HostPapa’s Facebook page does not permit public reviews.

Guarantees WHC HostPapa
Uptime Guarantee 99.9% 99.9%
Support Response Guarantee <24hrs ; average 1hr N/A
Satisfaction Guarantee 30-day 30-day
Growth

Potential For Growth

While WHC and HostPapa both offer reseller hosting and virtual servers that clients can use when they outgrow regular web hosting, only Web Hosting Canada provides a dedicated servers option.

Service WHC HostPapa
Reseller Hosting
Cloud/VPS Servers
Dedicated Servers

Being able to scale to a fully dedicated server is useful for growing websites or web applications that have important performance, data, security or reliability requirements. Dedicated servers don’t share their hardware resources with any other clients or services, so their full power and potential are dedicated only to delivering your business and website content.

As a WHC customer, we’ll take the hassle out of migrating to a cloud or dedicated server by helping you each step of the way. This includes having our technical team schedule and perform the migration for you!

We believe that this difference represents WHC’s mission well: to empower small businesses to achieve great things, and that starts with having great, scalable hosting - without hassles or limitations.

Launch online project

Join over 60,000 happy customers!

Start your website today or migrate your existing site for free. Let our talented customer experience staff do all the heavy lifting for you!

All that’s left is to…

Choose Your Web Hosting Plan

Go Green with Web Hosting Canada on Earth Day (Updated 2021)

Here at WHC, we’re proud to say that we celebrate Earth Day every day through our green initiatives. We believe it’s important to preserve and improve the health of the planet now and for years to come… and the majority of Canadians agree with us! 

Climate change is a serious issue, and more companies are actively reducing their carbon footprint in an effort to make lasting change. Even though the internet and many web hosting services seem intangible, they can have a detrimental impact on the environment over time as servers and datacenters consume a lot of energy. In fact, datacenters already generate more carbon emissions than the airline industry as a whole! Not to mention this footprint could grow to more than one-fifth of total global energy use by 2030, according to some estimates. Here are examples of how web hosting companies, like WHC, can do their best to contribute in meaningful ways.

What Sets a Green Web Hosting Provider Apart From Another?

Cloud and hosting providers, like WHC, can significantly reduce their carbon footprint by focusing on three key areas:

  1. Power Source: Fast servers require electricity to run, but where that energy comes from can have a significant environmental impact
    Did you know coal creates roughly 200 pounds of CO2 per KWH, natural gas 130 pounds, while wind, solar and hydro produce near-zero CO2 emissions?
    Web Hosting Canada datacenters are almost entirely powered by hydroelectricity, resulting in significantly lower emissions.
  2. Server Types: The two types of server storage are mechanical drives (also called harddrives) and solid-state drives (SSD). SSDs use a third of the energy that harddrives consume to perform the same task, due to their lack of moving parts, increased speed, and reliability.
    WHC uses the energy-efficient SSD storage for all its Web Hosting and Cloud Server products (and is an available option on all Dedicated Server plans).
  3. Cooling Techniques: Servers generate a significant amount of heat while operating and must be cooled to ensure optimal performance.
    Unfortunately, air conditioning (AC) is not a great option for cooling as a 2.5 ton central AC unit consumes about 3500 watts per hour. The type of cooling system used by a datacenter has a significant effect on the climate.
    WHC's datacenters use natural outdoor air and water cooling systems to provide energy-efficient cooling.

... And that's not all!

Did you know that WHC is an official partner of the Green Business Bureau?

That means that Web Hosting Canada is 100% backed by green energy, and more specifically Canadian hydroelectricity. Furthermore, we are also:

  1. Paperless: All invoices and communications are sent by email, so we can further reduce our impact on the environment. 
  2. A hybrid workplace: We have adopted a hybrid workplace model, so the majority of our employees work from home, further reducing the amount of carbon emissions from transportation.

Of course we’re proud that these changes have a positive and lasting impact on the planet, but it’s time to show your pride too. Every eligible web hosting plan you purchase from WHC, is a certified green product, which means YOU can also promote this fact to your own customers through a green hosting badge!

How to Get Your Green Hosting Badge

We have a number of badges that will inform visitors that your website is eco-friendly.

Adding a green hosting badge is easy to do:

  1. Log in to your Client Area and click on My Profile in the menu displayed on the right
  2. Select My Green Hosting Badge from the dropdown
  3. You’ll be taken to the badges page, where you can select the one you like
  4. Click the “copy” button above the code snippet, for your chosen badge, and the code will be automatically copied to your clipboard
  5. Paste the code in the desired location on your website. Note: If you’re using WordPress you’ll want to put it in a code block
  6. Review the badge on your site to make sure it looks the way you intended, and you’re done!

Want your own eco-friendly hosting for 51% OFF?

Go Green Today!

GIVEAWAY TIME: Your Chance to Win FREE Web Hosting!

Want FREE Enterprise web hosting for a year? How about FREE exposure for your Canadian business or project?

Here’s your chance, with our latest giveaway!

We’re offering three Web Hosting Enterprise plans for 12 months (a 240$ value) to three randomly selected Canadian participants who share a video testimonial on Facebook.

Here’s How to Participate in 3 Easy Steps!

  1. Post a short video on Facebook describing how WHC has helped support, grow or improve your Canadian business or project online (make sure the video is posted as ‘public’ so we can see it!); OR send the video through messenger to our Facebook page
  2. Tag us in the post @whc.ca
  3. Use the hashtag #High5WHC

Act Quickly

The contest ends April 28, 2021; Winners will be announced on Facebook by May 4, 2021

What to Mention in Your Video:

  1. Your name (or business/project name)
  2. Which products or services you’re using at WHC
  3. What you love about WHC
  4. How long you’ve been a client at WHC
  5. How WHC has helped your project grow or succeed online

For more details including rules and regulations visit our giveaway page.

7 Ways to Secure Your Online Business

If you own a business there’s a good chance you have a website; and if you have a website, you need to keep it secure. 

As soon as you launch your website or your online business, it could potentially become a target for cyber-related attacks. Long before COVID-19 struck here in Canada, cybercrime was already a big threat for entrepreneurs and online business owners. Even Facebook experienced a data breach that affected 3.5 million Canadians alone! So, how can small businesses protect themselves when even the biggest players are not able to?

We go over the top 7 ways to secure your online business in order to protect your company, your customers, and your team.

1. Choose a Security-minded Web Hosting Provider

When you’re building your website, the first big decision to make is choosing your web hosting provider. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with this decision, especially if you have limited technical knowledge. The main key is to choose one that is reliable and security-minded. After all, the web host you choose powers your website and has a large impact on its security.

Hackers go for the easy grab, just like robbers who visit parked cars late at night until they find a car that has been left unlocked. This is why putting security on the backburner is a rookie mistake you don’t want to make. Security might not be the most interesting topic for your business, but it’s an important one. 

In particular, choose a web hosting company that:

  1. Proposes multiple layers of security by default
  2. Provides 24/7 support in case of problems
Having someone you can reach or talk to 24/7 comes in handy when you’re not sure if your website has been hacked in the middle of the night.
Web Hosting Canada protects your website with its 6-layer security system, powered by Imunify360. Furthermore, it includes extensive DDOS protection, two-factor authentication, and automatic software updates.

2. Keep Your Software and Apps Updated

Keeping your computer, your website or any other device up-to-date is the easiest way to stay cyber-safe. The internet is constantly changing and so are cyber threats. Hackers are quick at finding weaknesses and security breaches, every time a new software version or plugin is updated or launched. 

There is an easy way to make sure you’re ahead of the game: keep your software updated! These updates typically include fixes for bugs or loopholes and can help prevent your website from becoming an easy target for attacks.

Additionally, most apps allow you to enable automatic updates. When available, simply enable Automatic Updates, and you won’t have to worry about updating manually.

WHC’s Managed WordPress Hosting includes automatic minor upgrades, helping you stay one step ahead of security patches.

3. Always Use SSL Certificates & HTTPS

So, what is an SSL Certificate and why do I need one?

An SSL certificate makes your website more secure. It’s the little padlock you see in a web browser, just left of the website’s domain name. It adds an ‘S’ to HTTP and consequently tells your visitors if your website is encrypted or not. 

What does HTTPS stand for? HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. It’s the secure version of HTTP.

Passwords and credit card information should never be transmitted over unsecured connections. By encrypting your data, an SSL certificate and HTTPS connection help prevent specific types of cyberattacks, like man-in-the-middle attacks. This is where a hacker would intercept unencrypted data being transmitted between your website and your device. In other cases, cyber pirates can mimic your website while your trustful customers submit their personal info and credit card numbers. 

In addition to helping improve trust, an HTTPS connection is also a ranking factor for search engines like Google so it’s a quick way to build trust and boost sales. Online shoppers are fast at learning new ways to recognize if a website is worth their money and trust! 

Web Hosting Canada’s Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Servers, and Dedicated Servers already include free automated SSL protection.

4. Protect Your Admins and End-points

Most companies use the internet to monitor their activities, sales, orders, and inventory, and to execute marketing and public relations campaigns, like communicating with customers, using social media, and performing other vital tasks. Despite this, we continue to learn about large-scale website or computer security breaches. To secure your devices and sensitive data, follow these guidelines:

  1. A firewall acts as a buffer between your data and the outside world. Firewalls protect your network from any suspicious or unauthorized access and notify you of any intrusion attempts. Firewalls are integrated into most operating systems, such as Windows and macOS. Add to that an extra layer of protection with an antivirus, like Bitdefender or Avast. It protects your device from malicious code and software by detecting real-time threats and ensuring the safety of your data. All these features are included in WHC’s SiteSafe Protection Plan
  2. Our friends at CIRA also offer the CIRA Canadian Shield – A free malware and phishing protection for Canadians. It’s free, takes 5 minutes to set up, and it’s designed and deployed only for Canadians.
  3. An anti-spam filter secures your email from spam, viruses, phishing, ransomware, and malware attacks. WHC’s Enterprise Anti-spam has a self-learning smart technology that eliminates spam mail before reaching your inbox. It keeps your inbox relevant and increases productivity and security.
  4. When you own a website, your personal information (such as your address and phone numbers, domain name, IP address, etc.) is saved in a Whois database. It can help a hacker take control over your website. Domain Privacy Protection shields this data from hackers, spammers, and identity thieves. You control your information on the public WHOIS directory while also retaining complete control over your domain. Staying in control of your website helps you remain the master of your domain. 

5. Use Secure Passwords (or Keys, Whenever Possible)

Lock hackers out with a safe password practice. 

According to a poll by BitDefender, 59% of people use the same password everywhere. Yet, the same study tells us that 91% of people know that reusing a password poses huge security threats. If you still write your passwords in a notebook, or worse... on a loose piece of paper, you might be the next perfect candidate for hackers. Here are 3 easy tips to improve your password game immediately:

  1. Use two-factor authentication whenever possible
  2. Avoid passwords based on dictionary words or common patterns such as QWERTY or 123456789
  3. Use a different password for every site you log in to

Not sure you’ll be able to remember all your different passwords? You’re not alone. In fact, it’s the #1 reason why people reuse their passwords. Forgetfulness! Well, we come bearing great news! A password manager, like LastPass or 1Password, can help with that. 

6. Monitor Your Website Daily (and Automatically!)

Website infections (such as malware or viruses) can considerably damage your website and its reputation. It can block visitors from being able to access it, or worse, infect your visitors’ own computers. Website infections can also affect your SEO, as your site can be blacklisted by search engines.

Considering how sneaky some malware can be, automatic scans of your website are highly recommended. We recommend leveraging tools that can scan your site daily, like SiteSafe Protection, and report back any unusual or suspicious results rapidly, to help you take action.



WHC’s SiteSafe helps keep your website malware and virus-free by scanning it automatically every few hours. It also includes a team of security experts available 24/7 to clean up your site at any hint of a problem. 

7. Cybersecurity Should be Top-of-mind 

Cybersecurity is no longer simply a concern for IT departments in large companies; it’s become a global issue that affects websites big and small, including customers and staff. 

Consider scheduling regular cybersecurity training at all levels to ensure that technology is being utilized properly, continuously updated, and closely monitored. You are the first line of cybersecurity prevention for your business, along with the security decisions you make, and the tools you implement.

Make sure you choose a web hosting provider that prioritizes your security, provides the right tools, and can help support you in this process!

Have any questions about the security of your website? Leave them in the comments below.

Video Testimonials GIVEAWAY!

How to Participate in 3 Easy Steps!

  1. Post a short video on Facebook describing how WHC has helped support, grow or improve your Canadian business or project online (make sure the video is posted as ‘public’ so we can see it!); OR send the video through messenger to our Facebook page
  2. Tag us in the post @whc.ca
  3. Use the hashtag #High5WHC

Act Quickly

Contest ends April 28, 2021. Winners will be announced on Facebook by May 4, 2021.

What to mention in your video

  1. Your name (or business/project name)
  2. Which products or services you’re using at WHC
  3. What you love about WHC
  4. How long you’ve been a client at WHC
  5. How WHC has helped your project grow or succeed online