HostPapa vs Hostwinds – Our Surprising Results 2024

In this HostPapa vs Hostwinds comparison, I was shocked to find that HostPapa charges much more than Hostwinds for its VPS hosting plans. It also offers more limited resources.

To properly evaluate HostPapa and Hostwinds, I put them against each other across multiple categories, including pricing, performance, features, and customer support. Hostwinds proved to have better performance and is more affordable for VPS than HostPapa.

Click here to see Hostwinds’ latest deals1 or keep reading to see what makes Hostwinds the winner of this comparison.

1. Plans and Pricing

Hostwinds Offers Cheaper Fully Managed VPS Plans than HostPapa

Hostwinds sells a broad spectrum of hosting services from shared and reseller to VPS, cloud, dedicated servers, and White Label hosting. In contrast, HostPapa only provides shared, VPS, reseller, and WordPress hosting.

Which host gives you your money’s worth for VPS hosting?

Hostwinds has fully managed and unmanaged VPS hosting packages for Linux and Windows operating systems. The Linux-based VPS solutions come at ten managed and ten unmanaged levels.

On the other hand, HostPapa has five unmanaged VPS plans. You can pay an extra charge to get a managed VPS service on top of your package’s initial price.

That said, I found that Hostwinds (although not known for having low prices) is cheaper than HostPapa for VPS.

Both hosts provide a free domain name and free website migration. HostPapa offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, while Hostwinds’ is either 48 hours, 14 days, or 30 days, depending on your subscription length.

The winner? Hostwinds wins the pricing round for offering cheaper managed VPS solutions than HostPapa, making it better value for money.

2. Features

Hostwinds Has More Resource Allocations with its VPS Packages

Both Hostwinds and HostPapa provide highly efficient and scalable VPS hosting. However, Hostwinds has more allocated resources with its large selection of VPS plans.

With Hostwinds for VPS, you can get from 30 GB to 750 GB SSD storage, 1 to 16 CPU cores, 1 GB to 96 GB RAM, and 1 TB to 9 TB bandwidth. All VPS plans come with 1Gbps ports, nightly backups, and server monitoring.

With HostPapa for VPS, you can get from 60 GB to 1 TB SSD storage, 4 to 12 CPU cores, 2 GB to 32 GB RAM, and from 1 TB to 8 TB bandwidth. All plans come with SSH/full root access and SolusVM VPS Panel.

See more differences between HostPapa and Hostwinds in the following side-by-side table:

Hostwinds has better resource allocations with its VPS plans making it the winner of this round.

3. Performance

Hostwinds Showed Faster Global Page Loading Speeds

HostPapa and Hostwinds only have two server locations each. HostPapa has servers in the U.S.A. and Canada, while Hostwinds has servers in the U.S.A. and the Netherlands. The Hostwinds server locations are more globally dispersed.

HostPapa and Hostwinds both use SSD storage with all plans. SSD storage is preferred over regular HDD storage as it performs faster and is more stable. This reflects directly on your website’s uptime, loading speeds, and overall performance.

You’ll get Cloudflare CDN for free with all plans from both hosts. A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, boosts your website’s loading speeds from anywhere in the world, among other benefits, by placing it on a global network of cloud servers.

Hostwinds promises a 99.9999% uptime guarantee, and HostPapa promises 99.9%. While HostPapa exceeded that number in actual uptime, Hostwinds’ users reported some minor downtimes throughout the testing month.

When using Sucuri to test HostPapa’s loading speeds from different locations, most locations gave excellent timings. However, there were a few locations that showed slightly slower loading speeds. This resulted in an overall good (not perfect) global score of A. See more results in this in-depth HostPapa review.

When performing the same test on Hostwinds, all locations showed impressive loading speeds which resulted in a perfect overall global score of A+. See more details in this Hostwinds review.

Both hosts performed admirably and provide a decent range of performance-boosting features. However, Hostwinds’ faster loading speeds are what put it in the lead in this round.

4. Security

HostPapa Provides More Inclusive Security Features

HostPapa’s plans come with a range of standard security features, including; server firewall, monitoring, intrusion detection, DDoS/Brute-Force protection, secured entrance/exit, network monitoring, and ModSecurity.

Unfortunately, most of Hostwinds’ security features are only available through an optional paid add-on called WindSheild. This package includes DDoS protection, firewall setups, and security audits.

HostPapa uses Cloudlinux OS by default on its servers, but Hostwinds only provides it as optional. CloudLinux OS securely isolates your account from other accounts on the same server to protect it from any unwanted threats targeting those accounts. It also ensures the fair allocation of the server resources.

Hostwinds plans come with free automatic daily backups, while HostPapa only provides automatic backups with its higher-value plans.
Both hosts provide free SSL certificates with all plans.

HostPapa includes a broader range of security features and measures as standard with all its plans, meaning it’s the more secure option in this battle.

5. Support

HostPapa’s Support Staff is More Helpful

Both hosts have informative websites which include knowledgebases covering several major topics. However, HostPapa’s knowledgebase is more comprehensive and organized.

HostPapa also has a video tutorials section and offers its new customers a free 30-minute one-on-one training session.

HostPapa’s support is available 24/7 via live chat, phone, email, support ticket, mail, and fax. Even though the last two are pretty outdated, they’re still working communication channels. When I tried the live chat, I instantly connected to an agent who was very helpful and answered all my questions efficiently.

Hostwinds also has 24/7 support through live chat, phone, email, and support tickets. Like HostPapa, the live chat was highly responsive but not as helpful. For some reason, the agent provided me with inaccurate information – perhaps the staff could use better training.

HostPapa has more communication channels, a better knowledgebase, more support resources (a free training session and video tutorials), and better-trained support staff. HostPapa wins the support round.

HostPapa Loses out to Hostwinds

HostPapa, while offering a good selection of shared hosting plans, excellent customer support, and more inclusive security features, couldn’t outperform Hostwinds in the realm of VPS hosting.

Nevertheless, it was Hostwinds’ affordable prices, wide range of VPS offerings (for Windows and Linux), and reliable performance that helped it claim the winning title of this battle. Hostwinds is also listed among the best web hosting services in the market today.

FAQ

Does Hostwinds offer WordPress hosting? 

No. Hostwinds doesn’t provide WordPress hosting. Instead, you can install WordPress together with hundreds of other popular CMS apps using the Softaculous one-click installer on the shared hosting plans. Hostwinds isn’t quite right for you? Take a look at my top recommended managed WordPress hosting services.

Does HostPapa offer cloud hosting?

No. HostPapa doesn’t offer cloud hosting. If you’re undecided about cloud or VPS hosting, or need a cloud hosting service that you can trust, explore my most recommended cloud hosting and VPS services.

Which is better, HostPapa or Hostwinds?

Hostwinds is an overall better choice than HostPapa. It offers a bigger range of hosting plans, better performance, and better prices (depending on the service). It’s also recommended by our experts as one of the top 10 web hosting services.