HostUpon Review Canada: Web Hosting

Reviewed By: Greg Narayan
Last Update: December 1st, 2018

About Us: As a WordPress help community with thousands of successful setups completed since 2014, we’d say we know hosting. As you’ll see below, HostUpon fell a bit short in our web hosting review, yet we enjoyed giving them a good test!

A few of the better known sites who share our web hosting advice:

Why Our Reviews?

Consider this: Google states that a 1 second decrease in your site’s speed can cause a 20% loss in readership. If you have 100K visitors, that’s 20K people gone bye-bye forever! Web hosting= performance = you being happy or stressed. 

Aggregate Rating:

2.5 out of 5 stars (2.5 / 5)

Cheapest Plan:

$3.95/mo

Recommended for Total Beginners: YES

Favorite Plan:

Starter Unlimited Hosting

HostUpon: The 2min summary (so you can get back to life) 

Unfortunately, we just cannot recommend HostUpon yet. While they will get your site up and running, there are problems mainly server location, uptime and quality of support. Let’s see what what down during our testing.

1. No Data Center anywhere in the Canada: If you run a Canada website or online business this is the first red flag. 

2. Uptime (or downtime): The second issue is that even though HostUpon’s servers are in the US, the vast majority of complaints we read are from people complaining up uptime (meaning their sites go down intermitently) in the US. Downtime is arguably the biggest customer enraging situation. Imagine you are just about to checkout and get a sale item then it all goes down, Or you can’t get to your favorite review article because it’s down. You will find an alternative fast. Soo, we have to wonder where they get things right?

3. Support failures: The second most common complaint we see after uptime problems is lazy support responses. Slow times and lack of willingness to give an answer, instead they resort to robotic responses and links that don’t help. When you see one of these it could just be an angry person but when you see a lot you have to wonder if these support people are the unhappy ones. While their CEO claims “I will always make time for you” we’re not sure he means it especially if the entry level support can’t make time for us.

4. Losing recommendations fast: Many HostUpon reviews that used to comprise their reputation have long since been removed because their service has gone downhill. Like we said you can still get a site up just don’t expect the red carpet after that. A host like HostPapa will make sure you’re happy long after you’ve signed up.

5. More costly than it should be: For what you get at HostUpon, we could recommend it if the price we significantly less than it’s competitors, but in fact, it’s a little more.

For most of us looking for a great cheap web hosting plan, we know to look elsewhere. However, if you’re still feeling good about HostUpon or just love reading the full user-manual of details (that’s us) keep reading below.

About HostUpon: The Review

HostUpon was born in Toronto in 2004 by prominent business man Alfez Velji. They currently host over 50,000 websites for 10,000 hosting customers. 

HostUPon doesn’t come recommended by WordPress but it’s appearance from setup to going live is much like BlueHost, the #1 recommended WordPress host, so it’s got that going for it.

HostUpon has surely won many awards for their hosting services although we could not find any of them as it appears no one has updated their Wikipedia page.

The main offices in Toronto and they manage 5 data centers around the globe.

The Starter Web Hosting plan would be our choice, only if we absolutely had to go with HostUpon. While we may not be building a ton of websites at HostUpon this year, we can definitely see them becoming a force in hosting in the next 5 years, if they can develop a little more personable less outsourced feeling.

Cheapest plans start at only CAD $3.95

Pros:

Unlimited bandwidth, 30-day money back policy, site feels like BlueHost which is a host we recommend.

Cons:

Poor uptime, poor page load times, no Canadian data centre, lack of quality support responses and poor reviews.

 

Affordability 90%
Easy Setup 85%
Speed, Performance & Power 72%
WordPress Tools Easy of Use 92%

HostUpon Review Canada: Pricing Overview

So we are set on going with HostUpon. But you ask, “Which HostUpon plan should I choose?”

Or better question, why? Just kidding HostUpon definitely satisfies thousands of customers around the globe through these most popular hosting plans:

The above charts pretty much some it up, however it’s worth noting that discounts are for new customer first term period registrations only. Therefore when you renew your HostUpon web hosting you’ll have to pay the full GBP 7.24 per month.

justhost review

Web Hosting Canada FAQ: HostUpon and Beyond

This HostUpon review Canada just wouldn’t be complete without a collection of the most frequently asked web hosting Canada reader questions we get. We’ve use layman’s terms and everyday English and answered all your FAQ here on this page so you don’t have to run around searching for answers.

a. What is the best web hosting for small business in the Canada?

If you were instead to ask which is the best web hosting for a small business, that may depend on where your current business connections and budgeting sits. Many web hosts have partnerships with other brands, for example HostGator has strong parternships with WordPress, Comodo, and Constant Contact, while HostPapa has a strong relationship with WordPress, SiteGuard, Joomla and Aweber.

You should consider all possible marketing opportunities that may arise from your host of choice, and place your web hosting payments in the right hands to position yourself for the most future success.

b. What is the best hosting Canada for WordPress?

Another good question is which hosting is best for WordPress? To answer this question you need to look at availability of 1-click “script” (WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and more are all scripts among which there are about 400-500 available today) which can be installed in 1-click at the host so you don’t need to do any coding to get your website setup. However, all the best web hosting Canada have this feature! So, you should look at cPanel strength, and also reviews from WordPress bloggers who might be further ahead of you.

c. Does a website even need hosting?

Every WordPress website and every website has to be hosted somewhere, and literally everyone we talked to is happy when they choose a a web host from our list above, as opposed to trying to survive on a free host. You may research the costs to setup a basic WordPress.org hosting, and get another big list of providers! But this is it, right here. The costs to setup a WordPress site are low these days. Even the small nominal cost of web hosting puts you on the same playing field as big names like Mashable, TechCrunch, ProBlogger and more right away, so nearly everyone considers it worth it (even if they wait too long, haha).

All of these web hosts also let you buy a domain name in the US too, and some even offer domain name discounts in the US.

d. How can I pick the best domain name?

How to pick a domain name can be a tricky task too. That’s why in every WordPress tutorial we make we feature not only how to setup web hosting cheaply but how to select the right domain name to match your business goals.

e. What’s the difference between web hosts?

Marketing gimmicks aside, the main differences you will see in web hosting providers in the USA are price, features, storage space, customer satisfaction, and support. We hope this article has provided some clear differences between web hosts, however doing a little more homework never hurts or asking your blogging friend next doors.

f. Can Google host a website?

Google has their own cloud hosting for small business and WordPress websites. The hosting is done by Compute Engine. You can try it free which is nice, the not so nice part is it’ll cost about nearly $25/month after your trial has ended. That’s just too much for a basic website, but, as it’s Google, you can expect this service to have premium support (haha!). You can also host a blog for free on .blogspot, the Google free blog hosting platform which is truly amazing, let’s you try Adsense and more.

g. What is a web hosting platform?

A web hosting platform is most-commonly a group of servers, powered by several advanced softwares for maintenance, security and usability. You can find a web hosting platform at one of our best web hosting providers on this page, or on our international web hosting pages. Web hosting companies are judged based on price, quality of support, speed, user-friendliness and performance among other things.

h. What is the cheapest way to host a website?

The cheapest way to host a website is technically to do it yourself. You can download a software packet called WAMP and turn any laptop or home computer into a server. This type of setup won’t allow for high levels of traffic, it’s more just for testing out software you may be designing and other personal uses. If you host a website yourself for lots of traffic, you’ll need to invest in thousands of dollars worth of equipment. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but it’s still an option! After all, all these top US web hosting companies had to start somewhere!

i. Can I host my own website?

See above. You can from your own computer. However your long-term costs will be much lower and your traffic much happier if you choose a basic web hosting Canada company, pay a few dollars per month, and you’ll still be able to say you “host it yourself” just with the help of a web host like the vast majority of us bloggers and web designers use.

j. What does it mean to host a website?

To host a website means to keep any type of website online for viewers on a daily basis while maintaining control of the hosting account.

k. How do I start a web hosting company?

You would first want to work for a web hosting company if you want to start a web hosting company. Common entry level jobs that would teach you the necessary skills are tech support, server security and server maintenance. From these positions, you will be able to network with the types of people who can guide you towards starting your own web hosting company.  Of course, you would also probably manage a few web hosting accounts (or a ton, like us) just to see what it feels like and build your own websites too!

 HostUpon Review Canada: Types of Web Hosting

As a veteran in web hosting, HostUpon offers you every plan you’d expect from a budget web host.

Shared Hosting: The cheapest and greatest hosting for small businesses. This hosting is where we all start. You get your own hosting space but the down side is it’s hosted alongside many other websites. But that’s okay you don’t see those sites ever. You basically get an apartment in a really nice building which is shared by others.

VPS Hosting: You get all the benefits of shared hosting, but you also get your own virtual private address as if you got a luxury unit aka an entire floor of the apartment building. This is a great happy medium of web hosting, generally faster than your average shared hosting. 

Dedicated Hosting: The big daddy of hosting, you get your own space on a virtual private dedicated server. You are the only person in the apartment building, and can literally dictate all the settings on your own, like the temperature and who is allowed in the entry way. It’s at least $1000/year, but it’s worth it for some big time bloggers and website owners for this utter peace of mind. Basically, you get a butler at your door every day asking you how you’d like your web hosting prepared, with 3 eggs and ketchup, steak, ham, or biscuits.

Cloud Hosting: Cloud is like one step above shared. It is a new and modern version of shared where the majority of your SSD is pushed to the cloud to optimize speed and reduce server usage. This plan is modern and flexible, it’s for the professional we designer who doesn’t want the pressure of a VSP but still wants that upgraded speed and control. 

Reseller Hosting: You basically become the host, you get a portion of the hosting space and are expected to sell it off to your own customers or perhaps employees of your company. Nowadays, the reseller method has become a bit out of date as you can simply host many websites on a basic shared plan and charge users as you wish. 

 

What's Next: Try HostPapa Instead

And there you have it. A complete HostUpon web hosting review. Well, we tried to love them, but the feeling wasn’t mutual. It’s ok, live and learn!

We recommend you try a HostPapa Starter Hosting Plan (they are great for a WordPress, we’ve used them happily for years, and come with a ton of value and 99.9% uptime) or click below to read more into our full review of Canada web hosts.

Why Our Reviews Make a Difference

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If you were able to gather any useful advice about web hosting or have feedback for us to improve, feel free to leave a review.

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Aggregate Rating: 5 Stars – Based on 34 Reviews