Liquid Web vs HostPapa
Liquid Web and HostPapa compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Liquid Web scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
Liquid WebWins overall
Lansing's managed host since 1997: WordPress plans from $9 with Cloudflare edge CDN and a 100% network SLA, no refunds
Canadian cPanel host with phone support in 16 countries and five data centers; backups cost extra after year one
Liquid Web wins 3 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.7 vs 7.3).
How do the scores compare?
Liquid Web leads on 3 sub-scores, HostPapa on 1. Higher is better.
| Liquid Web | HostPapa | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 7.5 (better) | 7.0 |
| Uptime | 8.0 (better) | 7.0 |
| Support | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Features | 8.5 (better) | 7.0 |
| Value | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Ease of use | 7.5 | 8.0 (better) |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Liquid Web | HostPapa | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.7 (better) | 7.3 |
| Uptime (published)HostingStep 365 d vs WP Hive 30 d; methods differ | 99.99% (better) | 99.94% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs Bitcatcha; methods differ | 496 ms | 130 ms (better) |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, HostPapa is cheaper ($8.99/mo vs $9.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Liquid Web | HostPapa | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Essentials WordPress | Essentials |
| Intro price | $9.00/mo | $2.95/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $9.00/mo | $8.99/mo (better) |
| Required term | 1 months (better) | 36 months |
| Websites | 1 | 1 |
| Storage | 15 GB | 25 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 30 days (better) |
What does each include?
| Liquid Web | HostPapa | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | First year, on terms of one year or longer, select extensions; a non-refundable domain fee applies if you cancel in the first term |
| Free SSL | Free SSL certificates on the WordPress plans | Standard certificate |
| Backups | Daily backups kept 7, 14 or 30 days by tier; Acronis backup storage on managed VPS | Not stated |
| Free migration | A self-serve migration tool and migration by a person on every WordPress plan | Yes |
| Free CDN | Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare on every WordPress plan; CDN overage is usage-billed | Not stated |
| Caching | Object Cache Pro on every WordPress plan | Not stated |
| Staging | Staging sites with visual comparison on Pro and Elite; not on Essentials | On every plan |
| Security | DDoS protection, WAF, Kadence Security Pro and daily malware scans on every plan; Patchstack virtual patching on Elite | Imunify360 basic on Essentials; Protection Power plus Imunify360 on Growth and above, free for the full term |
| Resource limits | WordPress plans are sized by visitors (50,000 a month on the entry tiers), shared storage and bandwidth; managed VPS plans state vCPU, RAM, SSD and bandwidth | Not stated |
| Data center choice | Lansing, Phoenix, Ashburn and Amsterdam, selected on the purchase screen where a plan offers it | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | 100% network uptime in the SLA with credits up to the monthly charge, claimed within days of an outage; the managed VPS page states 99.9% server uptime | 99.9% measured monthly, excluding scheduled maintenance, as a reasonable-efforts commitment; no credit schedule in the terms |
| Managed VPS | Fully managed from $72 a month for 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD and 3 TB; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk; Windows available | Not stated |
| Phone support | 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket | 24/7, local numbers in 16 countries |
| Windows hosting | On VPS and dedicated servers | No |
| Automated backups | Not stated | 1 GB on Essentials and 5 GB on Growth free for the first year; a paid add-on afterwards |
| CDN | Not stated | Yes |
| Server resources | Not stated | Relative tiers 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x; cores, inodes and database size not published on the plan cards |
| Choice of data center | Not stated | Toronto, Buffalo, Miami, Los Angeles or Amsterdam, per the data centers page |
Company facts
| Liquid Web | HostPapa | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Liquid Web's own platform for WordPress plans; cPanel, InterWorx or Plesk on VPS | cPanel on CloudLinux |
| Data centers | 4 | 5 (better) |
| Support channels | chat, phone, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, ticket, phone, email, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 1997 | 2006 |