What is WebHostingPad?

WebHostingPad was founded in 2005 and markets to budget webmasters, like start-ups or small business owners, looking for an ultra-low-cost hosting provider. WebHostingPad is one of the cheapest web hosts on the market.

How Good is WebHostingPad Hosting?

WebHostingPad pricing is crazy low, with their most basic plan starting at less than two dollars per month. And for such low prices, you get what you pay for when it comes to their services. WebHostingPad covers your basic needs, such as WordPress hosting, email, and security features. But you'd be delusional if you expected them to go above and beyond to protect your data or make your experience truly exceptional for such a cheap price. So is signing up for WebHostingPad a disaster waiting to happen, or is it a smart move for a webmaster on a budget? We say it's a bit of both.

Our Official WebHostingPad Hosting Review

If you're reading this review, you are probably drawn to WebHostingPad for its incredibly low pricing. So then your question is probably, is this too good to be true? Our job with this WebHostingPad review is to manage your expectations.

Best Features of WebHostingPad Hosting

There are actually some pretty compelling reasons to sign up for WebHostingPad. They aren't the best host in any category of features, but for the price, the package really isn't bad. Consider the low price as inextricably linked with every aspect of their service, and you may find some pleasant surprises. But first, let's talk WebHostingPad pricing…

WebHostingPad Web Hosting Pricing Table

Hosting Plan	Power Plan	Power Plan Plus
Starting Price	$1.99/mo	$2.99/mo
Server Optimization	All Purpose	High Traffic
Server Power	Standard	Boosted
Server Speed	Standard	Optimized
Security Encryption	Let's Encrypt	Trusted CA Certificate
Automatic Backups	Up to 3GB	Any Size & 1-Click Button
Advanced Spam Filter	Sold Separately	Included Free
SiteLock Lite	Included Free	Included Free
Technical Support	Level 1	Priority

WebHostingPad WordPress Hosting Pricing Table

Hosting Plan	WordPress Basic	WordPress Pro	WordPress Premium
Starting Price	$2.99/mo	$3.99/mo	$5.99/mo
Computing Power	1x	2x	3x
Memory	2x	3x	4x
SSL Encryption	Let's Encrypt	Trusted CA	Trusted CA
Server Optimization	All Purpose	High Traffic	High Traffic
Hosting Space	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Bandwidth	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Email Accounts	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Domains	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free WordPress Transfer	✓	✓	✓
Priority Support	✓	✓	✓
Premium Backup	✓	✓	✓
Malware Scan & Removal	✓	✓	✓
Global CDN	✓	✓	✓

WebHostingPad WordPress Hosting Pricing Table

Hosting Plan	VPS Gold	VPS Platinum	VPS Managed
Starting Price	$19.95/mo	$44.95/mo	$84.95/mo
Disk Space	80 GB	200 GB	300 GB
Bandwidth	250 GB	1500 GB	3000 GB
Dedicated IPs	2	3	Fully-managed
Private Resources	✓	✓	✓
24/7 Network Monitoring	✓	✓	✓
Expert Support	✓	✓	✓

WebHostingPad Pricing is Super Affordable

Forgive us if it feels like we are beating a dead horse at this point, but WebHostingPad is very, very cheap. You will not find a cheaper Web hosting service in WebHostingPad. In fact, they’re so cheap that they advertise on the home page that you don’t get what you pay for – you get more than what you pay for. At a mere $1.99 per month for their most basic package, we challenge you to find a cheaper web hosting service. We are willing to bet that the low prices are what turned you onto WebHostingPad in the first place.

Historically Loyal Clients

WebHostingPad has a very low turnover rate. Most of their clients have been with them for a very long time. This might be one reason why they’re so affordable – they don’t have to deal with opening and closing accounts all the time. They open more accounts than they close. They have over 75,000 steady clients. That’s actually saying quite a bit, considering that they opened their doors in 2005. They have been open for 11 years, which means that if you measure their growth at a linear rate, they’ve gained over 6000 clients per year – every year since they opened.

WebHostingPad Plans Include cPanel

The fact that they feature this industry-standard capability at such a low cost is a huge plus. Having cPanel at your fingertips makes for a quick, easy, and familiar transition for someone who is looking to cut costs from their older, more premium web host. cPanel is reliable, has the ability to offer one-click installation (with the right scripts), and works seamlessly with WordPress. Even some super pricey, boutique-managed hosts like Rackspace don't offer cPanel.

30-Day Money Back Guarantee

It’s always a nice thing to see a company offering a 30-day money-back guarantee. Although this is standard, some companies don't offer that. If you take a look at their customer base – their growing customer base – customers who demand refunds are probably few and far in between. Maybe because for under two dollars a month, why bother canceling?

Military-Grade Security Comes with Standard

It is a frustrating and borderline fraudulent state of affairs that so many web hosting companies charge extra to provide basic security for your data. This is typically true of budget web hosting companies, but not WebHostingPad. With their WordPress plans, you'll get an automated malware scanner and malware quarantine and removal.

WebHostingPad Support Ain't Half Bad!

We were pleasantly surprised to find that WebHostingPad support is offered over live chat. We were even more pleased to find that they responded to our queries in under a minute. And yet again we were pleased when the prompt responses we received were actually pretty helpful. That said, we wouldn't by any means claim that WebHostingPad support is excellent, just average. 24/7 support is their claim, but they are much harder to reach during off hours. And when their servers go down (we'll expand on this later), reaching them is nearly impossible. They are no SiteGround, that's for sure. But for the price, WebHostingPad support is far better than we expected.

Downsides of WebHostingPad Hosting

There are some major frustrations with WebHostingPad that, despite the seriously low prices, are likely to be dealbreakers for many potential users.

Some of the Slowest Load Times We've Ever Seen

On average, pages hosted on WebHostingPad take twice as long to load as on other hosting providers. This is hugely troubling when you consider that nearly half of the web users will bounce from a page that takes longer than two seconds to load. If you are trying to monetize your site, hosting with WebHostingPad could dramatically disrupt your conversion rates. In that case, we unreservedly recommend going with a faster, more premium web host. You may pay a bit more, but you'll more than makeup for that with site visitors who won't bounce. For the best speed on the web hosting market, check out A2 Hosting.

Uptime is Abysmal – Uptime Guarantee is Worthless

WebHostingPad promises a 99% uptime guarantee. That sounds like a solid guarantee until you do the math and realize that 1% of downtime translates to more than 87 hours of downtime each year, or about 7 hours every month. To make matters worse, WebHostingPad will only compensate you in the form of a free month of service for every 8 hours of downtime in excess of their 99% guarantee. That means that your website would need to be down for 15 hours in a month before you get any money back. This number is hard to swallow when you consider that many other budget providers often only experience about 8 hours of downtime over the entire year.

If you depend on your website being accessible for you to make money, like for an e-commerce business, it is well worth it to pay for a service provider with better uptime. Better yet, choose one that will compensate you as soon as they dip below their guarantee, not 8 hours of downtime later. A dollar and a half more per month could get a 99.99% uptime track record with HostGator.

“Free” Domain Comes With Lots of Caveats

Like many hosting providers, WebHostingPad will throw in a free domain name upon sign-up. But there are lots of strings attached that lead us to advise against taking advantage of this promotion. For one thing, you have to use a coupon code, and this code invalidates any other promotion you might want to apply. Secondly, the domain name is only free for a year. After the first year of service, you'll need to pay a recurring annual reregistration fee of about $15. Considering that most domain names can be purchased just once for less than $15, this “free” domain name is not really a bargain at all. If you want to use WebHostingPad, we recommend using a different coupon and buying your domain name elsewhere. You'll save more money in the long run.

Data is Backed up Only at their “Discretion”

Free backups of your data sound great, right? But read closely:

WebHostingPad, at our sole discretion, will take weekly backups of customer’s accounts, up to and including 1GB of website files only. This backup does not include email addresses, email accounts, databases, or anything other than website files. Any account that is larger than 1GB will not be included in any automated backup service provided by WebHostingPad. In the event that a customer requires a backup to be restored, WebHostingPad may charge a one-time backup restoration service fee of $39.95.

Couched in legalese, at first it may not be apparent how bad of a deal this really is. Their “sole discretion” means that you cannot manually back up your site if you were, say, redesigning it. Furthermore, 1GB of files is tiny and is restricted only to website files, meaning you could lose all of your emails and database information. Exceed 1GB of files and your site will never be backed up. And finally, should you ever need a backup restored, you'll have to fork over $40 and this won't even restore your emails.

This kind of headache seems to be relatively common among bargain hosts. Competitor GoDaddy, for example, is similarly cryptic with its backup frequency and will also charge you exorbitant fees to restore your site. If you plan to keep a great deal of important data on your site, do your research before choosing your host.

Restrictive Transfering Policy

WebHostingPad advertises free data transfers for customers wanting to move their website over to their services. But in truth, this is only free for sites with an unusually small amount of data: 2GB. And like with their backups, this transfer will not include email, FTP addresses, subdomains, or any addon domains you may have.

Bottom Line

It is in many peoples' nature to automatically gravitate towards the cheapest option available. And if low prices are your number one priority in your search for a web host, then WebHostingPad is actually a pretty good value for that low price. But for webmasters who prioritize speed, uptime, or backups, WebHostingPad will only cause frustration. Paying even a dollar more per month elsewhere will save these folks a ton of grief.

WebHostingPad FAQs

When did WebHostingPad start, and what are its values?

WebHostingPad was founded in 2005 in Illinois by industry leaders and veterans who wanted to provide reliable, affordable hosting. The company places a high priority on customer satisfaction, offering customers exactly what they need so they don’t have to pay for services they don’t want. They hold several certifications, verifications, and approvals from some of the top-reviewed companies on the internet. WebHostingPad guarantees great service at affordable prices.

What kind of shared hosting plans does WebHostingPad offer?

All of WebHostingPad’s plans include the following unlimited benefits:

• Hosting space
• Bandwidth
• E-mail accounts
• FTP accounts
• Addon and sub-domains
• MySQL databases

They also offer their customers free domain registration or transfer as well as a Web site builder, cPanel. You’ll also get an advanced security scan and business directory listing.

The company has two different shared plans, the Power Plan and the Power Plan Plus. The biggest difference between the two is the few extra features in the Power Plan Plus, which includes an advanced spam filter, free SSL certificate, SSH access, and advanced Web stats.

Pricing is based on your length of services, with one year of the Power Plan coming in at $3.99 per month, and one year of the Power Plan Plus costing $6.99 per month. If you choose to sign up for three to five years at the Power Plan level, you’ll be paying $1.99 a month; the Power Plan Plus cost drops to a low of $3.99 per month for customers who register for four or five years of service.

Does WebHostingPad offer Reseller or VPS plans?

WebHostingPad has six different plans for those interested in a reseller/VPS plan. Their virtual private servers are powered by VPSDepot, which allows for the same functionality without the same costs as typically dedicated servers.

Their beginner plan, which starts at $29.95 per month for six months, gives you 20GB of disk space, 100GB bandwidth, and 1GB RAM. Customers get one IP address and a .5 CORE CPU.

The third level, the premium plan, provides 160GB disk space, 1TB bandwidth, and 4GB RAM, for $49.95/month for a six-month plan. You’ll also get three IP addresses and 2 CORES CPUs.

Their highest level, the managed plan, costs $99.95 per month for six months of service and gives you three IP addresses, 3 CORES CPU, and the highest level of storage: 300GB disk space, 3TB bandwidth, and 8GB RAM.

There are plans in between these, that allows you to find the specifications you need. Each VPS account includes many free features, like:

• cPanel/WHM
• Softaculous
• Setup
• Website migration
• Firewall
• Reseller account

All VPS accounts also offer unlimited cPanel accounts, domains and subdomains, email accounts and sending FTP accounts, and MySQL databases.

What is WebHostingPad WordPress hosting like?

The company’s WordPress plans include free transfer, automatic malware scans, and removal, as well as unlimited e-mail accounts, parked domains, and storage space.

The WordPress plans are designed to help WordPress users of all abilities and include a variety of speed enhancements, like performance Cloud Linux, SSD storage, and Global CDN. The basic plan, with a cPanel designed around WordPress, starts at $2.99 per month.

The basic plan gives customers five sites, with 1x computing power.

The middle plan, WP Pro, which costs $3.99/month, has 10 sites, 2x computing power, and also includes free automatic backups.

WebHostingPad’s highest WordPress hosting plan, the WP Premium, features free SSL certificates, free automatic backups and backups on demand, WordPress expert help, and 25 sites with 3x computing power. This plan starts at $5.99 per month.

Does WebHostingPad have an uptime guarantee?

WebHostingPad has a 99% uptime guarantee, but will only compensate customers for every 8 hours of downtime beyond the guaranteed rate.

What does unlimited disk space mean for me?

WebHostingPad offers all hosting accounts unlimited bandwidth and disk space but increases the space needed in phases. Each account begins with a limit to both the disk space and bandwidth, but as sites need to increase, a simple email request to WebHostingPad is all that is necessary to expand both. Because of this system, the company is able to optimize the server operation, as only the space needed is what is being used. As a result, the service for customers is faster and more efficient.

Before the company will increase the bandwidth or disk space, they require the current quota to be completely used, and the Web site owner to be in compliance with WebHostingPad’s terms and conditions.

How does WebHostingPad stay current?

The company provides a company blog that highlights many different pieces of information that customers and users will find interesting, from discussing bugs and ways to fix them, ways to increase security, and talking about company changes and updates, including different levels of rewards and responses to customer needs.

Leadership has recently taken steps to address some of their customers’ greatest concerns, but not only placing a poll to see how much verification account managers would want on their accounts but also making updates to their system.

• Updated billing system: The system has been redesigned to increase functionality and make hosted accounting even easier to manage.
• Weebly website builder: WebHostingPad is working on a partnership with Weebly that will allow customers access to an easy-to-use building system.
• cPanel updates: While switching the current cPanel themes to the Paper Lantern theme is a requirement for proper operation, they are also showing customers how a retro skin makes the newest cPanel interface changes more similar to the x3 interface.
• Updated servers: All servers are being upgraded to the newest stable version of CentOS, a large undertaking that will make for an even better experience for customers.

How does WebHostingPad maintain its servers?

The N+1 data center is in Chicago and offers 24/7 onsite security, as well as HVAC ventilation systems. They back up the data center every week but also offer more frequent back-ups based on the hosting plan chosen. The weekly backup includes accounts and up to 1GB of Web site files and doesn’t include e-mail addresses, e-mail accounts, databases, or non-Web site files.  Accounts larger than 1GB aren’t included in the weekly backup, but the company offers a one-time backup restoration for a fee. They also offer a backup on-demand service for an additional fee.

Should there be a power outage, WebHostingPad maintains generator fuel that will keep your sites up and running.

What kind of support does WebHostingPad offer?

The company’s 24/7 customer service program covers the following service needs:

• Web-based services, like FTP, SSH, cPanel, e-mail, MySQL, and PHP. They will ensure services operate normally and will check should customers believe there is a problem.
• Server management will include maintenance, security, and configuration of all software residing on their servers, including Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
• Maintaining hardware with regular monitoring and repairs as needed
• Script installation for third-party scripts, which doesn’t include support, information on usage, features, plug-ins, or customization.
• Data backups don’t guarantee the availability of lost data from regular backups. Customers should be sure they regularly maintain current backups.
• Basic e-mail configuration and basic FTP connection

Customers are responsible for knowing Internet basics, as well as registering their own domain names and operating all scripts and applications.

They offer live chat, e-mail, and telephone support, as well as a help desk that allows you to submit a support ticket. The company maintains a database with questions about a wide variety of operational topics, as well as responds to comments on the Facebook page and Twitter account.

What if WebHostingPad isn't for me?

The company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for new customers, with a three-day minimum advance notice before cancellation.

VPS cancellation must be done within five days, and only includes the money paid for hosting services; other services, like licenses, site builders, or IP addresses aren’t included.

WebHostingPad is an ideal option for a customer looking for low-cost, bare-bones service for shared and VPS hosting. Ideally, customers will have a working knowledge of the Internet and computer basics, but the company’s customer support can help with many common situations.