Hostoople Review and Test Results


Editor, NCMOnline.com

Summary

spacer. Ranking: 4 stars.
spacer. Cheapest Hosting Plan: (1-year term renewal)* $5.95 per month
spacer. Current Coupon Code (30% recurring discount): oople
spacer. Company Founded: 2013
spacer. Domains Hosted: 300,000+
spacer. 24×7 Phone Support: No
spacer. Money-Back Guarantee: 30 days
spacer. BBB Rating: No Listing

*Price above based on 1-year term before application of coupon code/introductory discount. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, the price displayed on this page is the 1-year term renewal rate before applying the recurring 30% discount coupon code. Star ratings based on a 0.5 minimum to 5 star maximum scale.

The Bottom Line

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

A relative newcomer to the website hosting industry, Hostoople provides low-cost services that range from shared hosting to dedicated servers.

Impact-Site-Verification: 1734096865

The cheapest plan, Economy, is easy to buy, easy to set up, and easy to use. Better still, the 30% off coupon code discount is recurring. This means that the initial discounted price is the same as the recurring price — a rarity in the ultra-competitive hosting industry.

While our reliability testing did produce a perfect 100% uptime rating, unfortunately, our testing also found page-load speeds to be below average.

On balance, Hostoople has earned 4 stars and is RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS.

Visit Site >>

Rating

Price: 4 stars.
Ease-of-Use: 5 stars.
Disk Space: 5 stars.
Bandwidth: 5 stars.
Speed: 2 stars.
Uptime: 5 stars.
Support: 2.5 stars.
BBB Rating: 3 stars.
Guarantee: 4 stars.
Satisfaction: 3.5 stars.
TOTAL: 4 stars.

Review

One of the new breed of low-cost web hosts dedicated to providing customers with best-practices tools to manage their online presence, Hostoople services are easy to buy, easy to use, and easy to maintain. These include a complete range of low-cost shared, reseller, VPS, colocation, and dedicated server hosting packages.

Screenshot of Hostoople homepage. Click image to visit site.
HOSTING PLANS

Hostoople offers three low-cost shared web hosting plans — Economy Plan, Advanced Plan, and Epic Plan. All provide a choice of monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, and biennially billing.

Designed for small website, the Economy Plan is the cheapest plan, priced at $5.95 per month for a 1-year term renewal. Economy Plan features include 150GB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth, the ability to host 2 domains, unlimited subdomains, unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited e-mail accounts, password-protected directories, jailed SSH access, the cPanel 11 control panel (see screenshot below right), the Softaculous applications installer, wiki software, stat monitoring, a premium website builder, and a free domain name for the life of the hosting account.

The Economy Plan also provides an extensive range of hosting tools and applications. Blogging tools include: WordPress, b2evolution, Nucleus, Dotclear, eggBlog, and OpenBlog. Content management systems include: Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, Moodle, GeekLog, and PHP-Nuke. Forum software includes: phpBB, Simple Machines Forum (SMF), AEF Cart, XMB, MyBB, and Phorum. Photo gallery applications include: Coppermine, TinyWebGallery, Piwigo, Pixelpost, ZenPhoto, and Shutter. E-commerce applications include: CubeCart, osCommerce, Zen Cart, Axis, Magneto, and TheHostingTool.

Screenshot of Hostoople cPanel 11 control panel. Click to enlarge.

Screenshot of Hostoople cPanel 11 control panel. Click to enlarge.

The Economy Plan also supports the following programming languages and advanced features: PHP5/MySQL 5r, Perl 5, Python, .htaccess override, GnuPG encryption, CGI support, and custom Cron jobs.

Designed for high-traffic websites, the Advanced Plan is the next-cheapest plan, priced at $7.95 per month for a 1-year term renewal. It includes all of the Economy Plan features while substituting 300GB of disk space, and the ability to host 10 domains.

Designed for large, high-traffic websites that require substantial resources and enhanced performance, the Epic Plan is the most advanced and costly shared plan. Priced at $14.95 per month for a 1-year term renewal, it includes all of the Advanced Plan features while substituting unlimited disk space and the ability to host an unlimited number of websites. Additional plan features include burstable storage and bandwidth as well as First Priority Support.

All Hostoople shared plans are backed by 24×7 e-mail/ticket support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Click the ‘Pricing and Features’ tab above for the complete plan feature comparison table. Note that this review refers only to Hostoople shared Linux plans, as the company also provides shared Windows hosting plans.

PURCHASE PROCESS

As is our practice, we selected the cheapest shared plan — Economy — for purposes of testing and review. Starting at main navigation menu on the Hostoople homepage we selected ‘Hosting’ and clicked ‘Shared Hosting’ from the dropdown menu. Within the plan features comparison table, we clicked the ‘Order Now’ button beneath ‘Economy Plan.’

Screenshot of Hostoople New Account Information e-mail. Click to enlarge.

Screenshot of Hostoople “New Account Information” e-mail. It provided all of the information required to set up our test site quickly. Click to enlarge.

The first step of the checkout process required the entry of a domain name to be associated with the account. We selected ‘I will use my existing domain and update my nameservers’ from the options presented, entered our domain name and clicked the ‘Click to Continue’ button.

The second step required the selection of a billing cycle from the five options provided. As we only required hosting for purposes of testing and review, we selected the monthly option and clicked the ‘Checkout’ button.

The third step required us to enter our billing details, and select a payment method from the choices provided (PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, mail-in payment, ACHDirect, Western Union, Payza, and Bit-pay). Step three also provided the opportunity to enter a promotional code, add notes/additional information, and review the total amount currently due as well as the recurring cost. We completed the required form fields, selected the PayPal payment option, and clicked the ‘Complete Order’ button.

SETUP

Immediately after submitting our order, we received the Hostoople ‘Welcome’ e-mail. It included the new account login information. Also arriving at the same time were the ‘Order Confirmation’ and ‘Customer Invoice’ e-mails. Two minutes later we received the ‘Invoice Payment Confirmation,’ and the “New Account Information” e-mail (screenshot above right). The latter provided all of the details required to quickly set up our NCM test site.

Screenshot of Hostoople Uptime Test Results Chart 11/27/14–12/06/14. Click to enlarge.

Hostoople Uptime Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

We then updated the nameservers at our domain registrar. Once the domain name had propagated, we used the FTP login information to upload our 1-page test site. We then set up Dotcom Monitor page-load speed and uptime testing, and waited for the test results to accumulate.

TESTING

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are purchased and subjected to our 10-day test for speed and reliability.

Hostoople testing began on 11/27/14 and concluded on 12/6/14. Our test site was checked for page load speed and uptime every 15 minutes from 13 worldwide locations. In all, testing consisted of nearly 2000 individual server checks. We are pleased to report that Dotcom Monitor testing resulted in a perfect 100% reliability score. See uptime test results chart above right.

Screenshot of Hostoople Uptime Speed Results Chart 11/27/14–12/06/14. Click to enlarge.

Hostoople Speed Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

Although it proved reliable, our Economy Plan shared plan also recorded a below-average 10-day average speed of 1.9311 seconds to load our simple, one-page test site from 13 locations worldwide, and 1.7066 seconds from 7 U.S. locations. See screenshot right for test locations and speed results chart.

Pros

  • Generous disk space
  • Unlimited bandwidth
  • Unlimited MySQL databases
  • Unlimited e-mail accounts
  • Numerous payment options including PayPal
  • Quick and easy checkout process
  • “New Account Information” e-mail provides the information required to set up your website quickly
  • cPanel control panel
  • Softaculous applications installer
  • Extensive array of open source applications
  • 100% uptime test result
  • The price for the initial term is the same as the renewal rate
  • 30% recurring(!) discount coupon code
  • Free domain name registration or transfer
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

Cons

  • Below-average server speed test results
  • No 24×7 phone support

Conclusion

Despite a perfect ease-of-use rating and a wealth of valuable hosting features, our testing found Hostoople page-load speeds to be unsatisfactory.

Hostoople has earned 4 stars and is recommended with reservations by NCM Online.

Pricing and Features

Cheap website hosting company price comparisons based on 1-year term list price before coupon/promo codes or limited time/introductory offer discounts. These are the renewal rates for the second year of hosting. To ensure that you receive the most affordable Hostoople pricing possible, please see Summary above for coupon code and/or current discounts before making any purchases.

Plan Economy Advanced Epic
Disk Space 150GB 300GB Unlimited
Bandwidth Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Domains 2 10 Unlimited
Suitable For Small Websites Websites With High Traffic Epic Websites
cPanel Control Panel Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Free 24/7 Support Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Jailed SSH Access Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
E-Mail Accounts Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Setup & Transfer Free Free Free
First Priority Support X X Checkmark.
Burstable Storage/Bandwidth X X Checkmark.
Core Features
Domain Registration or Transfer Free Free Free
Easy-to-Use Control Panel Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
MYSQL Databases Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Blogging Software Free Free Free
24/7 Top U.S. Technical Support Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
30 Day Full Money Back Guarantee Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Premium Website Builder Free Free Free
E-Mail
3 Web-Mail Clients Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Mobile Device Compatible Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Secure POP3/IMAP/SMTP Email Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Auto-Responders Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Email Forwarding Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
SPAM Safe Protection Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
E-Commerce
CubeCart Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Axis Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Magneto Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
osCommerce Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Zen Cart Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
TheHostingTool Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Blogging Tools
WordPress Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Dotclear Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
b2evolution Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
eggBlog Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Nucleus Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Open Blog Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Content Management
Joomla! Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Moodle Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Drupal Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
GeekLog Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Mambo Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
PHP-Nuke Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Forum Software
phpBB Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
XMB Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Simple Machines Forum (SMF) Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
MyBB Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Phorum Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
AEF Cart Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Photo Galleries
Coppermine Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Pixelpost Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
TinyWebGallery Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
ZenPhoto Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Piwigo Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Shutter Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Additional Features
FTP Accounts! Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Web-Based File Manager Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Stat Monitoring Software Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Sub-Domains Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Password Protected Directories Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Wiki Software Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Parked Domains Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Wiki Software Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Stuff for Geeks
PHP5/MySQL 5r Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
.htaccess Override Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Custom Cron Jobs Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Perl 5 Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
GnuPG Encryption Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Python Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
CGI Support Checkmark. Checkmark. Checkmark.
Price per Month* $5.95 $7.95 $14.95

*Prices based on 1-year term before the application of coupon/promo codes and introductory/limited-time offer discounts. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, the prices displayed on this page are the 1-year term renewal rates before applying the recurring 30% discount coupon code.

Company Information

Hostoople is a relatively new website hosting company that offers a wide range of hosting services and amenities. These include shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS and dedicated servers. Both Windows and Linux based hosting are available as needed and there are affiliate opportunities provides for those who want to offer reseller and Windows reseller hosting with this particular provider.

Hostoople is not free but it is perhaps one of the cheapest hosting services available. There are three plans to choose from, with the most affordable one starting at $3.95 a month. Each plan is made for a specific type of website. The Economy Plan is specifically made for small websites; however, the fact that this plan offers up to 150 GB in space makes it ideal for up to 70% of all personal and business sites.

The Advanced Plan is for websites with high levels of traffic and offers twice as much storage space as the Economy plan. The Epic Plan, which is made for very large websites, offers unlimited storage space, preferential customer service access and a host of perks and amenities for those who need to manage a very large site.

Hostoople offers to transfer websites from other hosting domains to its own hosting service free of charge, a feature that is not commonly offered by most free or paid hosting services. Some other features that are available across the board for all hosting plans include an unlimited number of email accounts, free site builders and unlimited bandwidth. Like other hosting service providers, Hostoople offers a 99.5% uptime guarantee.

Hosting review sites generally have positive reviews of Hostoople. Users note that the company provides a great deal of storage space, dashboard features and other services and amenities in exchange for the money spent. Hostoople also gets high marks for providing very good customer service. Even so, it should be noted that there are few reviews for this particular hosting service due to the fact that it is relatively new. While the average review rating stands at 5 stars, these are based only on a few reviews.

It should be noted that Hostoople, unlike major players in the website hosting market, does not cater to an international audience. This is evidenced by the fact that at present the site only accepts payment in U.S. dollars, making it impossible for those who cannot pay in dollars to obtain a hosting account.

Hostoople is a new website hosting service that offers a great deal of perks and amenities. It promises to deliver great customer service and excellent value for the money and it appears from the reviews left by satisfied customers that Hostoople has made good on these promises. Even so, many will likely hesitate to work with Hostoople for the simple reason that it has not been in business for long and is thus not as reliable as some of its better known competitors.

Hostoople 8600 Harry Hines Boulevard Dallas, TX 75235 855-933-3825

How to Install WordPress

This video tutorial demonstrates the installation of WordPress on a Hostoople shared hosting account using the cPanel control panel and the Softaculous “1-click” applications installer.



Bullet green large.Click to visit the Official Hostoople Website

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