HooplaHosting.co.nz review

First impression

Hoopla Hosting is a New Zealand-based web hosting services provider that was founded in 2011. They are based in Christchurch and offer a range of services, including shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, and enterprise hosting (custom hosting solutions). They operate from two data centers based in Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia respectively, and have staff all over the world to offer instant support no matter your time zone.

Trial Period

Unfortunately, they don't have a free trial on their hosting for potential customers to try their services before committing. But they have a 30-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee in place. Should you be unhappy with their services, for any reason whatsoever, within the initial 30 days, simply cancel your account with them for a full refund - no questions asked!

Billing Cycle

If you're enrolling in one of their shared hosting or VPS plans, you can pay month-to-month, year-to-year, or biennially - so whatever you like, you've got choices. Dedicated servers, on the other hand, are month-to-month only, which is reasonable considering they’re a more expensive investment. 

Payment options, in the meantime, have them accepting all the big ones - Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, POLi Pay, and PayPal - so paying for your hosting couldn't be much easier.

Control Panel

All Hoopla Hosting plans, whether shared hosting, VPS hosting, or dedicated servers, come standard with the cPanel control panel. This panel is a firm favorite among hosting providers and offers an extremely user-friendly interface where users can manage all aspects of their hosting accounts. Whether it's emails, databases, installing CMSs, or more, cPanel makes all these tasks a breeze!

Limits

Their shared hosting plans, all running on super-fast LiteSpeed web servers with SSD storage drives, are suited for anything from personal blogs, right up to small/medium ecommerce sites. They come in four distinct options. The Mini, their entry-level option comes with 1GB SSD disc space and a 50GB traffic limit, it also is only available on annual commitments. Next up is the Starter, which features 2GB SSD disc space (still very little and still only suited for a personal blog, or very small site) and 150GB traffic. The Basic plan follows next with 5GB of SSD storage space and 200GB traffic, whilst the Standard plan, their top-tier option, features 15GB SSD disc space and a 250GB traffic limit. All plans come standard with unlimited domains, POP/IMAP email accounts, and MySQL databases.

Users interested in their VPS servers will also get four options to choose from. These range from 2 vCPUs, 2GB RAM, 100GB SSD disc space, and a 500GB data usage limit on the cPanel VPS 100 plan, right up to 8 vCPUs, 6GB RAM, 500GB SSD storage, and a 3TB traffic limit on the cPanel VPS 300 plan. As the names of the plans imply, all come standard with the cPanel control panel.

Website Builder

Hoopla Hosting provides both the Site Pro Builder and SiteJet web builders with their shared hosting plans. Both are full web building systems, with SiteJet being the more advanced of the two (in my opinion at least), designed to simplify web design for different kinds of users. SiteJet is designed for business users like freelancers and agencies, with project management, collaboration, and workflow automation features for streamlined workflow and productivity. Site Pro Builder is a simple system ideal for personal and small business use, with pre-made templates, drag-and-drop, and built-in SEO tools for simple website creation. 

Security

One thing I absolutely adore about Hoopla Hosting is that they're serious about security, even on their shared hosting plans. Every plan comes with a free SSL certificate, so your site is secure and encrypted right from the start. But that's not all they do - a cloud-based heuristic and AI-powered firewall is always on the lookout for threats in traffic. They've also thrown in intrusion detection and prevention systems, and a web application firewall (WAF) to protect against malicious attacks. Real-time malware scanning is a background operation, so no unpleasant surprises sneak in. And for two-factor authentication (2FA) as an added layer of account security, you've got it. If you're taking the VPS path, you're covered too - Hoopla uses Imunify360 for active threat protection, RBL block list protection to block spam and bad guys, and built-in spam filtering to keep inboxes clean. The best part? You don't have to lift a finger—Hoopla's engineers do it all for you, keeping your server safe and up to date without batting an eye.

OS

Their shared hosting plans all run on the CloudLinux OS (operating system), a OS specifically designed for shared hosting environments. It is very stable and offers exceptional security as all accounts are isolated from one another - perfect for servers with multiple domains running on it. It also comes with built-in tools for resource allocation, automatic updates, and more. On their VPS plans users will get to choose between Almalinux or Cloudlinux, depending on their requirements, and on dedicated servers, the choices are slightly bigger as users can choose between Ubuntu, Almalinux, Debian, or CentOS ( EOL ).

Support

If you run into trouble and need urgent assistance, you can reach out to their friendly support agents via phone, support tickets (their preferred method), or live chat, which is only available during New Zealand business hours. My experience dealing with them was pleasant, tickets were answered within the hour during business hours, but expect to wait a bit longer (up to 5 hours longer) if you submit one after hours. However, since their target market is primarily New Zealand, this shouldn’t be an issue for most of their clientele.

Conclusion

Honestly, Hoopla Hosting is an excellent choice, especially if you’re seeking reliable hosting with quality security and payment flexibility. Their shared and VPS hosting options are chock-full of features with free SSL, strong firewalls, and real-time malware scanning, which is a huge win for worry-free peace of mind. I also appreciate that they don’t try to lock you into long-term commitments unless you’re willing to do that. Downside? I don't think there is one, but some extra storage space on shared hosting plans would be nice though. Overall, for New Zealand-focused hosting with top-notch performance and security, I’d say they’re well worth a look.