SubHub vs Hostpapa: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

SubHub vs Hostpapa: Both platforms offer unique strengths, but they cater to different needs.

• 
  SubHub (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is tailored for creating and managing membership sites. It excels in providing tools for content creators and entrepreneurs to build a community and monetize their content. With features like customizable templates, flexible subscription plans, and detailed analytics, SubHub is ideal for those looking to start or grow a membership-based business. However, it falls short in areas like hosting quality and customer support compared to Hostpapa.
• 
  Hostpapa (Overall Grade: 5.4/10)
  
  is designed for small businesses and individuals aiming to create a professional online presence. It offers an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder, a variety of templates, and basic SEO tools. Hostpapa stands out in hosting quality and customer support, making it a reliable choice for users seeking a straightforward and affordable website builder. However, it lacks the advanced membership and marketing features that SubHub provides.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Hostpapa slightly outperforms SubHub in ecommerce capabilities, making it a better choice for small businesses looking for more robust ecommerce features.

• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub is tailored for membership sites, offering essential ecommerce features like PayPal and Stripe integration, physical and digital product listings, and pay-per-view products. However, it lacks ecommerce-specific templates and advanced customization options, which may limit its appeal for larger online stores. With a score of 5.9, SubHub is suitable for content creators and entrepreneurs focusing on membership-based businesses.
• 
  Hostpapa
  
  : Hostpapa provides a more comprehensive set of ecommerce features, including payment gateways integration, inventory management, and ecommerce-specific templates. It supports a variety of payment methods and offers detailed product page customization options. With a score of 6.6, Hostpapa is a better fit for small businesses looking to establish a professional online store with more flexibility and design options.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Hostpapa slightly outperforms SubHub. Hostpapa’s higher score and more comprehensive design functionalities make it a better choice for users looking to build professional and customizable websites.

• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub is tailored for membership sites, offering tools for content creators and entrepreneurs to build and monetize their communities. While it provides customizable templates and ease of use, its focus on membership features may not fully cater to the needs of a typical informational business website. SubHub scored 7.2 in this category, reflecting its niche strength but also its limitations for broader informational site needs.
• 
  Hostpapa
  
  : Hostpapa, with a score of 7.5, is designed for small businesses and individuals aiming to establish a professional online presence. Its intuitive drag-and-drop builder, variety of templates, and customization options make it an excellent choice for informational and business websites. Hostpapa’s user-friendly interface and additional features like basic SEO tools and e-commerce capabilities provide a well-rounded solution for creating and managing a business website.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Hostpapa.

With a higher score in design functionalities and templates, Hostpapa offers a more comprehensive and flexible design experience.

SubHub offers a variety of customizable membership website templates designed to cater to different needs and themes. There are 14 specifically themed templates available, each designed to help users jump-start the design of their membership website homepages. These templates are fully customizable, allowing users to modify layouts, add or remove sections, and tailor content to fit their brand.

On the other hand, HostPapa offers a wide variety of templates and designs to cater to the diverse needs of its users. With hundreds of professionally designed templates available, users can easily find a style that perfectly matches their vision and brand identity. These templates are not only abundant in number but also highly customizable, allowing for a high degree of personalization.

Unfortunately, there are no available images or links for Hostpapa’s templates.

🏆 Winner: Hostpapa

. With a score of 7.8, Hostpapa slightly edges out SubHub, which scored 7.7. Both platforms are praised for their user-friendly interfaces, but Hostpapa’s intuitive drag-and-drop functionality and variety of templates and customization options make it a slightly more accessible choice for users without advanced technical skills.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Both SubHub and Hostpapa offer a range of learning resources to support their users. SubHub provides video guides and tutorials, a comprehensive FAQ section, and customer support via a ticketing system and premium phone support. Hostpapa offers a detailed online knowledge base, video tutorials in multiple languages, and a free 30-minute one-on-one training session for new customers.

When it comes to ecommerce, both SubHub and Hostpapa offer a range of features to support online businesses. However, Hostpapa slightly outperforms SubHub with a score of 6.6 compared to SubHub’s 5.9.

SubHub ecommerce features:

• Paypal and Stripe integration
• Physical and Digital product listings
• Pay-per view products

Hostpapa ecommerce features:

• Payment Gateways integration
• Inventory management
• Ecommerce specific templates

Ecommerce themes & templates

SubHub does not offer ecommerce specific templates, which may limit the design options for online stores. On the other hand, HostPapa offers over 230 templates, including ecommerce specific ones, providing more flexibility in design. However, these are only available with the Enterprise plan.

Product page customization

SubHub offers a range of product page customization options, including the ability to manage product variants, upload images, and set visibility preferences. Users can also implement SEO strategies through meta tags and manage tax settings. Additional functionalities include member-specific discounts, image carousels, and individualized shipping costs.

HostPapa also provides a suite of product page customization features. Users can tailor product offerings by adding various options such as size and color, set product availability, and manage inventory with detailed controls. The platform supports a wide range of currencies and languages, adapting to the customer’s preferences automatically. Advanced functionalities include customizable “Buy now” buttons, product combinations for different variants, and suggestions for related products to enhance the shopping experience.

Payment processing

SubHub supports two main payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal, allowing for secure payment processing for subscriptions and store items using debit or credit cards. The platform itself does not charge commissions on transactions.

HostPapa supports a variety of payment gateways, including popular services like PayPal, Square, and Stripe, catering to both online and offline payment methods for businesses. The platform does not charge transaction fees itself, the fees primarily depend on the chosen payment gateway. Although the platform is equipped with eCommerce capabilities, enabling the addition of products and customization of payment and shipping methods, there are no integrated Point of Sale (POS) functionalities.

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Winner: SubHub

. SubHub, with a score of 6.9, offers a user-friendly website builder tailored for creating and managing membership sites. Its features encompass customizable templates, diverse content publishing options, and flexible subscription plans with seamless integration for recurring revenue through payment processors. Additionally, SubHub supports online course creation, provides marketing tools like landing page builders, and offers detailed analytics for monitoring website metrics.

HostPapa’s website editor, scoring 6.8, is designed to be user-friendly, featuring a drag-and-drop interface for easy web page construction without the need for coding. It offers a variety of responsive and mobile-friendly templates that cater to different needs and preferences, allowing for significant customization. However, it lacks in-depth marketing tools and advanced SEO capabilities. While generally affordable and including customer support options like 24/7 access and one-on-one training, some users have noted limitations in customer service effectiveness and challenges in the platform’s usability.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: SubHub

. Both SubHub and Hostpapa lack dedicated mobile editor apps, which limits their usability for on-the-go website management. However, SubHub allows users to manage some content on their website using a mobile browser, although it does not support changing the layout and design of the website on mobile. This minimal functionality gives SubHub a slight edge over Hostpapa, which does not offer any mobile editing capabilities.

In summary, while neither platform excels in mobile editing, SubHub provides a marginally better experience by allowing some content management through a mobile browser.

Overall Result

:

SubHub Wins

. SubHub scores 7.0, significantly higher than Hostpapa’s 0.5. SubHub offers a 14-day free trial and allows testing of premium features during this period, providing users with a comprehensive evaluation of its services. On the other hand, Hostpapa does not offer a free or trial version and does not allow testing of premium features before purchasing a plan. However, it does offer a longer money-back guarantee period.

HostPapa offers more affordable options, but SubHub’s features are more refined, especially for membership-based businesses.

Winner: Hostpapa

. Hostpapa outperforms SubHub in hosting quality with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and transparency about their data centers’ locations. SubHub, while offering managed cloud hosting, does not provide uptime statistics or guarantees and does not disclose its data centers’ locations. This lack of transparency and guarantee gives Hostpapa the edge in this category.

🏆 Winner: Hostpapa

Both SubHub and Hostpapa prioritize website performance and page speed, but Hostpapa takes the lead with a higher website speed optimization score and a more comprehensive approach to Core Web Vital improvements.

Hostpapa, a web hosting and website builder platform, prioritizes website performance and page speed. It employs strategies such as image optimization, caching, and minimizing HTTP requests to enhance website speed. Although specific load times and PageSpeed scores are not provided, Hostpapa states that these metrics vary widely depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Importantly, Hostpapa is committed to improving Core Web Vitals by implementing various performance optimization techniques.

SubHub, a website builder designed for creating and managing membership sites, also emphasizes website performance and page speed. Its key strategies for speed optimization include image optimization, caching, and mobile-optimized design. Like Hostpapa, SubHub’s load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on optimization and website complexity. However, SubHub does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements, which gives Hostpapa an edge in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: SubHub.

SubHub scores 5.7, slightly ahead of Hostpapa’s 5.0. SubHub’s focus on simplicity and integrated functionalities for building membership-based websites gives it an edge. However, both platforms have limited third-party integrations compared to other website builders. HostPapa’s website builder allows for some integrations, like Google Maps and social media icons, but has limitations when it comes to content element arrangement and site migration to other platforms. It’s more suited for basic business websites, portfolios, or blogs rather than sites requiring unique layouts or advanced content elements.

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Overall Winner: SubHub

. SubHub stands out for its more advanced marketing tools, especially in email marketing and analytics. Hostpapa is limited in its marketing features, lacking in email marketing and ads and promotions.

🏆 Winner: Hostpapa

. In the comparison of SubHub vs Hostpapa, Hostpapa takes the lead with its extensive 24/7/365 customer support options, including phone, email, and live chat. The PapaSquad Support Team is available around the clock, ensuring users can get help whenever they need it. Additionally, Hostpapa offers unique 30-minute one-on-one video training sessions with their experts, providing personalized assistance that can be invaluable for users.

SubHub, on the other hand, offers customer support primarily through email and a support portal, with an FAQ section for common questions. While SubHub’s support is accessible and responsive, it lacks the round-the-clock availability and variety of support channels that Hostpapa provides, making Hostpapa the better choice for users who prioritize comprehensive customer support.

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Winner: HostPapa

. With a security score of 8.2, HostPapa outperforms SubHub, which has a score of 4.0. HostPapa offers a comprehensive suite of security measures, including automatic SSL certification, server firewalls and monitoring, DDoS attack prevention, and the Protection Power Security Software. This software offers a web application firewall (WAF), malware detection, and more. HostPapa also encourages the adoption of best security practices, such as regular website backups and the use of reputable themes and plugins.

On the other hand, SubHub’s approach to security is less clear, as they do not disclose any specific information about the website security measures they provide. Their privacy policy does outline their approach to collecting, using, and protecting user personal data, emphasizing compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations. However, without more detailed information about their website security measures, it’s difficult to compare them to HostPapa’s robust security offerings.

🏆 Winner: None

. Both SubHub and Hostpapa do not have AI capabilities. This means that they do not offer features such as personalized design, SEO optimization, customer behavior analysis, sales predictions, inventory management, or content generation through AI. This lack of AI capabilities may limit the functionality and user-friendliness of these platforms compared to others that do utilize AI.

🏆 Winner: SubHub

. SubHub and HostPapa have different approaches to user management.

• SubHub allows multiple user accounts, however the platform does not specify how many accounts are supported.
• HostPapa does not mention support of multiple users, however it is possible that the website builder does support multiple users.

SubHub User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

User feedback on SubHub presents a mix of positive and negative experiences, emphasizing the platform’s feature-rich environment and customizable templates. Users appreciate the flexibility and the quality of customer service, highlighting the platform’s continual updates and support as key benefits. However, some users express dissatisfaction with aspects such as the platform’s interface, lack of community features, and service fees for ticket resale. Concerns were also raised about the custom design service and mobile-friendly solutions taking longer than expected.

Hostpapa, on the other hand, does not have any reviews on the G2 platform, making it challenging to gauge user satisfaction directly. However, its general description suggests it is designed for small businesses and individuals looking for an easy-to-use website builder with basic SEO tools and e-commerce capabilities. This could appeal to users seeking a straightforward solution for creating a professional online presence when comparing SubHub vs Hostpapa.

FAQ