Tom Lionne
Tool reviews
12 min read
PlanetHoster review: plans, pricing, N0C panel and developer tools of the independent web host
PlanetHoster review: Web Projects and packs, promotional and renewal prices in US dollars, N0C panel, SSH, WP-CLI, API, 45 days of backups and data in Paris, Lausanne or Montreal.
Choosing a web host means choosing where your website will live for years: its speed, its security, its backups and the person who answers when something goes wrong. PlanetHoster holds a special place in this market: an independent host, founded in Canada, that builds its own platform and gives you professional tools from its smallest plan.
This review covers its plans and prices, promotional and renewal rates included, the N0C control panel, email, backups, reliability and support, to help you decide whether it is the right host for your project.
- An independent host founded in 2007 in Quebec, with data centres in Paris, Lausanne and Montreal, and its own control panel, N0C.
- Isolated Web Projects, from $9.67 a month for a single project to $1.80 per project in the pack of 100, with a promotion at $6.64 a month for 24 months.
- SSH, WP-CLI, Git and a documented REST API on every plan, including the cheapest.
- Daily backups kept for 45 days, unlimited email addresses, 24/7 human support and a 60-day money-back guarantee.
- More than 500,000 websites hosted and a TrustScore of 4.7 out of 5 on more than 5,000 reviews.
What is PlanetHoster?
PlanetHoster is a web host and domain registrar founded in 2007 in Quebec. The company, PlanetHoster inc., is headquartered in Laval, near Montreal, and opened in Paris in 2012. It runs its servers in certified data centres in Paris, Lausanne and Montreal, on its own network with in-house DDoS protection, and it is an ICANN-accredited registrar that sells .com and many other extensions directly.
What makes it different comes down to three words: independence, location and tooling. Independence, because it is a Canadian company that develops its own platform instead of renting one from a cloud giant. Location, because you choose the country of your data, project by project: France or Switzerland in Europe, or Canada. Tooling, finally, because its in-house panel, N0C, in production since 2019, comes with SSH access, WP-CLI and a public API on every plan.
PlanetHoster plans and pricing
The shared hosting offer, called The World, is organised into Web Projects: each website lives in its own isolated environment, with its own disk, object storage and resources. You buy them one at a time or in packs, and move up the range depending on how heavy the website is. Here is PlanetHoster’s official grid in US dollars, per month.
| Plan | Price per month | 24-month promotion | NVMe disk | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Project Standard, single | $9.67 | No | 10 GB | A website, a blog, a showcase site |
| Pack of 10 Standard | $24.19 ($2.41 per project) | $6.64 | 10 GB each | Freelancers and small agencies |
| Pack of 100 Standard | $181.49 ($1.80 per project) | No | 10 GB each | Publishers and agencies |
| Web Project Plus | $15.72 | No | 50 GB | A heavier website, a growing store |
| Web Project Ultra, semi-dedicated | $24.19 | $6.64 | 100 GB | E-commerce and high-traffic websites |
Each Standard project also comes with 50 GB of S3-compatible object storage, 250 GB for Plus and 500 GB for Ultra. Ultra adds LiteSpeed Enterprise with LiteMage, priority semi-dedicated resources, priority support and Auto Peak Power, which multiplies CPU and memory by 2.5 for four hours during a traffic spike. For bigger projects, HybridCloud provides a managed dedicated server.
What every plan includes
- a domain name free for the first year, on a yearly or longer cycle;
- Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, automatic and unlimited;
- unlimited email addresses and unlimited MariaDB and PostgreSQL databases;
- encrypted daily backups, kept for 45 days in another data centre, with file-by-file restore;
- Redis and Memcached, a configurable web application firewall and DDoS protection;
- SSH, SFTP, Git, WP-CLI, the REST API, PHP, Node.js, Python and Ruby;
- one-click WordPress, an AI-assisted WordPress SiteBuilder, and free incoming migration by PlanetHoster’s team.
Promotion, renewal and cost per website
The $6.64 a month promotion applies to a 24-month commitment on the pack of 10 or on Ultra. At renewal, both return to their regular price, $24.19 a month. Over four years, Ultra comes to a little under $740, promotion included: that is the figure to keep in mind when choosing. Per website, on the other hand, the maths becomes very favourable as soon as you host several.
| Plan | Per website per month | Per website per year |
|---|---|---|
| Pack of 10, during the 24-month promotion | $0.66 | $7.97 |
| Pack of 100, regular price | $1.80 | $21.78 |
| Pack of 10, regular price and renewal | $2.41 | $29.03 |
| Single Web Project Standard | $9.67 | $116.04 |
Calculated from the official grid, for a full pack. From three websites, the pack of 10 costs less than single projects.
The N0C panel and developer tools
PlanetHoster replaced cPanel with its own panel, N0C. It handles domains and DNS, email with Roundcube, PHP versions and extensions, Node.js, Python and Ruby, MariaDB databases with phpMyAdmin, files, SSL certificates, cron jobs, statistics and CMS installs. The web application firewall can be fine-tuned there.
N0C gets straight to the point. It takes a little getting used to if you come from cPanel, quickly offset by the web terminal, SSH and the API.
SSH, WP-CLI and Git on every plan
This is the argument that sets PlanetHoster apart: SSH access and WP-CLI are included by default, even on a single Web Project. You connect with a key, and WordPress is driven from the command line: updates, cache purges, search and replace in the database, repairing an interrupted update. With the same key on several projects, an operation is repeated on every website in a few minutes. Git and Composer complete the set.
A public, documented API
PlanetHoster’s API, documented in OpenAPI format, covers the account, domain names, DNS zones, and more than 70 routes for hosting: email accounts and forwarders, databases, cron jobs, PHP, Node.js, Python and Ruby versions, SSH keys, certificates, LiteSpeed cache, Redis, Memcached, object storage and WordPress. Creating dozens of email forwarders in one pass, changing the mail servers of several domains or reissuing an SSL certificate becomes a script, without opening the panel.
I host around sixty WordPress websites at PlanetHoster, spread across dozens of servers, and I manage them over SSH and WP-CLI. The API feeds, every night, the dashboard I use to follow them all. It is this tooling, far more than the price, that makes a network of that size manageable by one person.
PHP versions and LiteSpeed cache
Each project has its own PHP version: a recent website benefits from the latest versions while an older one stays on an earlier version until it is modernised. Standard and Plus projects run on Apache and LiteSpeed with LSCache, so you can use the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress directly; Ultra moves up to LiteSpeed Enterprise.
Isolation and distribution of projects
Each Web Project has its own environment, with its files, databases and resources. Above all, PlanetHoster spreads the projects of a single customer across several distinct physical servers, in the region you chose: two projects rarely end up on the same machine. A server that slows down therefore affects only one website, never a whole portfolio.
This isolation also protects against nasty surprises: a website inherited from another host that arrives infected stays confined to its own environment while it is cleaned, without touching its neighbours. Incoming migration is handled for free by PlanetHoster’s team; those who prefer to do it themselves have everything they need over SSH.
Email and backups
Email on your domain, with no limit on addresses
Every plan includes unlimited addresses on your domain, with the Roundcube webmail. For a website, what matters is sending: forms, newsletters, notifications. Once the sender is aligned with the domain, SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass and messages land in the inbox within minutes. Support, which has access to the mail server logs, is the right contact if a particular website needs a tweak.
45 days of backups
Backups are daily, encrypted, stored in another data centre and kept for 45 days, well above what the market usually offers, often around 7 to 14 days. Restores are done from N0C, file by file, database by database or in full.
Six weeks of history is the time it takes to notice that a plugin has broken a page and roll back. Keeping your own external copies remains good practice; PlanetHoster’s 45 days make a very comfortable safety net.
Performance and reliability
PlanetHoster’s technical specifications list 99.99% average availability on all its plans, and long-term measurements are reassuring: an average load time under 400 ms and uptime over a full year that exceeds 99.9%. NVMe disks, LiteSpeed caching and its own network all contribute.
The host publishes its incidents and maintenance on a public status page and forum, with their follow-up and resolution. Notable events are rare and well documented, such as a fibre cut between Paris and Lausanne worked around within hours by the backup network.
PlanetHoster support
Support is the strength PlanetHoster’s customers mention most: ticket, chat and phone, around the clock, with in-house teams. Its speed and its clear explanations are widely praised, with an average response time announced at around fifteen minutes.
A forum and knowledge bases complete the set, with technicians in Montreal and Paris and priority support on Ultra. The host displays a TrustScore of 4.7 out of 5 on more than 5,000 reviews.
Host your websites with PlanetHoster
Isolated Web Projects, packs of 10 and 100, SSH, WP-CLI and API on every plan, with the 60-day guarantee.
What we like about PlanetHoster
Professional tooling on the smallest plan
SSH, WP-CLI, Git and a complete API from the cheapest plan: everything you need to automate what repeats, without changing plan.
A very low cost per website in packs
$1.80 per project in the pack of 100, $0.66 in the pack of 10 during the promotion: an unbeatable unit cost for this quality.
The choice of data location
Paris, Lausanne or Montreal, project by project, with an independent host. A real argument for a business that cares where its data lives, in the European Union, in Switzerland or in Canada.
Registrar and host in the same place
Domains are managed alongside hosting, with DNS in N0C, and can be driven by the same API.
Things to know
The renewal price
The $6.64 a month promotion lasts 24 months, then the pack of 10 and Ultra return to $24.19 a month. Renewal is automatic and can be turned off up to 30 days before the due date. The right reflex: think in terms of the regular price, which remains very competitive per website.
A range worth reading carefully
Between Web Projects, packs, Plus, Ultra and HybridCloud, the range takes a moment to read. LiteSpeed Enterprise and Auto Peak Power are reserved for Ultra; Standard and Plus run on Apache and LiteSpeed with LSCache.
A strict web application firewall
The firewall protects well, and it can block remote publishing from an editorial tool or requests from bots that do not identify as a browser. Its log in N0C lets you spot the rule involved and adjust it. After a DNS switch, the Let’s Encrypt certificate is triggered in one click in the panel or through the API.
A French-speaking company
PlanetHoster’s teams are based in Montreal and Paris, and French is their first language. The website, the order process and the N0C panel are available in English.
Who PlanetHoster is for
Ideal for
- Consultants, freelancers and agencies that manage several client websites
- Publishers who want to industrialise with SSH, WP-CLI and the API
- Businesses that want their data in France, Switzerland or Canada
- Anyone who wants human support reachable around the clock
- Online stores with irregular traffic, with the Ultra plan
Less suited to
- A single brochure site looking for the lowest price over several years
- Those who absolutely want cPanel
- Those who want their data hosted in the United States
My tips to get started with PlanetHoster
- Take a pack as soon as you have three websites or more: at $24.19 a month, the pack of 10 costs less than three single projects.
- Choose a yearly cycle: it unlocks the free domain and the incoming migration handled by PlanetHoster.
- Add your SSH key on day one: WP-CLI is already installed, and you will save precious time on every update.
- Pick the region closest to your audience for each project: Paris, Lausanne or Montreal.
- Note the end date of the promotion and decide on renewal at least 30 days before the due date.
- Align your email sender with your domain so SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass and your forms land in the inbox.
PlanetHoster vs the alternatives
PlanetHoster stands out for its tooling, project isolation and support; other hosts take a different approach.
| Host | What sets it apart | The right choice if… |
|---|---|---|
| PlanetHoster | Isolated projects, packs of 10 and 100, SSH, WP-CLI and API, Paris, Lausanne or Montreal, 24/7 support | You manage several websites or care about data location |
| Hostinger | Very low introductory price, very simple hPanel, AI tools | You want the lowest price in the first years |
| OVHcloud | Very wide range, from shared hosting to dedicated servers, 900+ domain extensions | You want everything with one large European provider |
| SiteGround | Managed WordPress hosting with in-house tools | You want premium managed WordPress for a single site |
| Infomaniak | Swiss host, stable prices | You want your data in Switzerland only |
To compare with other tools, browse all my tool reviews.
PlanetHoster FAQ
How much does PlanetHoster cost?
$9.67 a month for a single Web Project Standard, $24.19 for a pack of 10, $181.49 for a pack of 100, $15.72 for Plus and $24.19 for Ultra. The pack of 10 and Ultra are on promotion at $6.64 a month for 24 months.
How much does PlanetHoster cost at renewal?
The plan’s regular price: $24.19 a month for the pack of 10 as for Ultra, at the end of the 24-month promotion. Renewal is automatic and can be turned off up to 30 days before the due date.
Is PlanetHoster reliable?
Yes. The host lists 99.99% average availability, measured uptime over a year exceeds 99.9%, and incidents are published and followed up publicly.
Where are PlanetHoster’s servers?
In Paris, Lausanne and Montreal. The region is chosen when you create each Web Project.
Does PlanetHoster offer cPanel?
PlanetHoster uses its own panel, N0C, which covers domains, DNS, email, PHP, databases, backups and security, with SSH, WP-CLI and an API on top.
Is PlanetHoster good for WordPress?
Very good: one-click install, WP-CLI out of the box, LiteSpeed caching, a choice of PHP versions and an AI-assisted WordPress SiteBuilder.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, thanks to the 60-day money-back guarantee on hosting.
My verdict on PlanetHoster
PlanetHoster is the host I recommend to anyone who manages several websites: professional tooling (SSH, WP-CLI, API) on the smallest plan, projects isolated and spread across several servers, and a very low cost per website in packs. Add 45 days of backups, the choice of data location and support that sets the standard: it is a solid foundation for a website that matters as well as for a growing portfolio.
Just keep the renewal price in mind and take a few minutes to get to grips with N0C. For a single website on the tightest budget, other plans will do; as soon as you have several projects, PlanetHoster is an excellent choice.
Host your websites with PlanetHoster
Isolated Web Projects, packs of 10 and 100, 45 days of backups, 60-day guarantee.
The PlanetHoster links on this page are affiliate links: if you order through them, I earn a commission, and you pay the same price. I host my own websites with PlanetHoster. My opinion remains my own.
