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Looking for the best Canada web hosting? With the sheer number of hosting providers available, it can be a bit of a daunting process to find one that best suits your needs. Upon popular request, we have curated a list of the best hosting choices specifically for Canadian webmasters.
For those outside of Canada, please refer to our general list of the best web hosting companies.
Best Web Hosting for Canada: Company Comparison
While these are all great hosting choices, they each have strengths in different areas and what is good for one business may be different for another. Please be sure to carefully read through our full reviews to determine which one is best for you.
| Web Host | Starts at: | Recommended for: | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreenGeeks | $3.95/mo | All-purpose web hosting great for blogging & small businesses | View Plans |
| InMotion Hosting | $3.99/mo | Reliable & affordable web hosting for businesses of all sizes | View Plans |
| HostUpon | $3.95/mo | All-In-One, do-it-yourself shared web hosting for entrepreneurs | View Plans |
| Cloudways | $10.00/mo | High performance cloud hosting for high traffic sites | View Plans |
| Web Hosting Canada | $3.99/mo | Fast, customizable hosting for developers & businesses | View Plans |
GreenGeeks
All-Purpose hosting for Canadian Small Businesses & Bloggers
30 Day Money-Back Guarantee
Starts at:$3.95/mo
www.greengeeks.com is our top choice for Canadian based webmasters. Beyond their boasted environmentally friendly approach to hosting (they claim to provide 3 times the amperage back to renewable energy to what they use), GreenGeeks is a solid contender in the web hosting market. Their speed is well-earned. With two Canadian data centers in Montreal and Toronto and two US data centers, this award-winning host provides lightning fast Tier 1 connections across North America. Beyond these two Canadian-based data centers, GreenGeeks also provides free CDN caching. Their security offerings are top-of-the-line; beyond including free encrypted SSL, free SSH and SFTP, they have an entire array of security services, including Real-time scanning, Advanced Clustered Threat analysis, and more. As for services, they provide solid support for WordPress, as well as standard Web hosting with a solid suite of services… Read our full GreenGeeks review
Key Features:
- Servers in Montreal
- Servers in Toronto
- Linux hosting w/ cPanel
- Various plans for all sizes
- Softaculous 1-click installs
- Fast & reliable hosting
- Free SSL, SSD, & domain
- A+ customer support
- Awesome shared hosting
- Great 4 all-purpose
- Good, reliable company
InMotion Hosting
Best for Canadian & US Business Websites of All Sizes
90 Day Money-Back Guarantee
Starts at: $3.99/mo
www.inmotionhosting.com is one of our top favorites that offers high performance web hosting for thousands of professional businesses worldwide. While they do not have any data centers specifically located in Canada, they do have state of the art data centers with Teir 1 connections, giving their customers high speeds throughout all of North America. They provide various hosting types that meet the needs of both small and large businesses, ranging from shared hosting all the way up to dedicated servers. InMotion Hosting is overall a top choice and we host our own site with them… Read our full InMotion review
Key Features:
- A+ N. America hosting
- Linux hosting w/ cPanel
- Various plans for all sizes
- Softaculous 1-click installs
- Business grade hosting
- Free SSL, SSD, & domain
- Affordable & reliable
- A+ customer support
- Awesome w/ WordPress
- Great 4 web designers/devs
- Honest, reputable company
HostUpon
Best for Canadian Small Businesses Looking for Shared Web Hosting
30 Day Money-Back Guarantee
Starts at: $3.36/mo
www.hostupon.com is another good choice and an affordable option for Canadian small business owners. They recently opened a new data center in Toronto. The physical location of their data centers provide extremely fast speeds for most Canadian-based customers. While capable of hosting large sites with dedicated and cloud plans, Hostupon notably provide a nice “home-town” feel that you would expect from your next-door neighbor and is a perfect choice for small business websites. Their pricing is competitive for those just getting started and each hosting plan provides a wide variety of features.
Key Features:
- Servers in Toronto
- Canadian hosting company
- Powerful & affordable
- Various hosting plans
- Linux hosting w/ cPanel
- Softaculous 1-click installs
- Ideal 4 startups & DIYers
- Small business sites
- In-house customer support
CloudWays
Managed Cloud Hosting for Larger Canadian Businesses & Enterprises
30 Day Money-Back Guarantee
Starts at: $10.00/mo
www.cloudways.com is a bit different than the other options on this list. They partner with many cloud-based application service providers. The main advantage of this approach is that they can handle large amounts of traffic or scale for sudden traffic surges. Most cloud providers (with whom they partner) have a vast number of data centers, including many located in Canada. Cloudways is an ideal host for advanced developers and larger businesses with intensive demands. Their pricing is very affordable too. While their starting cost is slightly higher than the other providers here (typically it will begin at around $10/month), migration becomes less necessary as your business grows. You have the option of choosing which cloud provider, ranging from Digital Ocean, AWS, to Google and more. Find our full Cloudways review here.
Key Features:
- Managed cloud hosting
- Fast, scalable, & simple
- Enterprise cloud platforms
- AWS, Linode, DO, Kyup, etc
- Managed backups & security
- 1 click app installs
- Apps configured & optimized
- 45+ data centers
- Servers in Canada & US
- Expert customer support
Web Hosting Canada
Trusted by Over 25,000 Canadian Small Businesses
www.whc.ca is last, but not least on our list. If you want the full Canadian experience, you can’t really go much further than Web Hosting Canada! A truly Canadian hosting company, they are based in Montreal (meaning, among other things, that you can work with them in French & English) and have data centers on both East and West coasts. Their pricing models are similar to other hosts on this list and they also offer various hosting types – shared, cloud, dedicated, and reseller hosting. Ideal for small business websites, they are also an exceptional choice for Canadian web designers looking for reseller packages.
Key Features:
- Canadian hosting company
- Servers in W. & E. Coast
- PIPEDA compliance
- cPanel with Cloudlinux
- Various plans for all sizes
- 1-click installs
- Various hosting types
- Fast, reliable performance
- Anycast DNS
- 24/7 customer support
- Great 4 web designers
What Makes These the Best Canadian Web Hosts?
There are 7 basic factors that we looked at to determine what makes the above hosts the best choice.
1. Is Your Server Located in Canada?
You may be thinking “Why does it matter where my web host is located? It’s the Internet, right?”. While it is true that you can access pretty much any site in the world, it is still important to consider the geolocation of the connection.
Geolocation can play a major factor in hosting, especially if the majority of your customers are in Canada. Although you can use a Content Delivery network (CDN), it’s a good idea to choose a data center located in or near Canada. The closer your server is to you and your visitor’s location, the less latency and faster the connection. As usability expert Jakob Nielsen has pointed out, if your visitors have as little as a single second delay, this can interrupt their flow of thought.
A slow website response time of 3 seconds or greater is the most reported reason why users abandon an online purchase
It’s a good idea to make sure that your host (or at least the host’s data center) is physically located within Canada if most of your website’s visitors are Canadian. Another potential issue might include whether the support is available in French. Can your host handle this? This is a requirement for many Canadian businesses.
Another important factor is whether your provider is PIPEDA compliant. Maintaining the privacy of your users’ data is law in Canada. While hosts located in other countries may be aware of this, Canadian hosts are far more likely to include this as part of their service agreement.
2. Performance
As related to the above, overall performance (in addition to the geo-location of your web host) is one of the most important factors to consider when it comes to web hosting. A slow website can be the death of your business. You should be aware, at least on a basic level, of what technologies your web host is using. Are they using Apache or NGINX? What PHP version are they running? Are they using SSDs? Make sure they are using the latest hardware and software technologies and best practices to obtain maximum performance benefits.
3. Security
Security is another big deal – and not only for you, but for your customers. While most web hosts should take care of many security related aspects, you should also familiarize yourself with standard security practices to keep your physical website secure. Is SSL included? How about Sitelock? Are they they using SFTP or are they still providing simple FTP. Do they have any processes in place to protect against a DDoS attack? Ask the web host what sort of security features/systems they implement.
4. Features
While there are standard features that almost all hosts provide, it is important to make sure the host provides the necessary features you need. Does your developer have any advanced requirements?
5. Price
Price is naturally an important factor to consider. Most web hosts offer an introductory pricing scheme that can greatly increase after your first renewal. Pay attention to pricing structures in case you want to upgrade at any time. These can vary significantly between hosts.
6. Customer Support
This may seem obvious, but maybe not. No matter how great your host is, if something goes wrong, are they there to help? How fast will they respond? Do they have a phone number you can call? Chat access? What level of support do they provide? Is it only customer service or do they provide more advanced technical support?
7. Hosting Type
As you probably know, there are different hosting types. Each of these types are suitable for different needs and requirements. Before you make a decision, it’s a good idea to check what hosting types the company offers and what type you need now, and may need in the future as well. Most small business owners need shared web hosting, but you may need a VPS, cloud, or dedicated server.
Conclusion
Choosing the best web hosting for Canada is very much like choosing the best hosting for anywhere else – except with the added attention given to the specific geolocation for Canadian users. In addition to the location of your web host, remember to consider other factors, like performance, features, price, security options, and the hosting types offered. Our above list all excel in each of these factors and would make a solid choice for hosting your website.
QUICK TIP: Most web hosts offer a 30-day money back guarantee. You have a whole month to try it, test it, and see if you like it!
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