If you are reading this post, the chances are that you are seeking the best web hosting in Canada. More and more Canadians are looking for local, Canadian website hosts for their online stores or websites so they can benefit from search-engine rankings. Whatever your reason, if you are a Canadian business looking for a reputable and affordable hosting provider, you are on the right page.
We went through some of the highest-ranked Canadian web-hosting providers, analyzed which services have been working well for the locals, and created this hosting review to help our readers.
Best Web Hosting Canada 2023 – Reviews
Here are the ten best web-hosting reviews in Canada. Below, we explain their hosting plans, features, cost, and customer support options.
1. Hostinger: Cheapest Hosting Provider in Canada
Since its beginnings in 2004, the company has been providing reliable solutions for cloud hosting needs. With more than 29 million users, Hostinger has earned the title of a secure web-hosting service provider that offers users shared, cloud, WordPress, and email hosting.
If you are interested in shared web hosting, Hostinger offers excellent value for your money. You will get a 24/7 online presence at a competitive rate and a chance to use different features. The downside with a shared hosting plan is that you might experience a slower service (especially if you have more traffic). Shared hosting is only an option for small business owners. Flexible plans start from $0.99 to $3.99/month (the price varies for Single and Business packages).
With Hostinger’s cloud hosting, you can access more servers, obtain dedicated IP service, and get free SSL certificates. With its email-hosting package, you get to enjoy unlimited email accounts, and with the WordPress hosting, you get access to WordPress themes and plans. Hostinger has an uptime of up to 99.9%, which is quite impressive. Read Detailed Review.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use interface
- One-click installation
- Free website builder
- Fast server in Canada
- Budget plans
Cons:
- No dedicated hosting
- No daily backup option for lower plans
2. SiteGround: Best WordPress Web Hosting for Beginners
SiteGround is a popular web-hosting provider in Canada that’s known for its premium customer service. The company offers various plans and packages, including shared, cloud, WordPress, and WooCommerce hosting (great web hosting for ecommerce sites), starting at $6.99/month.
While each hosting plan offers excellent features, WordPress hosting is the most popular option due to the optimized hosting plans and qualified support team. If you are looking for a hosting provider so you can launch your WordPress website, SiteGround might be the perfect option for you.
In terms of customer support, the company offers live chat, phone, email, and ticket support. Users can also take advantage of the knowledge base and tutorials. Whether you need an immediate response or someone to help you with a specific hosting problem, the company guarantees that you’ll get a quick reply within ten minutes.
If you haven’t registered a domain name, SiteGround has you covered. Besides a domain name registration, it offers unlimited email addresses, daily backups, and free SSL certification.
The most significant disadvantage is that SiteGround has no Canadian plans (that is, hosting plans available in Canadian dollars) and no dedicated servers based in Canada. However, the data centers are located all over the world, including the Council Bluffs, Iowa (U.S.), Eemshaven (NL), London (UK), Singapore, Sidney (AU), and Frankfurt (DE), ensuring that the global reach will be excellent. Read Detailed Review.
Pros:
- 10 GB web space
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Strong recommendation by WordPress
- Multiple data centers
- Unmatched customer support
Cost:
- No local servers
- High renewal prices
3. A2 Hosting : Best Web Hosting in Canada with Local Support
If you are looking for an extra-fast web-hosting provider, look no further than A2 Hosting. The company promises 20X more speed than the competition, but is this something they can live up to?
According to the numerous comments and feedback reviews, the speed is truly fast. Users are more than satisfied with their service and could not imagine a better hosting for their business.
Another thing we like about A2 Hosting is its transparency regarding its server status. The company often announces its status on a2status.com. You can check the website and get additional information for a specific server issue, how much time A2 anticipates it will take them to resolve the problem, and more.
In terms of hosting plans and packages, A2 Hosting offers five different options–shared, reseller, WordPress, dedicated, and VPS hosting. If you plan to build a basic website, the WordPress or the shared hosting plan would be perfect for you. The Startup Plan allows you to host one website and gives you free website migration. The Drive Plan will enable you to host numerous websites and gives you free automatic backups, unlimited storage, and website migration. The Turbo plan (the most popular) allows you to host unlimited websites and gives you NVME storage, free website migration, and automatic backups. Read Detailed Review.
The cheapest hosting plan starts at $2.97/ month.
Pros:
- Impressive speed and uptime
- Hosting options with excellent features
- Unlimited email accounts, unlimited bandwidth, and free SSL certificates
- Four data centers around the world
- 24/7/365 customer service (Live chat, Phone, and Support Tickets)
Cons:
- Slow live-chat support
4. GreenGeeks: Best Eco-Friendly Hosting Provider
When speed matters more than ever, your hosting provider needs to provide you with fast servers and excellent uptime. GreenGeeks will match your needs. The company guarantees 100% uptime due to a combination of PowerCacher, fast SSDs, and PHP7, which is pretty impressive.
That is not the only thing that’s exciting about the well known “green hosting company.” GreenGeeks is one of the few hosting providers that are eco-friendly and recognized as a Green Power Partner with the EPA. In other words, this company’s hosting hardware is energy efficient. Thanks to its users, the company replaces at least 600,000 kWh of energy a year to help the environment. Website owners get green certification badges to place on their websites to raise awareness in protecting the environment.
The company has four data centers located around the world, including one in Toronto. It also provides different hosting solutions, including shared, dedicated, reseller, WordPress, and VPS hosting. The cheapest plan starts at $2.95.
If you have any issues or questions, you can contact the customer support team via phone, chat, or support tickets. Read Detailed Review.
Pros:
- Simple and easy to use
- Free SSL certificate, free domain name, website migration
- Competitive prices
- Server located in Toronto
- Excellent customer support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons:
- Confusing pricing plans
- One free backup restoration/month
5. Kinsta: Premium WordPress Web Hosting Service
While A2 Hosting is a well-known WordPress hosting provider, Kinsta is quite popular among successful business owners. If you decide to level up your online business, the features Kinsta offers won’t disappoint you.
First, Kinsta has a strict monitoring policy. The team checks your website every two minutes—or 720 times per day. If anything goes wrong, the tech team will look into it and find a solution. They could fix the problem before you realize you have one!
Kinsta doesn’t hold back on features–you can expect free site migration, a Google Cloud platform, impressive infrastructure, a high-security network, and speed-obsessive architecture.
Next, Kinsta doesn’t offer the standard VPS or shared hosting. Instead, it provides its own proprietary type, which currently doesn’t have a name. Kinsta has Starter and Pro hosting plans, and each comes with automatic daily backups, SSL certificate, PHP 7 support, 24/7 support, and SSH access. The starter plan costs $30 a month.
Kinsta users have access to more than 20 data centers, including one in Montreal. Read Detailed Review.
Pros:
- Fast speeds and impressive uptime (99.98%)
- Secure network
- High level of customer support
- Premium features and options
- Daily backups
Cons:
- Expensive when compared to other web hosting providers
- Available for WordPress users only
6. BlueHost: Web Hosting for Any Business Type
What makes BlueHost popular is its reliability, low price, and performance—suitable for any business, from a startup to a large corporation.
In terms of uptime, the provider has an average result of 99.98%, which is quite good. Your website will be up and running at all times, except for 1.5 hours of downtime during the year. In terms of speed, BlueHost will never let you down. Even though it can’t compete with the latest names in the hosting world, it is still as fast as it was years ago.
Recommended by WordPress, BlueHost is an excellent choice for all WordPress users. In addition to WordPress, BlueHost also offers shared, cloud, VPS, and dedicated hosting. Each hosting option comes with free SSL certificates, a user-friendly cPanel, a free website builder, 24/7 support, and a free domain name. The cheapest offer starts at $2.97 (for basic shared hosting plan) and covers a 36-month subscription.
BlueHost is an international web-hosting provider, but it doesn’t have servers in Canada.
Pros:
- Free features: domain, SSL certificate, a domain name
- Excellent uptime
- Reliable customer service
- Good reputation
Cons:
- Expensive website migrations
- No server in Canada
7. Cloudways: Best Managed Cloud Web Hosting
Since its beginnings in 2011, Cloudways has been trying to provide reliable service at a competitive rate. It is currently one of the best web hosting providers in Canada for cloud solutions. The servers are carved out of digital machines to combine the safety of private (dedicated) servers with the cost savings of shared plans. It is an ideal option for small business owners looking for safe and fast servers without breaking the bank.
Besides the set of features it offers, we also love that Cloudways gives you a 14-day free trial so you can test your website without paying.
The company guarantees 99.99% uptime (proven in testing). For every second it takes to load your site, the bounce rate will increase by 30%. This won’t be a problem because Cloudways has a load time of 615.5 milliseconds.
The starting price is $10 per month and includes 1 GB worth of memory, 24/7 customer support, and SSL certificates. Read Detailed Review.
Pros:
- Excellent customer support service (live chat, ticket submission, online fill-up forms)
- Servers are PHP 7 ready
- Impressive uptime and loading speed
- Very scalable
Cons:
- Requires user to be tech-savvy
8. HostPapa: Best Value for Money
Canada has many good hosting providers that offer an excellent set of features. However, no one can compete with HostPapa when it comes to the cost-value ratio. For only $2.95/month, you get unlimited bandwidth, a free domain name, 100 GB of disk space, a dedicated customer support team, and free website transfer.
HostPapa has impressive uptimes and excellent site speeds due to its local data centers. This famous Canadian-based hosting provider has one goal–to provide small businesses with reliable hosting at an affordable price. From the number of users, we can see that its strategy works. Hostpapa’s average uptime is 99.9%.
The company offers three different plans–Starter, Business, and Business Pro. Each plan allows you to host up to two sites, which is a significant advantage since most hosting providers enable you to host only one website. For any question/query, you can count on the 24/7 customer support team. Read Detailed Review.
Pros:
- Great value for money
- Free website migration and domain name
- Excellent customer support service
- Money-back guarantee
- Canada-based data center
Cons:
- Outdated design
9. Hostgator: Best Long-Term, Established Web Provider
The name Hostgator relates to safe and reliable web hosting, and for a good reason. The company has been on the market for more than 20 years and has become well known for its longevity and security, making it one of the most popular hosting services around.
One thing you won’t have to worry about is uptime. The company guarantees a 99.9% uptime, meaning you’ll only experience around 8 hours of downtime/year. In terms of hosting plans and options, Hostgator offers Hatchling, Baby, and Business plans. The cheapest one starts at $2.75 per month.
With the Hostgator cPanel tool, you can control all aspects of your website. The panel is user-friendly and doesn’t have a learning curve, meaning you shouldn’t have to worry about making changes, navigating, or modifying. Besides the excellent uptime and intuitive cPanel, another area where Hostgator impresses is customer support. If you have a problem, you can reach the customer support team at any time of the day via phone, email, or live chat.
Pros:
- Quick and easy to navigate the platform
- Various hosting plans/options
- 24/7 customer support service
Cons:
- High renewal rates
10. DreamHost: Best Provider for Business Hosting With a Free Trial
If you are looking to try out a web-hosting provider with above-average speed, excellent uptime, and lots of free features, DreamHost has it all. With an average speed of 648ms and 99.94% uptime, DreamHost is a top choice for Canadian business owners opening a business online.
Another thing we like about DreamHost is its 97-day refund policy. You have enough time to test the platform, inspect the options, and determine whether this company is a suitable option for your site.
The starter plan costs $2.59/month and comes with a ton of features, including unlimited bandwidth and storage, easy-to-use panel, free domain, free email address, free privacy protection, SSL certificate, automatic backups, and WordPress setup. DreamHost has its own website builder, known as Remixer, and also offers access to Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace.
Pros:
- Unlimited set of features
- Free website builder
- Excellent average uptime
- Cheap renewal rates
Cons:
- Limited customer support
- No cPanel (custom panel)
- No free website migration option
How to Find the Best Web Host for Your Business in Canada
Web hosting is an important aspect when building a business online. Still, many people fail to care about it. If you plan to establish a new online business or you have a brand that wants a fully-functional and fast-loading website, you will need to make an extra effort when choosing a hosting company.
While several factors can help you detect the company’s reliability, we’ve narrowed down the choice to these seven components.
Server Location
If you or your business are based in Canada, chances are you’ll want a hosting company with local servers. Server location matters, especially for SEO rankings and coverage. However, if the company has international servers and guarantees excellent results, you shouldn’t worry about loading speed or Google rankings.
Uptime
When choosing a hosting company, you want one that provides stable service and has a high average uptime score. Most hosting providers guarantee an uptime of up to 99.99%. Before committing, check your options to make sure you are choosing a reputable web hosting with proven uptime records.
Disk Space
The more disk space you have, the more files you can upload. For a small website with almost no traffic, the amount of storage is irrelevant. Still, if you are looking to host a larger site or online shop, you will need a hosting provider that offers more storage capacity or a chance to upgrade your disk space.
Bandwidth and Data Transfer
Bandwidth and data transfer are very important, yet they are at the bottom of many people’s priority lists. Bandwidth is the measure of data that you can transfer in a given time, and while lower-ranked hosting companies offer limited bandwidth, the ones at the top don’t have any restrictions.
Speed
No matter how good your website is or how many features your web host offers, you can’t count on gaining positive first impressions if the site speed is slow. When visitors come to your site, they expect the pages to open quickly. If that doesn’t happen, they will leave. When choosing a hosting provider, select one that has fast servers and promises high speed.
Support
When building a website, you may run into numerous problems. For this reason, you need a host support team that can help you solve the issues in the fastest way possible. Before choosing a hosting company, check the availability of the support service (ideally, it is best if the team is available 24/4) and the options you can use to reach them–live chat, phone, email, or support tickets.
Security
Nowadays, website security is essential, and while there are numerous ways to protect your site and convince your customers you are a safe place to browse or shop, the SSL certificate is at the top of the list. SSL is a technology for creating an encrypted link between the browser and web host that allows private information (names, phones, credit card numbers) to be transmitted safely.
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