Choosing the Best Web Hosting in Canada (2023)

The web hosting provider that you pick for your Canadian audience can make or break your business. For one, if your target audience resides in a particular country you would want your web hosting service to be able to provide a fast and efficient experience for users in that location. And just any web hosting company won't do the trick. Some hosting services are great in terms of loading speeds, uptime, and ease of use in specific countries but in others aren't so great.

This happens for so many reasons, for example, some hosting providers offer a free CDN that places your content in different geographic locations around the world and this enables quick loading times regardless of where your audience comes from. Others may not and have to load your content from their web server's location, which if not close to where your audience comes from can affect your website's load time for them.

The result is terrible, as web users aren't patient with slow loading pages or response times. If they wait longer than expected they will simply bounce to the next page on the SERPs (search engine result pages). This damages your SEO and brand reputation.

But with the myriads of hosts available, how do you know the right one for your business? All web hosting services present themselves as offering fast load times and 99% uptime availability.

Do you just go for the most popular options like WP Engine and SiteGround? Or are there certain factors that you need to know about before choosing the best Canadian web hosting for your website despite their popularity?

That's where we come in. In this best web hosting in Canada roundup, we will cover the factors you need to consider when choosing a host and web hosting plan for your website, as well as do the heavy lifting for you and list the top 9 hosting providers in the country.

We will also cover the pros and cons of each service, their pricing structure (which is extremely vital if you're on a budget), and primary features. With that said, let's get started on the hosting options available in Canada. But before that let's have a look at the factors to consider when choosing a web host. The factors ultimately help you decide which host to choose despite their features.

Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best Web Hosting Service in Canada

1. Monthly Traffic

Most web hosting services feature either a monthly traffic limit or unlimited traffic for each pricing package they offer. This means that if your chosen website host can only cater to 100,000 users per month coming to your site, if you receive above that number they can stop showing your site to visitors, charge you extra costs, or your website crashes.

So it's imperative to look out for the traffic limit stated by a host before opting for them. Some like Nexcess offer auto-scaling, which means they'll automatically boost you to a higher plan free of charge whenever traffic spikes occur. This gives you the time to adjust to the increase adequately.

So before choosing a host consider your traffic volume per month and if the service can handle that volume or your forecasted increase of that volume.

2. Load Speed

If you know a little about search engine optimization, you're aware that Google always prioritizes web pages that load quicker in the bid to provide users with the best experience.

So you have to ensure that the best web hosting service in Canada that you choose offers excellent load speed. The speed of the host is affected by numerous reasons like server location, CDN and advanced caching availability. This means that when choosing you have to look beyond the generic statement “quick load times” but ensure that the host offers features that facilitate load speed.

3. Customer Support

Beyond having all the required features for page success, the best host for your website must be efficient in supporting you. Customer support is a vital factor for ensuring that you experience seamless usability as you set up and run your website.

If you have problems with your hosting experience you would want a service that you can easily reach and get quality support quickly. Also, depending on the CMS (Content Management System) platform that you use, you would want a host that offers customer support specific to the platform.

For example, if you're having issues with a Magento website, a host that only provides WordPress tailored support may not be the best choice. Most times the issues you'll face are platform-specific. The channel of support is also crucial, do they offer live chat, email, or phone support?

4. Storage Space

Depending on the purpose of your website, you will require little or massive storage space for the files you intend to add to it. But irrespective of your need, it's best practice to pick a service that satisfies your wants.

If you require massive storage space ensure that the website hosting provider in Canada that you pick offers the amount you need to prevent running out of memory. However, if you want a smaller space, go for a starter plan to avoid paying for unnecessary server resources.

That said, some web hosting services feature unlimited disk space, so for such you can relax about this factor.

1. SiteGround

SiteGround is a budget-friendly Canadian web host option for websites with small to medium-sized traffic. The hosting provider offers a range of services such as cloud hosting, WordPress hosting, and shared hosting. Users get access to a user-friendly interface that allows even freshers to seamlessly create their website alongside a host of additional tools built for website management.

The primary features of this hosting service in Canada include free daily backups, unmetered traffic, unlimited databases, easy GIT Integration, many collaboration tools, free SSL, free CDN, fast servers, and quick load times.

SiteGround also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee when you sign up for any web hosting package with them. This enables you to use the service in trial since you're allowed to request a complete refund of any plan that you opt for as long as you cancel within your first 30 days.

SiteGround features a network uptime of 99.9% yearly. And provide credit if there's a network failure. Also, for every 1% of uptime lost under 99.00% SiteGround will provide free hosting for 1 month. Users will also receive a notification in their account to inform them of any emergency or scheduled maintenance, and downtime alerts.

With regards to customer support, SiteGround offers one of the best in the game. The hosting service's customer support team can be reached via online live chat, email support ticket, or phone. Support tickets are usually fast in terms of response and quite often, customers are connected to a rep within the first 20 minutes of sending the request.

SiteGround has data centers in many locations globally, including the United States, Australia, Germany, and Singapore. They also allow you to pick the data center you want your website to be hosted on at checkout. Finally, it's important to note that SiteGround can only cater to websites with approximately 10,000 users per month to 100,000 users monthly.

Pricing

SiteGround offers the following plans:

• StartUp: The StartUp plan costs $4.99 per month, renewable at $14.99 per month.
• GrowBig: The GrowBig plan costs $7.99 per month, renewable at $24.99 per month.
• GoGeek: This plan costs $14.99 per month, renewable at $39.99 monthly.

Pros

• Single-click website copy
• Easy website staging tools.
• SSD disk and PHP7 are available with OPcache.
• Automatic website backups.
• You can host many websites on one account.
• It is optimized for PHP-based applications and WordPress as well.

Cons

• SiteGround cannot handle websites with huge traffic numbers monthly.
• Website transfer is not available in their basic plan.
• The basic plan doesn't include a free domain.

Best For

SiteGround is best for people looking for an affordable option that can cater to small and medium-sized traffic.

2. GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly hosting choice for small websites and blogs with a Canadian audience. This best hosting service in Canada offers a range of solutions such as dedicated servers, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, shared hosting, and WordPress hosting.

The primary features of this hosting provider include built-in caching, enhanced security, 1-click WordPress installation, free CDN, free SSL certificate, unmetered transfer, free domain for 1 year, free nightly backup, unlimited disk space, 300% green energy match, WordPress acceleration and optimization.

If you cancel your subscription in your first 30 days of signing up for the hosting solution, GreenGeeks provides a complete money-back guarantee.

This makes it a perfect option for people who want to try out different web hosting options without having to commit to drawn-out contracts. What you paid for the hosting plan will be refunded, however, this 30-day money-back guarantee does not apply to domain names and other additional services that you signed up for alongside the plan.

GreenGeeks also features a service level agreement and compensates you for any network downtime or failure. You will get credited for every downtime that occurs due to unscheduled maintenance or other issues depending on the length of the downtime. And the plan you're on currently.

For instance, if you're on a plan that costs $9.95 per month, GreenGeeks will credit you $0.08 for 1.5 hours of abrupt or unscheduled maintenance in a month. That said, they provide a 99.5% uptime guarantee and will always let you know if there's unplanned downtime or scheduled maintenance.

GreenGeeks provides stellar customer support with ample ways to get in touch with their reps such as live chat, phone support, and email ticket support. Generally, expect a response to your support ticket anywhere between 30 to 40 minutes. The live chat option is a lot quicker.

The service provides data centers in the following places; Canada, Netherlands, and the United States.

Pricing

GreenGeeks offers the following plans:

• Lite Plan: The Lite plan costs $2.49 per month initially and $10.95 for renewal.
• Pro Plan: This plan costs $4.95 per month initially and costs $15.95 per month for renewal.
• Premium Plan: This plan costs $8.95 per month and $25.95 for renewal.

Pros

Provides eco-friendly hosting with a 300% green energy match.

• Stores your site data and files in SSD.
• Features automated WordPress and WordPress plugin updates.
• GreenGeeks provides LiteSpeed's Cache for the WordPress plugin.
• GreenGeeks strives to keep your WordPress website secure.

Cons

• The renewal cost after the introductory rate is quite high.
• On-demand backup isn't available in the Lite plan.

Best For

This best web hosting service in Canada is best for people who want to use an eco-friendly hosting option with an affordable introductory rate.

3. WP Engine

WP Engine is the most popular hosting service in the managed WordPress hosting sphere. The provider manages your WordPress servers for you. So you don't need to bother about website downtime as they monitor your site 24/7. If you intend to run a WordPress site and aren't knowledgeable in managing your server, WP Engine is the best choice.

They also offer many data centers around the world including Canada. WP Engine provides a generous 60-day money-back guarantee on all plans as well. And all plans come alongside the Genesis theme WordPress framework and 35+ premium StudioPress themes worth over $1000.

WP Engine also features a global CDN with all plans at no extra cost and servers that use SSD hard drives. Their support is via live chat and it's available 24/7. This best web host in Canada is also one of the most powerful choices for people who receive a large traffic volume monthly as their plans can handle huge numbers.

Pricing

WP Engine offers the following pricing plans:

• Managed Hosting: This plan has sub-plans within it, and the smallest plan goes for $25 per month. The highest plan costs $241.67 per month.
• Managed Hosting Plus: The basic plan here costs $28.33 per month. And the top plan costs $258.33.
• ECommerce Hosting: The basic plan costs $30 per month and the top plan costs $291.67.

All plans allow for custom hosting services, so if none of the packages available satisfy your need, you can reach out to support for a custom deal.

Pros

• Customer support is 24/7.
• Global CDN is provided for all plans.
• It can cater to large traffic volumes.
• It is a fully managed WordPress hosting.

Cons

• WP Engine may be quite expensive for beginners.

Best For

This hosting provider in Canada is best for people who receive huge traffic volumes.

4. Web Hosting Canada

Web Hosting Canada provides solutions offered by one of the most popular and long-standing hosting services in Canada. This host is also a popular option for WordPress users, as it offers a range of optimized solutions crafted for a seamless WordPress experience.

Web Hosting Canada features a couple of SEO and email marketing plans as well, that you can add to complement your hosting plan with a zero-obligation free trial as an option.

The primary features of this service include a dedicated cPanel, unlimited data space, inbuilt security, free migration of current website, and geolocation in Canada.

Web Hosting Canada also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee that gives new users the option of trying out the service with zero risks. This means you're entitled to a refund of everything that you have paid for your hosting plan if you cancel within the first 30 days.

With regards to customer support, they offer phone support 24/7. Plus, their answer rate for customer calls averages at 20 seconds. Generally, every customer contact is responded to in 6 hours. Web Hosting Canada provides a generous 99% uptime guarantee that ensures your website is up and running at all times. However, if this uptime drops below their guarantee you'll be entitled to account credits. And these credits are given for emergency or unplanned downtime, not if it is caused by your account activity. Web Hosting Canada will also notify you about every planned downtime.

This hosting solution in Canada features servers located in Vancouver and Montreal and at the time of your signup, you can choose which data center location you want your website to be hosted on.

Pricing

Web Hosting Canada offers the following pricing plans:

• Starter: The Starter plan costs C$3.98 per month and is renewed at C$8.99.
• Pro: The Pro plan costs C$3.92 per month and is renewed at C$11.99.
• Enterprise: This plan costs C$11.89 per month and is renewed at C$20.99.

Every plan includes Google ads credit worth $100 and free website transfer.

Pros

• Web hosting Canada offers 1-click WordPress installation
• Servers are located in Canada, which means more speed for your Canadian audience.
• Unlimited disk space is available
• Free Cloudflare

Cons

• Web Hosting Canada does not include an SSL certificate for its Starter plans.

Best For

This plan is best for website owners with a Canadian audience that want to host their website on a solution with servers in Canada for improved speed and efficiency.

5. Nexcess

Nexcess offers hosting that's optimized for WordPress and Magento. The service includes a ton of features such as improved speed with image compression, built-in CDN, and advanced caching. There are also no traffic limits, overage fees, or metered pageviews. Nexcess offers free migrations as well.

In addition, Nexcess provides help from experts who can help support your website based on the platform you're using like WordPress or Magento. These experts are a part of their support team and are available 24/7.

Other features included in the various plans include a 30-day money-back guarantee, WordPress core updates, visual regression testing, 1-click staging website, free SSL certificates, iThemes security pro, PHP 7 compatible, Nexcess CDN, and daily backups.

Nexcess also provides PCI-compliant data centers in 3 locations in the United States, 2 in the UK, 1 in the Netherlands, and Australia.

Pricing

Nexcess offers the following pricing plans:

• Spark: The Spark plan costs $9.50 per month and is renewed at $19 per month, after 6 months.
• Maker: The Maker plan costs $39.50 per month and is renewed at $79 per month, after 6 months.
• Designer: This is Nexcess's most popular plan and it costs $54.50 for 6 months and then $109 per month.
• Builder: The Builder plan costs $74.50 per month for 6 months and is renewed at $149 monthly.
• Producer: This plan costs $149.50 for 6 months and then is renewed at $299 per month.
• Executive: The Executive plan costs $274.50 per month for 6 months and is renewed at $549 per month.
• Enterprise: This Nexcess plan costs $499.50 for 6 months and then $999 per month after.

Pros

• Nexcess offers platform-specific expert support.
• Nexcess provides a lot of features to boost speed.
• Nexcess features free migrations for people who already have a website.

Cons

• Nexcess doesn't offer a free domain.

Best For

Nexcess is best for people who are searching for platform specialized hosting like WordPress or Magento for their website.

6. HostPapa

This web hosting solution provides a range of hosting services for Canadian users, such as VPS hosting, shared hosting, WordPress hosting, and reseller hosting. Some of the amazing features that they offer include cPanel as control panel, free migration for your current website, integration support for GSuite and Office 365, free domain registration, unlimited SSD storage, unlimited email accounts, unmetered bandwidth, automated website backup, jetpack for WordPress, and lots more.

They also offer very responsive and helpful customer support for any type of technical problems that you may encounter. Support is available 24/7 and you can reach them through email support tickets or live chat.

HostPapa provides a complete money-back guarantee if you stop your subscription to their hosting plan within the first 30 days. This allows you to sign up and try out the service without the risk of a financial loss if you decide that is not the best fit for your website. This best hosting service in Canada also provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee. And if your downtime is below the guarantee for reasons outside your control and they have no planned maintenance or emergency involved, your account would be eligible for credit compensation.

You'll also get notifications when there are planned downtimes. HostPapa has data centers in numerous locations including Canada, the United States, Germany, Spain, France, India, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.They give you the ability to choose the data center location of your website at checkout.

Pricing

HostPapa offers the following pricing details:

• WordPress Hosting: This pricing plan costs $5.95 per month for the most popular plan (WP Business) and is renewed at $15.99 per month.
• Shared Hosting: The most popular shared hosting plan (Business) costs $3.95 per month and is renewed at $15.99 per month.

Pros

• HostPapa offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• A reliable and secure business email included.
• You get a free domain with their basic shared hosting plan.

Cons

• In comparison to the introductory prices, renewal prices are very costly.
• Free SSL certificate needs to be added at an extra cost.

Best For

This hosting service in Canada is best for people searching for a simple hosting solution.

7. Hostinger

Hostinger is affordable, easy-to-use, and secure. It provides 1-click virtual private server access and immediate setup. The primary features of this hosting solution include support for MySQL and PHP, unlimited bandwidth and storage, global content distribution network, LiteSpeed, Cloudflare, high-speed SSD storage and WordPress optimized hosting.

Just like with others on this list, Hostinger allows you to cancel your subscription without charge in the first 30 days of registration. Beyond this, you will be entitled to a complete refund of all hosting services that you purchased from Hostinger in this time frame.

They also have a global team that provides 24/7 customer support for users all around the world.

With regards to uptime, Hostinger states that they offer a 99.99% guarantee but this is not guaranteed. But they provide downtime notifications to customers, with messages to notify you about either an emergency or planned maintenance that may cause downtime on your website.

This hosting provider for your Canadian audience has servers and data centers globally located in the following nations; the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Singapore, Lithuania, Netherlands, and Indonesia. After signing up you can pick any server location from those countries.

Some other features worth mentioning in their higher plans are free Google ads credit, managed WordPress, daily backups, free CDN, SSH access, and GIT access.

Pricing

Hostinger offers WordPress-specific hosting and single shared hosting. Here are the plans for the single shared hosting:

• Single Shared Hosting: This plan costs $1.39 per month and is renewed at $9.49 per month.
• Premium Shared Hosting: This plan costs $2.59 per month and is renewed at $10.29 per month.
• Business Shared Hosting: The business Shared Hosting plan costs $3.99 per month and is renewed at $15.99.

Pros

• Free domain names and backups included.
• Many themes, add-ons, widgets, and templates to choose from.
• Quality security and free SSL certificate.
• Easy to manage your website's functionality content and layout.

Cons

• Renewal costs take quite the leap.

Best For

Hostinger is best for people who want a shared hosting option with ample features.

8. DreamHost

DreamHost is one of the best web hosting providers in Canada with a ton of powerful features that boost website efficiency. The web host offers a custom control panel that's super easy to use even for beginners. However, for people used to cPanel, you'll have to get familiar with it.

The primary features of this service include a free domain for all plans, unlimited traffic, WordPress pre-installed, fast SSD storage, WordPress website builder, free automated WordPress migrations, free SSL certificate, and unlimited emails.

Beyond these, if you already run a WordPress website you can migrate to DreamHost for free without bothering about downtime using their free automatic migration plugin. You also won't require technical knowledge to do this. Security (privacy protection) is also available for free.

DreamHost features unlimited disk space as well for your website, so you don't have to stress about storage if your website goes viral. There's also a powerful 1-click installer that makes the process for freshers to web hosting a lot easier. The backups are done daily and automatedly.

This hosting server also guarantees 100% uptime. With regards to customer support, DreamHost provides 24/7 support availability from in-house experts that provide personalized solutions via live chat or email support tickets. Then there's a comprehensive knowledge base for a ton of FAQs and answers to common issues.

DreamHost also provides a money-back guarantee that's eligible within your first 97 days of signing up to the service. This is quite generous and DreamHost is one of the only hosting providers that offer this feature.

Pros

• DreamHost includes a free domain for every plan.
• Money-back guarantee after 97 days.
• There's a 1-click installer that makes it easy for freshers to get started.
• 24/7 support is available via live chat and email.
• The uptime guarantee is 100%.

Cons

• DreamHost's renewal price is quite the leap from the introductory offer.

Best For

DreamHost is best for users that want a hosting service in Canada that they can try out long-term before deciding to go full-on.

9. Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the most popular options in this best web hosting in Canada roundup. The brand is an official WordPress hosting service that offers a broad range of plans that's suitable for small businesses, individuals, bloggers, and enterprises.

They feature a range of options such as VPS hosting, shared hosting, and dedicated server hosting. The primary features of BlueHost include SSD storage, 24/7 customer support, WordPress integration, custom themes, drag and drop functionality, free SSL certificate, free CDN, and a free domain for 1 year.

In addition, Bluehost provides a generous 30-day money-back guarantee for all hosting plans, which allows you to try out the service without risks. Their customer support is stellar with a broad range of options for getting across to support reps. You can receive support through live chat, telephone, and email tickets.

BlueHost also offers a 99% uptime guarantee and alerts users of any emergency or scheduled maintenance that could result in downtime. BlueHost has data centers in different locations in the world, which include China, Lithuania, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and India.

That said, unlike most options in this roundup, you won't be able to choose your data center location after signing up because it's assigned automatically.

Pricing

Bluehost offers the following pricing plans:

• Basic: The Basic plan costs $2.95 per month and is renewed at its regular price of $8.99.
• Plus: This plan costs $5.45 per month and is renewed at its regular price of $11.99 per month.
• Choice Plus: The Choice Plus plan costs $5.45 per month and is renewed at $16.99 per month.
• Pro: This plan costs $23.95 and costs $26.99 to renew.

Pros

• BlueHost's control panel is easy-to-use and simple.
• You get a free domain name for 1 year after signing up.
• File manager and FPT account.
• It is a WordPress-focused service.

Cons

• BlueHost does not offer premium tech support.

Best For

This hosting service is best for website owners that want a WordPress-specific host.

Conclusion

Finding the best web host in Canada can be quite the task if you have to do it all yourself. Where do you start from with all the myriads of options available? Do you pick the most popular option or are there factors you need to consider before making the decision? The decision process can get really frustrating as you see more and more options all promising you an excellent experience. But with a round-up like this, all you need to do is match up the hosting service features to your needs.

Do you want a fully managed experience for your website? Then WP Engine is a perfect choice. Or would you prefer a solution with ample server choices in Canada? Then Web Hosting Canada is the right choice. And if you want to make an eco-friendly statement with your brand, GreenGeeks would be a great pick. What’s more, a lot of the options in this round-up provide a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the service. One even offers a 90-day money-back guarantee. Such features allow you to test out the host before committing long-term.