Best Web Hosting Services
in Canada
by Fabio Peters
What is the Best Website Hosting in Canada?
Web hosting is the place in which all the files of your website reside. Think of it as the home where your files live. So, the domain name is like the address and the hosting is the actual home. All websites need web hosting, whether it’s self-hosted or you host using an established web hosting company. I highly recommend using an established well-known web host.
There are a lot of options out there when it comes to web hosting companies. It can be hard to choose a hosting provider.
Here are my top picks for the best web hosting to use this year.
BlueHost
Whether you’re looking to create a website, blog or online store, Bluehost has a hosting plan tailored to your specific needs.
HostGator
Hostgator scales from easy to expert. They offer a ton of options all at a cheap price. They are one of the cheapest options.
Hostpapa
HostPapa offers everything a small business would need to run their website. Their Business Plan is ideal for small businesses.
Cloudways
Cloudways is a great choice for those who are looking for managed cloud hosting. Their platform gives you the flexbility you need.
When choosing a web host for your business or company, the benefits of using the best web hosting in Canada is a long-term investment you should not gloss over.
Yes, I know. There are so many options out there. You probably have seen countless commercials for Godaddy and you may have even purchased your domain name with them. So, you may decide to go with the same company to have your domain and hosting together, right?
Well, that’s not always the right thing to do. You may get better performance with a web host that is different than your domain registrar.
Let’s go through the pros and cons of popular web hosting in Canada, so you can make an informed decision if this is the right hosting solution for your business website.
What we will compare:
- The best web hosting for small businesses.
- The best options for small budgets.
- The ones with the best SEO.
- The best platforms with online store capabilities.
Let’s get started.
1. BlueHost.
Bluehost is my #1 hosting platform recommendation, with a free domain, free SSL included, 1-click WordPress install, FTP, and 24/7 customer support.
They launched in 1996, and they have amassed a sizable staff of over 750 employees. They have a 99.99% uptime, making them a very reliable option.
With plans starting as low as $3.95/month, Bluehost allows you to host small websites (that get fewer than 20,000 visitors/month) for – quite literally – almost the same price as your Tim Horton’s coffee.
The company’s size and unparalleled growth have allowed them to offer their services at such a really low price.
Key Features:
- Good Uptime 99.95%
- Good Page Loading Speed of 572 ms
- Extensive Support Options
- Proactive Security Features
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee & Free Site Migration+Domain Name
- Good Value for the Starter Price
- Green Hosting
- Easy-to-Use Control Panel
User Experience:
BlueHost’s client area has an easy user interface for their cPanel. From there you can manage your profile, domains, services, websites, and billing settings. Anything related to your hosting account is done from there.
The popular cPanel, which is accessible from your client area by clicking on “My cPanel”, is the most popular control panel for a reason – it’s very easy to use and innovative which should suit both – beginners and advanced users.
Pricing:
BlueHost’s main web hosting platform is separated into 4 plans:
Basic: $4.08 a month
Plus: $7.54 a month
Choice Plus: $7.54 a month
PRO: $19.30 a month
Unlimited bandwidth and disk storage give you plenty of space to grow your website. No more worrying about your website crashing in the wake of that viral article your recently published. You’ll be good to go for pretty much forever.
Bluehost has made several tweaks and upgrades to their CPanel to make their version even simpler for the website beginner to use.
What I Like/Dislike About BlueHost:
Like:
- Bluehost has one of the best security measures on the market.
- Free domains help you get your website online stress-free.
- Great customer support with an easy-to-use control panel
Dislike:
- High renewal prices
- Bluehost does not offer free site migration
- Moving your website to another host can be expensive.
2. HostGator.
HostGator is a well-known hosting provider headquartered in Houston, Texas, powering over 9 million websites.
They make the website building process easy, with simple drag and drop functionality and the ability to add unlimited domains to your account.
HostGator is definitely one of the best web hosts for beginners looking of an online presence. Good customer support and lots of features (even on shared plans) make HostGator an option I would definitely recommend to my clients. Their support team is always available 24/7 and their control panel makes it really easy to manage your website.
Key Features:
- One-click WordPress installs make it easy to get started with a WordPress site.
- Free WordPress/cPanel website transfers mean you can move your existing site to HostGator without having to pay any fees.
- Free SEO tools help you optimize your site for search engines.
- The free upgrade to Positive SSL means your site will be more secure and trusted by visitors.
- The free dedicated IP gives you a unique IP address that is not shared with any other sites, which can improve your site’s security and performance.
User Experience:
HostGator also offers many types of hosting packages, such as fully-optimized WordPress hosting, VPS hosting for bigger sites, and dedicated hosting for massive online projects and customization. Easy to use and optimized for better performance, it’s best fit for small-to medium-websites.
The speed has been solid, the customer service is good, and they have improved their uptime. And the plethora of beginner-friendly options makes it user-friendly.
Pricing:
HostGator’s main web hosting platform is separated into three plans:
Hatchling plan: $2.75 a month
Baby plan: $3.50 a month
Business plan: $5.25 a month
There’s only one major difference between the Hatchling and Baby plans, and it’s the number of domains allowed to be managed.
HostGator’s Business plan does not include a large number of significant advantages.
What I Like/Dislike About HostGator
Like:
- Fast performance with great uptime
- Useful site-building software and e-commerce tools
- Easy to use control panel
Dislike:
- High renewal prices
- Not all plans have a Windows Server option
- Backups, SEO tools, and SiteLock cost extra
3. Hostpapa.
HostPapa offers fairly good packages and value for its price, particularly in the lower price range.
HostPapa provides a lot when it comes to upkeep and protection capabilities. For that very particular requirement, HostPapa is first-rate. As one of the limited self-regulating web website hosting companies remaining within the business, HostPapa is a bit of an underdog and doesn’t have the assets of its competitors.
HostPapa is an all-in-one web hosting company that offers domain names, website building, and web hosting. Interestingly, it doesn’t offer dedicated server hosting, where customers have control over their server handling. As a substitute, they offer the more popular option of shared and virtual private server (VPS) hosting, as well as offering a reseller service.
Key Features:
-
- Up to unlimited websites hosted.
- Up to unlimited disk space.
- Unlimited bandwidth.
- Free domain registration.
- Up to unlimited email accounts.
- The Starter Edition website builder.
- Decent customer service/technical support for its customers.
User Experience:
All of HostPapa’s services are built with the users’ experience in mind. After testing out HostPapa’s various features, we found the account management, cPanel, site builder, and email interfaces incredibly clean and easy to use.
Pricing:
HostPapa’s main web hosting platform is separated into three plans:
Starter: $3.95 a month
Business: $3.95 a month
Business Pro: $12.95 a month
However, these prices are equivalent as HostPapa only lets you pay annually, with the default plan locking you in for 36 months (That’s three years!) This is pretty common amongst hosting providers, but it’s still worth knowing in advance before signing up for any web host.
HostPapa also offers plans for one and two years but with the price per month increasing (2 years – $4.95/month, 1 year – $5.95/month)
What I Like/Dislike About Hostpapa:
Like:
- Fast performance with great uptime
- Easy-to-use control panel
Dislike:
- High renewal prices
4. Cloudways.
There’s a lot to like about Cloudways. The service has flexible cloud hosting plans, fast setup times, top-notch web-based customer support, and excellent uptime.
Cloudways is one of the best-managed web hosts in my opinion. It provides you with superior performance in terms of speed, scalability, uptime, and load handling.
The most helpful thing about Cloudways is the performance that you get, it is superior to even your best shared hosting providers, and you notice the speed difference right away. Cloudways is very fast and they offer excellent performance for the price. Consider the Vultr High-Frequency servers for the best performance on a budget.
The one of best things about Cloudways is their excellent customer care services, which are very professional and knowledgeable in offering the best services and having a quick response time. Also, they offer free SSL for all the domains we hosted with them.
Key Features:
- Very easy to set up.
- Excellent uptime.
- Supports numerous apps.
- Several flexible account tiers.
- Pay-as-you-go plans.
- Can try the service for free before signing up.
- Site cloning.
User Experience:
Once you have created a Cloudways account, you can manage your servers via its control panel. Unlike the cPanel used by other hosts, its control panel is quite user-friendly and intuitive.
Their platform-as-a-service cloud servers come with a fantastic feature set, and you can scale hosting resources as your website grows. Their infrastructure is optimized for speed, performance, and security.
Pricing:
Cloudways main web hosting platform is separated into three plans:
Starter: $12 a month
Business: $26 a month
Pro: $50 a month
Premium: $96 a month
Pricing is tiered based on the server specs you choose and the cloud provider. It starts as low as $12/month, and there is a free 3-day trial. It seems like a short trial, but it gives you enough time to dive into the platform and test its functionality.
What I Like/Dislike About Cloudways:
Like:
- Fast performance with great uptime
- Easy-to-use control panel
Dislike:
- High renewal prices
5. Hostinger.
Hostinger is simply the cheapest option available today, with prices starting at C$2.65 per month.
Is there a catch?
Depends on how you look at it. The way you get the best deal is you have to commit to Hostinger for several years.
With prices being that low, the skeptic in me comes out. My main concerns when it comes to web hosting are features and performance.
Their basic plan, which comes with 30GB of disk space, 100GB of bandwidth, 1 email account, and support for a single website, is more than enough to handle the creation of a high-quality website.
Performance is surprisingly great. It’s got everything that you need if you’re building a blog, a business page, a personal project, or a similar small-to-medium website.
Key Features:
- High-quality, low-cost plans.
- Helpful customer service.
- Great testing uptime.
- Optional Minecraft servers.
- Pay-as-you-go plans.
- Includes website builder.
User Experience:
Hostinger’s wizard will walk you through each step to quickly and easily set up your new website. The wizard walks you through each step. You’ll be amazed by how quickly you will be able to create a fully functional website for your business.
Their free web builder tool Zyro has many cool features, such as a logo builder, slogan builder, and business name generator.
Pricing:
Hostinger has 3 shared hosting packages for you to choose from. Each one offers different features and different website requirements.
Single shared hosting: $1.99 a month
Premium shared hosting: $2.99 a month
Business: $3,99 a month
Hostinger is the cheapest web hosting option available on the market. No other company manages to even come close to their low pricing. Those that do, often offer a basic plan for double or triple the price.
What I Like/Dislike About Hostinger:
Like:
- High-quality, low-cost plans
- Helpful customer service
- Great uptime performance
Dislike:
- No dedicated web hosting
- Phone support is not the best
6. Dreamhost.
DreamHost offers advanced web hosting services—from shared hosting to cloud hosting. My clients experience with DreamHost all said they had excellent uptime, powerful security, and helpful customer.
One of the things that make DreamHost unique from some of the other hosting providers is that they offer the best monthly pricing plans for their hosting.
DreamHost’s user interface is simple with an intuitive interface, which made getting started quick and easy.
Their uptime is one of the best we’ve seen. You can rely on DreamHost to be a dependable hosting service for your website.
Key Features:
- Strong security features.
- Excellent uptime.
- Unlimited data transfers per month.
- shared hosting money-back guarantee.
User Experience:
The dashboard of DreamHost control panel is very popular with users. It is modern, clean, and the design was made to be user-friendly. DreamHost does not use the typical cPanel software we see with other hosting providers. What they’ve done was create a custom control panel for all things associated with your account.
Pricing:
DreamHost provides it’s customers with different pricing and packages:
Shared: $2.95 a month
A great place to start! Shared hosting with an entry level price for new sites, including WordPress.
DreamPress: $16.95 a month
Specifically designed for WordPress — high-performance and hassle-free so you can focus on building your business.
VPS: $13.75 a month
For new & small websites on our trusted Virtual Private Servers
Pricing is tiered based on the server specs you choose and the cloud provider. It starts as low as $12/month, and there is a free 3-day trial. It seems like a short trial, but it gives you enough time to dive into the platform and test its functionality.
What I Like/Dislike About Dreamhost:
Like:
- Affordable pricing
- Terrific uptime
Dislike:
- Email account is not included in starter plan
- Phone support is not very good
Web Hosting Comparison (Summary)
When choosing a website hosting provider for your new website, the key is to focus on performance.
This means:
Website security to protect your information and your customers information.
Reliability that ensures you don’t run into problems.
Speed so that your visitors have a pleasant user experience, and technical support so that you can easily resolve any issues that may arise.
I hope this guide has helped you make an informed decision in choosing a web hosting provider for your website.
