Best Ecommerce Hosting Canada

Are you planning to sell your products online? Go through this article which has a list of the best ecommerce web hosting services that will boost your store.

The wisest move is to select a web host based on the various features you need the most. Our extensive research on the multiple components, pricing, support, uptime, and more will give you a detailed breakdown of each web host.

The essential factor for an e-commerce web host is pricing, customer support: uptime, data centres and more. Our research is based on these factors.

There are many web hosts out in the market. However, only a few are worthy of supporting an online store.

We have done all the research and groundwork, putting in many hours into shortlisting the best of the best for you to choose. Take a look at our top contenders.

Here is our list of the top 6 Best E-commerce web hosting services.

Sr #	Name	Monthly Pricing	Recommended Starter Plan
1	A2 Hosting	$2.99 – $14.99	$9.99 – Shared Plan
2	SiteGround	$6.99 – $14.99	$9.99 – Grow Big
3	InMotion	$2.49 – $149.99	$7.99 – Shared Plan
4	Bluehost	$6.95 – $31.99	$6.99 Woo Commerce
5	HostGator	$2.75 – $19.95	$5.95 – Business shared
6	DreamHost	$2.59 – 79.95	$4.95 Unlimited Shared

A2 Hosting – Finest Overall Ecommerce Web Hosting Provider

A2 Hosting is one of the best e-commerce providers, and all their plans offer an e-commerce platform.

They have servers that provide loading speeds that are twenty times faster than most regular servers.

Their plans are e-commerce specific, so if you select a dedicated VPS hosting and shared plan, A2 Hosting can tailor all your requirements according to your store.

The guarantee of getting a full refund any time and being developer friendly are prominent features.

If you are in search of a cheap web hosting solution that is quick, then A2 hosting is your host. If you feel that your site has the potential to grow in the near future then you can be assured that A2 hosting will stay by your side. 

Since 2001 they have been in the market, and they are popular for their high loading speeds.

Over the last couple of months, we haven’t seen a server as fast as A2 Hosting. They have good uptime, making their services reliable. Let’s take a look at the following;

Key Features

1. Supports Web Framework.
2. Supports Content Management System (CMS).
3. Integration of Control.
4. Good storage limits.
5. Email hosting.
6. Bandwidth allowance.
7. Database support.
8. File Management.
9. E-Commerce Integration.

Customer Support

They have a customer assistance team to assist you and all your technical concerns 24/7. As soon as you log on to the customer portal an executive will revert shortly.

Downtime Alert

You will receive a notification every time your site faces downtime.

Uptime

A2 hosting guarantees their customers 99.9% uptime.

Refund Policy

If you require a full refund, you need to cancel the service within 30 days of the subscription. If you cannot do so, you will get a refund for the unused services on a prorated basis.

Data Centers

1. Arizona – USA
2. Michigan – USA
3. Singapore – Asia
4. Amsterdam – Europe

Pros	Cons
A2 hosting is developer friendly and supports a large number of languages, frameworks and technologies.	A2 hosting isn’t beginner friendly when compared to their competitors.
They also offer excellent uptime and speed.	When you compare their price range to their competitors, they are expensive.

Conclusion

A2 Hosting is the finest all-round service provider. We were wowed by its well-defined support, speed and security.

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SiteGround – Well-Known for Ecommerce Features

SiteGround is an e-commerce platform that offers its customers shopping carts for free along with an optimized server, eShop transfer (free) and installation. Their servers are located in three continents that give your site better speed.

I must say SiteGround’s strong uptime and high speed is the only reason they have made it to the top of the list. But not everything is positive; they also have a few areas they need to work on.

SiteGround is a provider of shared hosting, well known for offering its clients various web hosting options.

These include cloud hosting, WordPress hosting and dedicated servers. For an unbiased and transparent review, we have tried it ourselves.

Let’s read on to learn more;

Key Features

1. Advanced customer support and priority.
2. They offer a 100% guarantee of a full refund.
3. They guarantee a good uptime.
4. Their web hosting service is customized.
5. Multiple site tools.
6. Strong uptime and excellent performance.
7. Great customer support.

Customer Support

1. Phone support:  Their team of experts are well equipped to manage all concerns over the phone.

2. Live chat:  Their live chat is fast and efficient. The chat executives are very friendly and they have a success rate of resolving issues over 90% of the time.

3. Help desk tickets: If you are facing a complex issue, then SiteGround redirects your concerns to an advanced technician. On an average we have experienced 15 minutes response time.

Downtime Alert

In order to keep you informed of downtime, you will receive a notification for the same.

Uptime

SiteGround guarantees their customers a 99.9% uptime.

Refund Policy

For their shared hosting service, they give a full refund within 30 days of subscription. Whereas for a cloud hosting service, you get a full refund within 14 days of subscription.

Data Centers

They have various data centers:

1. London – UK
2. Iowa – USA
3. Frankfurt – DE
4. Eemshaven – Netherlands
5. Singapore 
6. Sydney – Australia

Pros	Cons
SiteGround offers a full money back guarantee in 30 days.	They have limited storage for data.
All the data is automatically backed up and restored daily.	Resources are overused.
Their customers can now install WordPress automatically. SiteGround is officially endorsed by WordPress.org.
SiteGround offers managed WordPress hosting with all their plans.
They have innovative speed technology.
They also offer free SSL certificate and Cloudflare CDN.

Conclusion

SiteGround gives its customers a great number of very useful e-commerce features. They can boot and elevate your online store.

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InMotion – Finest E-commerce Scalability

InMotion is very generous with a useful tool; even their basic plans offer great features to support your e-commerce store.

They offer free domains, and the disk space is unlimited. IT professionals and e-commerce entrepreneurs just love their business-class web hosting plans, we truly did! Yes, I do agree that the basic plan is a tad more than their competitors, but they give you more with this nominal extra charges.

I’m sure you’re wondering – what could the extra mean? To begin with, their servers use SSD drive, due to which all the users get fast loading times.

Whenever your site is slow, 32% of your site visitors will leave. That can not only mean loss of customers but also getting a bad Google ranking.

Key Features

1. They provide a security suite with hack protection and SSL – free.
2. Free template and Boldgrid builder.
3. For quick website loading, they offer SSD.
4. They provide unlimited bandwidth and email account.
5. cPanel migration and websites are available for free.

Customer Support

Their customer support team is available 24×7 and assists you with any query. You can connect with them via chat, email and phone. Their well-experienced executives will assist you quickly.

Downtime Alert

Every time there is a downtime, InMotion will notify you via email. This will help you stay informed about the same.

Uptime

They assure uptime of 99.9%.

Refund Policy

They offer a full refund within 90 days of the initial purchase for all shared hosting plans. Resellers monthly billed VPS, and dedicated servers get 30 days full refund offer.

Data Centers

Their data centres are located exclusively in the USA.

Pros	Cons
They guarantee a complete money back guarantee if you request for it in the initial 90 days of subscription.	Their basic plans have certain limitations.

Conclusion

They offer top-notch hardware and multiple data centres for you to select from, InMotion offers a pleasing experience to all it’s users.

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Bluehost – Amazing Uptime

 

Bluehost offers a 99.98% uptime which works out to 1 hour and 45 min of yearly downtime.

It is essential to have a good uptime for an online store because good uptime means good money. The moment your website is down, you are not going to make any sales.

With regards to building WordPress sites, Bluehost stands out from the rest. WordPress has made Bluehost their official web hosting provider, they offer various web hosting plans.

So if you’re just starting out or already have a large scale fully setup business, they will help you with your requirement. They offer shared hosting as well as a dedicated Virtual Private Server.

Many developers prefer using it for a while now due to its user-friendly features. They offer cheap rates, and to top it all for the initial one year, you get a free domain.

They offer a wide range of tutorials from third-party and a rich knowledge base.

Key Features

1. They have free SSL certificate.
2. They also provide PHP and MySQL databases.
3. Control panel.
4. They offer technical support for free.
5. FTP account and File Manager.

Customer Support

They provide live chat, ticket support, and phone support to all their customers.

Downtime Alert

They do not give their customers an update if there is a downtime of the server. But, we have seen most of their customers have rated them as providers of the best uptime in the market.

Uptime

All their customers guaranteed 99.9% uptime.

Refund Policy

If you cancel within the initial 30 days, you are assured a full refund.

Pros	Cons
No charges are hidden.	Premium technical support is not available.
The control panels are user–friendly and simple.	It does not support Windows OS.
Offers focused web hosting assistance.
File Manager and FTP account.
Upon sign–up, they offer a free domain name. But it is applicable for only a year.

Conclusion

Bluehost offers a very strong uptime and is an excellent WordPress host.

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HostGator – Excellent Assistance

With the unlimited FTP accounts that HostGator has to offer, their customers can now transfer files to their network.

They make an excellent web host with 24×7 custom assistance, 1-click installation, and uptime guarantees of 99.99%.

In today’s market, they are one of the finest web hosting solutions. They provide their customers with free domain names and SSL certificates.

HostGator is a popular web hosting solution in the business. They have over 10 million domains that are active.

They offer competitive pricing along with exceptional performance. Their customers are also provided with $100 Google AdWords and Bing advertising credits.

Key Features

1. Pricing: Their pricing is very competitive.
2. Customer support: Whenever their customers are in need of assistance they can count on their customer support team.
3. Performance: They offer excellent performance as their customers’ website can be loaded onto the service of HostGator quickly.
4. Reliability: HostGator ensures that your website has an uptime of 99.9%.

Customer Support

HostGator offers live chat, ticket support and phone support. All their customers have access to a knowledge base that is very informative and will assist them with concerns related to web hosting.

Downtime Alert

All the customers are sent a notification to their account in case of downtime.

Uptime

HostGator guarantees an uptime of 99.9%.

Refund Policy

If for some reason you wish to discontinue this service you will receive a full refund. However, you must make a request for the same within 45 days of subscription.

Data centers

1. Utah – USA
2. Texas – USA

Pros	Cons
HostGator offers reliable web hosting. They guarantee up times of 99.9% to their customers. The customers receive a credit if the uptime drops below the guaranteed time.	HostGator’s annual pricing is way lower than the monthly pricing.
HostGator gives their customers a full refund. however you must make the cancellation within 45 days of subscription.	They have a great service up selling, therefore, choose the services you need. Uncheck services that you don’t require or are unsure of.
They offer a very flexible building cycle. They have a monthly cycle and a yearly cycle. however the longer the cycle, the higher the discount.
HostGator offers customers free e-migration. This service is free for every new customer.

Conclusion

If you have a small boutique or an online business that is booming, you can count on HostGator to provide you with the tools you need in order to boost the performance of your online business.

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DreamHost – Beginner Friendly

If your website faces high traffic and you don’t want to be restricted on bandwidth then DreamHost is a web host for you.

With DreamHost you will save up on all the additional expenses that you have with your current host, allowing your website to grow as well as live without being limited to resources.

DreamHost’s shared hosting solutions offer multiple apps like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and website builder.

All the plans of unlimited bandwidth and disk space. DreamHost provides 97 days money back guarantee, so you get an opportunity to try out their service.

Their customer assistance is limited, however, they have offered exceptional performance in the last one year.

 Key Features

1. Unlimited email.
2. SSL certificate is free.
3. Pre-installed WordPress.
4. SSD storage is fast.
5. They offer unmetered bandwidth.         
6. Unlimited traffic.
7. They provide free domain. 

Customer Support

Their customer support team is available 24/7 via phone chat and email.

Downtime Alert

Every time you face a downtime you will be notified about the same. This will help you stay updated.

Uptime

You will receive an uptime of 99.9%.

Refund Policy

If you make a cancellation within 97 days of your subscription, DreamHost will give you a full refund of your money. 

Data Centers

1. Virginia – USA
2. California – USA

Pros	Cons
They offer the best customer support in the market.	At times they seem to have compatibility issues. We had trouble moving from Bluehost.
They have a dashboard that is user friendly making it simple for customers to navigate.	When the server crashed we had concerns in terms of updates. But the customer support team worked swiftly.
The website speed is good in comparison with their price.	Choosing from the various pricing plans and packages can get very overwhelming.
They provide excellent backup features.

Conclusion

If your online business is fairly new to web hosting, then we recommend DreamHost.

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Shopify – All-rounded E-commerce Platform

Shopify is a well-known e-commerce platform; this is a web host you can consider if you are looking at web hosting your online store.

They are well geared to assist you with setting up and running your online store quickly. You can go in for the Shopify sub-domain if you’re on a tight budget and just wanting to make some extra money. You could upgrade at a later stage.

Key Features

1. They provide a site builder and various free templates.
2. Multiple e-commerce options are available along with discount codes.
3. They provide fully hosted plans that are unlimited.
4. You can easily receive a Stripe payment and the integration is simple.
5. The Shopify domain is free you can now transfer your old one too.

Customer Support

They offer excellent customer assistance 24×7 through chat, email and phone. Their executives are very helpful.

Downtime Alert

They do send a notification to the account. This keeps you updated on the status. 

Uptime

They assure you of a 99.98% uptime. This is a pretty strong uptime.

Refund Policy

Shopify gives its users a full refund of their money if they cancel within the initial 14 days of their subscription. Upon closure, the account is refunded.

Data Centers

The data centres are located in USA.

Pros	Cons
With no assistance from any third-party you can create a functional marketplace.	You can only pay through Stripe, but if you choose otherwise, you will be charged extra.
They have over 100 free themes.	They offer discounts to specific customers.
You can personalize your store with full control on CSS and HTML.
Mobile-friendly and SEO functions.
The sales reporting interface has been approved.

Conclusion

Shopify will not only help you to market your products but also scale your business.

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WIX – E-commerce Functionality with Good Website Builder

You have probably heard of Wix or even read of Wix. It is a famous website builder that is user-friendly, allowing you to build your website and create your account in a couple of minutes. The builder offers a prompt learning curve. Within minutes you will find yourself manipulating sliders, images, texts, menus and more.

Key Features

1. Create and publish a complete website free of cost.
2. When you purchase a plan, you get a free domain.
3. They offer a top-class template with drag and drop features.
4. They also provide broad and in-depth knowledge articles archive.
5. WIX can extend website functionalities with great plugins and apps.

Customer Support

Their customer support team is available 24×7 and assists you with any query. You can connect with them via chat, email and phone. Their well-experienced executives will assist you quickly.

Downtime Alert

Every time there is a downtime, WIX will notify you via email. This will help you stay informed about the same.

Uptime

They assure uptime of 99.8%.

Refund Policy

They offer a full refund within 90 days of the initial purchase for all shared hosting plans. Resellers monthly billed VPS hosting, and dedicated servers get 30 days full refund offer.

Data Centers

Their data centres are located exclusively in the USA and Europe.

Pros	Cons
They keep updating their features and templates online.	They need to work on their life support.
They have over 100 templates with exquisite designs.	It doesn’t have a control panel.
The e-commerce tools and site are secure.	You cannot move your Wix site design to a new host.
Offers straightforward features for social media promotions.

Conclusion

With the unlimited storage and bandwidth, Google analytics, multiple templates and more, your web store has the potential to grow and thrive.

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BigCommerce – Scalable E-commerce Platform

If your goals are big, then BigCommerce is a host you should consider. It has great potential for scalability, so it will grow along with your business.

It has multiple built-in features. So, you are independent, don’t need to depend on various apps to boost your online store.

Key Features

1. It has a page builder with a drag and drop feature.
2. It provides a variety of payment options. Offers PayPal integration.
3. They offer unlimited staff account.
4. They provide an (SEO) Search Engine Optimisation feature.
5. You can tweak HTML and CSS.
6. User-friendly interface.

Customer Support

They offer phone support, ticket support, and live chat. They also have a rich knowledge base that will assist you with any web hosting-related concerns.

Downtime Alert

You receive notifications in your account whenever there is downtime.

Uptime

They guarantee a 99.9% uptime.

Datacenter

Their data centres are located in the USA.

Pros	Cons
They offer advanced features at a minimal cost in comparison with their competitors.	The themes that are available for free seem very similar.
You can sell your products in multiple currencies.	The page builder feature needs to be upgraded.
The shipping calculations for third party real-time is offered on all plans.	They could offer better rates on the VAT MOSS.
When third-party payment options are used, no additional fees are applied.
You can build custom fields with much ease.

Conclusion

BigCommerce will allow you to host and grow your online business. It has all the right tools to help you with your online venture.

Final Thoughts

We cannot recommend the best e-commerce web host for everyone. Each one of us has different business requirements, so there cannot be one web host for all.

Keeping that in mind, we have reviewed a list of web hosts that we know offer impressive e-commerce platforms.

If you have gone through the entire review, I’m confident you have already shortlisted a few.

When you plan to host your website, you will have to spend hours researching for a good host for you. This process, many-a-times, gets very confusing and overwhelming. We have put in hours into researching and done the groundwork for you.

Remember, along with a good price; your web host must have good features to support your online shop.

It should also be able to move and grow at your pace and not restrict your growth. You don’t want the hassle of researching for a better host to move to a new platform. I trust this article has given you a place, to begin with.

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Buying Guide

E-commerce Requires High-Quality Web Hosting

The role of an e-commerce site is to close sales. This is not the duty of personal blogs and informal websites.

Uptime is vital for e-commerce sites. If your income depends on this website and the uptime is bad, you can be assured of losing potential clients.

We must understand that for some businesses, downtime means a loss of money. If this is your situation, then let me say, shared hosting is just not worth it. The slow loading times are going to cost you a lot.

If your website is created to only sell products, then downtime will only be like burning money.

Today, visitors have a very low attention span and patience, so if your website will take time to load, you will experience a high bounce rate.

That means many of your visitors simply don’t have the patience to wait for your page to load, and they are leaving. They are visiting your competitor and taking their business to them. Now, these couple of bucks that you’re trying to save is a very bad trade-off.

Important Features

Servers of High Performance

A server that is of high quality and offers good performance will boost the speed of your website and keep your site away from inconvenience.

It will keep maintaining high loading speeds to keep your website at a higher ranking on the search engines.

Database Support

Your e-commerce site needs a database to function. It is the heart of an e-commerce site as it is the location where all your customers and product information is stored. So the support for the database should be well equipped to manage huge amounts of files and have good storage.

Software Integration

With the growing e-commerce platforms, various Content Management Systems (CMS) software and shopping carts are available.

Your host must provide straightforward integration and installations of multiple software’s like; DrupalCommerce, WooCommerce, ZenCart, OpenCart, OsCommerce, Magento, Presta Shop etc.

Note: Always check for specifications of your web hosting plans to make sure your server is compatible with the software you have selected.

Data Security

Customers will enter their data like the number of their credit card, phone number, address etc. You need to ensure that your website is equipped to ensure the security of their data.

For this, you will require an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate. When you combine it with HTTPS, it will protect your customer’s data; it encrypts the payment information entered. It also offers other features like firewall protection, malware monitoring, and spam prevention.

Payment Processing Service

If your e-commerce store is designed to accept payments, your hosts must be completely compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards.

This applies to all merchants and organizations, no matter the number and the size of the transactions. PayPal shopping cart and other payment options must be supported by your host.

Capable to Manage High Traffic

Your host must be able to adjust and manage the increase in traffic. As you get popular, you will notice many visitors coming to your site; the website must be able to boost this traffic. Your server must be equipped to handle the increase in load and offer seamless performance. This is the only reason why we do not recommend a shared host.

If you have multiple people sharing the same server, this could affect the traffic to your website. It will have a negative effect on your site.

If you are serious about growing your online business, we recommend going in for a host that offers an isolated environment. This assures privacy and security for the data of your customers.

Conclusion

We would like to point out that an e-commerce website must have a solid web hosting service provider, as it acts as the backbone of your business. It must be able to scale according to your growing business.

You should be able to stay in control of your business through a straightforward control panel. You can also check our review on the Best Web Hosting for Small Business Canada.

We trust that by the end of our research, you will be able to ensure progress and exceed your customers’ expectations by putting together all the features mentioned here. That’s all for now, do share your comments, suggestions and experience with us.