Best Web Hosting for Small Business in Canada

I must say that our shopping style has changed over the past decade, all thanks to e-commerce. We find it so convenient to shop, especially when we don’t have the time to go from one shop to another. Online shopping has proved very beneficial. When we all need to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel, today, all of us know at least that one person who has an online shop or maybe their relatives do.

If you are also looking at taking your business online, then I must ask you, are you satisfied with your current web host?

We believe your web host is vital, and you must select one with much care. Your website showcases your online shop. To create and maintain an excellent online store presence and to get a piece of the ever-expanding pie, you need a reputable and reliable host.

Factors like loading speed and uptime play an important role with your potential clients. If your website has to perform poorly, even on one occasion, you can lose that customer forever. The online world can be very unforgiving at times. In this article, we will discuss some of the best web hosts for small businesses.

It’s a fact that all small businesses are not alike. So, we have picked a variety of web hosts to match various types of businesses. I’m sure you will find web hosts to match your requirements.

Best Web Hosting for Small Business Canada

SiteGround

SiteGround has a steadfast systematic software coding, and it doesn’t depend on some third party’s work. SiteGround has its own business philosophy that is unique from mainstream practices. If you’re looking at a custom solution unlike the replica that every other business is following, then SiteGround is the perfect web host. When you hit a roadblock, you can count on their exceptional technical support and customer assistance.

They have managed to maintain a very strong uptime and high speed for a long time. Your business will grow and you can rely on them. 

Key Features

• Their web hosting service is customized.
• Multiple site tools.
• Strong uptime and excellent performance.
• Great customer support.
• They offer a 100% guarantee of a full refund.
• Advance support and priority.
• They guarantee a great uptime.

Pros	Cons
SiteGround guarantees money back in 30 days.	Storage limits for data.
Daily the data is restored and backed up automatically.	Overuse of resources.
They provide installation of WordPress automatically. WorPress.org officially endorses it.
All plans have managed WordPress hosting.
Their speed technology is innovative, NGINX, PHP7, HTTP/2, SSD and more.
Cloudflare CDN and SSL certificate are free.

Refund Policy

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

Customer Support

• Live Chat: They have an efficient and fast live chat. The chat representatives are friendly, and concerns are successfully resolved over 90% of the time.
• Phone support: Their experienced operators are equipped to handle issues over a call.
• Helpdesk tickets: With the ticketing system, your complex issues will be redirected to their technicians that are well trained. We have never had to wait for more than 15 minutes after raising a ticket. Our issues have been resolved in a single response. The ticketing system is made available 24 by 7.

Downtime Alert

You will be notified as soon as the server faces down time. This notification will be sent to your account, keeping you informed of the status every step of the way.

Uptime

They offer a 99.9% guaranteed uptime.

Data Centers

They have many data centres across various locations.

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

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Kinsta

Kinsta is the Lamborghini of web host service providers. Yes, I agree the prices are a tad steeper than its competitors, but that is what you pay for the finest service in the business. If you’re looking at getting a host to manage things for you, then Kinsta is the way to go.

Most small business entrepreneurs are in a race to get a host with the cheapest rates. In our previous article, we spoke about the risks of choosing web hosts on the basis of pricing alone.

In 2013, some developers decided not to bend and bow at what the market has to offer. So they built their own top-class web hosting service that offers advanced dashboards, free CDN, free migration and excellent support. For their infrastructure, they prefer to use Google Cloud instead of Amazon web because you can select your data centre at the time of check out, and their performance is way better.

Key Features

• Excellent customer support. Although they offer support only through their chat services, they have experienced agents that work around the clock.
• The site architecture is WordPress-specific (read: faster and better).
• Before you publish your changes, you can stage an environment to assess your website.
• Premium migration is free (Concierge service).
• Basic migrations are unlimited from various other hosts through the WordPress plugin.
• You receive a full refund of your money if cancelled within 30 days of subscription.
• Optimization of the automatic database.
• They offer a daily backup that happens automatically.

Pros	Cons
Excellent performance: So far, it ranks second on our list in terms of speed. It is great for user experience and SEO.	WordPress Only: you can’t install other CMS on the Kinsta server.
Uptime: There are no complaints here; it virtually runs 100%. You get some cash back if the uptime goes below 99.9%.	Plenty of limitations: It doesn’t offer unlimited storage, monthly visits or CDN. If you exceed your limit, you will be charged for the extra.
Support: Although it has only chat support, it is one of the best supports we have received.	Higher Prices: It isn’t economical. What you pay for, you will get, there is no doubt about it. But, it is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Server locations and features: They have 25 locations spread across the globe that you can choose from.
User–friendly: The pleasing user experience and simple navigation are good for those that spend time on the dashboard.
Team Management: You and unlimited users can with much ease define roles and permissions at both site and company levels.
Site backups: On the plans that are lower, you get automatic backups for just 14 days. If you upgrade to business plan 3, you receive 20 days. Cloud backups and manual backups are available. It can download backups as well.
Designed for WordPress: They have optimized architecture for CMS and plugins. You will get resources that are handy and various tools that are Word – Specific.

Refund Policy

They back their service with a 30 – day full refund, and they don’t expect you to make a long–term commitment.

Customer Support

They offer 365 days, 24*7 customer support.

Downtime Alert

They send notifications to update you on the downtime.

Uptime

They guarantee an uptime of 99.9%.

Data Centers

They have a list of 25 centers that you can select from, the one, more suited for your website. If your deployments are multi-regional, you can make use of various data centers.

1. Jakarta – Indonesia (Southeast Asia)
2. Las Vegas – USA
3. Seoul – South Korea
4. Osaka – Japan
5. Zurich – Switzerland
6. Hongkong – East Asia
7. Los Angeles – USA
8. Hamina – Finland
9. Eemshaven – Netherland
10. Montreal – Canada
11. Mumbai – India
12. Tokyo – Japan
13. Jurong West – Singapore
14. Frankfurt – Germany
15. London – UK
16. Sao Paulo – Brazil
17. South Carolina – USA
18. Virginia – USA
19. Salt Lake – USA
20. Oregon – USA
21. Sydney – Australia
22. Changhua County – Taiwan
23. St. Ghislaine – Belgium
24. Iowa – USA
25. Warsaw – Poland

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HostPapa

HostPapa offers discounted rates that make their premium packages look inexpensive compared to most economical plans. It’s always a wise choice to avoid spending more than you’re supposed to. To get the perfect service at a good deal is challenging.

HostPapa has made it to the top of our list, and it’s no accident. Our Canadian host is one of the most popular hosts among our clients. They have never ceased to exceed their expectations and never failed them. They are for sure a wise choice for Canadians.

HostPapa seems to be fond of their Canadian clients and is offering some major discounts too. HostPapa has servers located across Canada that contribute to the increase in loading speeds. Their headquarters are in Burlington.

Key Features

• It is optimized for performance and speed.
• You get a full refund if you cancel within 30 days of subscription.
• Reliable technology and server.
• They have a Control panel that is cPanel.
• Free website transfer.

Pros	Cons
They offer a free domain for shared web hosting – basic plan.	When you renew your plan, the rates are pretty steep.
They have a business email that is reliable and secure.
They allow full control of the applications that are also very user–friendly.
They also provide a full money back policy of 30 days.

Refund Policy

They offer a full refund if cancelled within 30 days of the subscription.

Customer Support

They offer excellent support 24*7, 365 days. You can connect through; ticket, phone and chat. They also have a response time of 15 – 20 minutes.

Downtime Alert

Customers are notified of the downtime.

Uptime

They offer a consistent uptime of 99.9%.

Data Centers

1. Los Angeles – Chicago, USA
2. UK, Spain, Germany, France – Europe
3. India, Hongkong, Singapore – Asia
4. New Zealand, Australia – Oceania
5. Toronto – Canada

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iPage

If you’re looking for an economical web host but also offer good service, then you can go in for iPage. iPage has a monthly fee of under $2 with e-commerce options, free domain, technical support and a website builder.

Veterans and newcomers will have a lot to be fond of in regards to the value they have to offer. Ranking and selecting the best web hosting service providers can be very challenging. However, it is clear that iPage is one of the best economical options in the market.

Key Features

• They give their users free domain.
• The also offer unlimited desk.
• There will be additional charges for migration of website.

Pros	Cons
They have a lot of third-party applications.	They have a lot of extra charges.
They have a good uptime.

Refund Policy

Your money is protected with the 30 days refund policy.

Customer Support

They have good support with their executives available 24×7. You can connect via phone, email or ticketing.

Downtime Alert

Customers are notified every time there is a downtime.

Uptime

99.99% uptime is guaranteed by the company.

Data Centers

They have a Cloud platform and are mentioned below;

1. Oregon – USA
2. London – UK
3. Los Angeles – USA
4. Salt Lake City – USA
5. Las Vegas – USA
6. Iowa – USA
7. South Carolina – USA
8. Virginia – USA
9. Montreal – Canada
10. Sao Paulo – Brazil
11. Belgium – Europe
12. Netherlands – Europe
13. Zurich – Switzerland
14. Frankfurt – Germany
15. Finland – Europe
16. Mumbai – India
17. Jakarta – Indonesia
18. Hongkong – Asia
19. Taiwan – Asia
20. Tokyo – Japan
21. Osaka – Japan
22. Sydney – Australia
23. Seoul – South Korea
24. Singapore – Asia

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WIX

We have been noticing Wix, and I must say they have made a lot of improvements since inception. They have refined their site, making it user-friendly for inexperienced developers. They can with much ease position and re-size video, texts, images and much more. It doesn’t involve working with codes, and the best part is everything stays exactly where you place them.

If you’re looking for an online store that is fully functional or just a blog, Wix can help you with it. If you go in for the free service, your site will have ads, but that’s true for all free web services. However, you can upgrade to a monthly plan of $10 that will get rid of the ads, and they will also give you a domain registration free of cost for the initial one year.

If you’re simply in search of a good website builder, then WIX can be an excellent choice for you. Over 14 months of reviewing and testing have brought us to this conclusion.

Key Features

• The sophisticated builder has the drag and drops feature that doesn’t require coding.
• Multiple templates are available to suit your website requirements.
• The website functionalities are enhanced, and they have an app market that’s thriving.
• The e-commerce platform is very straightforward.
• You can create your website without spending a cent.

Pros	Cons
It is the most economical way to make an online presence without compromising on quality.	The SEO ecosystem doesn’t work great with Google.

Refund Policy

Unlike most web hosting Canada companies, they give their customers only 14 days refund policy. They must work on it.

Customer Support

They have a support team that is available 24×7, 365 days. You can raise a ticket, email them or discuss your concern on the phone.

Downtime Alert

Downtime is notified.

Uptime

They give their customers an uptime of 99.8%.

Data Centers

Wix has 2 data centres. They are as below;

1. USA
2. Europe

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InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting has some excellent communication tools that stand out. If you want to build a personal brand and website, InMotion will never fall short. It is well equipped to support your requirement. Blogs must have sufficient features that make your website look professional; the hosting required doesn’t have to be heavy-duty.

Online entrepreneurs and IT geeks are in love with their web hosting plans at a business-class level; I can say we definitely do. At the basic plan, you will pay a bit more in comparison to other web hosting services / plans. However, you get that much more at a nominal extra fee.

What’s the extra, you ask? Let’s begin with – SSD drive is used with their entire server. This ensures that the users receive faster loading times. If your site runs slow, about 32% of visitors will leave the page. Now, that could mean a loss of a potential customer.

InMotion has pre-installed single-click installs. In order to find out how InMotion can support your blogging requirements, read through the key features below;

Key Features

• cPanel migration and websites are available for free.
• For quick website loading, they offer SSD.
• They provide unlimited bandwidth and email account.
• They offer a security suite with hack protection and SSL – free.
• They offer free templates and Boldgrid builder.

Pros	Cons
They guarantee a full refund of your money in 90 days.	Their basic plans have certain limitations.

Refund Policy

They provide a full refund within 90 days of the subscription.

Customer Support

Their customer support team is available 24×7 by raising a ticket, emailing them or over the phone.

Downtime Alert

Every time there is a downtime, you will be notified.

Uptime

They assure uptime of 99.8%.

Data Centers

At the moment they offer 2 data centre locations;

1. Los Angeles – USA
2. Ashburn – USA

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Liquid Web

After a certain point in time, your web resources will need an upgrade, especially if it outgrows your VPS hosting. You will require a dedicated server. I’m sure you’re anticipating a high costing with such a setup. But, you can rest well knowing you’ve given your best to build a secure infrastructure for your website.

We never hesitate to recommend Liquid Web as a managed dedicated hosting. They have three data centres based in the US with over 50 developers.

Partnering up with Liquid Web assures top-quality technical support, software and hardware as you require.

Key Features

• They offer auto daily backups.
• You can create your own websites.
• They provide unlimited mail accounts.
• Newcomers have straightforward onboarding.
• The site is backed up regularly.
• You can anytime check the usage of your bandwidth.

Pros	Cons
They guarantee an uptime of 100%.	Not all their support staff are well trained.
Users have complete access to the server and database.	They do not have any shared web hosting plans.
The hosts can limit access to the server.
Multiple authentication forms can be set for your website.
A third-party app can be easily installed.
Your domain names can be linked to web hosting.
Your site can now have an email too.

Refund Policy

You will get your full money back if you cancell within 5 business days.

Service Level Agreement

Guaranteed uptime of 100%.

Customer Support

Customer support is available 24×7.

Downtime Alert

If there is a downtime you will be notified.

Uptime

They provide power and network uptime guarantee of 100%.

Data Centres

Their data centres locations are as follows:

1. Europe – Netherland
2. USA – Arizona

Final Thoughts

No matter what your business requirement is, I’m confident you will find a web host in our list to match your requirement. Scalability is a secret to your success, to take your online business to higher levels. For this, you will require a host who can adjust to your increase in features and resources.

If a sword was hanging over my head to pick a single web host, I would confess that SiteGround is by far the best of the best to handle small businesses with the potential of growing. It’s an option we recommend rookies to seasoned business tycoons. You can also check our review on the Best Cheap Web Hosting Canada.

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Buying Guide

Canadian Capability: Choosing the Best Domain Name for your business in Canada

Website Type

What are you currently using? WordPress or CMS? Does your site need a shopping cart/store? Will your customer’s shipping be delivered by you? What type of integration you’re looking at – seller or auction market? Does your current host have an SSL certificate?

Hosting Plan

For the initial one year, will shared web hosting services suffice? Will you need unlimited bandwidth and disk space? In future, if you want to upgrade, can it be done easily? The upgrade options you get, will they match your requirements? Will your host have dedicated servers? If you’re confident of your business growing in the near future, we recommend beginning with a dedicated server. This will save you a lot of time, energy and money on moving and upgrading.

Security

Always ensure your host is well equipped with top quality, up-to-date software and equipment, backups, hacker/virus scanner, more.

Email

Check for the number of email addresses they have to offer. Also if they provide spam filters.

Total Cost

Check for the number of services they have to offer. Some hosts charge an additional fee for certain services like multiple websites, privacy, email addresses, storage, size of website, traffic, backups etc. Don’t get carried away with offers that are free and cheap until you are clear with the total cost.

Guaranteed Uptime

Always ensure to get the guaranteed uptime in writing. Also, it should be no less than the average market standard of 99%.

Load Time

Some plans can be extremely slow, which can take a toll on your business. Enquire about their policy on speed. Check if they host various websites and if they could give you a link to them. If so, you can check the various load times.

Tech Support

Reach out to their tech support; this is the only best way to check them out. Ask multiple questions about their various web hosting plans. Do this over the phone, chat etc., in this way you know what type of assistance to expect and if they even meet your requirements.

Your Personal Technical Expertise

What do you need – recovery, automated backups, assistance with updates, a straightforward site builder or a solution with regards to the e-commerce platform?

Website Builder

A website builder is a faster and easier way to get your site online. Some offer a website builder that is mobile-friendly. This is vital, considering the latest changes Google has made that give a higher ranking to mobile-friendly websites. If you plan on WordPress, it will allow you installations of templates and plugins that will assist you in building your website.

Website Migration

If you’re planning on switching hosts, you need to make sure the new host will migrate your site without your intervention. You also need to check if there are any charges involved.

Environmentally Friendly

Simply claiming to be eco-friendly is not all; you must check their services like their server, are they powered by the wind? One of the top-host in this segment is GreenGeeks. The energy consumed by them is returned to the grid, and that too three times more than they consume. All this is done by using wind energy.

Are they Canadian?

If you look around, you will find plenty of hosts that are in fact, resellers. The parent host is based outside of Canada; they could be anywhere on the globe. Always check if their data centres are situated in Canada. If there are centres, ask if they allow you to select a centre of your choice.

Our List 2021 – Web Hosts that are Canadian- Friendly

We have saved you the hassle of researching for hosts that offer Canadian- friendly services. We have done all the groundwork for you. The following list is CIRA certified and .ca domain. They are either in Canada or own Canadian data centres and servers.

Sr #	Name	Location and Server Centre
1	HostUpon	Toronto, Canada
2	Host Papa	Ontario, Canada
3	Storm Web Hosting	Ontario, Canada
4	Shopify Canada	Ontario, Canada
5	GreenGeeks	Toronto and Montreal
6	Cloudways	Canada
7	WP Engine	Canada
8	A2 Hosting	Canada
9	SiteGround	Canada
10	Rebel	Ottawa, Canada

Difference between a Website builder and web hosts

Website builder assists you in building your own website. There are multiple templates available that assist you in building your site. Whereas a web host is a platform that hosts your website on a server that enables it to be viewed by all on the internet.

Content Delivery Network

Content Delivery Network (CDN) is also known as Content Distribution Network. It is a network of proxy servers and data centres that are distributed geographically across the globe. They offer high performance and availability with the spatial distribution of service to their users.

What is the difference between paid and free SSL Certificate?

Sr #	Paid SSL	Free SSL
1	This certificate is issued for a long tenure of one or two years.	This certificate is issued for a shorter duration, like for one to three months.
2	A trusted authority signs and issues it.	They do not require an authority to sign off on it. They are self–signed.
3	The resellers and authorities that have issued the certificate are under obligation to provide support 24*7.	If you face any issues with it, you will have to check their online forum for solutions.

There are five important things you must consider:

Customer Assistance

It is vital to get pre and post-sales service. This will assist you in creating a website to meet your requirements.

Pricing

Pay attention to the multiple plans available. You will be able to save some money by avoiding the extra price on web hosting services.

Datacentre location

This is a very important. If you’re planning to buy a web host plan from Canada, then make sure their data centre is either in Canada or North America.

Hosting Reviews

Research the provider at a local level and also scan the web and read customer reviews about the host. This will give you an idea of what you’re getting into.

Speed

Speed is very important because the host can have all the advanced features but the speed is slow and you’re losing customers, it makes no sense.

If the host is slow, and your customers have to wait for the page to load be sure, that they are leaving the page. Today people have a very low attention span, and a very fast lifestyle. They need everything to happen in super speeds. Every second counts.

The moment your visitor leaves, be sure they have taken their business to your competitor and may never return. Their first experience was their last experience. Yes, the online business is ruthless, so get it right the first time. It will save you the hassle of switching hosts later.

If we have missed anything, please feel free to share it with us. We also look forward to hearing more about your online business and experiences.