Web Hosting Canada Review
Best of 2019 web hosting Canada review, from a blogger’s point of view.
Author: Greg Narayan
Last Update: November 27th, 2019
ABOUT US: As a community who helps people create blogs and websites for a living, we’ve seen every type of website on every host imaginable. These are our best web hosting providers for Canada, the bacon with syrup on top that will only cost you a couple toonies to get a website up and running.
These awesome sites share our web hosting advice:
Why Take Our Advice?
Because we’ve been satisfying readers for over 6 years!
Best Web Hosting Canada: Our Top Picks - October 2019
| Web Hosting Provider | Total Rating | Price per Month | Features | Disk Space | Reviews | Visit Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  (5 / 5) | CAD $3.95 $1/mo Shared Hosting EASTER Sale and FREE domain | Affordable, servers in Canada, HQ in Ontario, and charges in CAD. Lightning fast WP tools + commitment to Canadian hosting = #1 Choice! | 100 GB | HostPapa Review | |
 | (5 / 5) | $5.95 | Great support, 45 day money back. Hosts the most sites at nearly 10 million. | Unlimited | HostGator Review | |
 |  (4.5 / 5) | USD $3.95 | Great performance, recommended by WordPress, 25 subdomains allowed. Amazing support for over 6 years. | 50 GB | BlueHost Review | |
 | (4.5 / 5) | USD $3.95 | Affordable, advanced security + serves 150 countries, great support! | Unlimited | Green Geeks Review | |
 |  (4 / 5) | USD $70 | Includes Genesis Framework, 35+ free themes, Global CDN and Free SSL certificates, if you can afford it, it's amazing! | 50GB | WP Engine Review |
| Web Hosting Provider | Total Rating | Price per Month | Visit Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| (5 / 5) | CAD $3.95 51% off and FREE domain | |
| (5 / 5) | $5.95 | |
| (4.5 / 5) | USD $3.95 | |
| (4.5 / 5) | USD $3.95 | |
| (4 / 5) | USD $70 |
Nowadays there are over 1000s of hosting providers, and the prices and features vary so much you can get totally confused quickly. It’s hard to distinguish between a nice slab of Canadian bacon, and a total dud.
So I made this list of the best web hosting providers for Canada where we have hosting accounts and have had the best experience over the past 10 years. Long lasting, high quality hosting brands that offer the most affordable web hosting plans to setup WordPress (or any website) and still have a few cents left for a couple drinks when you’re done.
Deep Comparison of These Best Canadian Web Hosts
1) Our Winner: HostPapa
HostPapa is where the vast majority of our Canadian clients enjoy hosting their websites. They have servers Ontario & globally, and do more things to take care of small businesses than we can even count!
For free with HostPapa you get a domain name, hacker protection, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and cPanel. For beginners, cPanel is where you install WordPress with 1-click (no code) … HostPapa’s cPanel is so big it can install over 400 different types of blogging and website building software!
For anyone looking to create a small business website, eCommerce shop online, professional blog or agency website, we whole-heartedly recommend the personal service and total quality of HostPapa.
Over the past 3 years, they’ve full earned our pick for best web host in Canada!
Their cheapest package starts at only CAD $3.95
Check our HostPapa Review Canada page at DearBlogger for all the latest discounts!
Affordability
95%
Easy Setup
90%
Speed, Performance & Power
90%
WordPress.org Tools
99%
HostPapa’s Starter Plan is our #1 pick for best overall web host in Canada!
2) HostGator
HostGator launched as dorm room startup just like Facebook, and now hosts over 10 million websites (most globally). So you’d think as a big company you’d get some of those impersonal service vibes? Nope. HostGator’s live chat is always online and answers in an average of 2minutes!
They offer the best cPanel, free $100 for Adwords, 45 day money back, and they actually have seasonal coupon offers (even if HostGator gives you a coupon, they offer elite affiliates bigger discounts, so try ours “BigBonus”).
Like all our top 10 web hosts, they use the 1-click WordPress installer (so no coding needed). All of HostGator’s plans can run a WordPress.org website.
HostGator is especially great for powering eCommerce, portfolio and agency websites because they work closely with the best wp theme developers to provide wp theme discounts.
Their cheapest package starts at only $2.58 (for 1 year plan)
Affordability
95%
Easy Setup
90%
Speed, Performance & Power
90%
WordPress.org Tools
99%
3) BlueHost
Also an official recommended host, BlueHost offers a clean and minimalist approach to web hosting over 3 million customers love.
Recommended by ProBloggers like Pat Flyyn, Darren Rowse, and Aussie SEO legend Glen Allsop.
High powered tools to help your blog grow to over 100,000 visitors each month. Great support, high quality tutorials for beginners, obviously supported by many pro bloggers.
Their cheapest packages start at only $3.95 (but if you try to close the window, it will offer you an additional discount, take it!) 🙂
Affordability
92%
Easy Setup
90%
Speed, Performance & Power
95%
Security & Infrastructure
95%
4) GreenGeeks
Putting GreenGeeks as #2 on our list really feels like choosing chocolate ice cream over strawberry, it’s a tough call!
For almost 10 years, GreekGeeks has been providing down-to-earth support for over 1 Million customers, meaning they will actually explain how things work on layman’s terms. That alone is why we put them in our top 5 best web hosts in the Canada.
Go with GreekGeeks and you also get 99.99% uptime guarantee, servers globally, and a 30 day money back. So you get 30 days to try hosting, WordPress, etc, and on the 29th day you can back out and just have it all be free.
As the industry’s leading eco-friendly provider, GreekGeeks takes the energy they put into hosting for us and 3x it, then send it back into donations to renewable energy. So they truly own up to their cool name!
Cheapest plan we like is the EcoSite Starts coming at you at only $2.95 with a free domain included
Affordability
95%
Easy Setup
93%
Speed, Performance & Power
91%
Security & Infrastructure
95%
5) WPEngine
So now we reach the bottom of the barrel, or do we?! WPEngine is far from it! They are actually our best premium web hosting Canada provider – a sweet feel choice if you got the moola.
But as they are premium, the price is steep. However, if you actually want to pay for a really, really nice web host (like buying the Air Jordan Limited Editions vs the perfectly fine Nike’s at your local store) you can get some great features for your money.
WPEngine comes with free Genesis Framework (the theme that powers a ton of famous blogs like PinchofYum and TheBlondeAbroad) as well as over 35+ free themes, free SSL and a free CDN (we pay about $19/mo for a CDN).
With all this value, it’s no wonder the web’s most luxurious brands use WP Engine, it’s just that cushy.
If you can find a few hundred pounds/yr in your budget for web hosting, then we certainly recommend getting the power and speed of WPEngine.
Their cheapest plans start at $35 and you can get 2 months free on the annual plan.
Affordability
85%
Easy Setup
95%
Speed, Performance & Power
95%
Security & Infrastructure
99%
Best Web Hosting Canada: Reader FAQ
Which is the best web hosting is always a tough question. Much of the time, to be honest, it comes down to which host a friend recommends to you. A personal web hosting recommendation can go a long way. We hope to be your friend in web hosting! That said, some hard facts and criteria never hurt. Whether we are reviewing the best web hosts in Mexico, best web hosting in India, best web hosting US, top web hosting UK, best web hosting Canada, best web hosting in Australia, web hosting providers in Singapore, or wherever, we always take a good long look at:- WordPress tools
- Quality of support
- Disk space
- Uptime reviews
- cPanel reviews
- Pricing
- Bonus features
- Security
- Backups
- Ability to grow with a host (aka can the host offer you free migrations to a better plan when you cross 10k, 100k, 1M views and need that boost)
What is the best web hosting for small business?
If you were instead to ask which is the best web hosting for a small business, that may depend on where your current business connections and budgeting lies. Many web hosts have partnerships with other brands, for example HostGator has strong parternships with WordPress, Comodo, and Constant Contact, while Siteground has a strong relationship with WordPress and Aweber. You should consider all possible marketing opportunities that may arise from your host of choice, and place your web hosting payments in the right hands to position yourself for the most future success.What is the best hosting for WordPress?
Another good question is which hosting is best for WordPress? To answer this question you need to look at availability of 1-click “script” (WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and more are all scripts) which can be installed in 1-click at the host so you don’t need to do any coding to get your website setup. However, all the best web hosts in Canada have this feature! So, you should look at cPanel strength, and also reviews from WordPress bloggers who might be further ahead of you.Does a website even need hosting?
Every WordPress website and every website has to be hosted somewhere, and literally everyone we talked to is happy when they choose a a web host from our list above, as opposed to trying to survive on a free host. You may research the costs to setup a basic WordPress.org hosting, and get another big list of providers! But this is it, right here. The costs to setup a WordPress site are low these days. Even the small nominal cost of web hosting puts you on the same playing field as big names like Mashable, TechCrunch, ProBlogger and more right away, so nearly everyone considers it worth it (even if they wait too long, haha). All of these web hosts also let you buy a domain name in Canada, and some even offer domain name discounts in Canada.How can I pick the best domain name?
How to pick a domain name can be a tricky task too. That’s why in every WordPress tutorial we make we feature not only how to setup web hosting cheaply but how to select the right domain name to match your business goals.What’s the difference between web hosts?
Marketing gimmics aside, the main differences you will see in web hosting providers in the UK are price, features, storage space, customer satisfaction, and support. We hope this article has provided some clear differences between web hosts, however doing a little more homework never hurts or asking your blogging friend next doors.Types of Web Hosting
Shared Hosting: The cheapest and greatest hosting for small businesses. This hosting is where we all start. You get your own hosting space but the down side is it’s hosted alongside many other websites. But that’s okay you don’t see those sites ever. You basically get an apartment in a really nice building which is shared by others.
VPS Hosting: You get all the benefits of shared hosting, but you also get your own virtual private address as if you got a luxury unit aka an entire floor of the apartment building. This is a great happy medium of web hosting, generally faster than your average shared hosting.
Dedicated Hosting: The big daddy of hosting, you get your own space on a virtual private dedicated server. You are the only person in the apartment building, and can literally dictate all the settings on your own, like the temperature and who is allowed in the entry way. It’s at least $1000/year, but it’s worth it for some big time bloggers and website owners for this utter peace of mind.
Cloud Hosting: Cloud is like one step above shared. It is a new and modern version of shared where the majority of your SSD is pushed to the cloud to optimize speed and reduce server usage. This plan is modern and flexible, it’s for the professional we designer who doesn’t want the pressure of a VSP but still wants that upgraded speed and control.
Reseller Hosting: You basically become the host, you get a portion of the hosting space and are expected to sell it off to your own customers or perhaps employees of your company. Nowadays, the reseller method has become a bit out of date as you can simply host many websites on a basic shared plan and charge users as you wish.
Web Hosting India Glossary: Important Web Hosting Terms as You Begin
- Web hosting: the business of providing storage space and access for websites
- Uptime: time during which a machine, like a computer, is in operation.
- Bandwidth: the range of frequencies within a given band, used for transmitting a signal.
- Downtime: time during which a machine, like a computer, is out of action or unavailable for usage.
- CPU: the abbreviation for central processing unit. The CPU is the brains of the computer where nearly all calculations take place.
Types of Web Hosting India Packages – Full Summary
- Linux Shared Hosting: Commonly referred to as just “shared hosting”, Linux Sharing Hosting now powers most websites around the world. It’s open source meaning developers around the world can fix any bugs that come up quickly, and it is by far the most popular shared hosting ideal for WordPress, PHP, MySQL, and other scripts like ZenCart, Magento, Joomla, phpBB, and many more.
- Windows Shared Hosting: Proprietary software using Windows as the server’s operating system and offering Window specific operations and technologies. More expensive than shared hosting because of licensing agreements from Windows. Not necessary to use if you run a Windows computer, the type of computer you own has nothing to do with the host you should get.
- Open Source Hosting: Describes a large archive or facility containing source code which may be used by expert developers for any given number of projects at any time to further the greater good of the Web.
- Cloud Hosting: Generally X amount faster and more scalable than shared hosting, with less websites on the server and you will get more Ram and and more Cores. However, not necessary to run a successful medium sized blog (10,000-100,000 visitors annually).
- WordPress Hosting: WordPress hosting is a concierge hosting service where all the minor details of running a WordPress website, like daily backups, website uptime, deleting an installation, managing plans and a few more factors are managed by the web host. Not necessary to run a successful WordPress blog (we started on a shared Starter plan).
- Reseller Hosting: You run your own hosting environment and are encourage to “resell” space for others to use. You basically become a small web host on your own. Profitable for the driven markerter and web hosting expert.
- VPS Hosting: Virtual Private Server hosting. This server environment resembles a dedicated server in that it runs it’s own version of an operating system, and you get your own space and access to more advanced server tools like WHM, SSL, migration handling, unlimited website space, and so much more. Premium support who will listen to your relationship problems.
- Dedicated Server: The big daddy of web hosting, a single computer network with the ultimate level of support. They will literally make you a drink and send it to your door.
Please email me anything on your mind or drop a YouTube comment (see those fast) and I’ll help you pick the best India web host for your next project, whatever that might be!
Next Steps: Get Web Hosting Today
And there you have it. Overwhelmed? Yeah, me too. But remember this: every day don’t get web hosting is another day someone else with a similar idea is taking a slice of your pie online! Like I said above, once you review the criteria of picking a best web host if you still can’t make up your mind, ask a friend! As us! We are your friend! Check out my blog post from way back on best places to start a blog (or website) and just browse the comments and engage someone. It helps to know others have traveled the path before you, and certainly helps if you can look up to someone in blogging and go as they’ve gone. Or you could make a massive spreadsheet of all the data. Either way, you’re not alone, we are here for you!