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Best web hosting Canada: global or Canadian web host?


People choose to host their websites in Canada for many reasons. Some may want to target an audience located there, while others hope to support local businesses and opt for a Canadian-based provider. With so many options to choose from, things can get overwhelming quite quickly. However, I am here to help if you’re looking for a cost-effective solution with plenty of features and reliable performance.

Editor’s top choice for Canada
With prices starting at just $1.99/month, Bluehost is an affordable and user-friendly hosting option for Canadians, offering solid performance. With features like automatic setup, free site migration, and 24/7 customer support, it caters well to both beginners and experienced users.
cybernews® score
4.9 /5

To help you make a sound decision, I’ve sought out 54 and narrowed the list to 8 providers for the best web hosting in Canada. Ultimately, I ranked them based on their performance in Canada and the fact that they could easily reach the Canadian audience. I also looked into Canada-based providers and providers that have servers there.

Best web hosting Canada 2024: ranked

Akvile Tamasiuniene Ieva Jociūtė author sarunas karbauskas vincentas
Why You Can Trust Cybernews

Our in-house research team and expert writers work hand in hand to regularly test hosting services and provide accurate and fact-checked information. Discover the ins and outs of how we test and evaluate website hosting providers.

48
Web hosts tested
1
Month uptime monitoring period
1748
Hours of extensive testing

Below are detailed overviews of the best web hosting providers for Canada. I selected and ranked them based on my hands-on testing in performance, additional features, and pricing categories.

Best Canada web hosting – detailed list

To compile the list of the best web hosting providers in Canada, I reviewed 54 hosting services, focusing on key factors such as performance, features, server locations, and pricing. I prioritized providers with servers near or in Canada and evaluated their measures to maximize speed. To make my decision more objective, I also conducted 1-month testing to check each provider’s uptime and response time metrics.

Without further ado, let's explore the detailed list.

1. Bluehost – the best overall web hosting for Canada in 2024

Bluehost
Starting price: From $1.99/month (CA$2.75/month)
Storage: 10-100GB NVME
Bandwidth:Unmetered
Current deal: Get up to 75% OFF Bluehost

After extensive research and in-house testing, Bluehost lands at #1 on my list of the best Canada web hosting providers. Although Bluehost only has servers in the US, extensive research showed that it doesn’t stop the service from offering solid results for customers in Canada. The service is primarily geared towards WordPress hosting, but you’ll have no trouble customizing the site to your needs using Bluehost’s easy-to-use interface.

Among key features, you can also expect other great tools for seamless and hassle-free Canada hosting:

  • Automatic setup process. Bluehost takes care of everything for you by adjusting settings based on your experience in hosting, one-click WordPress installation, and setting up the domain and SSL certificates.
  • Free site migration. With Bluehost, you can just enter the domain of your existing site, and the Migrator plugin will do the rest. Bluehost also offers a single-click staging site feature, which allows you to create a copy of your website for testing purposes.
  • Website builder for WordPress. Bluehost's website builder is a good bonus for any hosting service. It is easy to use, and it features a good site editor and beautiful templates.
  • Free SSL certificates and DDoS protection. Essential security features are included in most subscription tiers. Meanwhile, additional perks like daily automatic backups will cost extra.
  • 24/7 live chat customer support. If you ever encounter issues requiring urgent assistance, Bluehost’s customer support will always help you. However, there’s no option to communicate via email, which some consider a downside.

Bluehost performance

I thoroughly tested Bluehost’s performance by hosting a site with it and monitoring some of the most vital metrics. One of the most vital metrics is uptime, which was a perfect 100%. While Bluehost doesn’t offer an uptime guarantee, the testing shows the provider is reliable and trustworthy.

Bluehost response time and uptime
Bluehost uptime and response time metrics

Bluehost also delivered 141ms in the server response time, which isn’t particularly fast but good enough for a fully built site. This is an exceptional result, further proving Bluehost’s capabilities for fast and speedy performance.

Bluehost pricing

With Bluehost’s shared and WordPress hosting options, you can choose from 4 plans – Basic, Choice Plus, Online Store, and Pro. All plans offer free SSL, CDN, web application firewall, DDoS protection, AI site creation tools, free domain, and a free trial for professional email. However, I would particularly recommend getting the Basic and Choice Plus plans:

  • Basic, from $1.99/month: 10 websites, 10GB NVMe storage, 100 concurrent visitors
  • Choice Plus, from $3.99/month: 50 websites, 50GB NVMe storage, 500 concurrent visitors

Bluehost also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for only hosting-related services. That includes Bluehost’s subscriptions for WooCommerce, cloud, VPS, dedicated, and email hosting services.

2. Hostinger – budget-friendly web hosting for Canadians

Hostinger banner
Starting price: From $2.12/month (CA$2.94/month)
Storage: 100-200GB NVME
Bandwidth:Unlimited
Current deal: Get up to 82% OFF Hostinger + 3 months free

Hostinger is my second-best recommendation for hosting in Canada. It offers affordable pricing, a simple and clean control panel, a friendly customer support team, good performance, and a choice of servers from all around the globe. Here’s what you can get:

  • Diverse server locations. A global CDN and servers in the US, UK, Netherlands, Lithuania, France, India, Singapore, and Brazil ensure fast content delivery and site load times for your audience no matter where you’re based. For users in Canada, I recommend choosing a server in the US.
  • AI website creation tools for WordPress. The provided automation tools will help you set up, migrate, and even build a site in just a few minutes.
  • Automatic website setup process and free website migration. Hostinger offers excellent tools for quick setup and migration. I tried them myself and found it extremely easy to transfer an existing website and set up a new one.
  • LiteSpeed web server. Modern server technology, with its custom caching engine, guarantees excellent performance with much better speeds.
  • Intuitive and user-friendly hPanel. Hostinger’s very own custom-made panel was created following the best cPanel practices. Thus, with hPanel, you get an excellent modern interface and all the essential and nice-to-have functionalities.

Hostinger performance

During my testing, Hostinger maintained a perfect 100% uptime. Given that Hostinger’s guarantee is just 99.99%, the result is exceptional. This simply proves that not only Hostinger promises a great results, but actually exceeds the guarantee, as proven by my test results.

Hostinger response time and uptime
Hostinger uptime and response time metrics

Meanwhile, Hostinger delivered worse response time results than Bluehost, averaging 175ms. This is not to say that Hostinger’s result is underwhelming, considering the acceptable time in the industry is below 600ms.

Even though Hostinger does not have servers in Canada, from my experience, choosing a US server for hosting in Canada provides optimal performance without compromising speeds.

Hostinger pricing

With all its plans, Hostinger offers a plethora of free tools like pre-built templates for website creation, automatic website migration, unlimited SSL, a professional email, and a domain. Regarding security, Hostinger covers firewalls, monitoring, and DDoS protection for free, regardless of the plan chosen. However, there are some key differences in the number of websites and storage. Thus, here are my 2 recommendations for the best value for money:

  • Premium, from $2.12/month: 100 websites, 100GB NVMe storage, 400,000 files and directories
  • Business, from $2.97/month: 100 websites, 200GB NVMe storage, 600,000 files and directories, free CDN, WordPress AI, and staging tools

If you’re looking for more scalability, Hostinger has subscription plans for cloud, WordPress, and email hosting. Hostinger also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all its web hosting-related services. Keep in mind that payments made using cryptocurrencies are non-refundable.

3. HostPapa – best Canada-based web hosting provider

HostPapa banner 1
Starting price: From $2.36/month (CA$3.27/month)
Storage: 50GB to unmetered NVME
Bandwidth:Unlimited
Current deal: Get HostPapa, now 74% OFF

A little less known provider is a Canada-based hosting solution, HostPapa. It’s intuitive and easy to use, thanks to the original cPanel. The provider also offers some solid tools for enhanced privacy and overall experience. With a reliable and speedy performance, HostPapa is an optimal solution for small business owners. Let’s further explore what you can expect from this service.

  • Data centers in 3 locations. HostPapa is one of the few providers on this list that has data centers in Canada. With servers in the US, the Netherlands, and Canada, HostPapa is a versatile provider and caters to many users on different continents.
  • Easy-to-use cPanel. This is especially useful to those who are familiar with classic hosting management. HostPapa is functional and easy to use, so users will have no trouble understanding how things work.
  • Server firewall. The feature is included in all HostPapa’s plans for enhanced security. Its firewall monitors and filters the data entering the network and blocks anything suspicious.
  • Friendly customer support. As discovered while reviewing HostPapa, the provider shines with excellent support in moments of trouble. You can receive assistance via live chats, phone, or ticketing system. And if you’re old-school – there’s an option to even send a fax.

HostPapa performance

While the provider has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, previous HostPapa testing conducted by Cybernews showed solid performance with 100% uptime and 0 outages. That said, the response time averaged 1.19s, which is quite underwhelming. Nevertheless, you can expect optimal performance given that HostPapa has data centers in 3 locations.

HostPapa pricing

HostPapa has 4 plans for shared hosting – Essentials, Growth, Premium, and Elite. However, the shared features for all plans are quite sparse. For example, the only similarity between all plans is the inclusion of an SSL certificate (Standard SSL with the Essentials and Growth plans, GlobalSign Single SSL with Premium and Elite plans). I find that quite disappointing, considering other providers provide more essential features for a smaller price. Based on these aspects, here are 2 plans I recommend to ensure you get your money’s worth:

  • Essentials, from $2.36/month: 2 websites, 50GB NVMe storage, 10 email addresses
  • Premium, from $5.56/month: unlimited websites, 200GB NVMe storage, unlimited email addresses, free website builder, free domain registration, CDN, 5GB of automated backups

Besides shared hosting, HostPapa offers VPS and WordPress hosting plans. Like most hosting providers, HostPapa offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

4. DreamHost – solid Canada hosting for WordPress beginners

DreamHost
Starting price: From $2.59/month (CA$3.59/month)
Storage: 50GB to unlimited SSD
Bandwidth:Unmetered
Current deal: Get DreamHost, now 72% OFF

DreamHost is a solid choice for hosting in Canada, offering a range of hosting options such as shared, VPS, cloud, and WordPress hosting. It provides excellent performance with top-tier uptime and quick speeds. While its data centers are located in the US, the high-performance and CDN integration ensures that websites for Canadian users remain fast and reliable. Here’s what you can expect from DreamHost:

  • Global CDN integration. With partners like Cloudflare, DreamHost offers servers in various locations, including Canada. This ensures rapid content delivery and optimized site load times.
  • Specialized WordPress integration. DreamHost offers Jetpack Site Accelerator – a service designed to speed up WordPress sites by optimizing images and accelerating static files.
  • Easy website setup. Through a free Automated WordPress Migration Plugin that simplifies the transfer of existing WordPress sites, you can expect an easy migration process, even if you’re an experienced developer or a beginner.
  • Custom control panel. Designed with ease of use in mind, DreamHost’s control panel provides a user-friendly interface for managing domains, emails, and hosting.

DreamHost performance

DreamHost offers strong performance metrics, boasting an impressive average response time of 149ms. Its performance ranks among the top, making it a competitive option for users in Canada.

Dreamhost response time and uptime
DreamHost uptime and response time metrics

Meanwhile, the test showed a 100% uptime rate. This is on par with DreamHost’s 100% uptime guarantee, and the tests have confirmed its reliability. Also, the speed is much faster since DreamHost uses advanced technology like SSD storage and supports modern web protocols such as HTTP/3.

DreamHost pricing

DreamHost only offers 2 shared hosting plans. Both plans include free SSL, daily backups, a free domain, and a WP website builder. However, other metrics differ significantly:

  • Shared Starter, from $2.59/month: 1 website, 50GB site storage, 5 subdomains
  • Shared Unlimited, from $3.95/month: unlimited websites, unlimited site storage, unlimited subdomains

DreamHost also has plans for VPS, dedicated, cloud, and email hosting if you’re seeking more resources and scalability for larger businesses or high-traffic websites. Also, the 97-day money-back guarantee is one of the longest in the industry.

5. SiteGround – best web hosting for creators and developers

SiteGround new
Starting price: From $2.99/month (CA$4.14/month)
Storage: 10-40GB
Bandwidth:Unmetered
Current deal: Get up to 83% OFF SiteGround + FREE TRANSFER

SiteGround is a dependable and trustworthy hosting provider that offers excellent performance. The WordPress-focused features and optimization tools make it one of the best business hosts. It’s also best suited for targeting visitors from North America (the US and Canada), as it has multiple nearby servers. Here are some of SiteGround’s key strengths:

  • Automatic setup process. SiteGround automates the WordPress installation, migration services, and updates. With the tools, you will get your site up and running in mere moments.
  • Beginner-friendly native control panel. SiteGround uses a proprietary native control panel called Site Tools, which replaced cPanel. From my experience with the control panel, I can tell that it caters to all kinds of users: beginners and advanced. It has a user-friendly interface, a customizable dashboard, and a modern design.
  • Speed-optimizing features. SiteGround's proprietary caching solution, SuperCacher, includes static, dynamic, and object caching. Also, the inclusion of a custom PHP setup improves performance significantly. However, keep in mind that the PHP setup is only available on GrowBig and GoGeek plans.
  • Server locations in 4 locations. SiteGround has data centers in US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as a global CDN. Therefore, reaching your audience anywhere in the world will be easy. For users in Canada, I recommend setting up your site on a server in the US.

SiteGround performance

With an uptime guarantee of 99.9%, SiteGround offers stellar performance. However, previously conducted SiteGround tests proved that the provider can deliver even better results. With minimal outage time, it reached an almost-perfect 99.99% uptime.

Even though SiteGround doesn’t have a data center in Canada, it provides quite a few nearby in the US (the closest ones are in Virginia, Texas, and Iowa). Thus, with wide location coverage, you can rest assured that SiteGround will deliver solid results even in Canada.

SiteGround pricing

All 3 of SiteGround’s shared hosting plans contain essential features like a free domain, free SSLs, native CDN, daily backups, and caching. SiteGround has different but versatile plans catering to different users and needs. Here are the 2 I would recommend based on the money-to-features ratio:

  • StartUp, from $2.99/month: 1 website, 10GB storage, 10,000 monthly visitors
  • GrowBig, from $4.99/month: unlimited websites, 20GB storage, 100,000 monthly visitors, faster PHP setup, staging

SiteGround also has plans for cloud, WordPress, and WooCommerce hosting, too. With a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can try out the services risk-free.

6. GreenGeeks – eco-friendly Canada web hosting

GreenGeeks banner new
Starting price: From $2.95/month (CA$4.09/month)
Storage: 50GB to unlimited
Bandwidth:Unmetered
Current deal: Get up to 75% OFF GreenGeeks!

GreenGeeks is an affordable, easy-to-use, and one of the most well-rounded providers. Most users mostly appreciate GreenGeeks for its Earth-friendly pledge and environmentally conscious practices. With data centers in 4 countries, including Canada, this provider is your best bet to go green with your hosting without compromising reliable performance. Here is why it landed on my list of best web hosting in Canada:

  • LiteSpeed web servers. GreenGeeks employs LiteSpeed web servers to enhance the performance and speed of its hosting services. This ensures fast page loading times without consuming excessive memory or CPU resources.
  • Environmental commitment. GreenGeeks prides itself on being environmentally friendly. It is involved in renewable energy matches and tree-planting initiatives, making it one of the most ecological and sustainable web hosts.
  • User-friendly tools. GreenGeeks prioritizes easy-to-understand tools like drag-and-drop site builder and startup wizard that can make starting a website much more straightforward. For example, its Softaculous tool allows users to install various applications, including WordPress, with just one click.

GreenGeeks performance

GreenGeeks guarantees near-perfect 99.99% uptime. During the previous GreenGeeks tests, the provider’s uptime was 99.98%, while the average response time was 773ms. Despite being higher than the industry average, GreenGeeks is still a notable provider with solid performance.

Considering GreenGeeks has servers in 4 locations, the web hosting solution can offer faster page loading times for users based on geographic location. Therefore, you can expect robust performance, especially when hosting your site in Canada with GreenGeeks.

GreenGeeks pricing

GreenGeeks offers 3 plans for shared hosting – Lite, Pro, and Premium. They all include free SSL, free domain, free nightly backup, unlimited databases, and built-in caching. Looking at the list of features, GreenGeeks certainly offers many essential features no matter which plan you choose. However, here are my top picks:

  • Lite, from $2.95/month: 1 website, 50GB storage, 50 email accounts
  • Pro, from $4.95/month: unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited email accounts, WordPress repair tool

In addition to shared hosting, GreenGeeks provides VPS and WordPress hosting options. Like many other hosting companies, GreenGeeks offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

7. Web Hosting Canada – best Canadian web hosting for socially responsible brands

WHC banner
Starting price: From $2.80/month (CA$3.89/month)
Storage: 10-50GB (WordPress hosting), unlimited (shared hosting)
Bandwidth:Unlimited

Montreal-based Web Hosting Canada (WHC) is an optimal choice for those seeking reliable hosting services within Canada. This provider focuses on sustainable practices and exclusively offers hosting within the country, making it appealing to users who prefer a Canadian-based option. However, WHC faced a significant cyberattack in 2021 that resulted in the loss of a substantial amount of data from their servers, which affects my overall rating of them. Despite this setback, here are the key strengths of WHC:

  • Green hosting initiatives. The company focuses on sustainability, using renewable energy sources like hydroelectricity to power its offices and data centers.
  • Great customer support. WHC offers 24/7 customer support in English and French, catering to Canada's bilingual population. In my testing, I discovered that the support agents are knowledgeable and equipped to answer simple and more advanced questions.
  • Canada-only web hosting. WHC focuses on serving Canadian small businesses and individuals, offering more tailored services for this market. Hosting with a Canadian provider can also help ensure compliance with Canadian data privacy laws and regulations.

Web Hosting Canada performance

Web Hosting Canada (WHC) guarantees 99.9% uptime for its servers. With 2 data centers in Canada, near Montreal and Vancouver, you can choose which specific coast you wish to target with your website while expecting fast loading speeds across the country.

Web Hosting Canada pricing

WHC has 3 shared hosting plans. Like many providers on the list, it offers a free SSL certificate, unlimited storage, traffic, and MySQL databases, free site migration, and various AI tools (site builder, content creator, WordPress assistant). Out of the 3, here are my picks:

  • Go, from $2.80/month: 1 website, 1 email account
  • Pro, from $2.82/month: unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, a free domain, email marketing, site quality monitoring, Ruby and Python support

WHC also offers cloud, dedicated, and managed WordPress hosting, catering to all users and needs. An industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee allows you to try out the service risk-free.

8. HostGator – great web hosting for Canadian artists and freelancers

HostGator new
Starting price: From $2.99/month (CA$4.09/month)
Storage: 10-50GB (shared hosting), 20-100GB (WordPress hosting)
Bandwidth:Unmetered
Current deal: Get up to 76% OFF HostGator

Based on my testing and evaluations, HostGator is a user-friendly and affordable hosting option for Canadians and users worldwide. The host's design is tailor-made for everyone starting out in the world of hosting, and the highly affordable prices with good resources make it easy to start with your web projects.

  • All plans include a free domain, SSL, unmetered storage, and bandwidth. Additionally, HostGator includes eCommerce tools and 24/7 support with all subscriptions.
  • Easy-to-use cPanel. A hosting management panel familiar to many makes HostGator an extremely beginner-friendly hosting solution. Some more advanced users might find it too simplistic, though.
  • 1-click installers for all kinds of apps. HostGator is one of the most user-friendly hosting solutions with an easy installation process. In my testing, it truly took only one click to install various applications.
  • Pre-installed WordPress with all plans. Once you get a subscription, all you need to launch a website is there.
  • Cloudflare CDN and performance optimization. Although only available with the Business plan, these tools will make your content reach your audience in Canada quicker, and the website will always load fast.

HostGator performance

Hostgator response time and uptime
HostGator uptime and response time metrics

Meanwhile, the response time average was 144ms, which is an incredible result compared to the 600ms industry average. Nevertheless, like many others, HostGator’s servers are in the US, catering to North American markets, including Canada.

HostGator pricing

All of HostGator’s shared hosting plans – Hatchling, Baby, and Business – include a free SSL certificate, a free domain, and free website transfer as long as your website was previously on WordPress and/or cPanel. These are great basic plans to start a blog or even a small business website. Here are the two I recommend:

  • Hatchling, from $2.99/month: 10 websites, 10GB storage
  • Baby, from $3.99/month: 20 websites, 20GB storage, Cloudflare CDN, 2 vCPUs

If you’re looking for more scalability or options to host bigger projects, you can opt for eCommerce, VPS, and dedicated hosting. A 30-day money-back guarantee is also available for all HostGator plans.

Best web hosts for Canada compared

RatingPriceSpeedUptimeData center locationHosting typesControl panelFree SSLFree domainCustomer support
Bluehost
4.9
From $1.99/month971ms99.9%The USShared, WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS, cloud, and dedicated hostinghPanel✅ Yes (first year)✅ Yes24/7
Hostinger
4.6
From $2.12/month511ms99.9%The US, the UK, Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Brazil, Indonesia, and IndiaShared, WordPress, VPS, cloud, and email hostingcPanel✅ Yes✅ Yes24/7
HostPapa
4
2.361.19s99.9%The US, Canada, and EuropeShared, managed WordPress, VPS, and resellercPanel✅ Yes✅ Yes24/7
DreamHost
4.4
From $2.59/month231ms100%The USShared, WordPress, VPS, cloud, and dedicated hostingcPanel✅ Yes✅ Yes24/7
SiteGround
4.3
From $2.99/month217ms99.9%The US, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Australia, and SingaporeShared, WordPress, WooCommerce, reseller, and cloud hostingSite Tools✅ Yes✅ Yes
24/7
GreenGeeks
3.8
2.95773ms99.99%The US, Canada, Singapore, and the NetherlandsShared, WordPress, VPS, and reseller hostingcPanel✅ Yes✅ Yes24/7
WHCN/AFrom $2.80/monthN/A100%Canada (Montreal and Vancouver)Shared, cloud, dedicated, and WordPresscPanel✅ Yes✅ Yes24/7
HostGator
4
From $2.99/month525ms99.9%The USShared, WordPress, VPS, cloud, and dedicated hostingNative✅ Yes✅ Yes (first year)24/7

Best web hosting for Canada – testing methodology

To evaluate web hosting options in Canada, I narrowed my list from 54 to 8 providers based on their proximity to data centers in Canada or nearby. I then conducted tests and research to rank these hosts according to the following criteria:

  1. Performance metrics (25%): I assessed their uptime guarantees and examined real-life performance. This involved personally testing the service to gauge overall speed and measuring uptime and response times.
  2. Features (25%): I considered the features offered by each provider, such as one-click installation, storage capacity, bandwidth, website builders, and setup assistance.
  3. Pricing (20%): I reviewed all the plans, analyzing the pricing and the accompanying features. I compared these offerings to other providers to determine where users could get the most value for their money.
  4. Security measures (20%): I investigated the security tools available, checking for features like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, malware protection, and firewalls.
  5. Ease of use (10%): I evaluated each provider’s control panels to determine their intuitiveness and user-friendliness. This included assessing how easy it is to start and set up a website and the responsiveness of customer support during crucial moments.

Best web hosting Canada: final recommendations

All in all, there are plenty of Canadian web hosting providers to choose from, ranging from affordable to more expensive options, different resource offers, as well as diverse feature packages.

Based on my hands-on testing, the best web hosting provider for Canada is Bluehost. It offers excellent introductory prices and comes with extremely generous resources even for the entry plans. Additionally, its performance is excellent, and the global server locations with performance optimization measures ensure that your site is accessible anywhere, to everyone, all the time.

Choosing the best provider for your site

There are several things you should pay attention to when choosing a hosting provider. Pricing and performance are definitely the king and queen of this business, although you really shouldn’t forget such things as customer support, ease of use, upsells, and more.

Pricing

The pricing is pretty much as straightforward as it gets. You want to get the most for the least money possible. However, make sure to check what you get for your money. A CA$6.00/month plan packed with useful features might be a better choice than a CA$3.00 plan that barely offers anything at all. And let’s not forget all the different options, including shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated servers.

To get started:

You will find that the majority of shared hosting options are rather affordable with most providers. This is just what the market dictates, and paying more than CA$10.00/month for a shared hosting plan seems outrageous nowadays.

For first-time users, entry or mid-grade plans for CA$2-5/mo are absolutely perfect.

Bluehost is an ideal example.

Upgrading:

If you grow out of the shared hosting boots and need a VPS or a dedicated host – most providers do have that on offer. These will give you a lot more resources and upgraded performance. However, it all comes at a price. These plans can be as expensive as CA$500+/month.

At the same time, quality VPS for upgrading from shared usually starts at CA$15.00/month and can be scaled as needed.

Hostinger is a good example.

At the end of the day, just try to make sure that you get the best value for money and that the possibility to scale is there if you ever need it.

Performance

As far as performance is concerned, there are two extremely important numbers you should keep your eye on - uptime and average response time. You want your uptime to be as close to 100% as possible. An average response time of up to 600ms is ideal, and anything above 1 second is really bad.

  • Uptime measures how much time (in %) a provider keeps your website live. You might have guessed that 100% is what we all should strive for. However, electricity and servers overall are a bit unpredictable, so most providers have a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This is fine. But if you manage to find a provider that offers more – consider yourself lucky.
  • Response time is the initial server delay until it reacts to any request (to open a page, for example). So while this delay happens, your site is not yet loading. 600ms is the maximum that’s recommended.

These are the performance essentials you need to know when looking at all of the providers on the list. Keeping them in mind should help you with weighing in on your options.

Other features

It is easy to get carried away by pricing and performance and forget everything else. However, there are other features you definitely should think about when choosing a hosting provider. Customer support, upsells, and ease of use are probably the most notable.

Customer support

Make sure that the provider you’re looking at has at least a decent customer support team. A 24/7 live chat and phone call support has pretty much become the norm nowadays. Although not a dealbreaker, not having that type of customer support is quite a big con. A vast knowledge base is always nice to have as well.

If you are a beginner in this crazy world of website hosting, make sure that you pay extra attention to your provider having a good customer support team. Trust me, you will have questions, and you will have issues. Might as well choose a provider that will help you solve them.

For example, HostPapa even has a one-on-one training session (with all plans except the Start) that you can book for free.

Pricing tricks

The website hosting business is notorious for upselling attempts. Some are tolerable, some are terrible, and some are straight-up annoying. Knowing about them is essential if you don’t want your pockets emptied without even knowing about it.

Let’s just quickly run through what you see most often:

  • If you choose a shorter billing period, you will get a higher price a month;
  • Plan renewal prices are usually higher than the initial prices a month;
  • Some essential features may not be included in the plans and are only offered as paid extras;
  • Items may be added to your checkout cart without prior notice.

Upsell attempts aren’t something you can avoid. It is pretty annoying at the start but just becomes a part of the deal after a while.

Ease of use

You are going to be using the provider’s dashboard and control panel a lot, so it only makes sense to choose one that’s easier to use. Many providers offer a custom dashboard, cPanel integration, or both of these things nowadays, which helps a lot.

The cPanel is something that many people are used to, which is why they refuse to take custom control panels seriously. However, while cPanel is great, a custom control panel can definitely be as effective and even easier to use, all without any extra costs.



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