Are you wondering what the best Canadian web hosting is? If you want to create a website in Canada, it’s important that you choose a web hosting service that will give your website the speed, performance, and security it needs, but without breaking the bank. There are a ton of web hosting services on the market though, so it can be difficult to figure out which one is the best choice for you.
In this article, we’ll share with you our top choices for the best Canadian web hosting services. We’ll go over U.S. based web hosting services that are great for Canadian websites as well as Canadian based web hosting providers.
Let’s begin.
Canadian Web Hosting Review: Our Process
Before we share with your our choices for the best Canadian web hosting, let’s go over our IsitWP web hosting review process.
Since we want to provide you with the most accurate review as possible, we’ve tested out many of these web hosting providers ourselves. We did this not only to provide a more detailed review, but also to help you choose the best Canadian hosting easier. It’s not practical for you to sign up for dozens of web hosting services and try them out, so we did the following steps for you:
- Signed up with the best Canadian web hosting providers on the market.
- Created a test WordPress website with a WordPress theme, dummy content, and images to mirror a live site environment.
- Conducted a few different speed tests to see how the site would perform.
- Recorded the test data to share with you.
Now that you know how we got some of these web hosts stats and data, let’s jump into our #1 pick for the best Canadian hosting.
1. Bluehost
- Load time: 689 ms
- Uptime: 99.99%
- Support: 9/10
- Website: Bluehost.com
Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress.org and it’s the most popular web hosting provider on the market, powering over 2 million websites worldwide.
If you’re new to starting a blog or website, Bluehost is the best choice for you because of their affordability, scalability, and their helpful onboarding experience.
Bluehost plans come with a free domain name for the 1st year, free SSL certificate, 1-click WordPress installation, unmetered bandwidth, and 24/7support. You can also try Bluehost out risk-free with their 30-day money back guarantee.
Servers in Canada: No, there are servers in USA.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at CA$10.46/month.
Special Offer: IsItWP users only pay CA$3.60/month (Over 60% off + free domain name, SSL).
2. SiteGround
- Load time: 649 ms
- Uptime: 99.98%
- Support: 10/10
- Website: SiteGround.com
SiteGround is another one of the best Canadian web hosting providers, currently hosting about 2 million domains.
With SiteGround you can easily build a website, even without previous experience. They even give you your choice of website builders, either WordPress or Weebly.
This web hosting services boasts ultra-fast sites, top-notch security, easy site management, reliable customer support, and more.
Servers in Canada: No, there are servers in USA.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at $11.95/month.
Special Offer: Our users get a special offer of $3.95/month.
Read our full SiteGround review »
3. HostGator
- Load time: 691 ms
- Uptime: 99.96%
- Support: 10/10
- Website: HostGator.com
HostGator is an easy-to-use and affordable web hosting provider for Canadian websites. You can quickly build a website with their drag and drop website builder which also comes with a number of themes and pre-built sections.
All of their plans come with 1-click installs for apps such as WordPress, unmetered bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, and more.
They offer a 45-day money back guarantee as well as always available technical support by phone, email, and live chat.
Servers in Canada: No, there are servers in USA.
Pricing: Regular price starts at $6.95/month.
Special Offer: Our users pay only $2.75/month.
4. WP Engine
WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider and it’s the platform of choice for over 2 million users, including big names like Yelp, National Geographic, Asana, and more.
When you sign up with WP Engine, they give you access to 36 premium themes that include built-in SEO and security. Plus, they provide great 24/7/365 customer support to help you with anything you need.
Although be warned, WP Engine is the most expensive and the number one managed web hosting provider on this list.
Servers in Canada: Yes, Montreal, Canada.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at $30/month.
Special Offer: Our users pay $20/month.
Get started with WP Engine today >>
5. GreenGeeks
- Load time: 697 ms
- Uptime: 99.92%
- Support: 9/10
- Website: GreenGeeks.com
GreenGeeks is one of the most well-known eco-friendly web hosting providers. So, if environmentally friendly web hosting is important to you, know that GreenGeeks puts back 3x the power they consume into the grid in the form of green energy.
They provide some of the fastest, more secure, and scalable speed with data centers located in Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, Phoenix, and Amsterdam. You can also count on them to deliver awesome 24/7/365 customer support.
Hosting plans with GreenGeeks offer unlimited web space, unlimited data transfer, free domain for the 1st year, 1-click WordPress installations, and much more.
Servers in Canada: Yes, Montreal, Canada.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at $9.95/month.
Special Offer: Our users pay only $2.95/month.
6. iPage
- Load time: 2.60 s
- Uptime: 99.98%
- Support: 8/10
- Website: iPage.com
iPage is another eco-friendly web hosting provider and they’re also one of the most affordable. iPage hosting gives you free domain registration, a drag and drop site builder, 1000s of free templates, a free SSL certificate, free email address, and more.
All of their plans also include extras such as free security tools and a $100 worth of free credits for both Google Adwords and Bing ads.
iPage also provides 24/7 customer support and a 30-day money back guarantee.
Servers in Canada: No, there are servers in USA.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at CA$10.95/month.
Special Offer: Our users pay only CA$2.50/month.
7. A2 Hosting
- Load time: 1.28 s
- Uptime: 99.90%
- Support: 9/10
- Website: A2hosting.com
A2 Hosting is built for speed, offering up to 20x faster web hosting. Their web hosting plans come with unlimited space and bandwidth, free SSL certificate, speed optimized WordPress, 24/7 customer support, and more.
A2 Hosting is a developer-friendly option that lets you install website scripts in 1-click, this includes WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, and more.
A2 Hosting also offers an anytime money back guarantee. This means that if you’re not happy with their service within 30 days, you get a full refund. After the first 30 days, you’ll be eligible for a prorated refund for any unused services.
Servers in Canada: No, there are servers in USA.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at CA$10.43/month.
Special Offer: Special offer pricing starts at only CA$3.68/month.
8. HostPapa
HostPapa is Canada’s #1 web host with over 500,000 websites hosted. Their web hosting provides you with a free domain name, reliable storage, unmetered bandwidth, over 400 apps including WordPress with 1-click installation, and more.
HostPapa also offers their own website builder with a drag and drop interface, hundreds of professional templates, and you can even create an online store with their Enterprise plan.
They also offer award-winning 24/7 email support backed by HostPapa’s in-house experts as well as telephone and live chat support in multiple languages. You can try out HostPapa risk-free with their 30-day money back guarantee for shared web hosting services and reseller web hosting services.
Servers in Canada: Yes, Toronto, Canada.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at CA$8.99/month.
Special Offer: At the time of writing this article, you can get started for only CA$3.95/month.
Get started with HostPapa today >>
9. HostUpon.ca
HostUpon is another great Canadian web hosting company. HostUpon is also a “green” web hosting company, their entire infrastructure was built with eco-friendly hardware and they do their part to help the environment in a number of other ways.
With many of their web hosting plans you get unlimited disk space and bandwidth, free website builder with templates, 1-click installs of WordPress and Joomla, unlimited email addresses, and much more.
They also offer 24/7 in-house Canadian customer support; they don’t outsource any of their support avenues. So, you can contact a member of their direct team to get expert support any time you need it. You can also try them out risk-free with their 30-day money back guarantee.
Servers in Canada: Yes, Toronto, Canada.
Pricing: Regular prices start at CA$6.95/month.
Special Offer: At the time of writing this article, you can get started for as little as CA$2.95/month.
10. Web Hosting Canada
Web Hosting Canada is based in Montreal, Quebec and is trusted by over 30,000 small businesses. This Canadian web hosting provider is one of the few that offers servers on both the East and West coasts. So, no matter where in Canada your users are located, you can count on them to deliver fast speeds.
Aside from web hosting services, Web Hosting Canada also offers domain names, a Weebly website builder, email and online marketing services, security and SSL certificates, and more.
They also provide 24/7 bilingual, expert support via telephone, chat, and email.
Servers in Canada: Yes, Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.
Pricing: Regular pricing starts at CA$9.99/month.
Special Offer: You can get started for only CA$3.89/month.
How to Choose the Best Canadian Hosting
There are a number of factors you should consider when choosing Canadian hosting, including:
- Server Location
- Uptime
- Features
- Customer Support
Let’s look at each of these factors more closely so that you can easily choose the best Canadian hosting for your needs.
1. Server Location
The speed of your website is important. Slow web page loading times can negatively affect your SEO, the user experience, and even conversions. So, if you want to provide a speedy website to users, you need to look at server location. That’s why we’ve included server locations of each web hosting provider in this article.
The location of a server actually affects the loading time of your website. The closer a website or a user is to a data center, the faster they’ll be able to access your website.
If you’re making a Canadian website and expect most of your users to be located in Canada, you may want to choose a web hosting provider that has servers located in Canada. But, as long as the server is close by (for instance, in the United States) and it’s a decent server, you should still be able to get lightning fast speed.
2. Uptime
It’s important that your website is available to users at all times. If your website is down often, you can lose out on a lot of traffic, leads, and sales. So, it’s important to look for Canadian web hosting that offers a great uptime guarantee.
Uptime is simply the measure of time that a server is working and available. It’s pretty impossible to guarantee a 100% uptime, but anything below 99.9% is fairly unreliable.
3. Features
Creating a website shouldn’t be hard. Especially as a beginner, you’ll want to choose a web hosting service that offers everything you need to get started.
Features to look out for include:
- Domain Name
- SSL Certificate
- 1-Click WordPress Installation
- Website Builder
- Email Accounts
- Storage Space
- Backups
4. Customer Support
If something goes wrong with your site, it’s important to know that you can get friendly, knowledgeable, and fast support. Look for the best blog hosting/web hosting that offers 24/7 support so that you don’t have to wait hours or days for a response.
Our Verdict: What is the Best Canadian Web Hosting?
We recommend Bluehost as our #1 pick for the best Canadian hosting. Even though they don’t have any server locations in Canada, you can rely on this most popular web hosting company to provide you with fast and reliable service.
Bluehost provides you with everything you need to get your website up and running in no time including a free domain name, SSL certificate, 1-click WordPress installation, and all of the other features you could ever ask for. Plus, they’re affordable so you can get your website started without burning a hole in your pocket.
| Canadian Web Hosting | Cost | Money Back | Load Time | Uptime | Support | Canadian Server |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluehost | CA$3.60/month | 30 days | 689 ms | 99.99% | 10/10 | No |
| SiteGround | $3.95/month | 30 days | 649 ms | 99.98% | 10/10 | No |
| HostGator | $2.75/month | 45 days | 691 ms | 99.96% | 10/10 | No |
| WP Engine | $20/month | 60 days | N/A | N/A | 9/10 | Yes |
| GreenGeeks | $2.95/month | 30 days | 697 ms | 99.92% | 9/10 | Yes |
| iPage | CA$2.50/month | 30 days | 2600 ms | 99.98% | 8/10 | No |
| A2 Hosting | CA$3.68/month | 30 days | 1280 ms | 99.90% | 9/10 | No |
| HostPapa | CA$3.95/month | 30 days | N/A | N/A | 10/10 | Yes |
| HostUpon | CA$2.95/month | 30 days | N/A | N/A | 10/10 | Yes |
| Web Hosting Canada | CA$3.89/month | N/A | N/A | N/A | 9/10 | Yes |
We hope you enjoyed this article on the best Canadian hosting. If you liked this article, check out our other post on What is Web Hosting? (Shared vs. VPS vs. Dedicated).
I’d avoid Hostpapa like the plague. Their “account managers” are tasked with upselling clients by nitpicking on finite details to claim your web service has caused spikes in allowable bandwidth with the only solution being to purchase their highest tier plan. A spike could be as simple as updating the website. The first time I was contacted by one of their account managers was shortly after my office renewed a 3-year contract with them – very suspicious. In total, we were contacted 3 times in 2 years by different account managers, the last time being the most frustrating and annoying because he would not let up. We ended up switching hosting companies to avoid the hassles for better storage, better bandwidth, for a lower price as well.
Time is money, save both by avoiding Hostpapa.
Not sure how to decide if it’s a Canadian Hosting. If the servers are not in Canada to me it’s not a Canadian host. I certainly can’t use them for my Canadian clients.
Hey Ernest, there are several providers on the list with Canada-based servers.
However, the best way to judge here is how a web host performs in a certain country when you launch a website.
And that made Bluehost and other providers on the best Canadian web hosting services.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask away!
I’d agree with Ernest. For some professions, legal and ethical requirements demand that servers where sensitive and confidential information are stored be located in Canada in addition to PIPEDA compliance.