You are losing 47% of your traffic if the load time is over 3 seconds…
Imagine that. People don’t have the patience of 3 seconds to wait for a website to load. This statistical info gets worse on mobile. As you know, mobile traffic is dominating over desktop.
This is why you need fast loading pages.
Source: Bestwebsitehosting.ca
Think of traffic as in flowing in a bucket with holes. Most website owners try to plug one or two by using cache or other techniques. Others are sending more traffic to combat the loss.
It’s mind-boggling that people invest so much time and energy into building the perfect site. And they neglect to check out the website hosting company. Typically people choose the one which has the biggest and loudest advertising.
There’s one overlooked aspect of speed optimization. This is the host’s speed. Let’s face it if the host is slow, no amount of optimization will help you get top load speed.
This is why I’ve compiled the very best hosting companies to choose from Canada.
It’s a fact; if you’re serving the local market, a local host is your best option. Since the data centers are located close, the pages will load instantly.
Are you curious which web hosts made the top list? Scroll down, and you’ll find out.
The Canadian Web Hosting Comparison Chart
Rocket.net | WHC | GreenGeeks | HostPapa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Server Location | Global | Vancouver, Montreal | Toronto | Toronto |
Starter Package | Shared | Shared | Shared | Shared |
Price | $25/mo | CAD 3.89/mo | $99.99/Year | $19.99/ye. |
After first Term. | $25/mo | CAD 5.99 | $2.95/mo | $2.95/mo |
Disk Space | 10 GB | Unlimited SSD | Unlimited SSD | 100 GB |
Allowed Domains | 1 | 1 | Unlimited | 2 |
Free Domain | - | - | 1 | 1 |
Dedicated IPs | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
SSL Certificate | Free | CAD 3.75/mo. | $99.99/Year | $19.99/ye. |
Customer Support | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
Rocket.net-Best Overall Canadian Web Hosting Provider
Known as the best and of the fastest reliable Web hosting companies, Rocket.net surely deserves the praise. This company offers its customers with access to faster servers than any available company in the market.
They offer a global CDN, at no added costs and every WordPress site on their platform comes with a free SSL Certificate. Reviews also show how easy it is to migrate servers increasing the performance of the available site with Rocket.net when compared to other Web hosting companies, this also applies to changing the DNS.
They offer a number of features, making it easier to manage and secure WordPress sites. Rocket.net avails the user with next to effortless time with their majority features. in addition to the experts who are available to help and assist if the customer is beyond their depth. They give the customer an array of veteran personnel who are able to help manage and fully optimize content performance and reachability
When it comes to customer service this is argurably the best at that with 24/7 customer care, live chat/email support available to all time zones. With a 30 day purchase guarantee, we are sure you won't regret choosing Rocket.net. Their speeds, features and customer assistance will surely be worth the purchase.
Pros:
- Majority Features
- Free SSL Certificates
- Fastest website loading speeds
- Dedicated customer support anytime and anywhere.
Cons:
- Storage space.
WHC – Best Runner up Canadian Web Hosting Provider
It’s a like a friend ready to offer help at a moment’s notice…
Besides loading speed, there’s one more important factor to look at when checking out hosting companies. This is customer support. In most cases, customer support can make or break a business.
What happens if the website throws an unexpected error and the support only responds in 24h? Remember Murphy’s law: “if something can break it will”. This is so true with websites. In the worst possible moment, the site will call it quits. This is why it’s super important to have the best tech support around.
Besides, tech support, WHC has done something smart. They have two data centers. One is located on the East Coast, and the other one is on the West Coast. So no matter where you live, you will get the best speed possible. The nearest data center is chosen for you automatically.
Another strong point of WHC is that they use SSD drives. These drives are 7x faster than traditional ones. Talk about speed.
Let’s go back to tech support a bit. They are fast and know their thing. A good friend of mine had an issue with his site, and it was solved in a matter of minutes on a Sunday evening. That’s dedication. You see what I meant by good customer service can make a business? Plus they are always friendly and polite. No wonder WHC is recommended from left and right.
The third pillar of choosing a great web host is the downtime. Latest surveys show that the downtime is less than a minute in a month. There are over 43,000 minutes in a month. This achievement is almost superhuman.
These are the reasons why I’ve chosen WHC as the Runner up Web Hosting Company. It is optimized for speed. The support is knowledgeable and helps you out no matter the day or time. Plus the downtime is insignificant.
Pros:
- Fast website loading speed thanks to data centers located on the East and West Coast
- Dedicated support that will help you out even if it’s Sunday evening
- The service is so good that everybody is recommending them
Cons:
- No free domain upon purchase
GreenGeeks – Best Green Web Hosting Provider
They are the #1 Eco-friendly hosting provider…
Hosting companies are using a lot of energy. And this is linked to climate change. GreenGeeks set out on a different path. They are buying 3x more renewable energy than they use. Wow, that’s one good way to offset the carbon footprint.
Many people love their philosophy, so no wonder that 300,000 sites are hosted with them.
The main reason why GreenGeeks landed on my top3 list is for the following reasons. They offer unlimited disk space. As you have seen on the chart, the drives are SSD. So you know they are faster than traditional ones. Plus with the cheapest package, you can host unlimited sites.
Other hosting companies punish people by allowing just one domain. GreenGeeks has set that option to unlimited. That’s a huge bonus in my book.
Watch out! They are practicing shady pricing tactics. Also, they seem to be the cheapest on the list. This is true until you read the fine print. When the term is up the costs triple. So much for buying the cheapest hosting package. In the long run, it will cost you more.
The speed is OK. Many professionals who have tested GreenGeeks hosting said that they are fast. And they are worthy of being one of the top10 fastest hosts.
GreenGeeks offer nightly backups. Every website owner has faced or will face that “Oh boy…” moment. When something goes south, and they are wondering when was the last backup. In most cases, it’s months or even years old. GreenGeeks offers this auto backup for free. This can save you from a lot of headaches.
These are the reasons why I’ve placed GreenGeeks as one of the top3 Canadian web hosting companies.
Pros:
- Nightly automatic backups in case ish happens
- Environment-friendly business buys 3x times much wind energy than it uses
- Free domain and website migration at signup
Cons:
- Pricing manipulation, the lowest one shown when you commit for 3 years
- If you happen to cancel the service, you have to pay $24.95 penalty for the “free” domain
HostPapa - Best Security Features
One of the fastest-growing hosting companies…
They are hosting over 500,000 websites. So they must be doing right.
The #1 reason why HostPapa landed on my list is because of the security features. They went the extra mile with it. Imagine the securities having securities. They pay that much attention to details.
For example, when you sing up, you get access to triple redundant firewalls. Also, there are spam and malware filters. Not to mention the backup generators that kick in when the power is lost. By looking at their stats, they brag about 99.95% uptime in the last 24 months.
That’s extremely difficult to obtain. The tests proved that those claims are real.
The support is ok. Where they really shine is the video section. They have a big library of tutorials which will get you started. I prefer watching videos than waiting for support.
There was one thing that rubbed me the wrong way with HostPapa. This is the cancellation fee. The industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee is upheld by them. And when you cancel the service for whatever reason, you’re slapped with a $29.95 fee. This is shady.
Also, they are a bit cheap on storage. They are offering 100 GB of space. Most people will never use more than 5 or 10 GB. It’s always good to know that you have unlimited storage.
Website migration is a real hassle. Luckily they will do that for you absolutely free of charge.
By having top-notch security and great uptime, I’ve added HostPapa to my top4.
Pros:
- Industry leading proactive security (malware, spam protection)
- Big library of tutorial videos to get you started
- The first green hosting company. They care about the environment
Cons:
- Hidden fees like the $29.95 cancellation fee
- Many customers complained about incompetent support
Closing thoughts on the Best Web Hosting Canada post
We have reached the end of this post. There are the best Canadian web host providers. Now there’s no such thing as the perfect one. As you have seen, all of them have flaws.
It’s time for you to decide which one is the best one for your purposes. Some of the cons are deal-breakers, so choose the one that fits your needs.
What were your experiences with these companies? Or maybe you can suggest a better one? Do share your ideas below.
