Are you looking to start or expand your small business in Canada?
A great way to do so is by creating a website.
However, you will need a reliable and secure website hosting platform to have an online presence.
With so many website hosting options available, narrowing down the best choice for your business can be difficult.
To help make the decision easier, this article will provide an overview of the 7 best website hosting for small businesses in Canada.
1). Truehost Canada
Our top recommendation for web hosting is Truehost, thanks to its combination of simplicity, reputation, and top-tier features at an affordable price point.
Truehost provides various hosting options, including website hosting and a website builder. Whether you need shared hosting, VPS hosting for WordPress sites, or dedicated hosting, Truehost has you covered.
What sets Truehost apart is its well-rounded platform. You have access to all the tools you need to build your website from scratch and the technical support to make it happen smoothly.
Creating a website using Truehost’s website builder is a breeze, even if you’re not technically proficient. The widgets are user-friendly; you even get a free domain for a whole year.
With highly reliable performance and four hosting plans to choose from, Truehost is an excellent choice for anyone looking to build and host a website.
Plus, regular discounts are always available to help you save even more.
Pros:
- Truehost Cloud offers a reliable and secure hosting platform with 99.9% uptime SLA.
- It provides full control over your server and resources with root access.
- Their cloud servers are highly scalable for both small businesses and larger enterprises.
- It offers fast setup times, allowing you to deploy a cloud server in minutes.
- Truehost Cloud has excellent customer service and tech support available 24/7/365.
Cons:
- No free trial is available, so customers must commit to the service before trying it out for themselves first-hand.
2). Bluehost
Bluehost is a well-known player in the field of web hosting services that provides robust hosting plans for websites of all sizes and varieties.
However, they have gained a prominent position on our list of top web hosting services particularly for their shared hosting plans.
This does not mean that their WordPress hosting plans are inferior, but finding a better option for shared hosting from any other provider is challenging.
Their pricing starts from less than $2.95 per month, and we are happy to note that even the most affordable plan contains unmetered bandwidth, free domain, and a free SSL certificate.
Technical assistance is available round the clock, and so is a website builder.
However, you should explore some of the higher-level plans if you require multiple sites, free dedicated IP, or free SEO tools.
If you want to switch to WordPress hosting, the hosting plans start at just under $2.95 for a single website with a maximum of 10GB SSD storage.
The company also offers VPS and reseller hosting options, and one of their most impressive features is the 99.9% uptime guarantee, which is not something most of their competitors will offer.
Pros:
- Easy setup, with a user-friendly interface.
- Reliable customer service and technical support.
- Affordable pricing plans for both shared hosting and VPS/dedicated servers.
- Free site migration and website-building tools available.
- Variety of hosting services offered, allowing users to choose the best option for their needs.
Cons:
- Limited customization options compared to other hosting providers.
- Uptime can sometimes be unreliable, leading to slow loading speeds or website crashes.
- Limited storage space with shared plans and no guaranteed uptime for higher-tier plans like VPS or dedicated servers.
- No scalability options for smaller business websites, as all plans are based on the same hardware configurations and specs regardless of size or traffic demands of the website(s).
- Complaints of hidden fees when canceling services or downgrading plans.
3). SiteGround
SiteGround is a top-quality provider of WordPress hosting services, surpassing even well-known companies like Bluehost or InMotion Hosting.
With a satisfaction rate of 99.7%, SiteGround offers a range of services under five main categories: WordPress hosting, WooCommerce, web hosting, reseller hosting, and cloud hosting.
In addition to these services, SiteGround also provides a website builder fully compatible with WordPress and Weebly.
The company offers collaboration tools for more advanced users that make building and editing websites easy.
Starting at just under C$3, SiteGround’s WordPress hosting plans include unmetered traffic and a free SSL certificate.
What’s surprising is that most of the top features are available even with the cheapest option.
Pricier plans are available for those looking for additional features such as a free private DNS or 30% faster PHP.
Pros:
- Excellent customer support.
- Good uptime record.
- Comprehensive security features.
- Easy to use user interface.
- Fast loading times for websites.
Cons:
- Limited storage space for higher-tier plans.
- No dedicated IP address for basic packages.
- Additional fees for backup and extra services.
- No free domain with their hosting plans .
- No Windows server options available .
4). Weebly
For those who lack technical skills but want a professional-looking website for their business without spending a dime, Weebly is worth checking out.This website builder is user-friendly and lets you customize your site with ease.
Even with the free plan, you can benefit from a free SSL certificate and third-party embed code support.
For a minimal investment starting at C$7, you can connect a custom domain, get unlimited storage, a free domain name, ad-free experience, and more.
The company’s free e-commerce package is equally impressive. You can set up a complete shopping cart with inventory management and unlimited items, in-store pickups, and automatic tax collection, and pay nothing for it.
Upgrading to a paid plan offers additional features such as digital goods, PayPal payments, and reviews.
Pros:
- Weebly has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making designing and customizing websites easy.
- It offers various features regardless of the pricing plan, including analytics and search engine optimization tools.
- The platform is compatible with a range of payment systems and can be integrated with external services, such as Google Apps.
- Weebly provides various levels of technical support and offers a professional customer service team for more complex issues.
- Weebly has a comprehensive selection of website templates that are mobile responsive, allowing users to create attractive websites quickly and easily.
Cons:
- Limited customization options are available in the free plan, limiting the website design possibilities.
- Users on certain plans may experience slower loading times due to hosting their websites on shared servers rather than dedicated servers or virtual private servers (VPS).
- Weebly is not well suited for larger or more complex websites as it can become difficult to manage.
- The platform lacks some advanced features, such as a content management system (CMS) and e-commerce capabilities.
- Weebly’s pricing plans can be expensive when compared to other website builders.
5). Kinsta
Kinsta falls under the premium hosting category and is considered the Lamborghini of hosting for small businesses in Canada.
This means that to use Kinsta, you will have to spend more money than you would on other hosting solutions.
If you aim to turn your website into a traffic machine or prefer a more managed solution that takes care of tasks that you would have to do yourself otherwise, Kinsta is the perfect choice for you when it comes to small business hosting.
Most hosting services for small businesses compete in terms of pricing, offering a lot of value to hosting consumers.
However, in 2013, a group of developers decided to create the best premium hosting service, which includes amazing support, free migrations, free CDN, and advanced dashboards.
Unlike most hosting services that use Amazon Web Services as their infrastructure, Kinsta opted to use Google Cloud Network instead, offering better performance and allowing you to choose the preferred data center.
The only downside of Kinsta is its pricing, which is more expensive than its competitors.
However, paying a little extra helps you avoid the drawbacks associated with using a consumer hosting service that charges less than $5 per month.
Those drawbacks might be worth it if you’re on a budget, but if you have the money to spend on Kinsta, you will enjoy the best hosting security, fastest speeds, most uptime, and best features without any pain points.
Pros:
- Kinsta offers a wide range of hosting plans for businesses of all sizes.
- Their servers are located in many locations worldwide, ensuring faster loading times for users no matter where they are located.
- They offer 24/7 support to help customers with any issues they may have.
- Kinsta provides automated backups so that your data is always secure.
- Their WordPress-optimized hosting platform allows for maximum performance and scalability.
Cons:
- Kinsta is more expensive than some other hosting providers, making it less accessible to those with a limited budget.
- The platform can be complicated or overwhelming for novice users who are not familiar with web technologies and servers configurations.
- They do not offer shared hosting plans, which limits their ability to accommodate more casual users and websites with low traffic requirements.
- Kinsta does not offer any reseller hosting plans.
- They do not offer any free hosting plans.
6). HostPapa
For small business owners, finding a web hosting service that fits your budget can be a daunting task.
However, HostPapa makes it easy with their discounted business hosting packages that come with free upgrades.
With their discount, HostPapa becomes as affordable as some of the cheapest web hosting options.
HostPapa is our top choice for web hosting, not just because they are Canadian like us, but because they exceed expectations in all aspects.
They also have servers throughout Canada, meaning faster website loading times for your business.
In addition to their discounted packages, HostPapa offers key features for free, adding up to $50 in savings.
These features include a 30-day money-back guarantee, a quality website builder, SSL encryption, and free domain registration. Their customer support is also top-notch, available 24/7 to assist with any business needs.
Installing WordPress is made easy with HostPapa’s one-click install option, and Let’s Encrypt offers free SSL.
Even if you are unfamiliar with web hosting, HostPapa’s straightforward process makes launching a blog or business website easy.
Pros:
- HostPapa offers a simple, user-friendly control panel.
- It provides free SSL certificates for secure data transfer and transactions.
- It is reliable and provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- They offer 24/7 customer support through phone, email, and live chat.
- HostPapa includes a free domain registration on their all plans
Cons:
- Quite expensive
- No discounts
7). Hostinger
Hostinger reigns as the king of cheap hosting, but its offerings go beyond that.
Its clean and simple control panel, friendly customer support team, excellent performance, and server location options from around the world are just some of its offerings.
What sets Hostinger’s customer support team apart is their unique personalities and helpfulness. They are available 24/7 via chat or email.
Hostinger prioritizes performance, ensuring broad server location options and modern server technology like LiteSpeed web server with its caching engine for faster speeds.
The control panel follows the best cPanel practices, providing a modern interface and essential functionalities.
Hostinger’s hosting plans are reasonably priced, starting at $2.99/month and going up to $9.99/month for the most expensive cloud hosting plan.
All plans include a free domain, SSL certificates, weekly backups, email accounts, LiteSpeed Web Server, and caching. Security features are robust, covering firewalls, monitoring, and DDoS protection.
Hostinger’s performance metrics are impressive, with an uptime guarantee of 99.9% and average response time of 511ms, better than the industry average.
Its server location options and technological improvements like the LiteSpeed web server contribute to its excellent performance.
Pros
- Servers all around the globe
- Modern speed-boosting technology
- Amicable customer support
Cons
- Free domain is not included in the cheaper plan
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