At first glance, location doesn’t seem to matter much when it comes to choosing a web host. Other factors, like cost, seem more important. But will an international company really provide the same quality of service that you can get from the best Canadian WordPress hosting companies?
This guide will review and compare six of the best WordPress hosting services available in Canada.
What to look for in the best Canadian WordPress hosting companies
Most of the things you want to look for in a Canadian web host are the same things you would want from any other host:
- 99.95%+ uptime. Every minute your website is down, you are losing money. Any worthwhile web host will be able to guarantee 99.95%+ uptime.
- Good loading speeds. Every second your website takes to load costs you. Look for a host that guarantees fast loading times.
- SSL certification. SSL certification ensures the security of your site and improves your Google ranking. A free SSL should be included with your web hosting plan. If it isn’t already bundled in, it should at least be an affordable add-on; you shouldn’t have to pay a fortune for such an essential feature.
- Free domain name. A website can’t function without a domain. The best Canadian web hosting companies generally offer domains bundled in with their hosting packages for this reason. That said, buying a domain separately will only run you $10-15, so this shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
- Number of websites allowed. Most basic plans only come with one website, but some may allow you to publish two sites or more.
- Ease of use. The control panel should be easy to navigate. One-click install should be available for web apps and content management systems like WordPress. The standard of the industry is for web hosts to use a management panel like cPanel.
- Ease of transfer. If you’re moving a website to a new host, this process should be easy. Look for hosts that offer some level of assistance with website migration.
- Email hosting. An email address that ends in your domain name helps you look professional and avoid spam filters. Your web host should offer at least one free email account.
There are also a couple of location-specific details you want to consider:
- Pricing in Canadian dollars. Keeping all of your expenses in one currency makes things easier when tax season arrives.
- Local servers. This ensures that Canadian customers will always enjoy the fastest loading speeds possible when they visit your website.
- Local customer service. Local customer service centers ensure that someone will be able to help you during your regular office hours.
Now that you know what you’re looking for, let’s get into the best Canadian WordPress hosting companies!
🇨🇦 Best Canadian WordPress hosting companies
Here are the companies that have made the list:
1. HostPapa (www.hostpapa.ca)
- $1.95 CAD per month for the first term (renews at $13.99 per month, billed annually)
- Servers in Canada: ✅
- Canadian customer service: ✅
- WordPress pre-installed: yes, on WordPress Optimized plans
- One WordPress site + free domain
- 100GB of SSD storage
- Unmetered bandwidth
- WordPress installer + automated WordPress update installation on WordPress plans
- Free SSL certificate
- Ten email addresses
HostPapa is a Canadian-owned company that hosts over 500,000 websites (all over the world). They eschew the extra online services many hosts offer in favor of focusing entirely on high-quality hosting plans.
One thing that really stands out about HostPapa is that you can access email hosting on all plans. The lowest-tier plan comes with a full ten email addresses, more than enough for many small businesses.
HostPapa is also quite easy to use. The dashboard they use – cPanel – is easy to navigate and includes one-click installs for numerous web apps, including a variety of ecommerce platforms. Their customer service is also known as some of the best in the industry.
2. Bluehost (www.bluehost.com)
- $4.02 CAD per month (regular $14.97 per month)
- Servers in Canada: ❌
- Canadian customer service: ❌
- WordPress pre-installed: yes, on WordPress hosting plans
- WordPress-based site builder
- Automated WordPress updates on all WordPress plans
- 5 email addresses
- 10GB SSD storage
- Unmetered bandwidth
- Free SSL certificate
- Free domain for the first year
Bluehost is an international web hosting company that is actively recommended by WordPress.org. The company offers specialized plans for managed WordPress hosting that give you access to pre-installed WordPress, Bluehost’s WordPress-based website builder, and custom WordPress themes.
All Bluehost plans come with free SSL certification, email hosting for up to five email addresses, a free domain name for the first year (not always the standard in the industry), and unmetered bandwidth. You can also count on Bluehost for continuous uptime, fast loading speeds, and reliable customer service.
3. Web Hosting Canada (whc.ca)
- $3.99 CAD per month (renews at $11.98 per month)
- Servers in Canada: ✅
- Canadian customer service: ✅
- WordPress pre-installed: yes, on managed WordPress plans
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Daily backups
- 10GB SSD storage
- 25,000 visitors per month
Web Hosting Canada is another Canadian-owned web hosting company. They also offer domain registration, email marketing services, and online marketing services. In other words, you can have the majority of your online business needs met by this one company.
Web Hosting Canada doesn’t offer any shared web hosting plans specifically for WordPress, but it does have a variety of managed WordPress plans that give you access to pre-installed WordPress, automated WordPress updates, daily backups, and multi-level caching optimized specifically for WordPress.
🤔 Not sure what the difference between the two is? Check out our post on shared hosting versus managed hosting for a breakdown.
4. A2 Hosting (www.a2hosting.ca)
- $11.99 USD per month (renews at $23.99 per month)
- Servers in Canada: ❌
- Canadian customer service: ❌
- WordPress pre-installed: yes, with WordPress hosting plans
- 50GB SSD storage
- Unmetered bandwidth
- On-site backups
- SSL certificate
A2 Hosting is a popular website hosting company that offers several different types of hosting. Their shared hosting plans are the most affordable, starting at $2.99/month. However, if you want access to WordPress-optimized features and support, you’ll need to spring for one of the more expensive managed WordPress hosting plans, which start at $11.99 USD per month.
Every A2 Hosting plan comes with free SSL certification, a CloudFlare CDN, and unmetered bandwidth.
A2 Hosting is also known for its fast loading speed. When compared to other popular shared hosting services, A2 Hosting has reliably good metrics.
Unfortunately, A2 Hosting doesn’t offer plans in Canadian dollars, so you’ll have to factor the exchange rate into your budget.
5. FastComet (www.fastcomet.com)
- Regular price $10.95 USD per month; signup discounts are often available for the first term
- Servers in Canada: ✅
- Canadian customer service: ❌
- WordPress pre-installed: no, but one-click installation is available
- 15GB SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- Unlimited databases
- Unlimited free email accounts
FastComet is a website hosting company with data centers all over the world, including one in Toronto, Canada. They offer a variety of hosting types including shared hosting, WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and Cloud VPS hosting.
All FastComet plans come with free SSL certification, daily backups, and unlimited free email accounts. You’ll also get access to the FastComet drag & drop website builder.
The big drawback of going with this company is that FastComet plans are only available in US dollars, which means Canadian users will have to factor the exchange rate into their costs.
6. SiteGround (www.siteground.com)
- $2.99 per month (regular $14.99 per month)
- Servers in Canada: ❌
- Canadian customer service: ❌
- WordPress pre-installed: yes, on WordPress hosting plans
- WordPress Essentials suite including a free WordPress Migrator, WordPress auto-updates, and general WordPress management
- 10GB web space
- Unmetered traffic*
- Free SSL certification
- Unlimited email addresses
- Unlimited databases
SiteGround is a web hosting service known for its excellent customer service. The company offers a variety of plans but is most known for WordPress hosting.
Every SiteGround plan comes with free SSL certification, daily backups, and unlimited email addresses. The only basic feature you won’t get is a free domain name. SiteGround is most known for its optimized WordPress hosting plans and WordPress-knowledgeable support team. If you want to launch a site running on WordPress, SiteGround might be your best choice.
A drawback for Canadian users is that SiteGround has no plans available in Canadian dollars. This means that you will have to tack on the cost of the exchange rate to the regular web hosting cost.
Final thoughts on the best Canadian WordPress hosting companies
The truth about website hosting is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You need to choose the company that best fits your needs:
- To run more than one site on a single web hosting plan, choose HostPapa.
- For the most cost effective plan, choose Web Hosting Canada.
- For a variety of WordPress-specific features and expert support for WordPress tech, choose Bluehost or SiteGround.
Still not sure what the best Canadian WordPress hosting company is for you? Check out this side-by-side comparison:
| Web host | Price from | # of sites | Free domain | Storage / Bandwidth | Servers in CA | Customer service in CA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
* SiteGround offers unmetered bandwidth, with sites on the base plan being able to handle around 10,000 visitors per month. This 10,000 per month number isn’t a hard limit though; your site may be able to handle as many as 15,000 in a month without you being forced to switch to a higher plan. |
||||||
| HostPapa | $1.95 CAD/month | 2 | ✅ | 100GB / Unmetered | ✅ | ✅ |
| Bluehost | 4.02CAD/month | 1 | ✅ | 10GB / Unmetered | ❌ | ❌ |
| Web Hosting Canada | $3.99 CAD/month | 1 | ✅ | 10GB / Unmetered | ✅ | ✅ |
| A2 Hosting | $11.99/month | 1 | ❌ | 50GB / Unmetered | ❌ | ❌ |
| FastComet | $10.95 USD/month | 1 | ❌ | 15GB / 30GB | ✅ | ❌ |
| SiteGround | $2.99/month | 1 | ❌ | 10GB / Unmetered * | ❌ | ❌ |
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Layout and presentation by Karol K.
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