Category: Web Hosting

Web hosting is a service that stores your website files on a server and makes them accessible to visitors over the internet. Without hosting, your website has no place to live online. Think of it like renting space in a building for your shop -- the domain name is your street address, and hosting is the actual building. Every website, whether it is a personal blog or a large e-commerce store, requires a hosting provider to be visible on the web.

Shared hosting means your website shares server resources with many other sites, making it the most affordable option and ideal for small sites or beginners. VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting gives you a dedicated portion of a server with guaranteed resources, offering better performance and more control for growing websites. Dedicated hosting provides an entire physical server exclusively for your site, delivering maximum performance, security, and customization. Most Canadian small businesses start with shared hosting and upgrade to VPS as their traffic grows.

Web hosting prices in Canada typically range from $3 to $15 CAD per month for shared hosting, $20 to $80 CAD per month for VPS hosting, and $100 or more per month for dedicated servers. Many providers offer introductory discounts for the first billing term, so be sure to check the renewal price before committing. Canadian-based hosts may charge slightly more than US-based competitors, but they offer the advantage of local data centres, which can improve loading speeds for Canadian visitors and help with data residency requirements.

You should look for a hosting provider that offers at least a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which translates to roughly 8.7 hours of potential downtime per year. Some premium hosts offer 99.99% guarantees, allowing for less than an hour of downtime annually. Always read the Service Level Agreement (SLA) to understand what compensation you receive if the host fails to meet their guarantee. Keep in mind that no host can promise 100% uptime due to necessary maintenance windows and unforeseen events.

Yes, most hosting providers offer free website migration services, especially for WordPress sites. The process typically involves transferring your files, databases, and email accounts from the old host to the new one. Many Canadian hosts will handle the entire migration for you at no cost, and the process usually takes between a few hours and a couple of days. To minimize downtime during the switch, keep your old hosting account active until the DNS changes have fully propagated, which can take up to 48 hours.