Canadian Web Hosting – Why Host In Canada?

Why host your website in Canada? We've got the top reasons on why you should find a Canadian Web Hosting company to host your website.

Canada Web Hosting

Canadian Web Hosting

Today I’d like to mention a few Canadian Web Hosting providers whom we’ve had the chance to review and test. The main reason for this post is help you find a web hosting provider who not only have servers in Canada but are Canadian owned and operated. It’s no secret…we love what Canada has been bringing to the table as of late, and we’d like to do our part to support our Northern friends. After all, they are THE largest trading partner of the United States (US Trading Partners), and keeping up relations is of paramount importance.

Best Canadian Web Hosting companies

For starters, lets take a look at one of the most popular Canadian Web Hosting providers HostUpon.ca, one of our favorite hosting solutions providers overall, let alone Canadian. Before I get rolling, which tends to equate an unstoppable train of great speed, I’d like to point you towards our in depth review of HostUpon.com, which you can find here: Canadian Web Hosting: HostUpon.ca.

Setting a trend for Canadian Web Hosting providers, HostUpon is a much smaller operation than it’s competitors.  What it lacks in size though, it makes up for in depth, emerging technology, and a premium level of service.HostUpon has been poking around the industry since 2007, and has always managed to stay ahead of the proverbial curve. They decided then and there that FFmpeg modules pre-installed would be a definite value-add to their plans, and that as audio and video conversion evolved, FFmpeg would too. HostUpon also decided way back when, that operating our of just Toronto might hinder their ability to sustain a soon-to-be global user base. So they set up shop in Dallas, Washington DC, and Seattle , as well as two locations in Toronto. Now that the foundation was in place, all housed in Tier IV data centers, HostUpon began employing the use of “only the best Cisco DDos protection” and “CSF Firewalls”. If these terms are foreign to you, it’s okay, but you should no that as far as security and encryption go, nothing beats it. Sure, every hosting company (in fact any online business for that matter) will be/should be hosted on an SSL Secured server, but knowing HostUpon is this careful with their customers data should be a key factor in considering their solutions.

Canadian Web HostingBack to the topic at hand though: Canadian Web Hosting, but more specifically, why it’s important. One of the big reasons we need to consider web hosting in Canada as a viable solution, is the cost. Even when you consider the different plans and rates available in Canada vs. US, it’s more efficient on the bottom line to convert your hard earned greenbacks to Canadian dollars and take advantage of the exchange rate (currently $1.00USD is equivalent to $1.07CAD, which starts to add up when you do the math).  It’s important to take into account all of your options and make an educated decision when choosing your hosting provider, and the “bottom line” is definitely one of them.

Another school of thought to consider is the somewhat relaxed laws Canada boasts, compared to those of the US. Everything from copyright law to censorship legislation, from adult content to SOPA, there are many differences as to how Canada operates versus the US and in most cases – you guessed it – Canada is more lenient. Canada has very rigid piracy laws, similar to those of the EU, so you can be assured your valuable information is well guarded, though the biggest pro is that hosting in Canada prevents your data, content, and valuable information to be subject to the highly scrutinized “Patriot Act” in the US.  Don’t get me wrong, there are obviously exceptions to my general statement and cases where hosting in the US might be easier/better than in Canada, but depending on your situation, the nature of your business, and a slew of other variables, it’s always a good idea to consider your friends north of the border.

Hosting in Canada offers up yet another advantage: The beauty of a Canadian IP address. In case you aren’t in the loop, Canadian IP’s carry with them some unique traits, especially if yours points to a server in Canada. For one, your site will usually pop up on the first page of  Canadian search engine results (think of Google.ca, Live.ca, Yahoo.ca, etc.), and this is paramount for companies based in Canada as well as companies trying to penetrate the Canadian market.  Your Google page rank will also reflect positively when your Canadian IP address is pointing to a Canadian server, further increasing your stretch into the market.  Canadian Web Hosting is not a flooded market unlike in the U.S where there are literally thousands of web hosts.

Hosting Servers In Canada

One of the cards up Canada’s sleeve when it comes to Canadian Web Hosting though is the speed and efficacy at which Canadian servers (Canadian hosting solution providers) can connect to the actual internet. Since Canadian tech hubs (where hosting providers are generally found) such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal are all located close to the US border, close to major US cities,  web hosting speeds are often faster and stronger than many web hosting centers in the United States (which are all inconveniently located in remote areas). Considering Canadian internet backbones are fast, reliable, of impeccable quality, and as fully integrated with internet backbones in the US, web hosting in Canada starts to shake its hand wildly in the air as a viable, efficient, affordable option, that will more often than not work better than the alternative.

Between HostHero.ca and HostUpon.ca (both of which have been reviewed by us extensively and are cleverly(?) plotted in into this article), you have at your fingertips some incredible Canadian hosting solutions that are proving themselves to be serious contenders in the rapidly evolving arena of web hosting. So before you make your decision and commit with what presents itself as the cheapest, or shiniest, take some time and check these guys out. You have my word, you will not be disappointed.

The Canadian Web Hosting industry is growing and hosting your website in Canada is going to help you target your Canadian audience but also your global audience.  Most Canadian Web Hosting companies offer .ca domain for free on certain plans which is an added bonus.

12422428231047886631Flag_of_Canada_(leaf).svg.thumb  Check out our review of HostHero.ca here: HostHero – a fantastic Canadian Cloud Hosting solution

and

12422428231047886631Flag_of_Canada_(leaf).svg.thumb  Check out our review of HostUpon.ca here: HostUpon – a superb Canadian Web Hosting company in Toronto.

One Comment

  1. A Montreal based web hosting company vexxhost, inc. sucks

    VEXXHOST SUCKS

    Vexxhost is a hosting service where I have hosted my web site for a year. My web site is about Business Directory for Turkish companies.

    On August 4th my site went down for some misconfiguration of a recovery completed a few days earlier.

    I contacted Vexxhost for help. I submitted a Ticket: #FIF-852-11311and received an auto-response that they had received my request for help.

    It took them quiet a while to extract my website from their back up. Finally when it was done, still they failed to recover my website.

    When I warned them that I will launch complaints about vexxhost if they failed to solve the issue.

    They come up with a reply that ‘We have exhausted all to resolve this issue. We have restored it from the backup you have provided and did all the things possible to get this resolved but unfortunately the issue has to be checked by your developer. We have worked with our senior technician and has done all your request regarding the restoration. This is beyond our scope of support and tried all we can to assist you on this.’

    However the issue has got nothing to do with the developers. On 2 occasions I warned them while recovering my website, they have failed to restore 50 odd tables from the MySQL database, which is one of the reasons of webpage not loading.

    After 13 days, I now launch my complaint for this hosting company.

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