Web hosting
What to look for in Canadian web hosting
Price matters, but the cheapest number on a hosting page rarely tells you what the service will cost or how it will behave after signup.
Check the renewal price
Compare the price you pay today with the price you will pay at renewal. A low introductory rate can be useful, but it should be clear when it ends.
Confirm where the server is
If Canadian hosting matters to you, confirm that the workload itself is hosted in Canada. A Canadian company can still use infrastructure in another country.
Look at the actual limits
Useful limits include storage, websites, databases, email accounts, CPU, memory, I/O, processes, and file counts. “Unlimited” is less useful than a published number.
Know what the backups cover
Find out how often backups run, how long they are retained, whether they are stored away from the live server, and how restores work.
Check the access you need
PHP and WordPress are common requirements. Developers may also need SSH, cron, application runtimes, Git, database access, or staging.
Do not forget email
If the hosting plan includes email, check mailbox limits, storage, spam filtering, sending limits, and whether email can be migrated with the website.
Ask about migration before ordering
A host should be able to tell you what it needs to move the site, what may cause downtime, and when DNS should change.