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When it comes to the best Canadian WordPress hosting, Websavers reigns supreme. With similar pricing options across the board and few key differences, choosing a WordPress hosting company can be difficult. That makes this Canadian owned and operated hosting company a best-kept secret among WordPress professionals.
As a marketing consultant who often helps clients get the most out of their WordPress site, I’ve worked with 20+ different hosting companies. Oftentimes I’m the person in contact with customer service—requiring complex tasks to be performed or helping a client make sense of their billing. I’ve worked with international giants like GoDadd, Hostpapa and SiteGround. But also boutique hosting companies run by a single person.
Let me tell you, there are a lot of friggin crappy WordPress hosts out there! This article has been designed around what I have experienced to be important factors in choosing a WordPress host for my clients and community.
Even if you don’t choose to go with Websavers, this article is an excellent guide on how to choose the right Canadian WordPress hosting company for your needs.
This article contains affiliate links because I use and believe in Websaver’s products. Save 10% through me!
Their SSL certificates are free
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server. It’s the difference between an http:// and an https:// website and is required for the security of your website and its users.
Many hosting companies charge for an SSL certificate and I think that’s unethical. Why? Because an SSL Certificate ensures the safety of website browsing. Websites without an SSL are a risk to the entire server, not just the website in question.
Websaver’s SSL certificates are free because they use Let’s Encrypt. By not charging you the average $40-70 CND for an SSL certificate, Websavers is saving you money!
Do you need an SSL certificate?
Good lord almighty yes, you always need an SSL certificate. You may have been told at some point that you only need one if you sell things online—that information is about 8 years old. Having an SSL certificate is important because:
- It’s about encryption. If you have a contact form, newsletter signup or anything else that takes information people submit on your site, you need encryption.
- It’s about SEO. If two sites with the same information were crawled by Google, the one that is HTTPS will rank higher than the one that is still HTTP.
Websavers offers affordable Canadian WordPress hosting with no hidden fees
There used to be a time when you could find hosting on either end of the spectrum from relatively expensive to suspiciously cheap. While WordPress hosting costs have generally leveled out over the years, you’ll still find differences in the level of service provided for the cost of hosting.
Websavers offers transparent, affordable rates. Unlike on other hosting plans, you know upfront how many domains, emails, databases etc. are going to come with your hosting AND how many years you have to commit to in order to get the best rate.
No ‘starting at…’ copy luring you into a false sense of security here. Or low introductory rates only to be hit with 3x’s the cost upon renewal.
And for those of you needing the power that comes from dedicated hosting space—they offer VPS services as well.
They are Canadian owned and managed
As a fellow Nova Scotian, I’m pretty damn proud to say that Websavers is located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. They’re proof that you don’t have to be located in Ontario or British Columbia to be a national tech provider.
Websavers has the expertise and tech specs larger companies offer, but with the heart and nimbleness of a small company. When you work with their customer service, you’re not going to be bogged down by different time-zones or transferred to another country to speak with an outsourced call center.
You can rest assured that your business will be treated with the courtesy and respect you’d get from any of our local maritime businesses—without sacrificing your hosting needs. (Unlike other hosting companies like GoDaddy, Gator and HostPapa where your business is just a blip on the corporate bottom line.)
Their hosting servers are on Canadian soil, which may be required for your business
If you’re newer to bringing your business online, you may have never considered where your hosting servers are physically located. We assume that because we’re buying hosting in Canada, all that sensitive data must be kept in Canada. Right?
This unfortunately isn’t the case. Many larger companies offer hosting in Canada, but your servers—the computers that keep and transfer your website data—are located in other countries.
If you serve Canadians in the health or financial industry, you may be required to house data on Canadian soil. And even if you don’t, it never hurts to keep your data within your own country due to how quickly data policies change on the global stage.
While Websavers can offer you servers in data centres around the world, their default location is in Montreal. Mmm, I can smell the poutine already.
Websavers has excellent hosting customer service
I hinted at this already, but I think we can all agree that there is nothing less appealing about a company than poor customer service. In fact, I’d argue that customer service matters more than price when it comes to choosing a business to work with.
When your website goes down, it can be very stressful. Sprinkle some long wait times, apathetic technicians and lack of resolution into the mix and you’ve got a bonafide ‘nightmarish day’ on your hands.
This isn’t the case with Websaver’s customer service. They’re a maritime business that treats you like a favourite neighbour, replying with speed and providing resolutions without the long wait times.
It should be noted that they offer their support by chat and email—but not by phone. While this might cause some trepidation in users who’ve had issues with email support in the past, I’d like to put your mind at ease. Not only will you get a resolution in short order, but you’ll also have a paper trail of emails for your records should you have future issues.
I’d personally rather 5 emails back and forth fixing my problem than phone calls that go around in circles.
They can take care of speed optimization, hacks and backups for you
If you don’t spend every day in the world of WordPress like I do, you might not be interested in putting in the hours needed every month to take care of optimization and security for your website.
The laundry list of maintenance can be overwhelming, so for those who need a little TLC beyond the basic hosting, Websavers has you covered!
As with most hosting plans, their basic options require you to take care of the maintenance of your website and handle any issues. Their Platinum Subscription means you have the Websavers team on standby to intervene with issues on your behalf.
As an example, if your website is hacked, it can be a full day of trying to take care of the issue. However, with a Platinum Subscription, you can report the hack to Websavers and they will recover your website for you.
It also includes:
- Web Application Updates
- Premium WordPress Speed Optimizations
- Repairing a Hacked Website (Mentioned above)
- Uptime Monitoring and Response
- Off-Site Backup Configuration and Free Restores
- 30 Minutes of our Experts’ Time/Account maintenance
Related: Should You Get Monthly WordPress Maintenance? Hell Yes.
Websavers is active in their local WordPress community
You can’t get any more feelgood than this. Websavers is active in their local community by supporting affiliate industries, the arts and the environment. If you’re interested in supporting companies that support local, they have you covered.
In particular, they have been a longtime WordPress Halifax Meetup supporter, a community of volunteers helping each other do more with WordPress.
I can get you a discount on Websavers’ WordPress hosting
If you’re fully on board the ‘we love Websavers’ train and want to make the switch, let me save you some cash!
Use this link and promo code “AKC10” to knock off 10% on your final invoice.
10% off Discount code “AKC10”.
Buying Canadian is important to me, now more than ever. This website, as well as many of my clients’ sites and projects in production, are hosted on Websavers. This means I’m supporting local while also enjoying the service standards I need for my work. They make it easy for me to answer the question ‘What website hosting should I use?’
Still have questions about what to look for in a hosting provider? Check out Websaver’s chat function yourself by clicking on the link above and checking for the chat icon in the lower right-hand corner.
