WordPress is arguably the most used content management systems (“CMS”) on the internet. Originally developed as a blogging platform, WordPress has evolved into a complete content system equally capable of both e-commerce and article posting. The WordPress developers and community keep the CMS up-to-date with security patches and platform improvements while thousands of plugin developers provide additional functionality.
In this guide, we will explain WordPress hosting in Canada, how it differs from standard Canadian Web hosting, and why a reliable WordPress host is important to website owners using the CMS. The guide will conclude with a comparison between two well-known web host providers offering dedicated WordPress hosting: GreenGeeks.ca and WHC.ca.
| Host | Rate (starting from…) | Free Domain Name | Review | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best WordPress Hosting in Canada in 2024 according to WebLegal.ca | ||||
| GreenGeeks | $2.95/month with our link | 1 | Review | GreenGeeks.ca |
| Web Hosting Canada | $3.99/month with our link | 1 | Review | WHC.ca |
You should be thoroughly versed in everything WordPress by the time you reach the conclusion of this guide. With that said, let’s get started.
Table of content
WordPress: What It Is and Why Hosting Matters
Key Features of a Good WordPress Host
Common Mistakes when Choosing a WordPress Hosting Company
GreenGeeks WordPress Hosting
Web Hosting Canada WordPress Hosting
Canadian WordPress Hosting Summary
WordPress: What It Is and Why Hosting Matters
WordPress has been developed as a CMS with the goal of helping website owners create and maintain their own websites and online content without possessing extensive coding skills or having to hire a third-party developer. Like all CMS, WordPress offers both GUI-based function and, for those who want it, the ability to hard code as well.
A reliable WordPress host is important inasmuch as website owners need to be able to rely on their hosting providers for maximum up time as well as reliable support, an extensive knowledge base, and a long list of extra features and tools that optimize WordPress. To that end, we are starting to see more web hosting companies offer dedicated WordPress hosting packages alongside their other, more generic, options.
Understand that dedicated WordPress hosting is measurably different from generic, shared hosting. While both kinds of hosting rely on the shared paradigm, a WordPress environment created specifically for the CMS is one that has been optimized to take advantage of everything WordPress has to offer. A dedicated WordPress environment is to generic web hosting what a specialist BMW service center is to generic auto repair garages.
One last thing to consider on the topic of reliability: just because a web hosting company offers dedicated WordPress hosting does not mean service will be reliable. When we talk about reliability, we are referring to both up-time and support combined. Yes, website owners want their sites up and running 100% of the time (though that is not realistic), but they also need a support department capable of responding in an instant whenever a problem arises.
Key Features of Good WordPress Hosting
Looking around for a good WordPress host can take users to the websites of literally dozens of hosting companies. Despite the many claims made, common sense dictates that they cannot all be the best. So how does the site owner sort out those worth looking at from the hosting companies worthy of being ignored? By looking at key features.
The most important key features are as follows:
- Speed – Research data consistently shows that Internet users expect websites to load in under 2 seconds. A hosting company whose speed is not up to the task is one that will cost a site owner precious visitors. Speed is non-negotiable.
- Security – The fact that WordPress is the most used CMS also makes it one of the favourite platforms for hackers. Choosing a hosting company with verifiable security in place is also non-negotiable.
- 24/7 Support – There is no excuse in this day and age not to offer support 24/7. As easy as WordPress is to use, site owners need support at all hours of the day and night.
- One-Click Installation – Part of the appeal of WordPress is its ease of use. A good WordPress hosting provider will offer one-click installation.
- Free Migration – Migrating from one hosting company to another is no easy task for the untrained website owner. Hosting companies offering free migration have an advantage over those that do not.
- Sufficient Bandwidth and Storage – The initial installation of WordPress does not take up much space or require much bandwidth. But effective sites tend to grow over time. A good web hosting company will be generous with both storage and bandwidth, perhaps even offering unlimited volumes of both.
- Regular Updates – WordPress must be kept updated if it is to remain secure. It is imperative for companies offering dedicated WordPress hosting to update the platform in line with updates released by developers. Hosting companies also offering approved plugins should be regularly updating them as well.
Common Mistakes when Choosing a WordPress Hosting Company
It is understandable that website owners could find the process of searching for a WordPress hosting company confusing and somewhat overwhelming. There is a lot of information to take in, and that information is not always easy to understand. Still, it is important to learn as much as possible about WordPress hosting so as not to make a mistake that can come back to bite later.
The most common mistakes site owners make in their search for a web hosting company are as follows:
1. Making Bottom Line Price the Most Important Factor
Web hosting companies know how important cheap hosting is to website owners. They take advantage of this by offering incredibly low introductory rates designed to attract new customers. The big mistake site owners make is focusing primarily on price as the primary driving factor. As with anything else, you get what you pay for with web hosting.
2. Ignoring the Terms of Service
Terms of service (ToS) agreements can be long and cumbersome. Too many site owners make the mistake of not reading those terms, only to find out later how much those terms affect everything from pricing to storage and bandwidth. Especially important is the hosting company’s refund policy. It is found in the ToS.
3. Generically Searching for ‘Top Hosts’
When website owners generically search for the top hosting companies online, they have no idea that the results they find may be entirely disingenuous. Quite often, the owners of web host ranking sites work as affiliates of hosting companies who pay them for every referral. This hardly makes for unbiased recommendations.
4. Not Paying Attention to Unlimited Terms
This guide previously mentioned unlimited storage and bandwidth as one of the key features of good WordPress hosting. But believing a hosting company offers unlimited bandwidth and storage just because they advertise as much is not wise. Unlimited rarely means truly unlimited, and some conditions apply. For example, a server rack can only hold so much data. It has a natural limit built in.
GreenGeeks WordPress Hosting
GreenGeeks is a website hosting company originally founded with the goal of offsetting its own carbon footprint through the use of green energy and green energy credits. Currently, the company purchases and uses enough green energy credits to ensure that the average customer uses three times less power than GreenGeeks replaces through green energy.
Their WordPress hosting is presented as an all-inclusive package that includes some of the most key features listed above. GreenGeeks offers free WordPress migration, optimized servers, a 99.9% service uptime guarantee, and one-click WordPress installation.
On the security front, GreenGeeks protects customer sites with automatic updates of the WordPress scripts and the platform itself. They isolate customer accounts on servers as well. Why is that important? Because isolation offers an extra layer of protection in a shared environment. Two additional security features include protection against brute force and DDoS attacks and active, real-time security scanning.
Pros and Cons of GreenGeeks WordPress Hosting
GreenGeeks is very competitive in the WordPress space. Here are some of the pros of hosting with them:
- Speed is enhanced by way of optimized HTTP and MySQL;
- 24/7 real-time monitoring along with around-the-clock support;
- Websites backed up daily to off-site servers;
- Up-time improved by storage redundancy.
There are some cons of hosting with GreenGeeks as well:
- Regular rates can be significantly higher than introductory rates;
- Though their speed is good, some other hosts are faster;
- GreenGeeks gets mixed reviews for resolving billing issues.
Pricing for WordPress Hosting
At the time of this writing, managed WordPress hosting with GreenGeeks is listed at a regular price of USD $9.95 per month. They are offering an introductory price of $3.95 per month. There is no readily available information about how long the introductory pricing will last, so the trick here is to purchase for three years to make sure you pay the discounted rate.
GreenGeeks Coupon Code
60% OFF Web Hosting Plan + Free Domain: take60off
Use this coupon on GreenGeeks.com
Why We Recommend GreenGeeks
It is hard to root against GreenGeeks given their solid reputation and the value they offer for WordPress hosting. We can recommend them for a couple of reasons. First, a regular price of $9.95 per month does represent excellent value when you consider all the features. Site owners get a free domain name, scalability, great speed, one-click install, and so much more. When GreenGeeks says their WordPress package is all-inclusive, they are not lying.
Another reason to recommend GreenGeeks is the focus on green energy. While that may not be important to some website owners, it can be a deal-breaker for others. GreenGeeks has been, since the inception of the company nine years ago, totally committed to the green energy principle. They are one of the few web hosting companies that can say that.
Finally, free migration is a big plus. Anyone who has ever tried to migrate an existing WordPress installation knows just how difficult it can be. GreenGeeks handles migration for new customers free of charge. Additional migrations after that can be handled for a nominal fee. Best of all, there is no need to delete an existing WordPress installation until the customer is absolutely sure that the new installation is working properly. This minimizes the risk of loss.
What are GreenGeeks customers saying?
You can go online and read reviews of GreenGeeks WordPress hosting. Keep in mind that reviews for any company are weighted heavily toward the negative due to the fact that unhappy customers are more motivated to write reviews. That being said, we found most GreenGeeks reviews positive.
One reviewer wrote that the GreenGeeks staff got his non-profit website up and running in the middle of the night even though they communicated exclusively through online chat. Another wrote of the friendly and helpful support while others talk about around-the-clock availability.
There are complaints about billing issues. Unfortunately, this seems to be very common in the web hosting business. Customers do have to stay on top of GreenGeeks to make sure billing is handled correctly. In the event a customer must cancel, they should be prepared for no refund beyond the initial 30-day guarantee.
Web Hosting Canada WordPress Hosting
Sometimes known simply as WHC.ca, Web Hosting Canada is a privately owned Canadian technology company that has been offering web hosting services and IT infrastructure since 2003. The company is headquartered in Québec. It is among the fastest growing Canadian web hosting companies thanks to their reputation for reliability, security, and high standards of service. The company is accredited by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.
Web Hosting Canada offers a managed WordPress solution in the same vein as GreenGeeks’ plan. They offer three web hosting plans that are optimized for WordPress. This optimization includes full WordPress support, one-click installation and upgrades, performance acceleration, integrated security, and more. Additional features will vary depending on the plan chosen.
Their lowest-priced plan optimized for WordPress includes one hosted WordPress site along with storage and bandwidth. Like GreenGeeks, they offer active real-time monitoring, DDoS protection, and support for multiple versions of PHP. WHC.ca uses SSD drives for top speed and performance.
Pros of WHC.ca WordPress Hosting
WHC.ca is competitive as a WordPress hosting company in Canada. Here are some of the pros of hosting with them:
- Optimized databases, including MySQL;
- Built-in redundancy via high-availability DNS servers;
- 24/7 physical security on site;
- ISO 207001:2005 certification;
- 100% certified Canadian data centres to protect hosted data.
There are also a few cons of hosting with WHC.ca
- Their prices are slightly more expensive than some of their competitors;
- The company website can be a bit overwhelming.
Pricing for WordPress Hosting
As mentioned earlier, Web Hosting Canada offers three WordPress hosting plans optimized for WordPress. The WP Go plan is normally priced at CAD $3.99 per month when prepaid for 36 months. Prices go up depending on how long the customer is willing to prepay. The most expensive option is $11.98 per month paid on a month-to-month basis.
The WP Beast package is $11.99 prepaid for 36 months. Their top price for a per month plan is $24.98 per month. All the plans were on sale at the time of this writing.
Web Hosting Canada Coupon Code
50% OFF Web Hosting Plan + Free Domain: WHC395X2
Use this coupon on WHC.ca
Why We Recommend WHC.ca
There are quite a few reasons for recommending this company for WordPress hosting. First and foremost are the Canadian servers. Web Hosting Canada operates two data centres, one in Toronto and the other in Vancouver. By law, they are required to protect domestic data from outside intrusion. This means that Canadian servers are not subject to US laws relating to the Patriot Act.
Another very good reason for recommending this company has to do with its track record. WHC.ca is consistently ranked the top Canadian domain name provider by the .CA Registry, according to information on the company’s website. They are recognized partners of cPanel, Cloudlinux, and SpamExperts as well.
What are WHC.ca customers saying?
Keeping in mind the same ideas regarding negative reviews mentioned earlier, Web Hosting Canada generally does very well. They consistently receive four and five-star ratings from customers very pleased with their service. One customer wrote of the company’s professionalism, organization, efficiency, and competency. The word ‘competency’ stands out.
Another customer wrote about her experience with customer service. She was very pleased, saying that WHC.ca customer service is far better than larger companies with more widespread reputations. Her comments were echoed by other reviewers who had nothing but good things to say about the company’s customer service and support.
Canadian WordPress Hosting Summary
Since WordPress is the most used CMS on the Web, more and more web hosting companies are delving into managed WordPress hosting or standard shared hosting optimized for WordPress. Keep in mind that the two approaches are different. GreenGeeks follows the managed WordPress approach just like WHC.ca. Other providers prefer to optimize some of their shared hosting plans for WordPress users.
It is important for website owners who use WordPress to find a reliable hosting company that offers the support and services they need at a price they find reasonable. GreenGeeks and WHC.ca are both options with their strong and weak points. The best bet for website owners is to compare web hosting companies side-by-side to fully understand pricing, security, storage and bandwidth, updates, installation, and migration.
