How to choose the right website hosting service

A website needs a place to live. While your domain name is your website’s address, you still need to secure the lot it “sits on”.

Securing hosting provides a physical server for your website files to reside on, so that when someone pulls up to your domain there is actually something to see. 

Like plots of land, hosting services come in various packages at different price points. (Enjoy more from my think of a website as a house analogy!) 

Whether all the solutions appear the same, or you’re unsure of what hosting requirements your website needs, this article should help with how to choose the right website hosting service for YOU!

What are the different types of website hosting?

The main types of website hosting are Shared, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud, and Proprietary.

When you visit a web hosting company’s website you’ll usually see a few options for different server types, ranging anywhere from ~$10/mo to hundreds.

Shared Hosting: Involves a single server that shares its resources with hundreds of other sites, including your own.

VPS Hosting: Virtual Private Servers are partitioned in shared environments so that your website has its own dedicated resources.

Dedicated Hosting: Allows you to host your website, and environment exclusively, without other sites on the same server.

Cloud Hosting: Your website is virtually hosted on a network of connected servers that can provide adjusted resource scalability.

Proprietary Hosting: Some Content Management Systems (CMS) force you to use their in-house hosting when you sign-up for their services; These are also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms.

What are the key differences between shared and VPS hosting?

When selecting the appropriate hosting package for your website, you need to consider the resources needed to enable your website to perform well day-to-day, but also in times of traffic spikes.

Cost

Shared servers will give you the cheapest and most beginner-friendly onboarding option. This is due both to your website splitting server resources with other sites, and the pre-configured nature of the environment.

“Each virtual server functions independently, with its own operating system and allocated resources. Because of this set-up, users can install and run applications as if they were using a dedicated server. However, since the physical server is shared among multiple VPS users, the cost is significantly lower than a dedicated server.” – CanSpace

Resources

Hosting on a shared server will give you lower costs, less maintenance, and a clear management process, depending on the company’s dashboard. But, your server resources are capped, you cannot customize the software or OS, and if a neighbouring website gets hacked or suffers an unexpected traffic spike, it might affect the rest of the sites hosted on the same server.

Unlike shared servers, VPS will provide you with an isolated environment where your website will have its own CPU, RAM, and storage space. This option will allow for slightly faster performance, more security, and the ability to customize the environment to your needs.

Control

There are two types of VPS: Managed and Unmanaged. You can choose to have the hosting provider manage your VPS updates, patching, and maintenance, or take full responsibility if you have the IT or system admin skills.

Operating Systems

In some cases you’ll need the appropriate operating system for your server, depending on whether you’re using Microsoft technologies. Here, you’ll need to decide between Linux or Windows, and if you’re not sure, Linux is the likely option for you.

Most hosting providers will default to a Linux server for you in an automatic set-up. The basic difference is that Linux is run on an open-source operating system and in doing so it is free to use. The server must purchase a certificate to use a Windows operating system so Windows Hosting rates can be higher. 

You’ll need to use Windows if your programming utilizes ASP and .NET languages while you’ll generally use Linux for PHP, its native language. Windows can also run PHP, HTML, and CSS, but due to the added cost it’s usually best to use Linux for most sites.

What are the key differences between open-source and proprietary hosting?

Before making a decision on what application your website will run on, you’ll want to learn how to compare hosting your own website files vs them being served through platforms like Wix and Squarespace.

You can choose to host with a third-party on proprietary platforms, such as Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com, or Shopify. Or, you can choose to host your website on your own server, and utilize an open-source content management system (CMS) such as WordPress.org, or Drupal.

💡 Tip: Don’t confuse WordPress.com with WordPress.org; they are two separate options for utilizing WordPress as a CMS. Personally, I’m in favor of WordPress.org because you can utilize WordPress on any host that has the capability to do so, which gives you more control. Whereas WordPress.com acts as your host while giving you access to use WordPress and proprietary add-ons.

Out of the box, the major difference between open-source and proprietary hosting is that you are either hosting your content with a third-party, or on a server that gives you direct access to manage or migrate your files and content. 

Why you might pick a third-party host and application

You may find ease of use in a third-party platform, whereas an open-source technology will provide more flexibility.

Signing up with a third-party platform uses a subscription-based model, where you pay to have access to their proprietary tools like page builders. More add-ons may open up depending on the level of your subscription.

All-in-one

Applications like these often have integrated other tools like scheduling, Google Workspace, Ecommerce, and email marketing. So, if you’re looking for ease of use and having combined services all in one place something like this may work for you.

💡 Tip: Before subscribing reach out or look up documentation about these third-party services and what will happen if you decide to leave this host in the future. Will you be able to transfer out your existing scheduling or email marketing account? Can you easily access your Google Workspace without maintaining the proprietary account? These are important to know before you find yourself stuck in a corner.

Another thing that you’ll want to watch out for is the ability to export your on-page content and media library (images or videos), should you want to discontinue your subscription service and need to migrate elsewhere.

Templates

If you don’t want to put together your website from scratch, these apps will often have templates that you can choose to use. In these cases you’ll be given page layouts that are pre-built with demo content that you can replace with your own images and text.

These templates are available to all customers so it is entirely possible to have a website that looks nearly identical to someone else, depending on the amount of customizations that can be made.

For example, I can often spot a Squarespace website before viewing the source code, simply based on a first impression of its design, layout, and trends. (But there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with this.)

💡 Tip: Just because a template is available to you doesn’t mean it’s gone through thorough optimization or accessibility processes. I have come across some templates where there was no option to change heading types, leaving some pages without proper heading hierarchy.

Why you might choose to host your website yourself

To be completely honest, I recommend and prefer self-hosting your website versus using a proprietary service.

Setting up your own hosting server used to be a bit more convoluted for people who weren’t sure what they were doing. Now many hosts provide Managed WordPress hosting which will set everything up for you, leaving you to choose your theme, plugins, and get started populating your content. 

Without a Managed WordPress package, you can still install and use WordPress with the help of the hosting company, your web designer and developer, or walkthrough documentation if you’re feeling up to doing it yourself!

💡 Tip: One reason that I don’t love Managed WordPress packages is that they can pre-install some plugins into your WordPress installation that you don’t need. When I help clients set-up their hosting, I try to do it manually to avoid this situation. If you’re going through the set-up process and you have an option to not include add-ons, do it. That way you’ll only install what you need.

You are in control

This is my biggest recommendation for self-hosting your website: you own and manage it.

While it’s true that you’re technically hosting the files and database with an external hosting company, you can export your data, change hosts, access your domain DNS records, and ensure that you’re in complete control.

My issue is that while a proprietary service can be easier to set-up or is all inclusive, you’re sort of beholden to it, without some work to migrate off of it. And some may be easier to leave than others.

💡 Tip: If you do decide to go the self-hosted WordPress route, there are also templates available through themes or plugins, so self-hosting doesn’t necessarily mean you need to actually build your own site from the ground up.

Being mindful of costs

While your annual hosting cost can be increased too, subscription-based platforms are notorious for plan changes and price increases at the drop of a dime. 

An example of this occurred recently in July 2026 when Squarespace sent out emails notifying customers of price increases of up to 26%. There was a backlash online, before Squarespace sent out another email claiming an “internal error” that the wrong amount was included in their pricing update – about a $17/yr difference.

Decisions like these can leave customers bound to whatever pricing is made, or scrambling to find alternatives when that process really wasn’t on their radar.

Ethical and outside decisions

What bothers me the most is that you can’t control what partnerships a third-party might employ, remove, or alter. Agreements are ripe with wording to let us know that they reserve the right to alter services and products at any time.

Now, you may not be bothered by something like this, but those like me who don’t want to support or promote a company or brand that we don’t ethically agree with, should consider this when deciding whether you want to use a proprietary service for your website.

An example of this happening was in 2011; the then-CEO of GoDaddy caused a backlash when a video of him shooting and killing an elephant during vacation surfaced. Animal rights groups obviously denounced and pulled their accounts from the company, along with many others.

If your self-hosted provider makes a decision that you don’t like, you can leave and migrate your website to an alternative provider.

Comparing pricing and features of top website hosting services

Something to keep in mind when signing up for a hosting account is that it doesn’t always automatically provide you with additional products like a domain name or email account.

Domains

When you sign up with a proprietary or self-hosted provider, you may be given a vanity url to use for free, such as [https://yourdomain.third-party.com], or given the option to purchase your own domain name and hook it up to your account. 

You will be able to do this either directly in your account, or will be instructed to set it up externally.

I like having my domains registered somewhere separate from where my websites are hosted. This is purely for a “just in case” scenario where if one provider happens to suffer downtime, I can manage the other efficiently.

Some introductory offers might include a free year of domain use where you then will need to pay annually afterwards. 

When you have a domain hosted with a registrar you will also have the ability to transfer your domain to an alternative, which is what people who left GoDaddy in 2011 did. Your domain will need to be “unlocked” and you’ll get a transfer or auth code from your current registrar to apply when initiating the transfer at your new provider.

✨ Additional reading: Learn how to choose the best domain name!

Email Addresses

You may not have access to email services with your custom domain or hosting, depending on what is provided to you. For example, my email services are hosted entirely separate from my website, and have their own cost and renewals.

In some cases it is possible to host and serve emails through a website hosting provider. You’ll usually have an allotted amount of space, access to a Webmail address, and be given SMTP information to set-up the sending and receiving of your emails on your desktop or mobile.

Email Marketing (Newsletters)

Some hosting providers may also include add-ons for email marketing products. I do warn about these because they’re often proprietary within that company. 

As mentioned previously, you’ll want to find out if you can export your email lists and retain your content if you want to set-up your newsletter elsewhere in the future.

You may also want to test drive the email builder to make sure it offers the versatility you need, and works well on both desktop and mobile devices.

Otherwise, you might be better off selecting a company that exclusively provides email marketing campaigns as their flagship product.

Staging and Backups

When hosting a website you’ll want to ensure that backups are available with your plan. Any decent hosting provider should include at least 24-hour backup points of your website that you can restore to if anything should go awry.

This gives you the opportunity to get the last working version of your website back up while you can determine what went wrong.

Access to a staging server is beneficial to have when you plan to make any major changes to your website. A staging server will let you copy your current website installation, giving you a temporary URL to work off of that is separate from your live domain. From there, you can deploy your finished staging site back to your live site with no downtime.

If you run an Ecommerce website, membership, or any site that will have updates to page content or databases at any given time, you may also want to use a hosting provider that allows manual backups. 

In addition to the 24-hour automated backups, manual backups will allow you to make a restoration point of your choosing. This can be incredibly helpful if your website updates often throughout the day.

Space and Bandwidth

These are typically the most important factors in choosing your self-hosting provider. 

But the truth is, most small business websites probably don’t need all that extra space and resources. Unless of course you are anticipating high traffic (like tens of thousands per day), offering file download/upload capabilities, having a large store with many products, or a lot of video, or hi-res images. (This is also where hosting on a shared server may not be your best option, in which case you’ll want to go dedicated instead).

Higher cost plans are typically meant for high-level websites, or people like me who host more than one site on the server.

If space or bandwidth or resource use ever becomes an issue, it is usually no problem to call up your provider and ask for an increase in services. This could look like paying an additional fee for resources as they’re used or simply upgrading you to the next plan.

SSL Certificates

These certificates are applied to your domain and are what makes your web address use https:// versus http://. It’s an added level of security that encrypts data and verifies your website in browsers.

At this point in time SSL certificates should always be used, but especially if your website transmits secure data like passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information.

High-level sites with large ecommerce stores, and ones that need extended warranties, or organization validation will pay for their SSL certificate as they need a bit more coverage than simple webpages.

For many, a free option may be available by your hosting provider. With a free SSL certificate you’ll need to renew it more often than a paid one, and rely on the public community for support with any troubleshooting. 

💡 Tip: If you don’t have an SSL certificate, or it has expired, a browser will usually show a non-secure warning and make visitors click a text link to verify they want to visit the site anyway. If you’re seeing a non-secure warning page when visiting your website, check to see if your SSL certificate needs to be renewed.

Can you host a website for free?

You can host a website for FREE! That is, if you don’t mind your site displaying ads or third-party branding. 

Some hosting service providers offer server space to host web files for free if you agree to keep banner ads on your website. These ads usually display at the top of the page, in a sidebar, or between blocks of text in posts.

Often, they will also give you a subdomain to work off of or use, so instead of buying a domain and going to [yourdomain.com] your website URL will appear as [yourname.webhost.com].

Where can I find Canadian-based website hosting providers?

I haven’t personally worked with all the hosting providers that I’ve listed below (and I’ve chosen to leave out those that I’ve had multiple negative experiences with), but these hosting companies have servers located on Canadian soil:

1. Kinsta (Toronto, Montreal)
2. WP Engine (Montreal)
3. CanSpace Solutions (Toronto, Beauharnois)
4. Canadian Web Hosting (Toronto, Vancouver, Coquitlam)
5. Web Hosting Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal)
6. GreenGeeks (Montreal)

💡 Tip: When selecting a server location its best to consider where the majority of your customers reside as a geographically closer server will often be faster due to there being less distance to transfer information.

Top affordable website hosting companies with good customer support

I’ve been making websites since the Geocities days and have had a lot of experience working with different hosting companies over the years. There are some that I won’t refer clients to due to their lack of customer service, but to be honest, the “99% uptime” promise has been pretty consistent across the board in my experience.

Most dashboards are similar enough for the type of configurations needed by most sites, and most features promised in plans are comparable.

So in my opinion, customer support should be one of the top priorities when selecting a host, especially over cost. You get what you pay for, afterall! 

These are the hosts that I’ve had the best experience with for account management, server management, and technical support:

1. Siteground
2. WP Engine
3. Kinsta

But here’s the thing, just like any other reviews, you’re going to see contrary opinions from other individuals online. 

My experiences aren’t going to be the same as another, we aren’t going to talk to the same support agents to get a proper comparison for data’s sake, and our websites are never going to be the exact same configurations.

So you’re going to have to take any review with a grain of salt.

Look for commonalities in the feedback you read to help you determine an anticipated average expectation.

The other day I was researching meal delivery options and found a company that has amazing reviews for the products themselves, but atrocious reviews for customer support when/if an order goes wrong. 

Without having any trust going into my first experience, I opted to try a one-time delivery + shipping instead of using a 60% off discount and free shipping to start a subscription. All because I don’t trust the customer support enough to buy into a membership.

The point is that you can get a sense of what to expect if enough of the reviews are similar, featuring complaints about the same things.

What hosting service will you choose?

While I personally recommend choosing a self-hosted option versus proprietary software, there are lots of options out there that might suit you more.

Just remember to read reviews on the companies or brands you’re considering, look out for any constraints to the ownership or management of your content and data, and test drive demos or trials before committing to a subscription service.