# Domain Registration + Web Hosting Services



## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Hi everyone, 

I was hoping for some suggestions and personal experiences with who I should select for registering a website name and also hosting a small business website. So far, after some googling, I've looked at 'godaddy', '1and1', 'mydomain' and 'justhost'. Am I on the right track? What kind of privacy and protection services should I be looking for?

Thanks


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

What are you trying to do. We used to have our own hosting company, now we go with godaddy as one of our sites.


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Namecheap. Nice registrar, and they let you add whois guard to hide contact info if you need it. Can't really give a solid recommendation for hosting, I do mine from home since its just personal use.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Just starting a small local business, want to register the name to a .ca domain, and get some info plastered onto a small easy site for now for exposure and more info for clients.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

forget 1and1 ,godaddy gets my vote .


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Maybe netfirms.ca for Canadian domains

One of my friends is testing OVH hosting in Canada, it's nothing official yet, but maybe something to look into next year. Canadian hosting is generally low quality and very expensive (no competition here).


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

I have a major forum and have been using HOST DMS problem free for a few years now. I had another name registered with GoDaddy and moved it to my Canadian host due to cost.

Registering a name is not expensive and hosting cost is dependent on what you want for service.
There are a few things to keep in mind if one is using PHP most host sites are fine, GoDaddy does not like vBulletin .
Hosts can give stand alone server space or bundle.
My service is bundle and the server has never had issues with speed.
Cost almost nothing for my service.
GoDaddy likes to up-sell extras so you better know what you need.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

I'm in the middle of setting up my photography site, and I've had people recommend Hostmonster and Hostgator. I've read a few detrimental things about godaddy, but have no personal experience.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Any substance to the reviews provided here at 'toptenreviews'? http://web-hosting-review.toptenreviews.com/ ddkay I like the feature of privatizing my contact info from whois. Not sure if godaddy offers this service and at that price. Apparently http://www.gybo.ca/ teamed up with google and yola to provide free services to Canadians starting up small business (gybo = get your business online) but a lot of feedback I read was very negative regarding yola's service.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

indexxx said:


> I'm in the middle of setting up my photography site, and I've had people recommend Hostmonster and Hostgator. I've read a few detrimental things about godaddy, but have no personal experience.



Has to be .ca and looks like hostgator and monster don't offer that.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

You will get many that recommend host sites but do they use the site or just know of someone.
My service is out of Toronto and works well for my traffic.

As a site owner that is active and depends on the service every day I can say for the cost I'm doing well.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Thanks Daniel, and you said it was HOST DMS? Is that correct as I wasn't able to find it.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

http://www.hostmds.com/


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

So I did some research and found the personal testimonials of this site to be grossly negative. Sorry Daniel but I'm a bit reluctant to give them a shot.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

For standalone .ca domain registration, there's any number of Canadian registrars - no need to deal with an American company unless there's a specific reason to prefer it. I've dealt with DomainsAtCost ($12.75; they work well enough for my purposes), but there's others like NamesPro and you can get closer to the $10 mark with places like CanSpace. CIRA (the .ca overlords) currently don't publish contact information for individuals, so you don't need any special privacy options if you register it personally.

For hosting, there are endless options. Developing a very general overview of your needs can help narrow it down, especially your storage and bandwidth requirements and price range. Is someone helping you with the website creation - they may be a good source for this and hosting suggestions. If you are just creating a basic website then most reputable hosts will be more than fine. But you mentioned photography - will you be transferring/storing large numbers of high-quality images? 

If for some reason you need your data to be hosted within Canada (it can be an issue for some e-commerce and privacy considerations), that will narrow your options quite a bit, otherwise there's a much larger field of US-hosted companies. My own hosting is with HawkHost - they are a Canadian company, although their servers are in the US. I believe they have a good reputation, and they seem to be in a nice middle area where they are large enough to be stable and competent, but small enough not to be a big impersonal factory. I had a couple of particular requirements which made them very attractive, but for general hosting there would be lots of alternatives.

A good place to explore hosting options is the forums at WebhostingTalk.com.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

No it was someone else who mentioned photography. I will be hosting something modest describing services that I offer. Nonetheless thanks for the good info. I haven't decided yet as to whether I will allot the time to create my own site or simply use a template.

Oh and just wanted to add that the .ca requirement (vs .com) is simply because the name I intend on using is already taken for .com Otherwise I have no distinct reason as to me utlizing a .ca


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

Here is a nice Canadian company:

http://www.hostpapa.ca/

HostPapa has taken the initiative to "go green" by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power our data centres, offices and more.


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## LondonHomes (Dec 29, 2010)

I've heard good things about using Amazon to host your site.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Man this isn't going so well! I chatted with a live agent from hostpapa this morning and asked a fairly simple question regarding transfer out fee's (apparently these can be a kick in the pants and buried in company's TOS) and the response I got was shaky and NOT transparent at all.

I also chatted with someone over at iPage and that was worse!


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

You are really over-thinking/analyzing this. Domain registration and hosting is pretty generic. 

Just pick one and then get on with building your business. This step should be done very quickly. 

And don't put too much stock into the online "testimonials".

http://www.moneysmartsblog.com/my-online-opinion-on-online-opinions/


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

leoc2 said:


> Here is a nice Canadian company:
> 
> http://www.hostpapa.ca/
> 
> HostPapa has taken the initiative to "go green" by purchasing 100% green renewable energy to power our data centres, offices and more.


GreenGeeks has been doing this for years; they're also Canadian. I have two sites hosted with them and I've been totally satisfied to date.


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## Assetologist (Apr 19, 2009)

I have used Namespro.ca for both domain registration (and hosting) since 2005.
Their prices are competitive and their customer support is beyond reproach!
Highly recommended.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

There are some good arguments for registering your domain separately from your hosting. Also, as I mentioned, "privacy" (in the form of the information not being published) comes automatically for private individuals for .ca domains - it is a feature of the entire .ca domain, not individual .ca registrars, so they won't be selling an unneeded cloaking feature for those domains.

You should probably start with your website. You don't need a domain or hosting to start exploring offline what you are going to build, and that will tell you if you are going to create it yourself from scratch, have someone else do it, or rely on some sort of automatic site-building or templating system. Only in the last case would your choice of host matter much, if you are going to rely on whatever tools they offer. Even then, most are probably using third-party site-builder software that you can probably get demos or test-drive experience with elsewhere. If you get a better sense of what you _want_ to do, it will help you with the right questions when it comes to the _where_.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

I've spent the last 6 hours or so diving into the website aspect of it. Nothing final yet, but looks like I'll probably buy a template (templatemonster.com for example), and it will probably be wordpress. Get some basic info in there, a few pictures (mostly generic or clipart). Looks like for hosting, if I did my homework right, I need a company that handles MySQL and/or PHP for this kind of site.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

I'm a programmer, not a web designer, and in any case this sort of stuff is getting a bit outside the CMF forum. But I'd suggest not rushing into anything too quickly - make sure you are comfortable with whatever site-building stuff you are looking at, that you'll be able to modify/upgrade it comfortably, and so on.

PHP/MySQL are standard programming/database things with these sorts of hosting accounts, and most will have installers for Wordpress and other content management software standard as well.


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## balexis (Apr 4, 2009)

iWeb.ca is a Montreal-based, Nasdaq-listed hosting company with a stellar reputation. I used them for various services. Their tech support is awesome and they have one of the best datacenter network connectivity in Canada. It's worth looking at them.


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## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

Web Hosting has to be one of the most 'fragmented' businesses around.

There are just so many companies and resellers out there. 
How can one possibly evaluate and choose?

How about you people out there who are bloggers or have an online business.
Which Web Hosting provider are you with? How many years have you been with them?


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

iWeb went private last year and spun off the shared hosting into something called 'Funio'. They're about average price for shared hosting, but dedicated/virtual is pricey IMO. From the sounds of it OP doesn't need very much space or heavy traffic, it should be easy to get free hosting if you have a friend with a large account.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

Actually, iWeb no longer provide anything less than a full server, not really suitable for this case. All their shared hosting is now with their Funio.com subsidiary (and actually, iWeb is no longer a public company - it was taken private last year, I believe). While you can get negative comments on even the best of hosts, it certainly doesn't sound like their low-end hosting transition has been without bumps (here, or here). FWIW, the hosting company I started out with years ago (a decent enough outfit) got bought out circa 2008 by someone from Quebec, who in turn sold it to iWeb. The technical support went into the toilet, and while it wasn't iWeb branded when I left, it was still their company, and you certainly wonder how much effort they were willing to put into the low-end hosting they had acquired.

For something like this for a non-tech person, one would ideally look for a company that isn't shaving down to the very lowest price, and won't be averse to a little hand-holding during the setup.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

Oops, DDKay and I must have been composing together, unknownst!

I went through the shopping/evaluation process back in 2009 before switching. As a programmer I had the advantage of knowing what I wanted, but it was still a dispiriting process going through the same old thing time after time, especially all the me-too stuff (stock photos of women (or hip and ethnic guys) with headsets got especially stale). But for something basic like the OP's needs, all you really need is enough of a feel to filter out the likely dogs, not find a single perfect candidate. Once you know your basic requirements, choose a couple of obvious top-grade matches to use a benchmark, and try and see how your other candidates differ - a lot of those huge feature checklists are effectively the same from place to place. Get a sense of the normal range of pricing for the resources you need, but don't use price as a first criteria - you can get good hosting at a low price, but "too good to be true" often is... 

I'd guess in this case the trickiest part is going to be getting comfortable with all the technical stuff _aside_ from the actual host chosen.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

avrex said:


> Web Hosting has to be one of the most 'fragmented' businesses around.
> 
> There are just so many companies and resellers out there.
> How can one possibly evaluate and choose?
> ...


I've been happy with mine for a few years now running a major forum that has been going for 6 years.
The OP does not understand the business, as was pointed out you can analyze till your head is spinning and read all the reviews they mean little in real life.
When looking at the host all I care about is the server slow or down often, am I paying for basic support or 24/7 the cost is very different.
In slow are they loading to many to a server, can they grow with the server space or do I need my own.
Registering a name is minor and once registered can be moved all your doing is protecting the name.
Host can be changed in a matter of hours.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Actually I'm a computer technician and understand enough to know that my main concerns are speed, downtime, and website programming language that the company accepts. I also understand that some (like godaddy) have fee's hidden in their TOS should the time come and you want to transfer to another host.

In any case it looks like I'm going to go with GreenGeeks. Their prices seem to be very competitive and pretty much offer everything I need to get this all started up. I do appreciate all the feedback so far, there's been some good info in the thread.


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## dave2012 (Feb 17, 2012)

I've used Network Solutions, Domains at Cost and GoDaddy for domains. All but one are now at GoDaddy.

I've always used US based web hosting myself as they always come in cheaper than here at home. We have a dedicated server and just moved to Singlehop which is very competitive. Hosting has gotten cheaper and cheaper over the years. Back in the 1990's a dedicated host was well over $1000, now it about 15% of that. The main concern with a shared hosting is how other sites on the same server effect yours. Some hosts cram a lot of customers on one box. To me thats a crap shoot so your mileage will vary. Google is your friend anyway as there are lots of reviews of customers experience with most host providers.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

NorthernRaven said:


> There are some good arguments for registering your domain separately from your hosting. Also, as I mentioned, "privacy" (in the form of the information not being published) comes automatically for private individuals for .ca domains - it is a feature of the entire .ca domain, not individual .ca registrars, so they won't be selling an unneeded cloaking feature for those domains.


How do I take advantage of that? I just looked up my .ca domain on whois and I see my full name, phone mail and email address..


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

I believe it is now the CIRA default for individuals. Check with your registrar - I believe there is an option to reverse the privacy setting, and you may have somehow toggled it, or missed a request when they changed over, or something. Look into the details before changing the setting - I think this will trigger a 60-day lock on registration detail changes.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Mine don't show my personal information just the host.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Did you pay for it or by default?


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Default


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

Regarding the privacy discussion, My info is FULLY displayed and my host (ended up with Greengeeks) is telling me that it's BECAUSE of the CIRA that it's not private. I'm very confused and not to happy about this. I don't want my info plastered on whois. Any suggestions?


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## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

I agree with you. 

According to this link, your personal info should not be displayed on the whois.
Is my information displayed under the .CA WHOIS?

If this is how this 'crappy' whois system works, I would personally consider putting in 'fake' info.


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

If the domain is for business it would look pretty sketch to put in fake info, but for personal domains I agree.

Under that blurb avrex posted, "The information of non-individual Registrants is displayed by default, although it may be protected in special circumstances."


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

A320 said:


> Regarding the privacy discussion, My info is FULLY displayed and my host (ended up with Greengeeks) is telling me that it's BECAUSE of the CIRA that it's not private. I'm very confused and not to happy about this. I don't want my info plastered on whois. Any suggestions?


I contacted my host on live chat and they wouldn't make it private unless I paid for their privacy package. I told them about CIRA but live chat couldn't help so I opened a ticket (no reply) I also contacted CIRA and they said if they don't fix it within 7 days to send them all my correspondence with them. I think the host is setting the whois info to public and then charging to set it back.


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## avrex (Nov 14, 2010)

Canadian HostMDS looks competitively priced.

However, in general, it appears Canadian based web hosting is expensive in comparison to the large American players. i.e. HostGator and BlueHost


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

mode3sour said:


> I contacted my host on live chat and they wouldn't make it private unless I paid for their privacy package. I told them about CIRA but live chat couldn't help so I opened a ticket (no reply) I also contacted CIRA and they said if they don't fix it within 7 days to send them all my correspondence with them. I think the host is setting the whois info to public and then charging to set it back.





A320 said:


> Regarding the privacy discussion, My info is FULLY displayed and my host (ended up with Greengeeks) is telling me that it's BECAUSE of the CIRA that it's not private. I'm very confused and not to happy about this. I don't want my info plastered on whois. Any suggestions?


These are ".ca" domains? Just out of curiosity, if you do a CIRA whois lookup, is it your name that appears as "Registrant Name" or something else? And what appears as "Registrar Name" and #? If you obtained your domain as part of a hosting package, especially "free", it is possible that they have registered it under their own name with your contact info, although I think most reputable hosts that provide registration services have it your name.

The other possibility is that because of however they are doing the registrations, it is getting to CIRA as a "non-individual" registration in your name, or as an individual registration with some sort of indication that the default CIRA privacy should not be applied. I'd consider anyone doing this in order to sell unneeded "privacy" for a Canadian domain to be rather cheezy. You should be able to go through your registrar to enable the CIRA privacy.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I have a .ca domain registered as a package with an American host. They refused to acknowledge CIRA policy and would only tell me that they registered me through a Cdn company (which I can't really contact anyways) I contacted CIRA and they say the register must have set me to public whois manually. I'm going to try contacting them one more time and then pass it over to CIRA.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

That's why I asked about what registrar the WHOIS reported - you can see who it is registered with. You should be able to go through the registrar's interface, or an interface at your hosting company into the registrar, and enable the CIRA privacy.

If not, you should really look at transferring your domain to a different registrar, which shouldn't be too difficult. If so, you may want to do this BEFORE trying to get the privacy turned on, as certain changes can trigger a 60-day registrar lock.

Feel free to drop me a private line if I can be of help.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

So in my case so far, after corresponding with my registrant (Greengeeks), I signed up a membership with the CIRA through their site and then contacted them about the issue. They just replied and stated to make sure that in my profile settings I have it setup as in individual and to look for the option to make my info 'private'. I just sent them a reply advising them that yes my account was registered as an 'individual' and that the registrant tells me there is nothing they can do and that if I'm not satisfied that I should change my info to something fictitious (unacceptable IMO). I also let the CIRA know that gg is stating that it's a "requirement of the CIRA" to display my information which is obviously untrue.

I'll post back where this goes.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

NorthernRaven said:


> That's why I asked about what registrar the WHOIS reported - you can see who it is registered with. You should be able to go through the registrar's interface, or an interface at your hosting company into the registrar, and enable the CIRA privacy.
> 
> If not, you should really look at transferring your domain to a different registrar, which shouldn't be too difficult. If so, you may want to do this BEFORE trying to get the privacy turned on, as certain changes can trigger a 60-day registrar lock.
> 
> Feel free to drop me a private line if I can be of help.


On this note, greengeeks comes up as a reseller for eNom. The CIRA just replied and suggested I contact eNom directly to resolve the issue. Just got off the phone with eNom and they said it CAN be done and that my re-seller greengeeks needs to contact them directly so they can "walk them through the process".


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

A320 said:


> On this note, greengeeks comes up as a reseller for eNom. The CIRA just replied and suggested I contact eNom directly to resolve the issue. Just got off the phone with eNom and they said it CAN be done and that my re-seller greengeeks needs to contact them directly so they can "walk them through the process".


My host also registered though eNom. I tried another live chat with my host, and worded things a bit more directive for them to just get eNom to *reset* the whois back to the default private setting. This time they were helpful and said they'd look into it and email me. The email said they can do it, and I'll just be locked in for 45 days as Raven said above. I think eNom is setting it to public so that the resellers can up sell their privacy packages at $10/year. When I asked about it before they just played dumb.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Both my .ca and .com are showing only my host information contact.


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## A320 (Sep 15, 2010)

...it continues. So I emailed GreenGeeks with the instructions from eNom that they need to contact them directly to fix this issue and I just received a response pretty much telling me where to go. They said they've already directed me on the matter (to replace my info with fictitious data) and that they pretty much consider this case closed! The CIRA rep I spoke with days ago instructed me to get back in touch with him if I had any problem getting my info privatized. I will be calling them later in the morning.


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## corezz (Jul 10, 2012)

I recall a pretty good deal on VPS service on another site...it was like $6 for 6-months if i recall. Someone probably already mentioned it here. But the catch was that you only had like 300M of RAM and 100GB bandwidth per month. And of course the issue of setting up from start to finish the entire vps thing (and doesnt come with customer support). It is essentially a do-it-yourself hosting so if you have the know how then it might be worth it since it is cheap. I for one perfer a little hand holding so i didnt bother with it but YMMV


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## Alkom (Oct 6, 2014)

I've checked here and the cheapest registrar is GoDaddy to register .ca domain. As I know it is pretty good registrar, so you can use it to save some money))


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## CWHR (Nov 16, 2018)

You should go to https://www.canadianwebhostingreview.ca to read detailed info about some of the top web hosting providers in Canada.
Really good to read their reviews.


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## dave2012 (Feb 17, 2012)

I've been using Network Solutions and GoDaddy for years. GoDaddy is cheap and can provide all the services. Would use them for future registrations as well.

For web hostings (dedicated server) I've been using Singlehop for years (US based). Excellent up time. No issue getting a highly knowledgeable tech on the phone to assist when needed. No hesitation in recommending them.


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## dotnet_nerd (Jul 1, 2009)

I use GoDaddy too for domains. Their site is extremely annoying though, with all the cheezy gimmicks and upsells you need to plow through. 

For hosting I use Hostgator VPS for vanilla sites, otherwise Azure for web apps and more complex content.


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## rocketscience (Dec 19, 2018)

*Bluehost.com*

I know someone who used bluehost for a long time and still does. The reviews online also seem to show that bluehost is one of the best out there. Sorry I'm not able to post a link, but you can google for a few reviews and find out for yourself.


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## rocketscience (Dec 19, 2018)

Wow, this is one ancient thread...


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## ash1920 (Dec 27, 2018)

You can try bluehost that's a good one to start with. They have some good starter plans for hosting as well as domains.


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## pmwelec (Jan 5, 2019)

dave2012 said:


> I've been using Network Solutions and GoDaddy for years. GoDaddy is cheap and can provide all the services. Would use them for future registrations as well.


I believe GoDaddy's servers are based in Arizona and this can be bad news for SEO if you are a Canadian base company


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