Reliable domain hosting comanies in Canada
January 11, 2011 10:44 PM Subscribe
Domain Hosting (Canadian companies only, please). I'm looking for reviews (preferably personal experiences, as the review sites that I've found only skim the surface) of domain hosts, as I'm needing some web space to create a site. I'm good with paying more money for a reliable company over something cheap.
Website: currently, I'm not looking at anything too complex - no huge videos or anything, just pictures, text and maybe vids in the future, but nothing that'd require heavy bandwidth. I'm not planning of selling anything, so there'd be no need for a secure site or anything like that. Not sure what else'd influence the decision, but tips would be appreciated too.
If it helps, I'm in Vancouver BC, and currently thinking of Dreamhost, and have heard dodgy things about webserve.ca (who I'd considered), though they're old reviews.
Website: currently, I'm not looking at anything too complex - no huge videos or anything, just pictures, text and maybe vids in the future, but nothing that'd require heavy bandwidth. I'm not planning of selling anything, so there'd be no need for a secure site or anything like that. Not sure what else'd influence the decision, but tips would be appreciated too.
If it helps, I'm in Vancouver BC, and currently thinking of Dreamhost, and have heard dodgy things about webserve.ca (who I'd considered), though they're old reviews.
Dreamhost -- which isn't Canadian -- is who I have host my sites an some email (but I'm migrating me email to gmail for domains because it is like gmail but your domain, it is free and all you need to do is click a link on the Dreamhost webpanel. I'm happy with them and I've been with them since 2001 and the deal I was on gave more data (bandwidth and storage) so I can probably put 1/2 the internet on them at this point. My sites have been available with near five nine uptime. Like you, I don't put a lot on there -- it was home to my blog back in the day. They were slammed by customers years ago for not being transparent enough. Today their status RSS provides nauseating detail of things. If something affects your domains, you'll get an email about it. I
The registrar I use is Aztus.ca. I starting using them during a somehwhat paranoid period when I wanted a private registration and it was outside the US. I've been happy with them. I know they do hosting too but haven't experience with them. I pay about what Dreamhost would charge for a domain + domain privacy but I like getting the email from them in French (they are in Montreal) reminding me to renew the domains.
posted by birdherder at 11:40 PM on January 11, 2011
The registrar I use is Aztus.ca. I starting using them during a somehwhat paranoid period when I wanted a private registration and it was outside the US. I've been happy with them. I know they do hosting too but haven't experience with them. I pay about what Dreamhost would charge for a domain + domain privacy but I like getting the email from them in French (they are in Montreal) reminding me to renew the domains.
posted by birdherder at 11:40 PM on January 11, 2011
I've used webserve.ca. Reliability is fairly good, but in the last 5 years or so I've found the customer service went downhill. Even kind of a pain in the butt to jump through hoops to leave them. I've had much better experiences with Network Solutions and Bluehost, though not Canadian.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 11:45 PM on January 11, 2011
posted by hungrysquirrels at 11:45 PM on January 11, 2011
I've been using ehosting.ca for many years now for my site. The offer good prices, and I get excellent service from them. They are owned by Mecca Internet Solutions, whatever that might mean. I think that they are in British Columbia.
The have many hosting plans, as well as domain registration.
Other than being a customer, I have NO relationship to the company.
posted by mbarryf at 5:49 AM on January 12, 2011
The have many hosting plans, as well as domain registration.
Other than being a customer, I have NO relationship to the company.
posted by mbarryf at 5:49 AM on January 12, 2011
Best answer: Baremetal. Can't say enough about them -- I've registered, literally, hundreds of domain names with them. Based in Victoria, they're my registrar and reasonably-priced host of choice. The guys there are awesome, responsive, friendly, and totally willing to help a brotha out when needed.
posted by liquado at 7:19 AM on January 12, 2011
posted by liquado at 7:19 AM on January 12, 2011
Why Canadian? For hsoting, I can't see why it would matter unless you're trying to avoid some sort of American copyright law or something (in which there are other countries better suited for such things, of which I have no experience with.) Dreamhost isn't Canadian, but they'll definitely do the job you're after, hosting wise. I actually just switched to them, so I don't have a lot to say either way regarding them yet, but their tech support was helpful. Another option is nearlyfreespeech, especially if it'll be a small site without much bandwidth usage (and especially if you could find somewhere else to host the media - then you'd be paying pennies per day).
There is also the Vancouver based namespro.ca. I've used their domain registrar services (ie to get a .ca domain name) for years, without a problem. They also offer hosting, but I've never used it from them. Their packages look reasonable, but a little pricier compared to all Dreamhost offers, for example.
posted by cgg at 7:52 AM on January 12, 2011
There is also the Vancouver based namespro.ca. I've used their domain registrar services (ie to get a .ca domain name) for years, without a problem. They also offer hosting, but I've never used it from them. Their packages look reasonable, but a little pricier compared to all Dreamhost offers, for example.
posted by cgg at 7:52 AM on January 12, 2011
I have to ditto Webserve - it was good and cheap five years ago but it went downhill really fast. At the end I couldn't even FTP. I use Brinkster and Telus - Telus is solid and reliable, but overpriced IMHO.
posted by Calzephyr at 8:18 AM on January 12, 2011
posted by Calzephyr at 8:18 AM on January 12, 2011
nthing Dreamhost, at least if you're willing to deal with an American company. Their shared hosting is cheap and reliable. Unlimited bandwidth & storage for 10 USD a month. They also have phenomenal service.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:27 AM on January 12, 2011
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:27 AM on January 12, 2011
Best answer: Been pretty happy with Rebel Networks, whose responsiveness to issues is far better than I would have ever expected given how little I pay.
posted by danwalker at 9:39 AM on January 12, 2011
posted by danwalker at 9:39 AM on January 12, 2011
Not even really speculating - but the reason to host in Canada and not the US is possibly to avoid certain legal and/or political nonsense in the US while still serving a largely north-american userbase . Canada gives you good latency and a separate legal system.
posted by TravellingDen at 9:41 AM on January 12, 2011
posted by TravellingDen at 9:41 AM on January 12, 2011
Note: When checking - make sure you ask the provider if their infrastructure is actually IN Canada (if that's what actually matters to you) - there are plenty of Canadian companies providing hosting services, but they have equipment sitting in data centers throughout North America like everyone else generally.
posted by TravellingDen at 9:43 AM on January 12, 2011
posted by TravellingDen at 9:43 AM on January 12, 2011
Not even really speculating - but the reason to host in Canada and not the US is possibly to avoid certain legal and/or political nonsense in the US while still serving a largely north-american userbase
I was thinking as much, but OP did mention dreamhost.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:46 AM on January 12, 2011
I was thinking as much, but OP did mention dreamhost.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:46 AM on January 12, 2011
Response by poster: I don't know where I got the idea that dreamhost was Canadian. I was running through a few sites at the time, and possibly got them mixed up with another site. Ok, so ignore them.
TravellingDen basically hits the nail with that one. I'm not looking at doing anything questionable or illegal, just don't feel like being tied to the whims of a foreign government.
polexa. Yes. web host. Sorry for the confusion there.
posted by Zack_Replica at 11:07 AM on January 12, 2011
TravellingDen basically hits the nail with that one. I'm not looking at doing anything questionable or illegal, just don't feel like being tied to the whims of a foreign government.
polexa. Yes. web host. Sorry for the confusion there.
posted by Zack_Replica at 11:07 AM on January 12, 2011
Best answer: Seconding Baremetal. I love them so; I've moved all my domains to them.
posted by criacow at 6:08 PM on January 12, 2011
posted by criacow at 6:08 PM on January 12, 2011
Response by poster: Great, thank you! I'll look at comparing Baremetal and Rebel Networks.
posted by Zack_Replica at 2:53 PM on January 13, 2011
posted by Zack_Replica at 2:53 PM on January 13, 2011
Response by poster: Went with Baremetal. All pluses so far, and the phone calls have been super-friendly. Thanks to all who helped!
posted by Zack_Replica at 9:17 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Zack_Replica at 9:17 PM on January 22, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by polexa at 11:00 PM on January 11, 2011