Thoughts on Canadian business using American hosting?

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Professor Data

New member
Hi everyone, first post here. :)

I'm looking to start a web design business. I'll mainly just be building and helping to maintain existing websites for small-medium businesses. I'll be taking on WordPress projects but also probably a few custom sites for any customers who prefer to go that route.

I don't want to take on the responsibility of hosting customer sites on my own hosting plan. I'm guessing it's a tough sell to get a customer to use a web developer's own hosting when they could cut out the middle man and pay for their hosting themselves and save some money.

If I did only the web development work and left my customers to handle their domain registration and hosting themselves (with my help if they needed it) - what would be a good recommendation for Canadian customers?

Here's the twist: I live in Canada and many of my customers will be Canadian. I've read that there might be a small SEO benefit to hosting a Canadian website with a Canadian web host.

There's also latency: performance will be better the closer the data center is to the customer's target audience (although I'm not sure how noticeable this will be between the States and Canada).

Lastly, there's the issue of privacy. Hosting a site on a US server means the US government can poke around any time it wants to - something that some Canadian businesses (such as law firms) would be wary of - a deal breaker for some businesses.

In spite of the SEO, latency and privacy issues I've outlined above, I am personally impressed with SiteGround and signed up with them for my own business' site about a month ago (on their "GrowBig" plan, so I can host multiple sites for my own purposes, instead of just one). Their North American data center to me is Chicago (their only one in N. America). It's 1,500 miles away from me (Calgary) but, in spite of this, loading times for me have been fantastic (around 500 ms, give or take), so I that only leaves potential issues with SEO and privacy. I spent nearly a week trying to find a Canadian host that I liked - it wasn't a quick decision, going with one based in the US. Maybe there is a Canadian host that I would have liked but I haven't heard about it yet - so please let me know your favorite Canadian host if you have one!

Are there any Canadians here using SiteGround? If so, what's your experience been like so far?

What would be a good hosting provider for me to recommend to Canadian small business customers? I want to have a simple go-to recommendation that I can make for all my customers, so a Canadian host would be easier. I'm looking for something with excellent performance (fast load times), decent availability and priced competitively for a small business.

Any info would be much appreciated!
 
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Welcome to HD!

We are a Canadian based host (I am from QC as well) and I can say that the majority of our Canadian customers want nothing to do with being hosted in the USA. Many for the reasons you mentioned above, especially privacy and well they prefer to keep Canadian money in Canada if possible.

I would say if at all possible keep the hosting and recommendations in Canada, there has to be a company or two that would meat your expectations or requirements.

There is a small SEO benefit though I doubt it would make a noticeable difference, same goes for latency. Though if going from far East coast to far West coast it may be noticeable.

Edit: I used to work the rigs and pipeline in Brooks and have family in Medicine Hat, small world :)
 
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Ran out of time to edit so double post.

I tried out SiteGround back in 2016 while doing market research. The service was solid and performed well, support was good also.

Though they did have a hefty setup fee at the time that I found a bit much.
 
Most of the observations you are mentioning are correct. However, you are throwing everything in the same bowl, complicating the decision making process for yourself.

Simplify by focusing on what your objective is.

Professor Data said:
I'm looking to start a web design business. I'll mainly just be building and helping to maintain existing websites for small-medium businesses.
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That's wonderful. Now, I am about to make two assumptions:

(a) you are focusing on targeting and serving clients in your local market, more or less, and
(b) you are not planning on offering web hosting services.

If both points above are correct, then every single area of concern you brought up play no role.

Look, if you offer development and design services, in a local market, then it really doesn't matter where your website is hosted.

1. The speeds with which websites that are hosted across North America are loaded, are fast everywhere. None of your clients would be able to tell the difference between a site hosted in Toronto, New York, Dallas or Atlanta. Neither would they be asking about where your site is hosted.

2. Given you are focusing on a local market, I presume you are going to properly explain it on your website and present the website content accordingly. If you are worried about SEO, even if it plays a small role that your website is hosted in Canada, that role is not significant enough to base your decision just on that. If your website is optimized for "web design service in Calgary" type of keywords, your clients will find you regardless where your site is hosted.

3. Why are you worried about privacy issues and government snooping around your website? You are a web design business, not a cyber security company, neither an online backup/storage solution relied on by hundreds of companies.


My suggestion is to go with a reputable web hosting provider. Your priority should be in making sure you are served well, that your website stays online and if it goes down for whatever reason, you have reliable support fixing things quickly and professionally.

I am Canadian as well, and I see no reason why you should only be looking only at Canadian hosting companies.

And if you insist on going with a Canadian company, at least make sure to go all the way and find a company that not only is Canadian-based, but the one that has servers in a Calgary based DC facility.

PS: Recommendation-wise, I've had experience with GoTekky.com, a Canadian company with a DC in Montreal and/or Toronto. I know the people behind the company and they are extremely well equipped technically (knowledge/skills) and legally speaking.
 
You don't need to be a security firm, storage provider or have something to hide in order to want your privacy respected. The USA is top of the list when it comes to not respecting this and invading privacy as they see fit.

Everytime there is a new privacy fiasco in the US we see a influx of new customers looking to get away from that. These are just average people that have nothing to do with security or something to hide.
 
Kickassd said:
You don't need to be a security firm, storage provider or have something to hide in order to want your privacy respected. The USA is top of the list when it comes to not respecting this and invading privacy as they see fit.

Everytime there is a new privacy fiasco in the US we see a influx of new customers looking to get away from that. These are just average people that have nothing to do with security or something to hide.
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No matter what you have in place if the Gov. want access they will gain access as they are exempt from privacy laws.
 
Kickassd said:
In Canada at least they need to subpoena, and to subpoena they need to have a good reason aka breaking law.
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I think your just naive how I believed democracy worked when I lived in communism. Understand there is no privacy if you are over the radar. The problem is Canada is more into "socialism" then USA is in capitalism. What do you think things like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Google (and the list go on) are? If you tell me they are just social interaction than you probably live in fiction....But again sorry for being politically incorrect !!!
 
Kickassd said:
In Canada at least they need to subpoena, and to subpoena they need to have a good reason aka breaking law.
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https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/for-federal-institutions/

The Federal Government needs information about citizens to deliver effective programs and services, and to shape sound public policies. However, individuals also need to be confident that their personal information will be protected and handled appropriately.
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which means The Federal Government (all departments) can access any information help on any person or business if it so wishes
 
No it does not, you need to go much further down the rabbit hole then the first page if you want to see how it works.
 
Kickassd said:
No it does not, you need to go much further down the rabbit hole then the first page if you want to see how it works.
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People like the Gov. and IRS can and will snoop around if they seem fit and they dont need permission. The just need to use the words 'Just Cause'

think about it
you place your info on

social media
banks
IRS
etc.

so your info is out their for everyone to see if they want.
 
Guys, we are not going to make this conversation about privacy laws of Canada vs USA. That is not the subject of this discussion. Further posts that stay off course will be deleted.

If you are making a comment, please make sure you are directly responding to original poster's request and help with decision making.
 
Professor Data said:
I don't want to take on the responsibility of hosting customer sites on my own hosting plan.
Click to expand...

Professor Data said:
Here's the twist: I live in Canada and many of my customers will be Canadian. I've read that there might be a small SEO benefit to hosting a Canadian website with a Canadian web host.
Click to expand...

If you are not going to host the websites then this should not bother you.

also because they may be a Canadian web host does not mean the servers they use will be in Canada

I was a UK webhost for 18 years, but the servers i used were all in the USA (Steadfast, Chicago) and in 18 years i only had 2 prospective clients ask for servers in the UK and once i showed them the latency etc. i was getting from them in the UK they still signed up with me
 
It doesnt really matter at all. Any hosting in the world would work, except China based servers, and a few others, you know the latency is too high.

Anyways, there are free CDN's they could use that you should inform them anyways to better serve their visitors near to their location.
 
Artashes said:
That's wonderful. Now, I am about to make two assumptions:

(a) you are focusing on targeting and serving clients in your local market, more or less, and
(b) you are not planning on offering web hosting services.

If both points above are correct, then every single area of concern you brought up play no role.
Click to expand...

Yes to both. It will just be my own sites that will be on this host - trying to keep things simple!

Artashes said:
My suggestion is to go with a reputable web hosting provider. Your priority should be in making sure you are served well, that your website stays online and if it goes down for whatever reason, you have reliable support fixing things quickly and professionally.

I am Canadian as well, and I see no reason why you should only be looking only at Canadian hosting companies.

And if you insist on going with a Canadian company, at least make sure to go all the way and find a company that not only is Canadian-based, but the one that has servers in a Calgary based DC facility.
Click to expand...

Makes sense.

Artashes said:
PS: Recommendation-wise, I've had experience with GoTekky.com, a Canadian company with a DC in Montreal and/or Toronto. I know the people behind the company and they are extremely well equipped technically (knowledge/skills) and legally speaking.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the GoTekky.com recommendation. I'll keep them in mind!

The community seems pretty big here. I can't remember the last time I got this many responses to a question in the space of two days. Looks like I've come to the right place for help!

Kickassd said:
Welcome to HD!
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Thanks! Kickassd looks awesome. I'll keep them in mind for sure.

Kickassd said:
I used to work the rigs and pipeline in Brooks and have family in Medicine Hat, small world
Click to expand...

It sure is. I'm from the UK originally. How did I end up all the way over here?! Haha :pumkin:

I feel reassured that I made the right choice for my own hosting needs. Now, I just need to figure out which Canadian host I'll recommend for my clients. This should be pretty easy :)
 
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