Recommendations for a Toronto Based Web Hsoting solution

[Jet2643]

One of my clients needs Canadian based webhosting preferably in Toronto. I am not familiar with the CAD webhosting environment but a cursory review finds the pricing to be several times more expensive then either the USA or Europe. Furthermore, it seems like all the reviews I can find for Toronto based hosting companies find a mixed bag at best.

This customer of mine is a business, and sees a fair amount of web traffic monthly. They have a very large media library and serve up a wide variety of media on most pages. They use Wordpress for their site. They could go with a shared hosting, but it needs to be good quality if shared, and not throttled at all, with unlimited email, disk space, at least 3 ips, no transfer limits, at least 5 mysql databases, php 5.3, cpanel with either softaculous or fantastico, etc. In the USA this would cost $5 per month. In Toronto it seems to be nonexistent.

Alternative would be VPS, but the vps pricing here seems to be even more outrageous, with laughably low limits on everything for the pricing.

So my goal then is to first find out from the community who has provided very good reliable hosting, whether shared, vps or dedicated, and then once I have some feedback, to sort on the basis of price. Two things I definitely require are that the host have a bricks and mortar operation and not just be virtual (which usually means they are just a reseller of a larger op) and that they have local based customer service. I think the only trunks are in downtown Toronto (perhaps someone can confirm?) at 151 Front st, and preference is that the host owns their own servers and racks, so they have true control over their operations.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated. I have to move them quickly, they are with Webserve in Vancouver, but Webserve is crapping out in a big way, and they want to leave immediately, even though they have prepaid for some time yet - its just not worth the hassles to stay when nothing is working as it should.

Thanks!

[sexyj]

How much disk space do you need ? There's no such thing as unlimited disk space...

[infamouskid]

any host at 151 front st should do the trick.

[jdmkidd]

stay away from canadianwebhosting.com that's all.

[BrandonChow]

The Toronto based web hosting market is definitely not as saturated as the U.S due to the fact that space, power and bandwidth is a lot more expensive. This would explain why they seem to charge a lot more. In fact, a lot of Canadian based hosts move their operations down south too because of this to remain competitive. For those that do stay within Canada a lot are located at 151 Front Street but there are a number of other great locations scattered around the GTA too.

As you may already know there's no such thing as "Unlimited" web hosting. This marketing gimmick is typically a flag that the servers the host uses are potentially oversold, sluggish and packed with other clients. As someone with a business client I would definitely look for more enterprise grade web hosting. From what I see a VPS may be overkill for you and would potentially triple your budget at least if you're looking for management. For your requirements you'd probably be looking at around $10 including the 3 dedicated IPs which providers charge around $2 for.

[DirectHostingCanada]

Definitely see what your client's actual usage is first before coming up with a budget. Like many people, you have been spoiled/misinformed by the whole unlimited features marketing. There are many Canadian hosts with reasonable offerings.

P.S. - Is there any particular reason you need dedicated IP addresses other than using it for SSL ?

[xalex0]

Why does it have to be in Canada?

[Oversized Rooster]

I strongly recommend myhosting.com.

They have servers both at 151 Front Street in Toronto and also in another data center in New York state. They have real support people on the phone.

I have a few VPS servers with this company at 151 Front Street. OUTSTANDING, perfect performance and very low cost.

[Oversized Rooster]

Why does it have to be in Canada?

Usually because of data harboring requirements. By holding customer and/or transaction data in Canada, it is much harder for the US government to have access.

[BrandonChow]

Why does it have to be in Canada?

It's typically for legal reasons.

[Jet2643]

First, to all how have replied to date, thank you.

How much disk space do you need ? There's no such thing as unlimited disk space...

At least 50gb of space, and it will probably grow.

I read your thread to see if I could gleam anything I did not know, or perhaps some info on local hosts, but no such luck. BTW, I did notice that you tend to answer most questions with a question. I only bring this to your attention as it is more typical to answer a question with an answer.

I have taken a look at the facilities at 151 Front, and I think I will put the client on vps with one of the direct provides pending my bringing one of our servers up to Canada to serve our Canadian clients. I am Canadian myself, but I don't generally follow the local scene as Canada is already the banana republic of all banana republics when it comes to overpriced telecom services. Even the colo pricing is off the charts. I did have to laugh, I saw one vendor offering vps for $80 a month, and all they were offering was 500mhz of processing, and 256mb of ram at that price - insanely awful are amongst the adjectives that come to mind. As well, when I see hosts who want to charge you $10 and more for an extra gb of ram, on a monthly basis, I am truly floored. Talk about highway robbery.

BTW - i saw your little blurb on semi-dedicated in your thread. A true semid is nothing like what you described, and not a scam at all.
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Several of you mentioned that there is no such thing as unlimited disk space, etc. Truthfully, in most instances if one chews up huge amounts of disk space or traffic gets heavy, naturally the host will suggest one move up in tiers. But it depends on the country. In certain countries, such as the Netherlands or Hong Kong, if it says it, then it is. But it is good to get the local view as it tends to reflect the local experience.

I re-read my post, and in reading it again, I realize it comes across as seeking as first interest shared, whereas what I was trying to say is that the client could live with shared if it was high quality, but in fact the first desire is vps. I typed it up quickly, and my apologies for not being nearly as clear as perhaps I should have been.

@DirectHosting, your name has not yet come up in my searches, but I will check you out and thank you for posting....

I did not actually mention a need for dedicated ips, only that i needed at least 3 ip addresses. But in fact one dedicated ip for SSL is necessary. I asked for more simply because it is the norm elsewhere to have more then one ip even in many shared situations. I don't know about any of you, but I can always find a use for a spare ip if i have one lying around.....

@BrandonChow - I am assuming you are connected to ProvisionHost? I will check them out as well and thank you for posting.....

Why does it have to be in Canada?

Because the customer is Canadian, and desires to show their own customer base they buy Canadian as well. It does not have anything to do with data harboring, which I think in any case has been given up completely by the Harpercons with some of their current legislation - they have essentially bent over backwards for the USA and said whatever you want, we provide.....

For customers who need data harboring, there are plenty of other places to put them.

I strongly recommend myhosting.com.

They have servers both at 151 Front Street in Toronto and also in another data center in New York state. They have real support people on the phone.

I have a few VPS servers with this company at 151 Front Street. OUTSTANDING, perfect performance and very low cost.

They came up in my searches as well. So did VPSville who I gather had a hard crash back in 2009(?) and lost everything at the time. The latter bothers me as they have no direct contact info, a big nono in this day and age. They also seem to be somewhat ad hoc in application of their business if I judge some of the reviews, and even their answers, correctly. Others that came up are Amanah and Netintelligence, although I have yet to do more research on either, so any opinions on them would be valued.

myhosting.com has a lot of vps solutions, and I may run with one of them so as to satisfy not only this client, but a few others local customers that are in need. But I think in the long run, we will have to ship at least one of our own servers to Canada and do a colo. The pricing here is a killer though. I can buy a dedicated pipe in some countries for less then the cost of a colo here, which is truly mind boggling.

Again because of my post, I think some got the impression that I was not well versed on hosting. On the contrary, the opposite is true, but I am not at all familiar with the local market and operators, and have a local client in need.

So if anyone in the RFD community has recommendations or feedback on Toronto based vps providers it would be appreciated. My current thought is to run with a good VPS provider for at least 6 months, and then depending on whether more of our clients indicate an interest, potentially ship one of our own servers here at some point in 2013 to host them.

[BrandonChow]

@BrandonChow - I am assuming you are connected to ProvisionHost? I will check them out as well and thank you for posting.....

Yes that is correct.