Regular readers of my blog will know that I’ve been a huge fan of BlueHost for a number of years, they’re a quality outfit with great web services and tremendous support but they’re based out if the United States which, while many of you are US citizens and choose to be patriotic … has it’s downside as well.

The US Dollar

The first, and most obvious flaw in hosting anything in the United States is the US dollar itself, with poor performance over the past year a US dollar costs between 95¢ and $1.05 per Canadian dollar but in recent years past, it could have costed up to $1.50 to purchase a US dollar! That means that the $6.95 a month I pay with BlueHost actually costs me anywhere from $6.60 per month to $10.40 per month depending on influences outside my control.

On the other hand, web hosting in Canada would have cost a US customer $6.95 Canadian per month, or as low as $4.63 per month with fluctuations in the currency giving US based business a savings of up to 33% per year for hosting here in Canada.

Privacy Issues

When it comes to domain hosting for the average business, privacy is not something most think about but for larger businesses or membership based websites, hosting a website in Canada has the often unforeseen advantage of being regulated by the Privacy Office of Canada, not the US Department of Homeland Security or the Digital Millennium Act. While it could be fair to say that US based businesses should abide by these laws, businesses not based in the US may find themselves benefiting from Canadian rules over US based laws.

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