Managed hosting on your own cloud servers

Small businesses, agencies, non-profits and professionals who want fast, well-looked-after hosting, sometimes with data kept in Canada.

Monthly managed hosting fees per site or per server, plus set-up, migration and maintenance charges, and domain and email add-ons.

• Linux server administration
• Web security and backups
• Reliable, responsive customer support

• You are responsible for security and uptime, so plan for backups, updates and out-of-hours problems
• Privacy rules such as PIPEDA and Quebec's privacy law may apply to the data you host, so check what applies to your clients
• Write clear terms of service covering acceptable use, outages and data loss
• Check whether you need a home-based business licence from your municipality
• Register for GST/HST once you pass the small supplier threshold
• Consider professional liability (errors and omissions) and cyber insurance
• Server costs can grow before customers do, so watch your monthly bills

Startup costs are typically estimated at around $1,500 to $6,000, depending on the servers you rent, the tools you choose and how much you spend on setup. Server costs can grow before customers do, so watch your monthly bills.

Monthly revenue is typically estimated at around $1,500 to $7,500, depending on how many clients you host and what support you include. A niche such as WordPress sites or Canadian-hosted data may help you stand out.

Check whether privacy rules such as PIPEDA and Quebec's privacy law apply to the data you host. Also write clear terms of service, check for a home-based business licence from your municipality, and consider GST/HST registration and errors and omissions and cyber insurance.