For Canadian small businesses 🍁 (Americans welcome)For American small businesses (built by a friendly Canadian)
You're probably overpaying to be online.
A small-business web presence — domain, website, hosting — should cost about CA$15US$10 a year. The industry default costs CA$319US$227+. We're a free field guide to the cheap, honest route: what to buy, where, and how — in plain language.
Your yearly receipt
— The default path —
— The Scout stack —
You keep CA$304US$217/yr
(CA$1,521US$1,085 over 5 years)
verified 2026-07Being online is three purchases. We priced them all.
01 · Your address
Domains
The same .com costs CA$69.95US$48.80 or CA$131.97US$91.97 over 5 years, depending only on where you buy it.
Compare registrars →
02 · Your building
Website & hosting
Brochure site? Hosting is free now, and AI builds the site. Builders are for the businesses that actually use them.
Builders vs. static →
03 · Your mailbox
Business email
you@yourbusiness.com from about a dollar a month (in either currency) — never from the checkout-screen upsell.
Compare providers →
New to all of it? Follow the trail.
Four guides, in order, from "what even is a domain" to a live website at your own address.
- 1
Learn the three pieces
Domain, hosting, DNS — the 5-minute plain-English version.
- 2
Buy your domain right
.ca or .com, dodging the add-ons, the two settings that matter.
- 3
Build the site with AI
Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini write it; you talk to them like a designer.
- 4
Put it online free
Drag, drop, connect your domain. HTTPS handled.
Why you can trust a site with affiliate links
We eat the cooking
This site runs on the exact stack it recommends — a cheap domain and free Cloudflare Pages hosting. Our total infrastructure bill is about CA$15 a year, and you're reading the proof.
Dated, sourced prices
Every price shows when we last verified it, renewal prices get top billing over first-year teasers, and the math is computed from the same data you see in the tables.
We recommend against our wallet
Our #1 hosting pick pays us nothing — Cloudflare has no affiliate program. When a paid product is genuinely the right call, we say so and link it, disclosed. Full disclosure policy.
Find your number
Thirty seconds with your current bills. The result tends to be motivating.
Open the overpay calculatorStill picking a name? Check if it's free on every social platform before you commit.