Skip the hosting companies entirely - automate everything yourself and save way more money. Spin up a cloud server and automate all the WordPress stuff.
Did this for a client’s portfolio last month. Used Latenode to automate server setup, WordPress install, backups, image optimization - everything. Runs on a $5 DigitalOcean droplet and crushes way more traffic than your 150 monthly visitors.
Automation covers security updates, plugin updates, database cleanup, CDN management. No hosting company BS or surprise bills. Want it in Toronto? Done.
Migration? Automated. Staging environments, test runs, rollbacks - all handled.
Your traffic would cost maybe $10/month instead of $60-100 on traditional hosting. Pays for itself instantly.
You’re probably overpaying based on what you’ve described. With 150 monthly visitors and a 400MB site, shared hosting would handle that easily for way less money. I’ve had good luck with SiteGround for setups like yours - their Canadian data centers work great for image-heavy sites, and their migration tools are painless. If you want to stick with Canadian hosts, Web Hosting Canada isn’t bad either, though their support can be slow. Honestly, with your traffic numbers, most providers will have plenty of resources for you without upselling expensive plans. Plus these days free SSL and staging environments come standard anyway.
$60-100 is crazy expensive for what you need. I run a similar WordPress site on Hostinger for $12/month and it works great. Their migration tool made switching easy last year. Don’t worry about location - my site loads fast from US servers even though I’m in Toronto. Skip GoDaddy and you’ll be fine.
You can definitely spend way less than your current budget. I switched from an overpriced provider to Namecheap about two years ago - it’s been rock solid for my WordPress portfolio site. Their EasyWP managed hosting handles image-heavy sites great and runs $20-30/month depending on your plan. Migration was easy too, their support walked me right through it. A2 Hosting’s another solid choice - they’ve got Toronto servers so you might get slightly better speeds in Canada, though the difference isn’t massive anymore. With 150 visitors monthly, you’ve got tons of room to grow before needing anything pricey. Most decent hosts throw in free migrations now anyway, so don’t sweat that part.
Honestly, just grab Vultr or Linode for $6/month and throw WordPress on there. Your site’s tiny and 150 visitors is nothing. I’ve been running my portfolio this way for 3 years - way more reliable than shared hosting garbage. Takes maybe an hour to set up if you follow their WordPress guides. Canadian servers available too if that’s important to you.
Been using Bluehost for my WordPress portfolio since 2022 - works great. Their managed WordPress hosting costs around $25/month and handles image galleries well. Migration’s included and they actually do it right. Got my site moved in under 24 hours with zero downtime. Canadian support team knows their WordPress stuff. I’m running a photography portfolio similar to yours with no slowdowns or storage issues. Just avoid their cheapest shared plan if you’re doing any video - learned that one the hard way. Even short clips eat up bandwidth fast. Mid-tier WordPress plan handles everything and you’ll still be way under budget.