23 years of Varial Hosting (and a favour to ask)

This June, Varial Hosting will mark 23 years of serving the Canadian web.

In an industry dominated by giant, faceless conglomerates, we’ve managed to stay a boutique, independent provider for over two decades. We know our customers, and that is something I take a lot of pride in.

Today, I’m writing to you with a challenge we’ve set for ourselves: to double the size of our business over the next five years.

I want to be transparent with you about why. Like many of you, we’ve seen our operating expenses climb rapidly—from server hardware to the software licensing required to keep your sites secure. Combined with a tighter economy, this led us to increase prices earlier this year. It is something I want to avoid doing again at all costs.

Our plan is simple: Instead of just charging more, we are going to grow. We are refreshing our website, expanding our marketing and launching new services to keep our core hosting prices stable for everyone.

But first, let’s have a conversation.

It’s been over ten years since we sent out a customer survey. I actually started creating a new one last week, but then I realized: I hate filling those things out. So, let’s just talk.

I’d love to hear how we are doing. Is there something we’re doing really well that you’d like to see more of? On the flip side, is there a “bug” or a service you wish we offered that would make your life easier? Whether it’s a success story or a frustration you haven’t gotten around to telling us about, I want to hear it. If you have feedback, please reach out to me directly. I read every single message personally.

Coming Soon: WordPress Care (Total Peace of Mind)

We are preparing to launch a WordPress Care & Maintenance Plan designed for those who get stressed out performing updates in fear of breaking their website. We want to become your personal webmaster. The plan includes:

• 24/7 Monitoring: We don’t just check if your server is up; we monitor to ensure your pages are actually rendering correctly for your visitors.
• Human-Reviewed Updates: We don’t just click ‘update’—we personally review and test updates for your WordPress core, themes and plugins to ensure total compatibility.
• Staging Environments: We test all updates in a sandbox environment before pushing them to your live production site.
• Performance & PHP Management: We handle PHP upgrades and server-level caching configuration to keep your site fast.
• 30 Minutes of “Small Tasks”: Every month, you get 30 minutes of our time for those quick site changes or fixes you need.

Want early access? If you’d like to add this plan before our public launch, let me know and I’ll send you the details.

We are also looking for your “vote” on a few other ideas:

• Redis Object Caching: Want a faster WordPress site? We’re considering adding Redis to our Turbo and Max plans. It stores database queries in the server’s RAM for near-instant delivery—making your site feel significantly snappier.
• Node.js Hosting: Are you a developer or “vibe coder” needing a high-performance, Canadian home for your apps?
• Fully Managed VPS: Are you hitting the limits of our Max or XL plans and need more computing power, but with the same managed feature set you already trust?

If any of these would make your life easier, please send me your thoughts.

A Small Favour to Help Us Grow

If you’ve been happy with us over the last 23 years, there are three quick ways you can help us reach our 5-year goal:

• Testimonials: We are refreshing our website and would love to feature you. Shorter is better! We’ll include a link back to your site, which provides a nice SEO boost for your business.
• Google Reviews: Have a spare minute? Leave us a rating or review here.
• Referrals: Our Affiliate Program pays a 10% recurring commission for the life of the account. We have many clients who actually cover their own hosting costs just through a few referrals.

Thank you for being part of the Varial Hosting story for the last two decades. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Ryan Smith
CEO, Varial Hosting