TL; DR: One of the best ways to maintain customer loyalty is to never neglect why your client base chose you in the first place. Polur, a Canadian web hosting provider, exemplifies this approach by offering tailored hosting solutions that cater to the local market’s unique needs. We spoke with its Founder, Anand Athiviraham, who told us about how Polur has successfully retained its customer base for more than two decades.
If you’re not well-versed in web hosting technologies, just think of a good web hosting provider as a reliable landlord — but for your website. Just as a landlord maintains a property, a web host takes care of your site’s maintenance, security, and performance so you can focus on what’s important.
Ask anyone who owns a website about their web host, and they’ll probably tell you they chose their provider based on price and good reviews. But there’s one thing that some people don’t consider when finding the right provider: location.
Choosing a local web host provider means working with a team that understands your country’s or region’s needs, including market trends, compliance, and regulatory requirements. Plus, with a localized provider, you’re more likely to get better uptime and ping time.
Polur has been a Canadian web host provider since the internet’s rapid rise in 2004.
The web hosting and digital landscape were very different then, yet Polur has maintained a set of loyal customers who can’t imagine working with anyone else.
Polur started as a domain registrar with basic web hosting packages and has evolved into a comprehensive web hosting solution serving customers worldwide, focusing on Canadian and American users.
Despite its growth over the past two decades, Polur remains connected to its roots in the Great White North.
For Canadians, By Canadians
Anand recalled the beginnings of Polur in 2004 when the web as we know it was still relatively young.
Since then, the web hosting industry has been quite competitive, especially in the last several years with the rise of larger providers.
“Nowadays, I think the industry’s consolidated a lot of the web hosting providers that are owned by fairly large conglomerates, which makes it a little bit difficult for smaller players like us,” Anand Athiviraham shared, Founder of Polur.
But Polur grew, too. Today, Anand estimates its client base is about 60% U.S. citizens and 40% Canadian.
I don’t think the bigger providers can necessarily provide that level of service that you would expect from a local company. It’s just a matter of fact they’re good at some aspects, such as cost. But they have to sacrifice that one-on-one aspect, and I think that’s where we’re trying to find our niche.
Anand Athiviraham, Founder of Polur
“Our American customers have been with us since the beginning, but we’re excited to get back to our roots and target the Canadian side,” Anand said. “We’re looking forward to getting more of the local market because I think there are still many opportunities we haven’t explored yet.”
Anand theorized there are a few main reasons Canadians and Americans choose smaller providers like Polur: the desire for localized support, easy currency and exchange rates, and access to SEO tools and brand awareness.
1. Localized Support
Localized support refers to the practice of adapting a product or service to meet the needs and preferences of a specific region or market. And what better way to do that than to be from the area?
“What we noticed about our Canadian customers is they want the ability to pick up the phone and speak to someone local, not be outsourced to a country that might not necessarily understand what they’re working with,” Anand said.
Not only is Polur able to accommodate the varying languages of its customers (such as in Montreal), but it also understands the regional infrastructure necessary to do so.
Take healthcare compliance, for example. In the U.S., HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) sets federal standards to protect patients’ protected health information (PHI).
In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) regulates how private-sector organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information in commercial activities, such as eCommerce and corporate websites. It serves a similar role to the U.S. HIPAA and the EU GDPR.
2. Currency and Exchange Rates
As of 2024, the exchange rate is U.S.$1.00 = CAD$1.37, and CAD$1.00 = U.S.$0.73.
“Currency is something that only a Canadian provider or a provider with a local presence can truly support and accommodate,” Anand said. “It lets us build customer relationships with the accurate local currency.”
He also points out how surprising the price disparity can be — especially for startups, where every dollar counts. For instance, someone might expect to pay $10.00 for a web hosting plan only to find their card statement shows $13.70 instead.
3. SEO and Geotargeting
SEO is crucial for any growing business or individual who wants to ensure that their services or products are easily found online.
Google, for example, checks several factors to provide relevant search results, including good SEO practices like quality content, crawlability, and geotargeting.
Geotargeting is when Google uses the user’s IP address to determine their approximate location, ensuring that search results are locally relevant.
(This is why when you search for “restaurants near me,” you’ll see a list of local options rather than a random restaurant in the Maldives.)
“The Canadian customer wants to make sure that their IP address and SEO accurately reflect that they’re based out of Canada,” Anand said. “Now SEO is its sort of industry, which is a lot more complicated — but as a Canadian-based host, it’s another way we differentiate in what we can provide.”
All-in-One, Secure Web Hosting Solutions
Polur is transitioning away from the smaller end of shared and reseller hosting (which once played a prominent role in its business) and toward premium VPS, dedicated servers, and all-in-one solutions.
“Many people expect a do-it-yourself approach, which many of the larger providers are targeting,” Anand said, referring to web hosts providing tools for users to build their own sites. “Even so, it’s still overwhelming for those who are not tech-savvy or simply don’t have the time to learn.”
With that said, Polur hopes to add tech support for specific infrastructures, such as the medical field.
The idea is to have an agent on Polur’s end available for the user to answer any questions about their website, including specific healthcare industry-related questions and features or designs they want.
We’re looking forward to getting more of the local market because I think there are still many opportunities we haven’t explored yet.
Anand Athiviraham, Founder of Polur
For example, if an urgent care clinic wants to incorporate online appointments with real-time wait times, Polur’s experts would help make that a reality.
“I don’t think the bigger providers can necessarily provide that level of service that you would expect from a local company,” Anand added. “It’s just a matter of fact they’re good at some aspects, such as cost. But they have to sacrifice that one-on-one aspect, and I think that’s where we’re trying to find our niche.”
Keeping Clients at the Forefront
Polur has a lot on its plate, including expanding its services to meet the niche needs of its local market. But one constant remains at its core: its customers.
“We wouldn’t still be here if the clients we started with didn’t continue to believe in what we provide,” Anand said.
A vital aspect of this strategy is maintaining simplicity in Polur’s services, ensuring customers can easily use the features they’ve paid for without needing frequent assistance. As a result, Polur significantly reduced its support costs.
“Our support provides the hands-on assistance needed to address specific issues with a customer’s website or other concerns. But we don’t need to worry about global-scale problems, which is a big advantage for us,” Anand added.
As for what’s next, Anand shared that Polur is still implementing some of the newest technologies into its infrastructure to help guarantee security.
“Even small end-user websites can be targets, sometimes as part of a broader attack on a jurisdiction — like all the data centers in Montreal,” Anand said.
To mitigate these risks, Polur employs tools such as Imunify360 to prevent hacking attempts and denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, along with CloudLinux and a highly redundant network infrastructure in its data center.
“Thanks to these measures, we’ve had no downtime in the last eight years,” Anand added. “We’re proud to offer stability and speed without compromising value or increasing rates.”
In fact, many of Polur’s legacy clients still pay the same rate they did in 2004. Try finding that anywhere else.
Whether you’re in the Great White North or do business with its citizens, having a small yet dedicated team to support your site and its features can mean the difference between smooth sailing and frustration.
Check out Polur for Canadian-based hosting services, including SSD shared hosting, SSD multi-account hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting.