- Everything you always wanted to know about Canada’s domain
- .CA domains under management
- Trends in domain registration keywords
- Provincial index
- Top visited .CA websites in Canada
- Status of .CA domains
- CMS* platforms used by .CA domains
- .CA domains – the long and short of it
- .CA domain security
- Badness index ranking
- Aftermarket – top .CA resales
- To Be Released
Everything you always wanted to know about Canada’s domain
It’s our second edition of the .CA Insights Report! If you read the first one (gold star for you!), you’ll know that what you’re about to read is a deep dive into the world of the .CA domain. You’ll find out insights such as how many .CA domains are registered, what the top visited .CA websites are and where most of the .CA holders are in Canada – it might not be where you think! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Or should we say, ice rink?
In this edition, we’re doing a bit of catchup. We’re giving you data from Q2 as well as Q3. Our plan going forward is to release four of these reports per year, in line with our fiscal quarters.
More than ever, Canadians are choosing a .CA domain name for their local businesses as it is the only domain name that identifies a website as 100% Canadian. Happy exploring!
Table of contents
- Everything you always wanted to know about Canada’s domain
- .CA domains under management
- Trends in domain registration keywords
- Provincial index
- Top visited .CA websites in Canada
- Status of .CA domains
- CMS* platforms used by .CA domains
- .CA domains – the long and short of it
- .CA domain security
- Badness index ranking
- Aftermarket – top .CA resales
- To Be Released

About the data
This report is created using a combination of .CA Registry data, third-party vendors, and publicly available data.
.CA Registry data is accumulated through the collection of Registrant data. A Registrant is defined as any person who registers a .CA domain name with CIRA. This information is presented anonymously and in aggregate within this report.
Third-party vendor data is provided to CIRA through proprietary agreements and is presented anonymously and in aggregate within this report.
Links to all publicly available data are provided within the report.
Provincial index figures are estimations. They are calculated using Statistics Canada estimates for provincial populations and the approximate number of domains per province at the time of the report’s release.
- Provincial populations are estimated by Statistics Canada. For more information on Statistics Canada methodology, please visit their website.
- Number of domains is rounded to the nearest thousand to account for changes in the data. This data represents an approximation of the current number of domains in each province.
Domain status and CMS usage is considered to be an estimation of the approximate percentage of domains associated with each category. Domain status data is considered to be in “beta” and information may be subject to change in later reports. This information is provided through our third-party vendor, DataProvider.
.CA domains under management
Trends in domain registration keywords
Here are some trends in the top ranked keywords of .CA domain registrations this quarter:
Ecommerce
Canadian businesses are choosing .CA for their online stores more than ever before.
Keywords: business, shop, products, services
Local
.CA owners are proud to show off where they’re from online, and who can blame them?
Keywords: Canada, BC, Toronto, Ontario
Connected
Canadians are taking advantage of online communities to keep in touch during the pandemic.
Keywords: news, community, blog, follow
Provincial index
Top visited .CA websites in Canada
Status of .CA domains
CMS* platforms used by .CA domains
.CA domains – the long and short of it
.CA domain security
66.2%
of active .CA domains have an SSL certificate. (+11% from Q1) Source: DataProvider, October 2021
1.7%
of all .CA domains have DNSSEC. (+21% from Q1) Source: .CA Registry Data.
Badness index ranking
Aftermarket – top .CA resales
Here were some of the top publicly announced sales from the quarter:
skilledtradesontario.ca
$17,500
swivel.ca
$9,500
guild.ca
$7,500
Interested in obtaining a domain that’s already registered?
Learn more about how to navigate the .CA domain aftermarket.
Note: All prices are in USD.
Source: Namebio, July – September 2021
To Be Released
To Be Released (TBR) is the process by which CIRA releases all expired .CA domains back for general registration, often referred to as “the drop” in the domain industry.
2,776
Total registered in TBR sessions
(July – September 2021)
Source: .CA Registry Data.