New websites help identify made-in-Canada products

As trade tensions with the United States escalate, two Vancouver entrepreneurs — Toki Hossain and Sourabh Banerjee — have created digital platforms to help Canadians support local businesses.

CanadianAlternative.to and IsThat.ca have emerged as robust tools that make it easier to discover and purchase Canadian-made products and software. These projects represent a growing movement to harness tech to strengthen national identity and economic resilience in an era of increasing uncertainty.

CanadianAlternative.to: Helping Canadians discover homegrown software solutions

Toki Hossain, founder of CanadianAlternative.to, created his platform after noticing a significant gap in the market.

“I wanted to highlight Canadian-made software and technology to support more Canadian businesses,” he explains. “There are many great Canadian tech products, but they often don't get as much visibility as their U.S. counterparts.”

The idea came to him after being inspired by similar platforms like opensourcealternative.to. When building the site, Hossain was surprised by two major realizations: first, just how dependent Canadians are on U.S.-based software, and second, the sheer number of Canadian software companies that fly under the radar.

“Even when setting up the site, I had to buy the domain from a U.S. provider because there wasn't a Canadian option for .to,” Hossain notes.

To identify which companies to feature, he turned to LinkedIn and Reddit, where he discovered numerous Canadian software companies he had never heard of before.

The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. “The launch post received thousands of views on LinkedIn, and more Canadian software companies have been submitted for inclusion on the platform,” Hossain says. “I've also received several messages from people interested in collaborating and helping expand the list of Canadian tech alternatives.”

His vision for the platform is clear: “I want more Canadians to know about the incredible software and technology we have in Canada. While it may not always be possible to switch entirely to Canadian alternatives, using more locally made tech products is a step in the right direction. I hope this platform becomes the go-to resource for Canadians looking for homegrown alternatives to popular software.”

IsThat.ca: Discovering and promoting Canadian-made products

While CanadianAlternative.to focuses on software, IsThat.ca takes a broader approach by helping consumers find Canadian-made products across various categories. Founder Sourabh Banerjee, a fellow Vancouverite who moved to Canada from Singapore four years ago, was consistently impressed by the quality of Canadian products but found them difficult to discover online.

“My family and I regularly visit our neighborhood farmers' market and other local events where we discover Canadian bakers and artisans,” Banerjee shares. “My wife and I find ourselves asking, 'Wow, is that Canadian?' at these markets. Unfortunately, the way online product discovery works these days is that you are fed products from an algorithm depending on what the ad spend for that business is on that platform.”

Banerjee noticed that many Canadian businesses struggle with marketing compared to their counterparts in the United States or overseas. The recent tariff threats served as the catalyst for him to finally build IsThat.ca, using data science strategies and AI tools to collect publicly available information, and to deploy the site within a weekend.

What surprised him most during the development process was discovering the variety of products made in the country.

“I discovered that there are a lot of businesses that make really unique products — from art to furniture, clothing, or auto parts — right here in Canada,” he explains. “Most of them are very small family-run businesses that don't have even close to the marketing budgets of their competitors in other countries, yet are passionate to keep building their products.”

A key feature of IsThat.ca is its focus on identifying Canadian-owned businesses, as opposed to simply drop-shipping operations with a Canadian address. Banerjee uses AI-powered searching to add to his database, which now contains close to 5,000 Canadian businesses and continues to grow daily. He personally verifies each business, often by calling them directly or checking their social media profiles. Despite minimal publicity, the site has gained significant traction.

“I've been getting hundreds of hits every day,” Banerjee reports. “A feature that people seem to love is the ability to scan a label or the front of a photo and then have AI figure out if this is Canadian-made or owned.”

Banerjee's vision for IsThat.ca is to help consumers make better decisions about where they’re shopping.

“My goal is to make shoppers empowered to make decisions on where to spend their hard-earned money. That makes such a huge difference to the local economy," he says. "I want people to know that there are so many great businesses with products and stories that they would not discover if they stayed on social media sites.”

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