Is there still a grant to pay for your website in Ontario? The 2026 answer

Short answer, as of September 2026: the two grants Ontario businesses ask us about most, the Canada Digital Adoption Program and Digital Main Street, are not accepting new website applications right now. One has ended for good. The other runs in windows and is between them. There is still real money on the table, just not where most articles point you.

Here is the honest picture, and what to do with it.

The website grants everyone asks about are closed

CDAP is done. The Canada Digital Adoption Program ran two streams that paid for digital work. Grow Your Business Online gave a micro-grant of up to $2,400 toward e-commerce, and Boost Your Business Technology paired a larger grant with a zero-interest BDC loan. Grow Your Business Online stopped taking applications on September 30, 2024, Boost Your Business Technology closed in February 2024, and the program shut to new applicants on March 31, 2025. It supported more than 71,000 businesses before it wrapped. If a page is still telling you to apply for CDAP in 2026, it is out of date.

Digital Main Street is between intakes. Its Digital Transformation Grant offered up to $2,500 for qualified brick-and-mortar businesses with 1 to 50 employees to put toward a website, digital marketing, software, and training. It has helped thousands of main-street shops, but it runs in funded intake windows, and the application portal is closed at the time of writing. This one is worth watching, because when a region gets new funding, it can reopen with little notice.

What is actually available in Ontario right now

Starter Company Plus. This provincial program offers a micro-grant of up to $5,000 to help start or grow a small business, along with training and mentoring. It is delivered locally through Ontario’s Small Business Enterprise Centres, so exact rules and intake dates vary by centre, and you usually need to invest about 25 percent of the grant yourself. It is not website-specific, but a new or growing business can put it toward the digital foundation it needs.

Your local Small Business Enterprise Centre. This is the part most owners skip, and it is the most useful. These centres offer free advice, and they administer or track most of the programs above. The Guelph-Wellington Business Enterprise Centre and the Waterloo Region Small Business Centre are two nearby examples. One conversation tells you what is open this quarter, what you qualify for, and when the next window lands, which beats guessing from a blog.

How to be ready when a window reopens

Grant intakes fill fast, so the businesses that win are the ones that were ready before the door opened. Get these in place now.

1. Register the business and keep your CRA standing clean, since almost every program checks it.
2. Have a simple digital plan in writing: what you want to build and the outcome it drives.
3. Get a real quote on file from the studio or developer you would actually use, so you can attach it the day applications open.
4. Apply on day one of an intake, not day ten.

The math most people miss

Here is the trap. Waiting for a grant feels responsible, but a year spent invisible online almost always costs more than the grant would have saved. A $2,500 top-up is nice. A site that ranks on Google, shows up in AI answers, and replaces two or three monthly software subscriptions pays for itself and then keeps paying.

We wrote a full, honest breakdown of what a site actually costs in How much does a website cost in Ontario in 2026. The short version: price the site against the leads and saved fees it produces, not against whether a grant covers part of it. If a grant does open, treat it as a discount on a decision you were going to make anyway.

Where Skroll fits

We build the site, and we build custom tools that cut the monthly software bills small businesses quietly pay. If you want to be ready for the next Digital Main Street window, we can scope a clear quote you can attach to an application. If you would rather just get moving, we can do that too. Either way, tell us what you are working on and we will give you a straight answer.

Programs change often. Confirm current amounts, eligibility, and intake dates with your local Small Business Enterprise Centre before you apply.