How Toronto's metal shops show up online
84%
We read the websites of 189 metal shops in Toronto, part of our study of 2,095 shops in 23 Canadian cities. Here is what they show buyers, and how Toronto compares.
What buyers in Toronto see
Toronto's shops are some of the oldest in the study. Of the 94 that give a year, the middle one started in 1979, and 84% started in 2001 or earlier. Fewer of them weld: 38% offer welding and 13% structural steel, both near the bottom of the 23 cities. A buyer who needs a certified welder has a short list, and most of it shows no CWB: 57 of 72 welding shops.
The basics
Four basics, and how Toronto compares
- 73%show no ISO or CWB certificationAll 23 cities: 74% · 1 point lower · tied 8th lowest of 23 cities
- 50%name none of their equipmentAll 23 cities: 54% · 4 points lower · tied 7th lowest of 23 cities
- 97%don't say how many people work thereAll 23 cities: 96% · 1 point higher · tied 5th highest of 23 cities
- 50%don't say when they startedAll 23 cities: 49% · 1 point higher · tied 8th highest of 23 cities
The oldest Toronto shop that gives a year started in 1891.
The shop map
Every one of Toronto's 189 shops, one dot each
Pick what the colours show.
Shows a certification: 52Shows none: 137
Names its equipment: 95Names none: 94
Gives its team size: 5Doesn't say: 184
Each dot is a listed shop with a website, moved a little (about 250 m) so no single shop can be picked out. The darker outline is Toronto. The others are its neighbouring municipalities.
What a buyer checks
A shop's spec sheet, the way most Toronto sites read it
A made-up Toronto shop. A line is struck through when most of the city's 189 sites leave it out.
Sample Fabricating, Toronto
Sample shop, not a real company
- Services
Fabrication, welding, laser cuttingOn nearly every site - Phone
555 010 0142Shown on 182 of 189 - Certification
CWB W47.1 · ISO 9001Missing on 137 of 189 - Equipment
4 kW fiber laser · 220 t press brake · 5 axis millShown on 95 of 189 - Year started
Since 1989Missing on 95 of 189 - Team size
34 peopleMissing on 184 of 189 - Small jobs
One-offs welcomeMissing on 115 of 189
How it compares
Where Toronto sits among the 23 cities
Each dot is one of the 23 cities. The dark line is all 23 cities together. Each row runs from the lowest city to the highest.
Show no ISO or CWB certification
60%85%
Name none of their equipment
34%73%
Don't say how many people work there
89%100%
Don't say when they started
33%60%
Don't say whether they take small jobs
31%77%
Close to home
Toronto and its neighbours
Mississauga 20 km · Brampton 25 km · Hamilton 65 km
| Measure | Toronto189 shops | Mississauga158 shops | Brampton82 shops | Hamilton65 shops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No certification | 73% | 73% | 70% | 75% |
| No equipment | 50% | 56% | 50% | 60% |
| No team size | 97% | 96% | 96% | 99% |
| No year founded | 50% | 54% | 56% | 48% |
How long they have been at it
94 Toronto shops say when they started
- Middle year
- 1979
- 2nd oldest of 23 cities
- Started in 2001 or earlier
- 84%
- 2nd highest of 23 cities
- Oldest year given
- 1891
The other 95 give no year. Plum: started in 2001 or earlier. Teal: since 2002.
What they show and what they do
Certifications and trades in Toronto
Certifications on their websites
| Group | Toronto | All 23 cities | Rank of 23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| None of these | 73% | 74% | tied 14th |
| ISO only | 19% | 12% | tied 3rd |
| CWB only | 6% | 12% | 19th |
| Both ISO and CWB | 3% | 3% | tied 10th |
ISO here means ISO 9001, AS9100 or ISO 13485. CWB means CWB W47.1 or W47.2. Rank 1 is the city with the biggest share.
The work they offer
| Work | Toronto | All 23 cities | Rank of 23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metal fabrication | 61% | 69% | 19th |
| Welding | 38% | 49% | tied 21st |
| Machining | 37% | 40% | 12th |
| Sheet metal, cutting and bending | 36% | 40% | 16th |
| Railings and stairs | 16% | 20% | tied 16th |
| Structural steel | 13% | 20% | 20th |
Shares of all the city's shops. A shop can do several kinds of work. Rank 1 is the city with the biggest share.
A buyer with a big order wants to know how many people will build it
Industry in Toronto
A few numbers on industry in Toronto
- 82,110manufacturing jobs in Toronto, 2025Source: City of Toronto, Toronto Employment Survey 2025
- 3,320manufacturing businesses in Toronto, 2025Source: City of Toronto, Toronto Employment Survey 2025
- $30/hrmedian machinist pay, Toronto regionSource: Job Bank, Government of Canada
From the city's page on Metal Shop Guide, each with its source.
For shop owners
In Toronto, add these three things first
In the order of the city's own gaps: what most sites here leave out first.
- 0197%of sites here don't show it
How many you are
Roughly how many people work there.
- 0273%of sites here don't show it
Your certifications, by name and standard
CWB W47.1 Division 2, ISO 9001:2015, AS9100D. Link the certificate.
- 0361%of sites here don't show it
The jobs you take
One-offs, prototypes, short runs or production only. If there's a minimum, say so.
Source
Where these numbers come from
For Toronto, Metal Shop Guide covers the City of Toronto and lists 192 shops. 189 have a website of their own, and those are the shops we read, as of October 28, 2026. “Not shown” means we didn't find it on the pages we read. A blind check of 40 shops suggests each share is a few points high.
One shop is 0.5% of the Toronto total, so small gaps can be chance.
Cite this page: Figured Media, “How Toronto's metal shops show up online”, October 2026, with data from Metal Shop Guide. https://figuredmedia.com/research/metal-shops-online-2026/toronto/
Photo credits
- Toronto, at the top: Photo by K6ka, CC BY-SA 4.0, edited (cropped)
- Shop floor, behind the quote: Photo by aluminum Zheng ji, Unsplash License, edited (cropped)
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Shop map: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census boundary files, Open Government Licence, Canada. Country map: Natural Earth, public domain.