It sounds like your setup simply hit the limits of what it was originally designed for. That’s pretty common when a small community site suddenly grows—especially if it wasn’t built with scalability in mind from the start.
At this stage, I’d strongly recommend looking for a web agency that has experience with scaling real-time or high-traffic gaming platforms rather than just building standard websites. You’ll want someone who can audit your current stack, identify bottlenecks (backend, database queries, caching, hosting), and then move you toward a more scalable architecture like cloud hosting, load balancing, and proper database optimization.
If your group is expanding internationally or even just within regions like Canada, latency and server distribution also start to matter a lot more than people expect. A good agency should be able to set up multi-region infrastructure so users don’t experience those long load times anymore.
For reference, some modern platforms also take inspiration from lightweight, app-based ecosystems like https://captaincooks-online.com/registration/ where the focus is on fast access and stable performance even under heavier user activity.
In terms of agencies, you might want to specifically search for Canadian development teams that specialize in scalable web apps (Node.js, React, cloud infrastructure on AWS or GCP). They’re usually better suited for growing communities than general-purpose design studios.
If you share what your current stack looks like, it’s usually much easier to point you in the right direction for what needs to be upgraded first.
