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We have studied renowned reviews of web technologies, conducted our research and were almost not surprised. 60% of all websites in the world run on CMS, including 50% of them on WordPress. And it keeps growing at a faster rate than other CMSes.
Some providers have already recognized the potential of WordPress and learned how to give what most modern users expect – service. Now these providers drive the WordPress market to get more and more people to use this CMS. Pavel Syrovatsky, Head of Business Development, has explained at our meeting in Moscow what other providers should do to keep up with this trend and how Vepp Platform can contribute to their success. This article contains the essence of these tips.
Trends and statistics of the global hosting market
Nowadays any business wants to be online. Websites are growing fast, and it is good news for all.
Number of active websites
What are these websites running on? Statistics show that most of them are CMS-based. Even the most hardcore developers nowadays use ready-to-go solutions: both freelancers and studios.
Share of CMS-based websites
WordPress is the No.1 CMS in the world
WordPress now accounts for over 60% CMS-websites, while the share of its competition is insignificant.
Market shares of CMS
One in three websites in the world is running on WordPress, and this CMS continues to grow faster than any other does – by almost 3% per year.
To learn more, we have created our own service and scanned 250 million domains around the world. We chose active websites, with an IP address and an index page – which totaled at 159 mln.
VPS or shared hosting
We were curious to see where the majority of WordPress websites are hosted: VPS or shared hosting. VPS won by a significant margin.
WordPress top providers
How many WordPress websites do large hosting providers have? We have looked at the world's top ten.
It seems that the world's biggest players have long understood that WP is what they can do business on. Thanks to new plugins, themes and web page builders, WordPress is becoming ever more user-friendly, therefore growing and attracting customers to hosting providers. Especially when providers offer users a convenient service, but more about it below.
WordPress summary
For us, these numbers have become a reason to consider what actions are required to keep up with the global trend.
WordPress – is everything that optimistic?
WordPress itself certainly does not have any problems, but hosting providers that promote it might. Because modern WordPress + VPS users are different from those, with whom providers are used to working. They need a different approach.
The growing audience of WordPress+VPS is not new to website creation. Imagine a new businessman type:
2.Or he has delegated creation of the website elsewhere. Thus, either he has chosen CMS and VPS – thanks to knowing their pros and cons, or the performer has imposed such decision – then our hypothetical businessman simply has to stop being the beginner.
The hosting provider, fortunately, has nothing to do with it. However, it is involved in a different aspect – administration. And here our character is an absolute beginner with no time or intention to delve into matters deep.
New users do not know how to administer and do not like complicated matters
A developer is not necessarily skilled in administration, while a businessman without skills in development – all the more so. If it is a big businessman, he will delegate the administration to someone, if it is a small businessman, he will deal with it himself or will assign this task to someone inside the company: to a developer or marketer, after all, they are the ones dealing with the website.
Then a businessman, blogger, developer or marketer will need a simple tool to manage the website. Because the modern user from generation Z does not like complexity and values his time, he is not ready to become also an admin. We know that from the Vepp support team: most of the issues they face are not technical.
There are many complicated matters in hosting
Complexities in tariffs
Not every developer will be able to easily figure out what these complicated tariffs mean: be that an executive developing his own website, or a freelancer. How much RAM do you need? What will be the project demand: high load or on the contrary? Frequently they are completely unaware.
Complexities in the control panel
“WWW domains, email domains, domain names – isn’t that just great, I have no idea about the difference among all these” – and this is before the user has even opened the complete menu. Tabular view is convenient for the admin, who understands what each item means. But not for a beginner in website management.
Complexities in the documentation
For next generation users, even well-structured documentation in plain language is too much. Good support or built-in onboarding is what they expect.
Who has it all figured out and easy?
First of all, website builders are a concern: Wix, Tilda, Squarespace. Although their market share is currently small, they are actively growing.
Why do people choose website builders and who chooses them? First of all, these are beginners in website creation, because it is much easier to make a website in a builder than to create a CMS-based website. You do not even have to choose hosting, because the choice has already been made for you in favor of shared hosting.
The second advantage of website builders is that managing a website in them is convenient. The interface is simple and intuitive. No unnecessary admin’s features – exactly what a WordPress hosting lacks. For a regular hosting...
Because there is also an unusual hosting type – Managed WordPress services: WP Engine, Kinsta, Flywheel. These providers specialize in WP hosting and offer quality service. Support is provided by WordPress experts – they help not only to manage the server, but also the website. They monitor speed, uptime, backups or give tools to the user. Many managed WordPress services also provide tools for development teams: staging environment, access levels, website cloning.
The interface is simple and intuitive too, without any unnecessary details. Managing the website and the server is a sheer pleasure.
The result of managed WP services is huge growth and apparently satisfied users.
Conclusion. WordPress + service = gold mine
According to the research Digital Trends 2019 by Adobe and Econsultancy, modern users understand what a good customer service is worth.
Here’s what users expect from a hosting:
- choose the product with ease
- install and start working with the website quickly
- get prompt updates
- be able to update content quickly
- convenient website and server management tools
- support of WP experts
- uptime monitoring
- malware protection
- resources scaling
- 24/7/365 support
The right column indicates commodity – items provided by the hosting by default, no use competing in this area. The left column indicates service – items hosting providers do not normally have and something you can build strong value on.
At present, the audience of WP+VPS is large and actively growing. They appreciate the ease of website management and are willing to pay for the service. If you tell them about the shortcomings of website builders and offer the same excellent service as Managed WP – newcomers will be yours.
Some hosting providers have already recognized these trends and started to change. In particular, Namecheap became a managed service rather than a regular hosting provider. Also, GoDaddy is featuring hosting for WordPress: without unnecessary figures and pileup of tariffs. Here is the solution – start working now.
How Vepp Platform helps providers
Our task is to provide hosting providers with a solution that:
- uses the potential of WordPress growth,
- helps in competing with Wix, Tilda and Managed WP services,
- uses the opportunities for upsale from shared hosting to VPS,
- solves tasks in a simple interface with excellent user flow,
- enables the provider to earn more.
It is impossible to combine everything you need in ISPmanager: it is a great panel for admins, but not for the new WP+VPS audience. This is confirmed by clients who left ISPmanager in a month. Such people told us that they were not able to learn to use the panel, while the documentation and support answers did not help them, being too difficult. Therefore, we developed the Vepp Platform.
Key functionality of Vepp
Today's user often does not differentiate the concepts of server and server control panel. All of this together he calls hosting. In order not avoid complicating matters, having to provide extensive explanations or wearing out your clients, we suggest to promote it as a single service.
With this service, you can quickly import your website and manage it in a simple interface. Vepp makes many basic settings automatically: For example, it installs and renews a free SSL certificate. It is important that having created a website, a client does not leave the panel or the hosting – for this purpose, we have already provided integration with Google Analytics, a mobile version of dashboard, and monitoring of the website availability.
Why do clients choose Vepp Platform
Marketing. Helps to make the best proposition for the client.
- a new simple solution for “non-admins”
- a marginal service with tariff plans (possibly, managed)
- an upsale from shared hosting to VPS
LTV growth
- Vepp helps to retain client. It is easy to reject a software license, but more complicated in case of a service
- cross-sales: SSL, domains, extension of VRS resources directly from Vepp
Reduction of costs
- easier to support, because the software is always up-to-date, rather than a set of uncoordinated versions
- simple interface, thoroughly developed user flow means fewer technical support queries
Upcoming developments
In Q2
- Firewall
- VPS resources monitoring
- WordPress caching tools
Second half of the year
- Multi-user support
- Staging environment for website development
- Website cloning
Long-term perspective
- Vepp Platform as a unified ecosystem, including solutions for shared hosting and VPS.
What do you need to do in 2020 to grow your hosting business
- Use the potential of WordPress
- Make sure to invest efforts into promoting VPS for WordPress
- Package your sales into services
- Make user's life easier