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Ownership posts

Arguments about hosting companies rather than instructions — who owns them, what they really cost, where the marketing diverges from the invoice. The guides are the practical half.

industry

Who actually owns your web host?

6 September 2026

Four companies control a startling proportion of the hosting brands you have heard of. Here is the ownership map, and why it shows up in your support tickets.

3 min read Read

uk

What happened to Heart Internet, and what it taught UK hosting

4 August 2026

A major British host was acquired, wound down, and its customers migrated to a company founded by its own former team. The most instructive story in UK hosting.

3 min read Read

industry

Automattic: the company that is also the software

30 April 2026

One company owns WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, a managed host, and enormous influence over WordPress itself. Why that concentration matters to anyone hosting a WordPress site.

3 min read Read

industry

Newfold Digital: the roll-up that owns the hosts you were told to use

26 April 2026

Bluehost, HostGator, Network Solutions, Domain.com and Yoast sit inside one private-equity-owned group. Its business model explains a lot of "best hosting" lists.

3 min read Read

uk

iomart, and what happened to Britain's independent hosts

6 April 2026

A generation of well-loved British hosting companies was bought by one AIM-listed group. What survived independent, and why the boutique tier still exists.

3 min read Read

ownership

DigitalOcean bought Cloudways. Did anything change?

2 April 2026

A developer cloud bought the managed layer that sat on top of it. Three years on, what the acquisition did to pricing, product and the case for using it.

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