WordPress Usage. I was watching an interesting presentation about world-wide WordPress usage and the presenter, Alex Shiels of Automattic, showed a slide (at 9:26) listing the top hosting companies that host WordPress sites. Alex stated that this chart basically showed the top 10 hosting companies today. A video of his presentation is at the bottom of this page.
WordPress.com Insignificant? What surprised me even more about the data in Alex’s presentation is that WordPress.com was showing up as insignificant in the data. The serious flaw of WordPress is that it’s complicated for beginning users to safely manage without a lot of help. Where WordPress really shines is under WordPress.com hosting. The security and update issues are taken care of. So, beginning users can focus on their website and not worry about plug-in compatibility, PHP memory settings, and security updates. I’m surprised more people don’t use and recommend the WordPress.com hosting platform for WordPress.
Network Solutions Not Hosting WordPress? I was surprised that Network Solutions wasn’t listed in the presentation slide mentioned above. It is certainly among the top 10. There was a mysterious 36% other category in his chart. Was this a way to keep Network Solutions from being listed on the slide? I’d like to know what comprises those other 36%. I wondered if there might still be some remaining animosity over the misunderstanding two years ago between Network Solutions and the WordPress community.
Top Website Host Rankings. I really wondered if Network Solutions has really slipped in the rankings. If so, why. I checked and discovered that some of the websites out there claiming to list the “top hosting companies” don’t list Network Solutions. Perhaps this is because the affiliate links they use pay better for the other companies. These lists are all different. Nobody really states what criteria is used to rank the top website hosting companies. Is it number of websites hosted? Lowest price? Best service? Most pages served per month? It would be nice to see this data.
When Hosting Companies Aren’t. Many hosting companies are simply brokering with a top-tier company like Network Solutions and then reselling their hosting services under their own brand. They may offer some value added services such as better support or easier installations.
If anyone has answers to the above questions or feedback regarding the statements above, please contact me.
Greg Johnson
Director, ResourcesForLife.com
Exchanges. Below are some exchanges relating to the above question.
- @resources4life to @tellyworth (Alex Shiels) – Wondering why Network Solutions isn’t mentioned among top hosting companies in your presentation https://resourcesforlife.com/docs/item5646
- @tellyworth (Alex Shiels) to @resources4life “host” is ambiguous; it may be than some of the retail hosts we detected are themselves on NetSol.
- @resources4life to @tellyworth (Alex Shiels) – That makes sense. Many host with Network Solutions and resell. Do you have a list of the other 36% of hosts that I could see?
Video. Below is a video of the presentation mentioned above.