Episode 611 WordPress Hosting, Trust, and Security, Rocket.net With Jessica Frick
Show Highlights
The source provides excerpts from The SDM Show podcast, hosted by Rob Cairns, featuring a conversation with Jess Frick of Rocket.net about the web hosting industry. The discussion covers the significant financial requirements for running a hosting company, often involving private equity or VC funding, as well as the importance of trust and support in a good hosting partnership. Cairns and Frick specifically address security measures, mentioning the complexities introduced by AI and the value of having comprehensive, non-tiered security, while also touching upon e-commerce scalability and the preference for using dedicated providers for email and domain registration.
Show Notes
Key Discussion Points
- The Financial Reality of Hosting: Discussed the significant financial requirements for hosting companies due to infrastructure and server costs, leading many to seek funding from equity firms or strategic partnerships.
- Rocket’s Partnership with Hosting.com: Jess addresses the common concern around hosting partnerships going “badly,” emphasizing that Rocket’s new relationship with Hosting.com is a true partnership. It provides a more comprehensive product portfolio and additional resources while maintaining Rocket’s autonomy and high level of customer care.
- Hosting as a Spreadsheet: The hosts noted the danger of private equity turning hosting companies into “big spreadsheets” where the focus shifts to squeezing the bottom line, often resulting in crappier service, price changes, or a reduction in customer trust.
- The Importance of Trust in Hosting:
- Rob highlighted that the freedom to move a website (especially with open-source platforms like WordPress) makes trust crucial for hosting companies.
- Rob’s rule: Never host and register a domain with the same company to spread risk.
- The Support Difference at Rocket:
- Jess proudly stated that Rocket doesn’t have a scope of support, meaning they go above and beyond basic fixes, even assisting with plugin issues rather than just sending users away to the plugin creator. This dedication is key to building and maintaining trust.
- The Partner vs. Vendor Relationship:
- Rob argues that a hosting company should be viewed as a partner in business, not just a vendor, emphasizing how they communicate, listen, and manage workflow.
- Jess agrees, noting that Rocket’s customer base often consists of phenomenally smart people who seek a partnership to avoid the complexities of running their own stack.
- Security is Not Tiered:
- Rocket does not offer tiered security (“secure-ish for less money”). Security is included for all customers because, as Jess states, “Either you’re secure or you’re not.”
- This contrasts with hosts that upsell security plugins to increase revenue per customer.
- The Challenge of AI in Security: The hosts discussed how AI is complicating security by being used by hackers to find vulnerabilities faster, reducing the time from vulnerability release to active exploitation from weeks/months to hours/minutes. They also noted how users are introducing unstable code via “vibe coding” (using tools like ChatGPT to write code).
- Performance and Secret Sauce:
- Rocket includes Cloudflare Enterprise for all customers (regardless of site count) and other optimizations like Object Cache Pro and WP Rocket.
- The “secret sauce” is the team, which was built by hosting professionals and industry veterans who knew there were better ways to build a hosting business.
- Scalability for E-commerce (Black Friday/Retail Season):
- Rob asked about scaling options for high-traffic events like Black Friday.
- Jess explained that Rocket’s approach is to simply provide what customers need right off the bat, often offering an unlimited amount of workers (on dedicated plans, or based on availability on shared plans) rather than relying on confusing sliders or complex auto-scaling billing.
- Shared vs. Dedicated Hosting: Jess and Rob agreed that the industry over-complicates terminology. Hosting is fundamentally shared or dedicated, and people shouldn’t fear shared hosting due to a false sense of vulnerability.
- Email Hosting: Jess and Rob both personally recommend using a dedicated email provider (like Google, Microsoft, Fastmail, etc.) separate from the web host, due to the complexity and support nightmare email adds, even though Rocket’s parent company, Hosting.com, does offer it.
Find Out More
- Learn more about Rocket at: Rocket.net
- Jess encourages listeners to open a chat and ask a hard question to test their 24/7 support!
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