GoDaddy has acquired managed WordPress hosting company Pagely to expand the company’s expertise in hosting WooCommerce stores. Pagely, co-founded by Joshua and Sally Strebel, has been in business for 18 years, offering hosting for businesses and enterprises at the higher end of the managed hosting market.
“We will be working closely with the amazing team of WooCommerce experts from SkyVerge (previous GoDaddy acquisition) on the GoDaddy commerce team to deploy a world-class WooCommerce SaaS aimed at powersellers,” Pagely co-founder and CEO Joshua Strebel said in a post titled “We Did It.”
Strebel said Pagely received more than a dozen offers to buy the company over the years and was given the “choice of every suitor in the space.” This particular offer was the third from GoDaddy.
“We poured our heart and soul into Pagely, and PressNomics, and the market responded,” Strebel said. “First, shown by our own success and then that of all the followers that came along after. We built a company with industry-leading everything – that our employees and customers love and respect, and despite our diminutive size in comparison to the VC fueled giants, those same entities could not ignore us. And that pushed the entire channel to improve and do better, benefiting every WordPress user on the planet.”
The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. I spoke with both Pagely and GoDaddy representatives who would not elaborate on how the new WooCommerce Saas will be different from GoDaddy’s current WordPress e-commerce hosting offering. WooCommerce stores at GoDaddy start at $15.99/month and include 75 extensions and daily back-ups, among other features.
During an interview with Post Status last night, GoDaddy product manager Beka Rice said Pagely will be involved in deploying the new WooCommerce product, which she described as a “curated experience” for merchants. GoDaddy will be relying on Pagely’s infrastructure expertise to improve the company’s ability to keep WooCommerce stores running smoothly.
When asked about a potential launch date for the new WooCommerce SaaS product, Rice said the project is still in the the planning stages. They have identified the teams and are interested in learning more about scaling WooCommerce from Pagely’s enterprise customers.
Pagely co-founder and COO Sally Strebel confirmed that the company will continue sponsoring and hosting its annual Pressnomics conference, which has held six events since it began.
“Our beloved conference, Pressnomics, may look a little different going forward, and will remain a Pagely hosted event with the same mission as always: to elevate and connect business owners in the WordPress ecosystem,” Strebel said.
This founder sounds really smart and intelligent. I learned a few things. 10/10 would recommend. Good post.