After we reported on WordPress managed host NodeKi going out of business, both former customers and the WordPress community were left wondering what happened behind the scenes.
The Tavern was then contacted by the company who purchased NodeKi’s paying customers. Jonathan VanSchaack, director of the web division of Remly Communications, offered to fill us in on some of the details behind what happened to NodeKi’s customers before the collapse of the company. He said:
We had the opportunity to purchase NodeKi clients that were actively paying. We did express some interest in the Lifetime clients but we chose not to as any business plan that relies on 0 revenue long term is due to fail. That being said we sent our own letter out to the paying customers of NodeKi letting them know we will be migrating them to our servers in the long term but also keeping their servers active. We felt we could provide superior services along with great support to those clients.
VanSchaack said that he purchased the customers directly from NodeKi and not the InterQuad holding company. As Remly has been in business for 11 years and offers managed hosting for WordPress and other CMS platforms, they felt that it was a great fit. “Remly purchased the clients for expansion,” he said. “We are in a growth area of our business now that we feel infrastructure is at a very stable point.”
When asked how he became aware that NodeKi was wanting to sell off all of its customers, VanSchaack said that he was informed of the sale opportunity by a broker:
The current owner was looking for a home for the customers that would give similar support and offerings. To be honest his asking price was far below market value. As in my opinion, he was trying to find the right place for the customers he could move. We looked at the lifetime clients but did not feel they fit into our business plan.
An Offer For Displaced Lifetime Customers
Remly Hosting is offering a three month free trial matching the top lifetime plan NodeKi offered for those customer who have been displaced. This includes migration services for cPanel to cPanel transfers. VanSchaack has already been in contact with the owner and says that he is willing to give access to client accounts where permission is given by the customer. The plan includes a comparable set of resources previously provided by NodeKi, in terms of disk space, bandwidth, databases, additional domains.
After the three months, former NodeKi customers can elect to break away from the hosting or transition to one of Remly’s paid Managed WordPress plans starting at $12.95 a month. VanSchaack said, “Our goal is to help customers that might be having issues on such a short notice but also show them our services are the same if not better than NodeKi and to stick with us long term.” Any NodeKi customers who are interested can email sales@remly.com or open a support ticket under the NodeKi account and Remly will get involved.
The lesson to consumers here is that no lifetime plan is ever guaranteed to last a lifetime, and may not even be available for the lifetime of the company. Customers can be bought and sold at any time. When you’re looking for a WordPress host, it’s good to do a little background research into the stability of the company, especially if it is new and offering deals that might seem too good to be true.
Looks as though the outcome has been better than first thought and lessons learnt by the rest of us…
“…no lifetime plan is ever guaranteed to last a lifetime, and may not even be available for the lifetime of the company. ”
Thanks for the update on the story Sarah.