Should Hosting Companies Own WordPress Products?

It’s been an emotional week for Liquid Web customers and former employees of StellarWP products.

It’s never a good thing when a big company slowly blends one of your favorite products into its own larger brand. It’s doubly awkward when the company does it after a years-long bout of downsizing the workforce behind those products.

The Repository reported on the botched rollout, highlighting an abundance of voices in opposition to the rebrand. Redditors also pointed out the poor decision to add a new top-level admin menu for Liquid Web.

Letting staff go, mixed with a choppy-at-best rebrand, isn’t boding too well for a company that acquired some of the top talent and brands in the WordPress space. Which leads me to ask the question: should hosting companies own WordPress products?

Allow me to arm you with some cliff notes before you hit play.

Why are we surprised about private equity — or any big business decision — at this point?

This is a lesson as old as time.

In 2026, heck, even in 2021 when most of these acquisitions were happening, we know the typical outcome. A founder sells their business to a bigger brand, and the clock starts ticking.

It’s an alarm clock that would be buzzing in your own business, too. Chances are, if you acquired something that wasn’t part of the core operating principle of your business, you’d look at it in a few ways:

1. Can I cross-sell these acquired customers into our other product?
2. Will this product or team help augment our existing offering?
3. Is this just a bet to build a client acquisition channel?

There are other complex decisions being made for a private equity company, but I’d wager anyone operating a “normal business” would be thinking along those same lines.

Liquid Web gave that bet 5+ years in the batter’s box.

That’s a long time for a company with that size and that playbook to bet on a suite of WordPress products which probably pale in comparison to their core hosting offering. The message I keep seeing muddied in the social feeds is that the products are dead. They aren’t. They are still available for sale.

So, they didn’t kill the products. They have renewed life, but for how long?

The founders sold these businesses

The pivotal moment in this cycle is when the founders of those products sold their companies. Remember what I said above: we’ve seen this rodeo before, many times. It is absolutely no surprise to me what happened here, especially for a WordPress plugin.

I wasn’t in the room when the deals were made, nor am I privy to the details, but the founders made the choices they made, which led us to this point. As someone who has tried to launch products and operate businesses for most of my professional career, kudos to them for the exit. It’s an achievement to build something that customers love and that another brand would want to acquire.

But let’s not act surprised when the big brand does the big brand thing.

Would these plugins be in business today?

Which leads me to a third thinking point, and please listen to the whole episode for more context: would these plugins have lasted five more years if the founders had decided not to sell?

If you’re thinking in business terms, you want to grow your business to become attractive to a new suitor: good market share, good positioning, a good customer database, good systems, good finances, and hopefully good profits. Then you find the right buyer at the right time. Does the market demand it?

If you’re thinking, “Damn, I’m tired of running this thing. It’s hard, and we barely make a profit,” then you try to find what helps create runway for you, your business, and your team. Companies in distress can find an exit to alleviate operational pressure in exchange for a percentage of ownership. While the founders don’t get the TechCrunch exit they dreamed of, at least the business carries on.

With those two scenarios as the backdrop, ask again: would these WordPress products still be in business today?

They sold at the right time, post-COVID and post-WordPress boom. And they sold at the right time because if they were fledgling, or if the founders were mentally done, going through a post-Automattic vs. WP Engine world mixed with AI would not have been any better.

Will WordPress products owned by hosting companies survive?

There’s a new clock ticking for the once-branded StellarWP products. There are also real humans on the other side trying to make it work for their own livelihood.

When it comes to AI, hosting companies face similar challenges as you and I. They will incur more costs because of it, and they’ll face more competition because of it. I don’t know how WordPress themes and plugins play a role in that, but it won’t be easy.

Listen to the entire episode for more.