Artificial Intelligence held center stage at CloudFest 2025, but a lot of the talk in the VIP lounge was about an arguably more important topic – the stark choice facing hosting companies: evolve or die.
OK – that may be a touch dramatic, but the truth remains that customer expectations are evolving so quickly that hosters who stand still will quickly be left behind.
One major player put it like this: “We need to flip the way we’re building our product catalogues. We used to start with the engineering and hardware, then add features on top of that.
“Now we have to start with the end experience that we want to give customers and work back from there. It’s an entirely new approach.”
So, how are businesses meeting these new demands, and is collaboration the key to success?
The rise of the one-stop shop
Customers expect increasing levels of digital integration, both in their day-to-day life and in their digital business solutions, including hosting and cloud services.
Major players (think Shopify, Zoho, GoDaddy and many more) have reshaped the market by creating platforms that address multiple customer needs in one place.
Providers are struggling with the choice between building additional services themselves or buying them in.
“Many of the hosting companies, especially the bigger ones, are transforming into software-as-a-service businesses,” commented another industry insider.
“A mind shift is needed. Web hosting of a decade ago will soon be unrecognisable. It’s becoming all about customer experience – but you can’t build everything yourself. Even the bigger guys are partnering with other services.”
The role of AI
AI will undoubtedly play a key role in this new generation of web hosting services, both as a front-end service and a back-end tool. And a key differentiator for tomorrow’s winning hosters will be how they use it to meet the needs of the verticals they serve.
Email, website design and build, invoicing, payments and e-commerce are all likely to be part of these AI-driven one-stop shops – and those who can tailor services to specific sectors will win competitive advantage.
Realtime Register embraces evolution
One business that has chosen to expand its offer to meet customer needs is Realtime Register. Principally known for domain names and SSL certificates, it recently announced that it would expand its vendor portfolio.
“Today’s end customers expect more comprehensive, immediate and high-quality solutions,” said Martijn Kamphuis, Director of Vendor Strategy.
“This shift makes it more practical to purchase ready-made, reliable solutions and only incur costs when revenue is already being generated.
“This model is exactly what Realtime Register has successfully implemented with domains, SSL certificates and Plesk licenses, and it’s what we’re now expanding to a much broader range of offerings in categories such as domains, web presence, security, continuity, and server management.”
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