Why Rocket.net Will NEVER Be Commodity Hosting

Feb 16, 2023
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7 min read

Commodities are the building blocks of our economy. Of any economy. Since Biblical times, everything from wheat, spices, salt, and rice has formed the basis of trade and the backbone of economies. Thousands of years ago, commodities-backed clay tablets allowed the first form of monetary exchange.

Necessary things commodities, yes, but exciting? Unique? Hardly. Cars are commodities, but Lambos? Not yet. Looking at today’s commodities markets you might wonder what keeps traders awake: soybeans, pork bellies, copper, coffee … okay we can get behind coffee!

“A commodity is a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type.”
Inves t opedia

What Do Commodities Have to Do with Tech?

Karl Marx said of commodities, that they “appear at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing.” That’s the problem with commodities. When there are so many of them, the item itself loses its shine. In our global economy, that’s sort of where we are today.

You can connect your $200 headphones to your laptop just as easily as the free ones you got with your phone. In fact, you probably have a drawer full of headphones, flash drives, and other sundry items, right? All are pretty much interchangeable with one another. Unless you’re trying to stuff an iPhone USB into an Android device.

Commodification has made most items easily available around the globe while at the same time lowering their price. In doing so, the “value” we place on many items has decreased.

It wasn’t too long ago that a pen was something you refilled and kept for life. Now you can get a pen almost anywhere for free. Remember when a 64 MB flash drive used to cost good money? Now they are given away at conferences.

Even information has become a commodity item: free ebooks, free courses, free templates, and free content management software.

“Create a free website today. WordPress.com includes everything you need to start your website today. Free WordPress.com subdomain. Powerful website hosting. Dozens of free themes.”
WordPress

Is a Commodity Item Good or Bad for Your Tech Business?

Tech is full of products that are available around the globe. You could frown and call them commodities. Hardware, software, and services have in most cases become relatively inexpensive, widely available, and more or less interchangeable with similar items. How can you differentiate between your product and your competitors?

Why Commodity Items are Good for Tech

The more people that have access to tech is a good thing. The upside to reducing prices and encouraging interchangeability is that tech becomes accessible. As Tim Berners-Lee famously said, 30 years ago, the internet “is for everyone.”

That may be good for your business. If you can get your product into the hands of more people faster than your competition and still make a profit.

It can be good for your business too if you differentiate yourself from other companies. Like Apple. Android and PC tech are almost completely interchangeable, while Apple items only work with Apple items. That gives them a more expensive and unique niche and explains why you can buy Android phones and accessories from any train station kiosk in the world but have to stand in line outside an Apple store.

Why Commodity Items are Bad for Tech

KFC fries its chicken like so many other restaurants. It’s not any more expensive either. They have a “secret recipe of spices;” however, that keeps people coming back. KFC tastes the same in Japan as it does in Kansas. That keeps people happy because there is no surprise. There is comfort in consistency.

A commodity can be purchased pretty much anywhere, and there isn’t much difference between them. Like web hosting. If you want to compete with a commodity item, the only way you can do that is with a lower price. Or with amazing branding.

There are more than 300,000 web hosting companies around the globe. 21% of the world’s websites are hosted in the U.S. and 20% of those are hosted by GoDaddy. (webtribunal.net)

There are a few basic types of hosting available, but without breaking down the numbers it’s pretty clear that 300,000 split four ways mean that some companies will be offering the same type of hosting:

Shared Hosting
VPS Hosting
Cloud Hosting
Dedicated Hosting

You could add Reseller Hosting and WordPress Hosting to the list too.

Now If 50,000 companies offer Shared Hosting, then there’s probably going to be a lot of similarity between their products. In order to compete you bring down your price, which means your service may suffer.

Some shared hosting companies in Europe currently offer the first year of website hosting for €1 a month. That’s $13 a year for website hosting, domain name, SSL certificate, emails, CMS installation, backups, and updates.

For us, this is where the problem starts.

Why Hosting Shouldn’t be a Commodity Item

If you aren’t wanting to have your website on shared hosting, you decide on dedicated hosting. Why? Because you don’t want your amazing website mixed up on a server alongside someone else’s crummy website.

Good web hosting is at the heart of any good, successful website. Whether you use a CMS like WordPress or develop your own website, you need web space to make your site accessible on the Internet.

Finding good web hosting is unfortunately not always easy. There are too many providers. Some don’t have all the necessary features you need, some are too expensive for the support they offer, while others run websites on slow and cluttered servers.

The quality of providers is not always the best because web space has become a mass business – it’s become a commodity item. There are too many providers trying to accommodate as many customers as possible on one server. The result in many cases: is slow loading websites, too many customers sharing the same server, or server failures where your site is not accessible at all.

Rocket.net will never be a commodity hosting provider. Period.

What 6 Factors are the Most Important When Choosing a Web Host?

Rocket.net was built differently than most web hosts. Why? We’ve seen a lot in our twenty years in the business. We launched Rocket.net to fix hosting issues and to set the standard for the hosting industry. We’ve set out to create the world’s fastest WordPress hosting because we understand the impact speed has on your website’s performance and the success of your business.

“At the end of the day, your satisfaction with your website hosting is about more than you having a good customer experience. It’s about customer delight. We want you to be as excited about your hosting as we are. Customer benefits are why leading agencies and online businesses choose us as their trusted WordPress provider.”

Web hosting consideration 1: Performance and Security

Performance and security are probably the two most important words when you think about your website. The faster your website content is delivered, the less time the browser needs to load the layout. Faster loading times make for happier visitors. Whether it be a hosting package, your own server, or a cloud solution: security plays a major role in web hosting.

Rocket.net’s WordPress servers are strategically placed in various locations worldwide through our partnership with Cloudflare. Controlling the end-to-end delivery also allows us to enhance security far beyond the Cloudflare Enterprise WAF.

Our network is greater than 275+ edge locations strong, giving your site faster speed and enhanced security. With our speed and security problems solved, we can focus on bettering our customers day to day experience with their business.

Web hosting consideration 2: Customer Support

If there are ever problems with your website, nothing is more important than fast and competent support. Support turnaround needs to be measured in minutes. You shouldn’t have to place a support ticket and wait 24 hours to get your issue resolved while you watch your sales decline.

At Rocket, support tickets are often answered as quickly in our live chat. We’ve even offered support via Slack and other channels – whichever is the most convenient way for our customers.

Web hosting consideration 3: Free Migrations

“Free.” Others say it with a catch. Whether you have 1 or 1,000 websites, we provide unlimited free WordPress migrations with every package from any hosting provider.

Moving a site is much easier than you think. In fact, we guarantee that we can move your site 1:1 to its exact condition on your current host. You’ll see an immediate improvement in performance and security and there are no configuration changes or plugins required!

Web hosting consideration 4: Pricing Transparency

Tempted to switch hosting because of that ‘special’ pricing? Don’t get caught in the trap of hidden upsells and renewal tactics. You may have chosen a host for their cheap price, but what does that hide?

If you need an extra database outside your hosting contract, it can cost you more than the contract! Didn’t see that not all your domains are covered by the SSL certificate? That can cost you too.

We’re upfront about our charges. In fact, we’re ready to give away things for free that others charge you for. Example: Redis.

Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, message broker, and streaming engine. It can make your website faster.

Some Managed WordPress providers do charge to implement Redis for WordPress sites. Kinsta, for example, charges $100 per month per site to use a Redis data store.

Rocket.net doesn’t charge for Redis. In fact, our promise is that there are No Hidden Upsells or Higher Annual Hosting Renewal Pricing. Rocket.net pricing never changes. We don’t add extra costs for features that should be free, either. Rocket offers transparent pricing that won’t go up in the future.

Web hosting consideration 5: Innovation

You expect your host to be on top of what’s happening in the industry. It’s important that they’re introducing new features and getting as excited about websites as you are. It’s important that they’re innovative.

Innovative, when it comes to serving customers, and innovative when it comes to managing something abstract like a server.

At Rocket.net, we like to consider ourselves the leaders in innovation in our industry. We were the first company to ever take an Edge-first approach to managed WordPress Hosting and delivery and others are quickly following suit. Check out our track record:

Web hosting consideration 6: Hosting with Benefits

Other web host providers offer great support, fast websites, excellent security, and some free stuff. We offer web hosting with benefits.

One example? We eliminate the need for extra plugins on your WordPress website. Really!

Plugin bloat is still a thing. We’re trying to optimize everything, but that’s like bailing out your boat in the rain.

We can help your security and performance issues by eliminating plugins. That’s right. Less plugins, more results. We optimize your images, secure your website, and include a free WordPress Activity log. Free. That’s hosting with benefits.

Talk Is Cheap. Let Rocket Show You What The Fastest WordPress Hosting REALLY Means!

Unhappy with the speed of your WordPress website? Let’s talk about how we can migrate your site to Rocket.net, the fastest WordPress hosting available anywhere.

Our team of experts is standing by. Most website owners have switched hosting providers multiple times over the history of their site. We’re confident that you won’t look back once you make the switch to Rocket.net.

The best customer support 24/7, super fast speed, ease of use, and access to top tools and industry-leading resources should always come standard. We’re revolutionizing the way your WordPress site gets served up to the world, and we look forward to partnering with you in growing your business.

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