Shared hosting has always been rooted in one core idea: to offer a low-cost, user-friendly solution for hosting websites, accessible even to those with minimal technical expertise. This simple yet revolutionary concept laid the foundation for the early 2000s web hosting industry and introduced millions of users to the internet. But as we step into 2024, shared hosting has seemingly reached a stagnation point. Why has it failed to evolve meaningfully, and why are so many industry leaders predicting its decline?

The early days: a unified standard

Shared hosting, in its earliest form, was simplicity at its finest. Hosting companies built their offerings around tools like cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin. These solutions worked, they were accessible, and they quickly became the standard for the industry. Even companies with proprietary control panels eventually aligned themselves with these systems, either by design or necessity. This created a sense of consistency that customers came to expect.

But this standard wasn’t built for eternity. It was built for the world of the early 2000s—a time when the web itself was in its infancy. Now, nearly two decades later, the definition of shared hosting is trapped in that era. What was innovative then is archaic now. And yet, we’re still clinging to it.

Stagnation: the lack of integration

From day one, shared hosting has struggled with a fundamental issue: products were built in silos, and no one cared enough to make them work together. Certificates like SSL had to be verified manually through DNS or email, a cumbersome process for any user. Control panels didn’t even include basic tools for website creation. The most essential task—setting up a website—was left to external vendors who had to patch the gaps software/hosting companies ignored.

And while hosting providers started introducing add-ons like SEO tools or SaaS solutions for eCommerce, they were never truly integrated. Everything was separate. You had your hosting account in one place, your SEO tool in another, and your PPC analytics, traffic, performance in yet another. Nothing worked as one coherent solution.

This problem still exists. Shared hosting remains fragmented, disjointed, and overly complex for anyone who isn’t deeply familiar with the industry. Even worse, upgrading to a VPS or cloud solution—a natural progression for many users—is still a nightmare. Migrations require technical expertise, manual work, and often additional costs. It’s a failure of the very companies that were supposed to make things easier.

Why hasn’t shared hosting evolved?

The truth is that hosting companies have made excuses for decades. Evolving shared hosting is “too complicated” from a technical standpoint. Companies license third-party control panels and billing systems, expecting these vendors to drive innovation. But that never happenned. Instead, the products stagnate while hosting companies focus on squeezing more revenue out of customers.

At the same time, many C-level executives in the hosting industry are disconnected from reality. They focus on financial reports and growth metrics but have no idea how their products actually work—or how their customers are using them. The hosting industry has become a machine that prioritizes profit over progress, and it shows.

The first revolution in hosting

I remember the first real shift in hosting. It came with the introduction of 1-click installers for applications like WordPress. Suddenly, customers weren’t just buying hosting—they were buying the ability to build websites quickly and easily. It was revolutionary at the time, but it took years for most hosting companies to recognize this change.

The smartest players in the industry, like WP Engine, capitalized on this shift early. They saw that users wanted more than infrastructure; they wanted solutions. WP Engine built a business around WordPress and catered to its community with laser focus. Their success wasn’t a coincidence. It was the result of understanding what customers needed before anyone else did.

The myth of “websites are dead”

There was a time when people said websites were becoming obsolete. Social media platforms like Facebook and Google Business Profiles seemed to offer everything small businesses needed. Why bother with a website when you could just create a Facebook page or a Google listing?

And yet, here we are, a decade later, and websites are more relevant than ever. Shared hosting survived this period of doubt, but it didn’t thrive. Hosting companies missed the opportunity to adapt their services to meet the needs of modern website owners. Instead, they stood still while the world moved forward.

An industry stuck in time

For nearly 20 years in the hosting industry, I’ve had the persistent impression that while the entire tech world has evolved, hosting companies have stayed the same. They might add more services (because prices can’t be raised endlessly), but they fail to offer something fundamental—a solution, an ecosystem.

The real innovation has come from communities like WordPress, which revolutionized website building and captured the hearts of millions. Meanwhile, hosting companies have done little more than complain that WordPress hasn’t made things “easier.”

But what have hosting providers done to address these issues? Nothing. For years, cPanel, Plesk, and others have offered the same tools with minor tweaks. Even something as basic as website traffic analysis still relies on outdated tools like AWStats. How can a multi-billion-dollar industry not replace a relic like AWStats with something modern and insightful?

Is shared hosting really dying?

A few months ago, I spoke with the CTO of a large hosting group. He told me that shared hosting was dying and that platforms like Wix and Squarespace were the future. I almost laughed.

If shared hosting is dying, why is M&A activity in the hosting industry stronger than ever? Companies are spending hundreds of millions of euros to acquire shared hosting businesses. If this model is truly on its last legs, why is there such a rush to buy into it?

The truth is that shared hosting isn’t dying. It’s just asleep. The hosting industry has become lazy, relying on outdated models and incremental price increases to survive.

Wake up or get left behind

The hosting industry is at a crossroads. Either it wakes up and starts innovating, or it will be left behind by startups that understand the market better.

Customers don’t want fragmented solutions. They want simplicity. They want to manage their website’s performance, traffic, SEO, security, and resource usage in one place. They want tools that work together seamlessly, not a patchwork of disconnected services.

And here’s the hard truth: this isn’t rocket science. Startups with far fewer resources have already begun to deliver these solutions. The only thing stopping hosting companies from doing the same is their own complacency.

The question isn’t whether shared hosting will survive. It will. The question is: who will step up to lead the industry into the future? Because if the hosting giants won’t do it, someone else will. And when that happens, they’ll only have themselves to blame.