Before the first coffee was poured at Contributor Day, the biggest news in hosting broke worldwide: Rocket.net and Hosting.com (WHG) announced a new partnership that reshapes the WordPress hosting landscape.
You might have read the news first here at WebHosting.Today, or caught our exclusive YouTube interview that launched at the very same time. Either way, it was the announcement everyone was buzzing about as WordCamp US got underway.
The deal has been quietly taking shape over the past few months. Industry watchers noticed early signs, most notably when Jessica Frick made her move from Pressable to Rocket.net. A cryptic tweet from Rocket CEO Ben Gabler only fueled speculation in the days leading up to WordCamp US.
The announcement confirms Jessica Frick will step in as GM of Rocket.net, while Ben Gabler joins the leadership team at Hosting.com. It’s a move that blends Rocket’s agility with Hosting.com’s scale, and it has the entire hosting community talking.
At the Hosting.com dinner, Gabler addressed the elephant in the room, assuring us that “Rocket is not just another hosting company gobbled up by private equity.” Instead, he emphasized that the partnership is designed to create mutual benefits for both companies, from product innovation to growth opportunities. In Ben’s words, “This is not an exit, it’s an entrance.”
As the WordPress community woke up to this announcement, it was clear: this wasn’t just another acquisition headline, and it set the tone for the rest of WordCamp US.
WordCamp US 2025 Kicks Off with a Powerful Contributor Day
It begins at Contributor Day, the heartbeat of every WordCamp, where the spirit of collaboration is on full display.
This year’s Contributor Day was one of the largest in the United States, and the energy in the room was undeniable. Nearly 300 contributors filled the space, with more than 120 first-time participants joining in. In total, 19 teams came together, working across development, design, translation, marketing, community organizing, and more.
Rocket.net’s own Jessica Frick and Zunaid Admin acted as table leads for the Hosting Table with Pantheon, Hostinger, InMotion, Kinsta, JetBackup and many others rolling up their sleeves, lending their expertise to the conversations and working on the WordPress Hosting Handbook.
Among the highlights, Carrie Smaha from InMotion’s marketing team joined the Hosting Team.
When asked about the day, she reflected:
“This year I stepped away from my usual role with the Community team to contribute with the Hosting team. Working alongside new and familiar colleagues, we focused on resolving issues in GitHub that directly impact WordPress users. I also brought four first-time contributors from InMotion Hosting, who joined the Hosting and Testing teams. They had the chance to experience what frequent contributors from our company do regularly, seeing firsthand how consistent involvement helps move WordPress forward. For me, it was equally meaningful to reconnect with peers and see new contributors discover the impact they can have.”
Perhaps the most exciting development was the launch of the new AI team. From the start, the table buzzed with ideas and discussions on the future of AI in WordPress. Even Matt Mullenweg, CEO and Co-Founder of WordPress, joined the conversation, underscoring the significance of AI in shaping the platform’s next chapter.
Showcase Day: WordPress Innovation on Display
The halls buzzed with sessions that proved the strength of WordPress at the moment and the direction of the platform for the future. Participants had plenty of options ranging from technical to workshops focused on practical work.
Top 5 Takeaways from Showcase Day
- Equity is the North Star. The keynote reminded us that technology must serve people first , accessibility, fairness, and inclusion are central to WordPress’ mission.
- Full Site Editing is moving from concept to scale. Sessions from Wikimedia and others proved that FSE is powering real-world, enterprise-level experiences.
- AI is here, but ethics matter. From scalable ownership of content to bug-catching automation, Showcase Day highlighted that the community values responsibility as much as innovation.
- Agencies and enterprises are scaling smarter. From CANCOM’s 150-site system to hands-on workshops, scalability and efficiency were key themes throughout the day.
- WordPress’ future is generational. Campus Connect and other initiatives underscored that the next wave of contributors, students, young developers, and educators, are already shaping the project’s future.
WebHosting.Today Digital Asset Happy Hour
As the sun set on showcase day, the energy shifted from the session halls to the WebHosting.Today Digital Asset Happy Hour, proudly sponsored by Blackwall, JetBackup, and Porkbun. Over cocktails and conversation, the leaders of the hosting industry gathered to discuss the future of WordPress hosting, from AI-driven automation to scaling global infrastructure.
These gatherings are where the real magic happens. Deals are sparked, collaborations are born, and ideas flow as freely as the drinks. For many, it was a chance to connect with peers and partners in a more relaxed setting, building relationships that carry far beyond the conference floor.
At WebHosting.Today, we’re committed to creating these exclusive networking events at the industry’s top technology conferences. They’re designed to bring together founders, decision-makers, and innovators in one room, not just to talk about the future, but to shape it. Become part of our events by sponsoring webhosting.today.
And we’re just getting started. Don’t miss our next Digital Asset Happy Hour at Namescon and CloudFest USA 2025, where the conversations will continue and the hosting community will gather once again to network, collaborate, and chart the path forward.
Expo Day: Where Hosting Meets Community
If Contributor Day builds the foundation and Showcase Day sparks ideas, Expo Day is where the business of WordPress comes alive. Flagship WordCamps have always been the place where web hosts meet their customers face-to-face, showcase their latest innovations, and size up what the competition is promoting. WordCamp US 2025 was no exception.
This year’s expo floor was stacked with leading names: Bluehost, Blackwall, Pressable, Hostinger, WPVIP, WordPress.com, Hosting.com, Kinsta, Pantheon, StellarWP (Liquid Web), Cloudways (DigitalOcean), InMotion, Rocket.net, Spaceship (Namecheap), BigScoots, and GreenGeeks. The diversity of exhibitors reflected the dynamic nature of the WordPress hosting ecosystem.
Of course, no expo is complete without speculation over who wasn’t there. Notable absences this year included GoDaddy and SiteGround, each sparking conversations in the hallways about industry strategies.
Beyond the booth designs and swag, the real value of Expo Day comes from the conversations. We sat down with the top hosting companies to find out what was on their minds at the show.
Bluehost
We spoke with Chris Edwards from Bluehost, a leader in affiliate marketing, about how AI is transforming both SEO and the affiliate landscape. With Google Gemini now generating answers directly in search, the path to discovery has shifted. Content isn’t disappearing, but it’s being surfaced in a new way, with LLMs pulling from blogs, websites, and even video content on platforms like YouTube. For creators and affiliates, the challenge is adapting to this model, understanding how to feed accurate, valuable information into the system so that when AI surfaces answers, it cites and links back to their work.
For affiliates, the biggest hurdle is that AI won’t carry referral links, meaning users may get sent directly to a .com provider rather than through an affiliate page. Bluehost has been proactive in addressing this by ensuring that partner links deliver the best possible rates.
As Chris explained:
“Content creators need to understand that their work isn’t vanishing; it’s just being found in a new way. AI models are here to stay, and they’re pulling from everywhere — blogs, websites, YouTube. The real opportunity is to ensure that the information they surface is accurate and compelling, so your content gets linked. Affiliates may not see their referral codes embedded in AI answers, but they can still win by creating content people want to click through and by offering deals or insights that give audiences a reason to choose their link.”
Cloudways
We sat down with Arsalan Sajid of Cloudways at WordCamp US to explore what matters most to their customers, how their agency program stands out, and where they see hosting headed with AI.
For agencies, Cloudways has evolved beyond referral-style partnerships to offer tangible benefits, including free priority support and unlimited migrations, real savings in time and money that their partners truly value.
Arsalan explained:
“For our agency partners, we migrated 700 websites from another host last month, free of charge. That’s the kind of value agencies actually care about.”
Arsalan also sees AI fundamentally reshaping hosting, making server and application setup as simple as prompting a chatbot. And when it comes to WordPress itself, he believes it’s time for the CMS to modernize its backend interface to serve today’s users better.
Hosting.com
We also caught up with Cory Miller from Hosting.com at WordCamp USA to hear about their perspective on the industry’s evolution. When asked what matters most to their customers, the answer was clear: support is king. For agencies, especially, speed and uptime are table stakes. However, when things go wrong, they want direct, human answers, not canned responses or runarounds. That priority is shaping up to be a mission across our industry.
When we asked what single change could make the biggest impact on WordPress itself, his answer wasn’t about speed, security, or even AI. It was about rethinking WordPress as more than just a platform for long-form publishing. Historically, WordPress has been used to power blogs and websites. Still, in an age where short, quick updates dominate platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, Cory believes WordPress should evolve into a social publishing tool as well. Imagine being able to post updates, images, and short-form content directly inside your WordPress dashboard, simple, lightweight publishing that feels like social media but lives on across WordPress, where you control the data and the network effect flows through the open web.
As Cory explained:
“WordPress has always been long-form, but content has changed. Social media showed us that people want quick updates with images and connections that drive discovery. If WordPress could build that into the CMS, the ability to publish short posts as easily as a tweet or LinkedIn update, we could start to take back some of the content creation we’ve given away to social networks.”
This shift could help WordPress reclaim ground from proprietary platforms, strengthen its role in the open web, and provide creators with new ways to be discovered, all without having to leave their own domain.
Big Scoots
When speaking with Zach Aufort of BigScoots, one theme came through loud and clear: support is their differentiator. While uptime and speed are table stakes in hosting, what sets them apart is the willingness to go beyond the basics and actively help customers solve problems at the application level. From troubleshooting plugin conflicts to investigating code issues on a client’s WordPress site, their team positions itself as partners, not just providers.
That human-first mindset extends to how they think about AI. BigScoots is already utilizing AI tools internally to expedite backend processes, such as writing regular expression strings or database queries. Still, they’ve made a conscious decision to keep the frontline of support entirely human. Customers don’t interact with chatbots or automated ticket replies; every conversation starts with a person who understands the context and urgency of the problem. According to them, this approach has actually attracted more customers who are frustrated by competitors leaning too heavily on automated systems.
Zach explained:
“We’ve actually seen a positive increase in customers coming to us because we’re not putting AI on the front end. Support is always a person. AI can make our engineers faster behind the scenes, but when someone needs help, they want to feel heard and get real solutions.”
In a market where hosting companies can sound interchangeable, BigScoots is betting that real human expertise, combined with clever use of AI in the background, is what will win long-term loyalty.
Hosting Support Awards
In addition to the big Rocket.net announcement, WordCamp attendees were surprised by Christian Taylor, aka Craylor, who brought his investigative hosting series to life with a twist.
After months of secret shopping WordPress hosts with Mike Demo of Hosting.com, Christian culminated the experiment by presenting physical “Best WordPress Hosting Support” awards to the winners. Reflecting on what set the winners apart, he noted in his video:
“These hosts didn’t just resolve my problem—they understood it and gave me clear, practical guidance every time.”
Closing Keynote: Matt Mullenweg on the State of WordPress
The conference culminated with a powerful keynote from Matt Mullenweg, CEO and Co-Founder of WordPress, who reflected on the project’s momentum and its vision for the future. The whole room sighed in relief when Matt said it would not be a repeat of last year’s drama, but an overview of the project similar to his State of WordPress talks.
WordPress by the Numbers
Today, WordPress powers 43% of the web, a staggering milestone that underscores its role as the backbone of digital publishing. Since the last WordCamp US, the platform has experienced remarkable growth in visibility and engagement, including 124,726 new social media followers, a 10% increase in overall usage, and nearly a 20% growth in new users on WordPress.org.
What’s Next for WordPress
Matt’s keynote also teased upcoming features and experiments that will shape the platform’s roadmap. WordPress 6.9 to include Block Comments and a new Command Palette for faster workflows. Experimental demos, including the Felix AI chatbot and Automattic’s Telex block creator, offered a playful glimpse into how AI will be woven more deeply into the WordPress experience.
The keynote closed by looking ahead to where the WordPress community will gather next, with WordCamp Asia set for April 2026 in Mumbai, India, followed a few months later by WordCamp US in Phoenix, Arizona that August. These upcoming events will continue the tradition of bringing together developers, creators, and hosting leaders from around the globe.