EvoWeb Splits Its Business in Two. HostAfrica Gets the Hosting Half.

HostAfrica has acquired the hosting division of EvoWeb, a South African provider founded in 2008 under the original name Web Guru. The deal transfers EvoWeb’s hosting customer base to HostAfrica’s platform; EvoWeb retains its web design, development, and WordPress specialist services and continues to operate independently. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition is the latest in a deliberate expansion that has seen HostAfrica complete more than a dozen deals across Africa since its founding in 2016, a record of systematic consolidation across the continent that few African hosting companies have matched.

EvoWeb’s Eighteen Years: From Web Guru to a Hosting Sale

EvoWeb’s history runs in three distinct phases. The company launched in 2008 as Web Guru, operating as an independent South African hosting and web services business for more than fifteen years. In January 2025, it rebranded to EvoWeb. Approximately sixteen months after that rebrand, its hosting division has transferred to HostAfrica.

The decision to separate the hosting business from the design and development operation reflects a practical split between two different types of work that had been running under one roof. Hosting is a platform operation: customers renew, infrastructure scales, and the margin improves with volume. Web design and WordPress development are project-based and relationship-intensive, with different staffing requirements, pricing models, and service commitments. Running both efficiently under one company becomes harder as each grows.

Co-founder Martin Bester described the reasoning directly: “This move is a strategic step that allows both businesses to focus on their strengths. HostAfrica will take the hosting platform to the next level, while Evoweb continues to grow as a specialised WordPress web design provider.”

A Decade of Deals: HostAfrica’s Expansion Record Across Africa

HostAfrica was founded in Cape Town in 2016. Since then, it has completed more than a dozen acquisitions, building a pan-African hosting footprint that now covers South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and Tanzania. The combined customer base stands at more than 100,000.

The acquisition list includes names that defined the African hosting market at the national level: DomainKing, Web4Africa, AmpleHosting, DigiServ Technologies, Sasahost, and GO54 (formerly WhoGoHost), one of Nigeria’s largest hosting providers, which held more than 20% of the country’s domain market at the time of that deal. Each acquisition has followed the same pattern: acquire a regional or national provider, migrate the customer base onto the HostAfrica platform, and retain local market presence.

CEO Michael Osterloh stated the rationale for the EvoWeb deal in HostAfrica’s announcement: “This acquisition strengthens our South African presence and allows us to bring more customers onto the HostAfrica platform.”

South Africa as the Core, Africa as the Frame

HostAfrica operates from Cape Town, the base from which it has expanded successively into West and East Africa over ten years. The EvoWeb deal is smaller in scope than cross-border acquisitions, but it matters for a different reason: it shows that HostAfrica is also consolidating its position in the home market rather than only expanding outward.

Adding South African customer accounts, even from mid-sized providers, compounds the platform density that makes a consolidator progressively more difficult to compete against at scale. A hosting provider with 100,000 customers across five countries, adding a local book, is not pursuing growth for its own sake. It is thickening the platform in its most important market while keeping the acquisition cost proportionate to the size of the target.

EvoWeb Hosting Customers Move to HostAfrica. Design Clients Stay.

For customers whose hosting was managed through EvoWeb, their accounts move to HostAfrica’s platform. Clients who use EvoWeb for web design, WordPress development, or website support services retain that relationship under EvoWeb, which continues to operate as a standalone business. HostAfrica has committed to a smooth transition for hosting customers but has not published a specific timeline.

The separation of hosting and design services is practical for customers as well as for the two companies. A business that buys hosting from one provider and creative services from another is a common arrangement in the SMB market. The EvoWeb deal formalises, under new branding, what many small business customers already manage across separate vendor relationships.