Some Thoughts on the ManageWP / GoDaddy Deal

Carrie Dils

September 8, 2016

I don’t typically write editorials — especially not ranty ones — but I’m going to today because I have opinions and a platform to share them (thank you, WordPress!).

ManageWP, a WordPress management tool I have publicly loved for years, was recently acquired by GoDaddy, a hosting company I have not historically had warm-fuzzy feelings for.

The uproar in the WordPress community is, frankly, shocking.

Generally speaking, acquisitions are always accompanied by mixed feelings of fear, uncertainty, excitement, and speculation. I’ve been through them in the past as both an employee and an outside observer. But this ManageWP acquisition by GoDaddy has unleashed a bizarre, venomous response that is, frankly, ridiculous.

I get it, people don’t like GoDaddy. The reasons vary based on experience (or perception). People are skittish that because their lovable ManageWP got eaten by the evil GoDaddy, they’ll morph overnight into something hideous and foul. So they’re jumping ship (or “threatening” to) quite loudly (and rudely).

Be civil, people. It’s business.

Allow me to share some of my personal experiences with both ManageWP and GoDaddy and why I’m happy for them both.

Congrats @managewp! @godaddy acquired a gem. https://t.co/s2zoBf4dBM

— carrie dils (@cdils) September 3, 2016

The people at ManageWP

ManageWP team — The Manage WP Team (look at all those humans!!)
*photo borrowed from managewp.com*

Introductions

I started using and writing about ManageWP long before I knew any of the people behind the company.

In 2013 I entered a contest they were hosting in exchange for my opinions about their service (for the record, I don’t need any incentives to give my opinions). At any rate, this opened the door to communication with Dejan Cancarevic and later on Milan Ilic. Those were also the same two gentlemen who helped me with the ManageWP affiliate program.

I met the Founder of ManageWP, Vladimir Prelovac early on as well – he was the one answering my support tickets. 🙂

Most recently, I’ve had a lot of conversations with Nemanja Aleksic about the Orion beta program I participated in (and of course the eventual launch of Orion).

Supporting my business

Not long after I launched the OfficeHours.fm podcast, Vladimir reached out via email with this:

I’ve been keenly following your blog in the past few months or so. What I see is the determination to continue building a brand for yourself int he WordPress community as well as achieve financial goals.

I respect what you are doing and I also like the way you do it. That is why I would like to offer sponsorship of your podcast on a long term basis as I believe we have similar set of values based on providing value for our clients.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I emailed him back. ManageWP was the first company to sponsor my podcast and gave me the financial support I needed in those early months to keep going (2.5 years and over 100 episodes later, the podcast is going strong!).

Supporting the WordPress community

Have you heard of managewp.org? Aside from Post Status, it’s my primary news source for all things WordPress. It’s also social and encourages interaction through upvotes and comments. It’s a free resource for the WordPress community, powered and funded by ManageWP. (Thanks, guys!)

Aside from community efforts like managewp.org, my podcast is just one instance of many where Vladimir has invested time and money to help other people succeed. On social media, Vladimir’s tagline is:

I would love to change the world, I just don’t have the source code yet.

That’s the spirit of the man behind ManageWP, the guy that’s hitched his company to GoDaddy with the hopes of doing even better things than he’s already done.

The people at GoDaddy

Pressnomics 2016 at GoDaddy offices in Tempe, AZ photo courtesy of Mendel Kurland — Pressnomics 2016 at GoDaddy offices in Tempe, AZ
*photo courtesy of Mendel Kurland*

Introductions

If you’ve ever been to a WordCamp and stopped by the GoDaddy booth, you’ve met Mendel Kurland. He is a purveyor of fun and goodwill for the WordPress community. I attend a lot of WordCamps (though a mere percentage compared to Mendel) and my WordCamp experience is not complete until I’ve hugged him and had a good catch-up session.

Then there’s Christopher Carfi. I believe I first met him at Pressnomics 2015. We may or may not have danced in a country western bar. Or how about Gabriel Mays? I met him at Pressnomics 2016. His wife is the first female Blue Angel, which is beyond cool. There’s also Frankie Jarrett and Andy McIllwain. And these are just the people I’ve met in person!

Supporting the WordPress community

I mentioned Mendel earlier and WordCamps. I don’t know how many WordCamps that GoDaddy sponsors, but it’s A LOT.

By the way, if you’ve never been to a WordCamp or even heard of one, here’s a summary: it’s a 1-2 day conference focused on everything WordPress. For a $20 ticket, attendees get a full day of education, a meal, a ticket to a post-conference party, and priceless encounters with other people in the WordPress community. And it’s so affordable because of companies like GoDaddy that help significantly subsidize the cost.

GoDaddy doesn’t just send a box of t-shirts to these events. They send wonderful human collateral: Mendel, Frankie, Christopher…

And they don’t just do sponsorships. They recently hired Aaron Campbell on as a full-time WordPress contributor. That means they pay him to work on the WordPress project.

Does GoDaddy benefit from WordPress? Absolutely! But they’re not just taking. They’re actively pouring back into WordPress.

At Pressnomics 2016, I had the pleasure of seeing the GoDaddy offices in Tempe, AZ – it was certainly a side of GoDaddy I hadn’t seen before. The facility was like a candyland, complete with pedal-powered cars you could drive around the halls in and a giant slide. There was also a basketball court and air hockey. Fun stuff aside, I enjoyed touring their massive call support area, which showed giant digital “scoreboards” keeping track of how many callers were in queue, average wait time, etc.

I liked the culture I saw.

We’re all “just a bunch of humans”

ManageWP was at a point in their business where, in order to do the things they want to do and grow in the ways they want to grow, they needed more support. Vladimir clearly saw how a partnership with GoDaddy would align with his vision for ManageWP. He’s a savvy business man.

And, of course, GoDaddy wins an amazing product that they can offer their managed WordPress hosting customers.

The acquisition was good business.

Ditching ManageWP because of their new affiliation with GoDaddy is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater (assuming the proverbial bathwater even needs to be thrown out). I’m happy that people I appreciate and admire at both companies are finding success.

When you ridicule, insult, or question the decision-making skills of the people involved, you look ignorant. Ignorant of what’s happening at a business level. At a relationship level. At a personal level.

Comments

37 responses to “Some Thoughts on the ManageWP / GoDaddy Deal”

Dave Bell

September 8, 2016

We agree totally 100%. Both companies give strongly to our WordPress community. So true about GoDaddy and WordCamps. I am hoping they will be at Rhode Island WordCamp in 2 weeks!

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John Locke

September 8, 2016

Hi Carrie:

I love that you wrote this post, because as we both know, leopards can change their spots, if they want to.

Remember a few years ago when GoDaddy bought Media Temple? Up to that point, that was the hosting company that was the darling of high-brow web professionals everywhere. Some people vowed to all their client sites off of (mt). Some chose to stay. Either way, the world kept turning.

Then something weird happened. GoDaddy launched a new managed WordPress hosting service that wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was pretty darn good.

GoDaddy also started sponsoring a lot of WordCamps. They didn’t have to do that. They chose to do that.

And everyone remembers Bob Parsons killing an elephant, but he hasn’t been CEO for years. They remember the racy Super Bowl commercials with scantily clad women. But lately, they’ve shunned those for more clever ads (Jean Claud Van-Damme, anyone?)

People say GoDaddy has terrible hosting. That may be true, if you’re on the regular, $4 a month hosting. If your clients really don’t have money to bump up to the managed WordPress hosting on GoDaddy (less expensive than WP Engine, Flywheel, and maybe less than Siteground) then get new clients or do a better job convincing them to bump up.

People say GoDaddy has terrible service. The truth is, I’ve had worse service from about 90% of the hosting companies out there. I’ve had plenty of times where I’ve been on the phone with patient service reps trying to solve a client issue, and I’ve never been treated rudely or poorly. I can;t say that for every single host. The ones I mentioned earlier are my first choice, but you could do worse (it could be anything owned by EIG).

The point is, people change, and companies change. Who you were yesterday is not who you will be in five years time.

In other breaking news, Safari requires more browser hacks than IE in 2016.

The truth of the matter is, not one of the people grousing about Manage WP being acquired by GoDaddy would do anything differently if they were in the same position. The Mange WP team deserves praise for getting to spot where they could be acquired, which is what many armchair commenters are perhaps jealous of. The success that they are reaping after years of hard work.

But here’s another thought. Perhaps GoDaddy is acquiring Manage WP because they see what a good culture they have and the intense loyalty they have cultivated, and they want more people like that on their team, so they can learn how to become a better company.

You can live in the past, or you can move forward. It is everyone’s individual choice. 🙂

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Kouteki

September 8, 2016

If anybody ever asks me what’s so special about the WordPress community, I’ll just point them to this article.

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BobWP

September 8, 2016

Well, you took the words right out of my mouth. Been avoiding this whole thing like the plague as what I saw out there was making me sick. A similar post was brewing in me with a whole history of GoDaddy experience. But I think I will save that for another day, but in the meantime…..

DITTO 🙂

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shelliemeeks

September 8, 2016

Thanks for this Carrie. I have banged my head repeatedly when dealing with GoDaddy in the past… but I love Manage WP. I was sort of shocked the company would go that way. But, one of the best things about the WP community is it’s giving and open nature. Your attitude concerning this merger is a perfect representation of our community.. Don’t Panic. Grab your towel. Everything is gonna work out fine. 🙂

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Troy DeanTroy Dean

September 8, 2016

You beat me to it Carrie. I was going to write this article but now I’ll just point people here.

I have had wonderful and terrible experiences with customer support and product performance from just about every business in the WordPress ecosystem.

Most of the time when companies screw up they know it and are quick to apologise and redeem themselves.

If the people criticising this acquisition spent more time adding value to their customers and less time posing as keyboard warriors we would all be better off.

I have personally met Vladimir from ManageWP as well as Jeff King and Ned Dwyer from GoDaddy and can guarantee that their intentions are to provide a great service to their customers.

None of us are perfect and all of us make mistakes.

Stop looking in the rearview mirror and move forward 🙂

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Dee

September 8, 2016

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Carrie, thanks for saying it so eloquently.

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M Asif Rahman

September 9, 2016

100% agreed. People are becoming more childish day by day!

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Al

September 9, 2016

Good rant, Carrie.

It is nice that GoDaddy ‘gives back’ to the WP community by attending and sponsoring Word Camps. No one has a problem with that. The problem they have is with GD’s hosting service. It has been expensively bad.

People are not down on GD because of their past CEO and their bikini-girl ads. They are down on GD because customers got bad service from the company.

It is true that companies can and do change. But most often it is their core business that they are good at changing. With GD, hosting is not their core biz. They are a registry service… not a host. They are not good at hosting because it is not what they focus on. For example, is GD offering PHP 5.6 yet? Is PHP 7 too much to hope for?

If GD is going to up their game, they are going to have to hire some really good technical people who can make their WP services state-of-the-art just like WPEngine, Fly, and others.

And then they will have to offer very advantageous pricing to attract customers to give them a(nother) chance.

And then they will have to spend 18 months working their butts off making sure the service runs like a Swiss watch and ‘growing’ a core of customers who will be happy (i.e. not embarrassed) to go out into the community and say nice things about the new GD. (When was the last time you heard someone recommend GD for serious web hosting? Ever?)

I wish both companies well and that this association will work out. But I have to admit that I’m not quite as optimistic as you and others are.

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Tara Claeys

September 9, 2016

Thanks for posting this. I have often stood up for GoDaddy on WordPress Facebook groups. I started using them a couple of years ago, and have never had a bad experience. I have met Mendel a number of times, and tagged him in posts when I have questions/issues with GoDaddy and he responds right away. I have had excellent, knowledgeable support techs whenever I have called. I started using ManageWP Orion Beta on your recommendation and never looked back. Ironically, I actually had issues with ManageWP and some newer GoDaddy sites, and ManageWP support responded that they were working with GoDaddy to fix some configuration issues between the two, so I assume that was the last step in this relationship, as that is now fixed.

I didn’t step into this thread on the AWP Group, as it was SO heated I didn’t want to put myself through that! I realized people have bad histories with GoDaddy, but companies and services change. I hope the merger proves to be a success for all involved!

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Theresa Jennings

September 9, 2016

After a terrible CS experience with GoDaddy *last week* that caused me to hang up on the guy, followed by a great experience with another guy when I called right back, my personal goal is to restrain myself more and complain less. I’m hanging in there with ManageWP for the time being. I’m happy for both companies. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Terri G

September 9, 2016

Thank you, Carrie, for being a thoughtful voice of reason here and always.

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websentia

September 9, 2016

We all hope for the best. I have bad experience with companies like GoDaddy (not naming names) but actually have pretty good experience with GD myself. But I do fear that ManageWP will change over time and just want to point out that there are always options and I hope GD is reading this. You don’t really need ManageWP although it is in deed a time saver…. I have devised work-arounds that have plenty of short-comings and live to tell about it. In the process, I get a better appreciation for what ManageWP actually does for me. The cool thing about change is that there is always at least three options for any choice. The more you study, the larger that number becomes. It’s always good to keep an open mind.

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Brian Lis

September 9, 2016

I’m a fan of both. Frankly I’ve had a good track record when it comes to GoDaddy support. Yeah their share servers are slow but you get what you paid for. So the product is dirt cheap and the support is at a minimum is adequate.

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Daniella Norwood

September 9, 2016

Very glad you wrote this and yes, “we’re just a bunch of humans”. (It’s better when we’re kind humans, though.) Great work!

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Doug Morris

September 9, 2016

Carrie, I really enjoyed this post and your insight to both companies is exactly what I needed. Just like you mentioned about others, my opinion of an organization is often driven by perception. Thank you for sharing your perspective.

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Peter Freeman

September 9, 2016

Carrie,

Best response to the deal I’ve seen to date, and like many above, I’ll be pointing people here.

It’s embarrassing to see the knee jerk responses on the announcement post over at ManageWP.

I’m taking a wait and see approach, like any other software that allows me to add significant value for my clients. And that for me is the bottom line.

ManageWP Orion is a brilliant platform with an exciting roadmap. Let’s wait and see how this pans out over the next few years, and give the talented people behind a bootstrapped success story the benefit of the doubt and our trust as long as they continue to earn it.

Cheers,
Peter

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Ira Clark

September 9, 2016

Hi Carrie,

Great post. I started using GoDaddy for Linux webhosting using Joomla in 2013 then switched to WordPress in January 2014. I met the GoDaddy team at WordCamp Phoenix 2014 where they announced their managed WordPress product. I switched over to the managed WordPress product in February 2014 and am still using it now. I have watched the managed WordPress product grow and improve. They added staging, a pro interface to access your client’s sites and now a wizard to create new website. They also have a list of plugins not to use on their servers to prevent conflicts with their sever configurations. I have had great customer service from GoDaddy.

The only problem I have ever had with my sites on GoDaddy was when “I” did not deactivate a plugin to migrate the site from the Linux host to the managed WordPress host.

A site will go down from time to time, due to human error, DOS attacks and natural disasters. I have worked at Directv and other facilities where the server uptime has to be 99.999%. This type of uptime is expensive because you need redundant servers, redundant and/or backup facility power, backup facilities and 24/7 server software support with a 4 hour response time.

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Richard Buff

September 9, 2016

GoDaddy has done great things from what I’ve seen to change their reputation. And having met Mendel at Pressnomics I can say he is a super awesome guy. 🙂 I’m amazed at the people willing to invest so much time into switching to another product before they’ve even seen how this acquisition pans out. They must have a lot more time on their hands than me.

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Jeff

September 9, 2016

I think what happened is that people felt shock and betrayal on an intensely personally level … precisely *because* the crew at ManageWP are such a personable group. (In fact I’m on my way to meet up with an ex-MWP employee this weekend!) Through that lens, it’s very difficult to stay present with the business realities as you described. Aside from that, I don’t have any of the personal relationships that you do with the GoDaddy folks but I can’t tell how good it is to hear about that! Thanks for adding your perspective.

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Eric

September 9, 2016

Hmm… I noticed at the last WordCamp I attended (Boston), managed hosting was a competitive market. This is a good move for ManageWP. GoDaddy will likely endure the current negative sentiment from the WordPress community. I agree with your can’t-we-all-just-get-along take on the situation, but I feel sad for manageWP.

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Judi

September 9, 2016

Carrie, I am glad you wrote your rant. I have watched as GoDaddy has changed their macho, sexist, bad hosting ways into a company that keeps surprising me with their strong and steady commitment to the WordPress Community. my company relies heavily on ManageWP. I look forward to more good and am happy for both companies.

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Mitch Menghi

September 11, 2016

Lets see what happens, GoDaddy has a bad name ‘for a reason’ not just because. Ill come back to this post in 12-24 months and give some status updates on this acquisition.

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1. Carrie Dils
  
  September 11, 2016
  
  They absolutely do, but the majority of “for a reason(s)” are years old and do not refer to the Jeff King era. I still don’t have warm fuzzies for the service, but what I wanted to point out with this article is that there are good people behind the company trying to evolve the company in positive ways.
  
  Reply
Justin Ferriman

September 11, 2016

Carrie-

Thank you for writing this article. Like you, I have raised a few eyebrows when reading the comments relating to the GoDaddy buyout of ManageWP. A buyout alone isn’t enough evidence to judge the future of a service or product.

Like Judi says in the comment above, I’ve actually be pleasantly surprised by GoDaddy’s slow but steady shift from their cringe-worthy Super Bowl commercials to stalwart WordPress fans & supporters. This move (besides being good for business, as you pointed out) seems to be in line with their commitment to WP over the recent years.

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Ryan Hellyer

September 11, 2016

I can understand peoples fears of GoDaddy touching anything. They have a truly horrendous reputation to due to their previous business practices. They can redeem themselves in time, but I’m avoiding touching anything GoDaddy related until they’ve spent a lot more time to proving themselves.

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drron

September 12, 2016

GoDaddy simply has a history that is hard to deny.

Many years ago my last experience of being a direct GoDaddy customer ended after one of their support people would not answer a question and told me that I could read the manual just as well as he.

I then became a MediaTemple customer. After the economy crashed (2008 – 2009) I went from being the boss who had a staff of full time tech people to learning how to do basic server administration myself. I was able to do this, because the MediaTemple support staff were really great. As long as I showed that I was willing to do the work and read tutorials, they were always there to point me in the right direction and help me solve my problems. But, immediately after MediaTemple was acquired by GoDaddy, every time I called support, I knew more than they did. So, I began asking if they had been hired after GoDaddy acquired MediaTemple. I was not surprised to find out that all these support staff, who knew less than me, were hired after the acquisition. I know some key things about server administration, but I am no expert. The thing I had liked best about MediaTemple was their staff. When GoDaddy acquired MediaTemple they received the “brand value” of that staff, but then replaced the excellent support staff with people who were not able to answer my questions.

So, I became a WPengine customer shortly after the GoDaddy acquisition of MediaTemple. I’ve been really happy as a WPengine customer.

It is good to hear from people that GoDaddy has made some improvements. However, I just hope and pray that WPengine is never acquired by them.

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Bill Wehnert

September 12, 2016

Great article! I haven’t used GoDaddy for years for hosting, so i can’t say how well or not they handle things. But if they’re only charge $4/mo for hosting, I’m willing to bet you’re not going to get top tier hardware and a terrabyte pipe. You do still continue to get what you pay for.

I love ManageWP – their product is absolutely fantastic and I’ve been using Orion since it’s first release in Beta and it has gotten immensely better and faster since its inception. I too have had my support tickets answered by the founder, how awesome is that?!?!

Whenever I’ve had to deal with things outside of the norm for GoDaddy (I use them for domain registration/DNS only at this point) – their support has been fantastic. They answered my questions, helped me get things straightened out and even called me back the next day to make sure everything was going right. That sure doesn’t sound like a rotten company to me.

ManageWP according to their blog is extremely profitable, they provide an amazing service and I don’t blame GoDaddy for buying them. The benefit of what they can offer to their customers is going to be something many other companies dream of. I bet we hear about InfiniteWP up for sale soon to some other hosting company just so that they can compete.

Who knows, GoDaddy might even drop the costs or provide things that are currently premium options for free?

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Kim Doyal

September 12, 2016

Great post Carrie…
I’ve never understood the drama and negativity that exists in the WP community.
I love the direction GoDaddy is moving in to support WordPress. Had the pleasure of going to their offices in San Francisco for a meetup and really enjoyed connecting with them and hearing about what they’re doing.

Awesome article.
🙂

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Marcus Couch

September 12, 2016

People need to CHILL. This weekend I had the good fortune to have dinner with both Jeff King (Godaddy GM) and Vladimir (Manage WP). Everything is fine and will be even better as time goes on. The sky is not falling.

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Karissa Skirmont

September 12, 2016

I feel the same way Carrie and posted this on the AWP group thread:

“I started with GoDaddy back in Nov 2006 and through trial and error, the support team of GD were my ‘teachers’ for learning how to work with hosting and domains.

I called so many times that I have my customer number memorized and 90% of the time I had great conversations and issues solved.

This level of animosity that comes out at GoDaddy and anyone that partners with them, isn’t very becoming of the WordPress community.

Just think of all those that agree with this thread but keep silent to avoid being bashed or shamed.”

I agree that the work that Mendel, Frankie and other GD evangelists are doing, are really helping turn the tide.

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Jon Barratt

September 12, 2016

Excellent article, Carrie!

Personally, I have never had a major issue with GoDaddy.

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Tabatha DiDomenico

September 12, 2016

Let’s not underestimate the shock from the announcement. It just seems like strange bedfellows.

Like when you find out your best friend is hanging out with the jock. (Nancy/Steve) Maybe we all settled into ManageWP character as one of us – the nerd who has her paper in on time and will score an A. Now she is dating that guy.

Maybe Carrie is right and GoDaddy isn’t “that guy” anymore. Only time will tell. Hooray for freedom of opinions though!

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Barbara Day

September 14, 2016

Thank you for the rant Carrie. I use both services, GoDaddy mainly because my clients ask for it, have their domains registered there already, and are comfortable and happy with the choice.

Just had a terrible experience with a client who wanted to stay with Media Temple, and found out later they are owned by GoDaddy. Years ago Media Temple was a trailblazer for WordPress hosting, now they are just a shared hosting service with really bad support.

So close on the heels of the MediaTemple experience, was thinking seriously about leaving ManageWP, but you’ve helped change my mind. Though I’ll be watchful going forward.

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Jason Lee Neri

September 15, 2016

as long as they dont touch perfect dashboard, which is miles better than managewp… im good to go.

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TamrahJo

September 24, 2016

Left GoDaddy in 2009-10(?) time frame, LOVE Manage WP and willing to ‘wait and see’ –

There is a reason why I think the knee-jerk reaction went so deeply – I, myself, have watched wonderful, local/small regional companies go from awesome to OMG after being successful enough to be eyed/acquired by big nationally known ones in the following industry areas:

Telephone/Internet Service
Propane Service
Health Insurance
Home/Property insurance
Public School Bus Transportation Services
Courier Services for rural areas
Home-Health Care services for rural areas
Cable/Satellite TV services in remote areas – (psst! You can tell where I call home? EH? LOL)

Anyways, like always, I will be gracious to tech support, try to ride out the transition hiccups, as I’m a managedWP customer AND, just recently got 4 customers wrested away from ‘cheap, shared server hosting service” that I had been meaning to do, since buyout, but could never find good time to do – and so, getting fired-up and such when you, yourself, are under big strain, is ridiculous – LOL

But….given my long list of examples/experiences, each time, I get a little more ready to have back-up plan/one-foot-at door-step ready – just cuz, only way I’ve found to not have a total heart-attack and ranting frenzy if/when things do go exactly how I feared they might – I will happily stay and support if things continue along with great service, etc., will sadly wave goodbye with, thanks for the good times, if they don’t and in the end, it’s just easier on me – 🙂

Great post and really helped me in some of my own research to-do list, etc., just by reading post and comments – Long Live WP community! 🙂

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The Works IT

October 23, 2016

Completely agree! I’ve honestly been a long-time supporter and user of many of GoDaddy’s services, and can’t grasp what all the complaints are about (sometimes it seems people think they’re the Nickelback of hosting) over the years. Of course support can vary at times based on the font-line personnel, but that’s always a possibility and shouldn’t taint your opinion of an entire company if it’s only occasional.
And for ManageWP, well of course I’m a huge fan and have been an enthusiastic user for many years as well. Looking forward to the partnership and how it’ll move the two companies ahead and benefit us users 🙂

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