In this episode of Impressive Hosting, Jesse Friedman interviews Tom Fanelli, CEO of Convesio, about their unique approach to WordPress hosting. Tom explains how Convesio differentiates itself as a platform rather than just a hosting company, focusing on containerized WordPress solutions for mid-market to enterprise clients with complex needs. The conversation explores Convesio's evolution from targeting agencies to serving mission-critical commerce sites, including online learning platforms, membership sites, and WooCommerce stores.

"00:45 Introduction

01:44 The Origin Story of Convesio

04:46 Innovations and Pivots

10:16 The Future of Support is Human Attention in Slack, and AI

19:55 Avoiding the Race to the Bottom in Hosting

23:32 How to Level Up with Your Customers

28:38 The Importance of Plugin Compatibility

37:06 Conclusion"

• Convesio
• Unthread – support tool Convesio uses to manage tickets and SLAs in Slack.
• New Relic – performance monitoring tool used for in-depth diagnostics.
• MemberPress – Membership plugin for WordPress.
• Guildenberg – Community initiative for WordPress professionals.

Jesse Friedman hosts Jessica Frick (Pressable) and Joshua Goode (WP Cloud) to define quality managed WordPress hosting. They discuss how true managed hosting provides security through site isolation, malware protection, and vulnerability scanning. Performance considerations include preventing "noisy neighbors," implementing multi-level caching, and maintaining control over third-party services. The conversation highlights the value of reliability through geo-redundant infrastructure and responsive human support. Developer tools like SSH access, WP CLI, and Git integration are essential for agencies. They emphasize that while lower-cost options exist, truly managed hosting delivers peace of mind through thoughtful infrastructure decisions and specialized WordPress expertise.

00:56 Intro

05:23 What is Managed Hosting?

09:10 Security in Managed Hosting

21:26 Performance in Managed Hosting

27:26 The Risks of Relying an External Services

29:33 Metrics in Managed Hosting

31:40 Reliability in Managed Hosting and Service Level Agreements

34:26 Support and Customer Service in Managed Hosting

42:13 Developer Tools and Automation in WordPress Hosting

49:44 Cloning Tool for Agencies

51:33 Conclusion

• Jessica Frick
• Pressable
• Joshua Goode
• WPScan
• PatchStack
• ReviewSignal
• WP-CLI

In this episode of Impressive Hosting, Jesse Friedman speaks with Aaron Ware from Linchpin and Joshua Goode from WP Cloud at Automattic about WordPress hosting for higher education. They discuss approaching university websites, managing peak traffic during enrollment and commencement, and the debate between WordPress Multisite versus single-site implementations. The conversation covers performance optimization, caching solutions for logged-in users, and the "noisy neighbor" problem in shared environments. Throughout, they emphasize making hosting decisions based on an institution's specific needs rather than defaulting to legacy approaches.

00:00 Teaser
00:54 Intro
23:57 Scaling for Success in Higher Education
28:37 Making the Right Decision in Higher Education with Multi-site
30:16 Navigating Caching Challenges in Higher Education
33:16 Multi-site and Higher Education
38:15 Single Site versus Multi-site in Higher Education
44:26 "The Noisy Neighbor:" Performance Scaling Challenges on Multi-Site
51:28 Post-Game Analysis

• Linchpin
• Aaron Ware on Twitter/X - @AaronWare
• Joshua Goode's personal site
• Impressive.host (for questions and comments)
• Impressive Hosting episode with Jim Groom
• Query Monitor plugin
• WordPress Multisite documentation