Doteasy — A Pioneer in the Early Hosting Space Now Serves Up Turnkey Website Solutions to More Than 500K Online Entrepreneurs Worldwide

Doteasy Provides Turnkey Hosting Solutions For Modern Online Entrepreneurs

TL; DR: For nearly two decades, Doteasy has been operating with the central mission to help web entrepreneurs reach broader audiences online through high-quality affordable hosting. The company currently boasts more than 500,000 customers who have turned to Doteasy for its top-notch support, reliability, and flexible hosting packages tailored to meet the needs of modern businesses. At Doteasy, it’s all about offering choice, and its turnkey hosting, domain, cloud, site design, and web-building solutions deliver just that.

In the mid- to late-1990s, the hosting scene was young and mostly dominated by a few key providers. The internet was widely considered a novelty at the time, and many curious end users became enamored with the idea of creating their own sites and carving out niches online.

The big hosts of the day, such as GeoCities and Angel Fire, offered budding web entrepreneurs free space on subdomains, which were often monetized through the hosts’ brand-specific advertisements. Though this zero-cost hosting allowed new site owners to experiment on the web with little investment, the rising competition in eCommerce made it apparent that businesses needed a better, ad-free alternative to represent their brands online.

Doteasy recognized this and, in 2000, set itself apart by giving budget-restricted entrepreneurs and SMBs free access to the eCommerce space without the third-party branded banners.

Collage of an entrepreneur on a computer and the Doteasy logo

An early pioneer in the hosting space, Doteasy is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build businesses online.

“Owning a website back then was much more difficult than it is nowadays,” said Dora Mui, Marketing and PR Coordinator at Doteasy. “At its start, Doteasy was a pioneer in the industry by being the first to provide free, ad-free hosting services.”

Although Doteasy, which operates in British Columbia, Canada, no longer offers free hosting, the provider is still committed to bringing affordability and reliability together under one roof. Today, the company powers the sites of thousands of customers. By combining low hosting prices with a comprehensive set of complementary solutions, such as domain services and custom app and web design, Doteasy continues to change how SMBs and emerging businesses engage online audiences.

“Websites are no longer reserved for big brands or corporate users,” Dora said. “We are seeing more and more professional blogs and small business sites.”

It’s All About Choices: Consolidate Your Website Needs Under One Roof

Dora told us Doteasy splashed onto the hosting scene at a time when the concept of building a website was still regarded as “geek speak,” and running (or even obtaining) a site was notoriously user-unfriendly. Preceding the 2003 release of WordPress’s landmark content management software, Doteasy stood out by offering reliable support and value-added features that made site building less tedious.

More than 20 years later, the hosting industry continues to shift. To stay competitive, Doteasy has incorporated a variety of services into its hosting plans to accommodate the growing needs of its client base.

Doteasy currently offers shared, dedicated server, cloud, and reseller hosting packages. Among its most popular plans, the company’s managed hosting solution puts security, administration, and maintenance duties in Doteasy’s hands so customers can focus on their core business goals.

Even Doteasy’s entry-level hosting plans include a free domain, support for multiple subdomains, and FTP and email accounts. The company also offers WordPress using one-click install scripts.

“We allow customers to consolidate all of their website needs with one provider,” Dora said. “That’s why we offer a variety of different plans, add-ons, and customization options.”

Not only does Doteasy provide side services, such as domain registration and email accounts, the host also offers free tools for forums, guestbooks, polls, and FAQs. Photo galleries, web forms, and custom scripts can be used to make websites stand out from the competition, both functionally and aesthetically. Customers can also use great programs like Softaculous or the Website.com Site Builder, so that users can easily create a website, regardless of skill level.

By offering such a wide variety of tools on a single platform, Doteasy enables clients to make their space on the web unique and creative.

“Every individual is different and has different needs,” Dora said. “We like to provide as many choices for users as possible.”

Better Business Begins With a Domain Customized to Fit Your Brand

Free and low-cost hosting has obvious appeal. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of free hosts is that clients don’t have their own domain name, but instead use subdomains owned by the parent company.

Since the webmaster technically does not own the domain, its server resources and customization options are limited. Independent domains tend to fare better in SEO rankings, as subdomains are ranked according to the stats and reputation of the parent domain, which is outside the webmaster’s control.

Further, external SEO strategies, such as building links through guest posts, require dofollow status to pass authority onto partner sites, and many subdomain-style providers make external links nofollow by default.

Doteasy encourages clients to choose SEO-friendly domain names and advises them on how to gain the trust of their users as well as that of search engines.

“Consider purchasing a domain name with a location-specific extension, such as .ca for a Canadian website,” Dora said. “This can help you achieve better area-specific search rankings.”

Doteasy further recommends the use of heading tags, meta descriptions, alternate image tags, and the implementation of mobile-friendly features.

Many low-end hosting solutions also tend to lack crucial features that help build brand trust — including consistent uptime and advanced content management systems that make sites more reliable and win the confidence of customers.

“We provide customers with tips on how to optimize your website for SEO,” Dora said. “For example, enabling HTTPS can give you a meaningful boost in Google rankings and provides increased security and trust.”

SEO and reputation building are among the most effective strategies to increase inbound traffic — and therefore customers — to one’s site, and Doteasy provides the tools to help.

In-House Support Focused on Delivering Optimal Customer Experiences

In addition to helping businesses build a more professional online presence, Doteasy provides continuous support even after sites are built. Doteasy has a reputation as a customer-first provider, taking customer feedback into consideration when developing its products and plans.

“We use our own servers and databases in the same location — we don’t outsource,” said Dora. “Our customer service, development, marketing, ops, and design teams are all one big, happy family in our Burnaby, British Columbia, headquarters.”

Photo of Doteasy's team

Doteasy’s support team is in-house, making it easy for the host to provide hands-on, personalized customer care.

Doteasy’s in-house infrastructure and support allow for greater control and easier server-side troubleshooting. And, because the company’s team is centralized, Doteasy can provide support through specialists with direct experience with its products.

When considering new projects and/or the best way to address client concerns, Doteasy consults with both clients and its own support team. This strategy blends perspectives from outside what Dora calls the “tech bubble” to provide a sense of novelty in planning.

“A huge part of our brainstorming process is looking at what our customers are asking for,” Dora said. “For example, we recently rolled out our business hosting plans, as many customers needed more advanced, VPS-level resources.”

A Mission to Answer Market Demand for Solution-Driven Hosting Plans

Doteasy was one of the pioneers in the early hosting space, and the company doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. To keep up with market demand, Doteasy knows it must continue to innovate.

Dora told us Doteasy plans to include new hosting packages that come preinstalled with some of the web’s most popular content management systems and tools.

“We’re seeing a demand for more solution-driven plans, so that’s what we’re working on,” she said. “We are getting ready to provide plans that are specifically geared for hosting Joomla and WordPress sites.”

By combining low prices with rich features and stellar support, Doteasy’s one-stop shop is helping thousands of businesses realize their goals.

“In this industry, it is very easy to get stuck in the tech bubble,” Dora said. “It really helps that our team members can bring in fresh perspectives from outside of the tech world.”

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