I remember when Media Temple was the premier host of the world and the place that was the first “cool” site that meant your blog was finally ready to move past shared hosting.
But, after 24 years in the industry and being acquired by GoDaddy in 2013, Media Temple closed its doors in late 2023.
Luckily, the industry has also dramatically changed since the early 2000s, and there is a wide variety of premium web hosts to choose from.
There used to be a huge distinction between the shared web hosts and everyone else when I started my development and engineering journey. But these days, a ton of web hosts offer shared hosting up to dedicated hosting in a single company.
Alternatives to Media Temple
If you are here looking for Media Temple hosting plans, unfortunately, they are no longer in business. But here are some alternative web hosting reviews, coupons, and comparisons to help you find what is best for your needs:
- Web Host Reviews: Our experts have personally tested the most popular web hosts and give you their honest thoughts about their advantages and disadvantages, including their uptime, ease of use, and pricing.
- Hosting Coupons: Let’s face it, every time I see a “Promo Code” field, I do an internet search for any available coupons. Luckily, we have a page dedicated to the best hosting coupons currently available, so you don’t have to do that search.
- Hosting Comparisons: Sometimes it is nice to compare one web host with another and see side by side which features they offer, along with their pricing and plans. If you visit our hosting comparison page, you can compare any two web hosts that we have reviewed.
The Founding of Media Temple
Believe it or not, in the early days of web hosting, it was rather difficult to find a web host online that would serve your site beyond basic shared hosting or very expensive dedicated hosting.
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Media Temple was probably the first web host I can remember that tailored its offerings to creatives, agencies, and especially developers. I remember the time when any web designer worth their salt was sponsored by Media Temple, and that (mt) logo was everywhere.
What really made Media Temple special was their absolutely stunning interface for the time, and they really focused on providing the world’s best support. It was a very refreshing change in the industry at a time when other hosts were difficult to use, had very little documentation, and weren’t focused on truly providing what folks needed as they grew their websites.
It set Media Temple apart, and they very quickly grew to one of the best brands in the market.
GoDaddy’s Acquisition of Media Temple
In October 2013, GoDaddy wanted to expand its offerings from the shared hosting and domain registration market. It was looking to gain credibility with designers and developers, and wanted to tap into the growing industry of software developers that were popping out new ideas and websites almost daily.
To pursue this goal, GoDaddy decided to buy Media Temple in a blockbuster deal.
It was an exciting time for the web and I can understand why GoDaddy was so interested in gaining influence with this segment of the population. Initially, GoDaddy made assurances that Media Temple would operate independently from GoDaddy and it fulfilled that promise for many years.
Over time, resources naturally began to be shared between the two brands, including some of the infrastructure that was used for its hosting offerings.
I remember a lot of initial skepticism around this acquisition, and designers and developers feeling that the quality of Media Temple’s services, customer support, and whole identity would suffer as part of its acquisition by GoDaddy.
Retirement of the Media Temple Brand
In April 2023, GoDaddy announced the sunsetting of the Media Temple brand. Customers were automatically migrated to the GoDaddy infrastructure and backend.
As you might expect there were a lot of feelings from those of us in the industry, both understanding GoDaddy’s needs to follow along with the industry trend of consolidation yet also having very fond memories of all of the projects we used Media Temple for in the past.
Over the years, there has been a shift from niche or boutique hosting providers to the larger and more recognizable brands. In all honesty I believe this has been good for the hosting market because uptime, customer service, and the cost of web hosting have dropped to the point that it is almost free in a lot of cases.
But, there will always be a place in my heart for Media Temple and some of the great times I had in the early 2000s in the wild west of the World Wide Web. Before any of us really knew what we were doing, but were having a blast doing it.
