Web Hosting as Nature Intended: Jolly Leaf Grows Feature-Packed Plans Centered on Friendly, Personal Support

TL; DR: Tired of purchasing hosting from companies that would then ignore his requests for support, Frank Meacey set out to create something better. His company, Jolly Leaf, grew from the reseller ranks to provide full-service hosting and optimized WordPress infrastructure to hobbyists, individual professionals, and small businesses. As soon as a potential customer visits the Jolly Leaf website, employees are working to ensure a positive experience — even before they choose a hosting plan. From well-rounded features and strong uptime rates to responsive chat support and services powered by renewable energy, Jolly Leaf is sure to help website owners cultivate success.

Since the beginning, Jolly Leaf has insisted on being different than other options in the web hosting industry — a point of pride that even goes as far as the company’s color scheme, according to CEO Frank Meacey.

“Every website at the time was using the color blue,” he said. “It’s everywhere, particularly with web hosting. It seems so dark and serious, especially next to jargon and intimidating pictures of servers. I went for a green color, to make it bright and colorful and a bit more welcoming.”

Jolly Leaf, whose name describes the company’s culture and outlook, is an up-and-coming hosting brand attracting a range of customers looking for affordability, support, and a complete web hosting solution.

Frank started Jolly Leaf in 2015 as a disillusioned hosting customer continually searching for something better. Too often, a host would promise stellar features and support for attractive rates, only to leave him feeling shortchanged.

“I came across reseller hosting originally, and thought for sure I could create something pretty awesome, if not better than what as already out there,” he said. “That’s how we started, wanting to create a service that actually met people’s requirements the first time around, without having to hop around, leave, or keep shopping for hosting.”

Like most tech-minded new site owners, Frank started out on his web hosting journey with the very basic HTML sites, then grew through the ranks to start scripting complex PHP sites, deploying applications, and building sites for various small businesses.

“No matter how it started, it seemed like every web hosting business wanted to take you on and were desperate to convert a lead,” he said. “Once you got on the platform, were ready to go, and handed over your money, it seemed like you were forgotten or just another number.”

At the start, web hosting plans were marketed and delivered as a simple piece of server space — little support or regard for user experience. Site owners were expected to make their own website or hire someone to build it for them.

“If you wanted WordPress back in the day and had the most basic knowledge, you would find it pretty hard to get it installed and set up,” Frank said. “There was no support, no one-click installation libraries.”

Now, however, the industry has shifted toward easy-to-use content management systems, drag-and-drop design, and other user-friendly tools. While some providers have made the move only in theory, Jolly Leaf and others have taken it to heart.

“You’re buying this all-in-one, complete experience,” he said, citing plans — including Jolly Leaf’s — that include a free website builder, email accounts, and 24/7 support. “We don’t want to replicate that old model. We want to make sure that every client feels like they matter.”

Frank mentioned a quote dubiously attributed to Henry Ford when speaking about Jolly Leaf’s relationship with customers: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Of course the team regularly communicates with clients and discusses their feedback internally, he said, adding they’ll quickly strive to address any concerns. But Frank trusts his instincts, experience, development skills, and market trends to steer Jolly Leaf’s forward-thinking technology innovations.

“I had really gone through the spectrum of having basic requirements and needing more advanced tools,” he said. “I applied that knowledge and experience to our own services to produce a great offering that meets anyone’s requirements, whether the customer is a business, individual, or someone looking to start a blog.”

That mindset means Jolly Leaf offers an above-average 1,000GB of DDoS protection, innovative hosting powered by renewable energy, and regular 100% uptime on the company’s cloud-based infrastructure.

“Whether they’re a client with us or not quite yet, we want to give them great support,” he said. “We’re all about great client experiences, from the moment you visit the website through when you’re hosting with us and might need some help.”

In the handful of years Jolly Leaf has been in business, the company’s client base and marketing strategies have evolved and grown as the team has found its niche. Originally focused on advertising via Twitter, Frank said Jolly Leaf attracted a lot of hobbyist site owners creating modest online presences.

Then Jolly Leaf launched its optimized WordPress offering, which ingratiated the company with the rich community of WordPress users and bloggers, and led to more business-oriented customers — and another subgroup of users.

“More interestingly, and this may sound pretty random, but we’ve been hosting a lot of record labels particularly from the U.K.,” Frank said. “For instance, a label that has 20 artists that each need individual websites. I’m not sure what it is about Jolly Leaf, but it shows folks are coming to us and talking about our service with others in a way that makes them want to get on board, as well.”

Not only do Jolly Leaf customers receive support, but Frank prides himself on the high quality of assistance the company produces.

“We’re a very small team, but our minds are similar to our clients,” he said. “We’re also developers, and we also made websites as a hobby, so having someone that relates to what your issue is really goes a long way.”

To expand the company’s offerings and push the larger customer support model further, Jolly Leaf is launching online community forums and the Academy, which is a new spin on the typical knowledge base.

“If you’re struggling to follow along, you’ve got images that are moving and walking you through the process,” Frank said of the GIF-based tutorials. “We’ve always got clients coming to us wanting basic information, so we can get all that information together for them.

“We looked around to see what our competitors were offering, and it’s typically a standard knowledge base with screenshots from five or 10 years ago,” Frank said. “It’s not engaging, or somewhere I’d want to go look something up. We can at least offer high-quality tutorials in a form that shows our culture of development and helping our customers develop as well.”