At Hoot Host, we’ve always been committed to offering the best solutions for our customers, providing reliable, user-friendly website builder plans, hosting, and maintenance services. However, in light of recent developments in the WordPress ecosystem, we’ve made the proactive decision to evolve our platform and safeguard the future of your online presence.

Why We’re Updating Our Website Builder Plans

Starting today, our two most popular plans, the AI Website Builder and Startup Website Builder, will no longer be based on WordPress. These plans have been transitioned to our new website builder system, fully integrated with our HootCRM platform. This allows for seamless management of your website, marketing, and CRM tools, all in one place. Whether you want to build your own website using our AI tools or have our team do it for you, these plans offer a more streamlined, efficient solution that simplifies building and managing your website. All while remaining free from issues that may come with the future of WordPress.

Our goal is to provide an intuitive, cutting-edge experience while offering the support you need to build and manage your website successfully. As businesses grow, we want their website management to scale alongside them, which is why we’re investing in this proprietary platform and avoiding overdependence on WordPress.

Why We’re Still Offering WordPress Plans (For Now)

While our focus is shifting, our Small Business, Professional, and Premium Website Builder plans will continue to be built on WordPress for the time being. These are our done-for-you website plans, which many customers still rely on due to WordPress’s existing popularity and customization capabilities.

As we transition our plans away from WordPress into the future, we can guarantee the existing WordPress website users we support will not lose any of our ongoing hosting, maintenance, and optimization services. We will continue to have WordPress experts on our team and will support WordPress websites just like we do Wix, Squarespace, and other popular platforms.

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Hoot Host is transitioning its AI Website Builder and Startup Website Builder plans to our new builder platform due to growing concerns about WordPress’s future under Automattic’s control. We will still continue to offer WordPress-based plans for now, however we are in full support for a potential StudioPress fork that could bring a more open and developer-friendly platform.

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The Growing Concern Around WordPress’s Future

Recent actions by Automattic, the company behind WordPress and the controlling force over the WordPress ecosystem, have made us question the platform’s long-term viability and trust. Automattic’s decision to block WPEngine, one of the largest WordPress hosting providers, from accessing key resources on WordPress.org, followed by their controversial fork of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin, has highlighted a troubling trend of consolidation and control.

These moves suggest that WordPress is no longer the open-source, community-driven platform it once was. Instead, it’s becoming a more corporately controlled entity, with Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, exerting significant influence over the direction of the platform. This control has raised red flags for many businesses, developers, and hosting providers, ourselves included.

Why We Support a WordPress Fork

We believe a fork in WordPress is needed now more than ever. WPEngine, with its existing suite of tools and infrastructure, is uniquely positioned to make this happen. Imagine WPEngine creating a new open-source platform under the StudioPress brand, with its own consumer theme and plugin repository. WPEngine already owns tools like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) and Local which would give the new platform significant developer focus too. Couple all this with Flywheel’s agency focus, and StudioPress could offer a more open, developer-friendly alternative that the WordPress community now sees is in jeopardy.

This new platform could offer the same flexibility and customizability that WordPress is known for, without the heavy-handed control that Automattic is exerting. It would give developers, agencies, and consumers a more positive and open environment for website innovation.

Hoot Host’s Commitment to the Future

We will continue to offer WordPress hosting, maintenance, and builder plans for now. However, we are preparing for a future where WordPress may no longer be the most viable option for our customers. As the situation unfolds, we will be ready to pivot, ensuring that our customers have access to a more promising, secure, and sustainable platform.

At Hoot Host, our mission has always been to provide the best website solutions, and we believe that involves moving toward platforms that promote growth, freedom, and transparency. We’re excited to see what the future holds, and we remain committed to offering our customers a superior online presence, no matter the platform.

Hoot Host already supports popular platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, and Shopify in addition to WordPress! Now with our own website builder built into our AI Website Builder and Startup Website Builder plans, our customers know they have a more stable and streamlined system for their website and complete online presence.

If you have any questions about our platform updates or would like to learn more about our new AI Website Builder and Startup Website Builder plans, don’t hesitate to reach out to Hoot Host support.