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Managed WordPress hosting provider Pagely is celebrating its 7th birthday, according to an extensive blog post on its history, which goes back to 2009 with the launch of Page.ly v1.0.

Now, of course the managed WordPress hosting market is booming. But back then the industry was much different, as Pagely explains.

In 2006, when it was a small web design agency, Pagely introduced a prototype "website builder" service with automated deployment and self-service content management. Some 30 existing Pagely clients added it to their services, and as the company sought to expand its business beyond fee-based client services a few years later, it discovered that most were still subscribed.

Pagely revived the original project, added plugin automation, improved security, and defaulted popular caching plugin settings for speed. The company says its first competitors entered the market in mid-2010, and describes an evolved service market ranging from inexpensive GoDaddy, through mid-market WP Engine, to premium WordPress VIP enterprise products.

A report from earlier this year showed increased site visits and increasing budgets for agency WordPress projects.

Pagely offers "mid-tier" managed WordPress hosting in addition to its enterprise services. Pagely cites a recent enterprise deployment of a $20,000 a month multi-node, multi-region Amazon-backed cluster as representative of the high-end of that market.

In the future, Pagely sees further technology-side commoditization. It also sees continued WordPress adoption among enterprises and competition among managed WordPress hosting providers cementing the platform's popularity.  This in turn will drive M&A activity, which could in turn open diverse niche opportunities.

Source: Pagely Looks Back at 7 Years of WordPress Hosting