After launching a WordPress only hosting environment outside the walls of Automattic many moons ago, Page.ly is now offering businesses a way to build their own WordPress empires without mucking in the world of servers and geeks.
For our next trick we are releasing the new Page.ly Vertical Platform. In a nutshell it allows selected partners to customize their own page.ly hosting system to augment their existing service, under their brand.
As an example; our launch partner Graph Paper Press is offering a customized WP install with their entire set of themes and specialized upgrades at http://pro.graphpaperpress.com. Their market vertical is made of Photographers primarily and they have “rolled a custom install” to serve this vertical market. So rather then their customer coming to page.ly for hosting, their customer purchases a theme+support+hosting bundle in a single transaction directly from Graph Paper Press. All the benefits of page.ly like the upgrades and security go with it. Pretty snazzy eh? (Official Page.ly Blog)
Page.ly’s Vertical Platform does not yet list any specific prices which may indicate that this plan caters to those with deep pockets (or medium sized businesses).
Either way Page.ly’s offer should help companies desiring to offer a branded experience for their clients without having to annoy your average server company (who may not be thrilled with the idea).
Currently the only other major WordPress only hosting companies are Automattic (the creators of WordPress.com, VaultPress and Akismet) and WPEngine, the latter who just recently launched in July.
Thus far Page.ly seems to be the only WP only host to provide this option, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the competition attempts to match Page.ly’s offer (with the exception of Automattic who charts their own course).
