What Liquid Web does

Liquid Web, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, is a privately held managed hosting provider operating as a subsidiary of Nexcess Corp within the CloudOne Digital family of brands. The company delivers infrastructure services spanning managed and self-managed dedicated servers, VPS, cloud dedicated (bare metal with cloud flexibility), VMware-based private clouds, and specialized ecommerce platforms — most notably its purpose-built WooCommerce stack with PHP worker autoscaling up to 100+ workers and the UltraStack Magento platform integrating Varnish, Redis, and OpenSearch. Supporting technology includes Acronis backups, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN with 280+ PoPs, multiple control panels (cPanel, Plesk, InterWorx), a public REST API, and compliance coverage spanning HIPAA, PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR. The company also operates a WordPress software ecosystem comprising Kadence, LearnDash, The Events Calendar, and Give, plus a 2024-launched GPU hosting product line featuring NVIDIA H100, L40S, and L4 processors for AI and HPC workloads.

Name

Liquid Web

Legal name

Liquid Web, LLC

Website

https://liquidweb.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Liquid Web is a privately held managed hosting provider offering dedicated servers, VPS, cloud infrastructure, and specialized WooCommerce, Magento, and WordPress hosting, backed by 24/7 expert support. It serves 45,000+ customers across 150 countries in ecommerce, agency, enterprise, healthcare, and gaming verticals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Managed Web Hosting Infrastructure

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Facilities Management Services (541513), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Cloud Managed Services (M365/Azure/AWS/GCP) (BPAEABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cloud Operations Outsourcing (Cloud Managed Operations) (BPAEAMAC), Private Cloud Platforms (On‑Prem Cloud Stacks) (HDABABAA)

Keywords

• Managed hosting services
• Dedicated server hosting
• VPS hosting solutions
• Ecommerce hosting platform
• Cloud infrastructure services

Headquarters

HQ city

Lansing

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Managed Hosting Services: Subscription-based recurring revenue from managed hosting services including VPS, dedicated servers, and cloud hosting with various management tiers (self-managed, core managed, fully managed).
2. Managed Ecommerce Platforms: Specialized hosting for WooCommerce, Magento, and WordPress with tiered plans based on site count, storage, bandwidth, and PHP workers. Includes autoscaling capabilities.
3. Signature Services: Expert services for platform setup, configuration, migrations, custom features, and maintenance for WordPress ecosystem tools (LearnDash, Kadence, The Events Calendar, Give).
4. Software Products: Premium WordPress plugins including Kadence, LearnDash, The Events Calendar, and Give sold as licensed software.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Liquid Web delivers managed and self-managed hosting infrastructure including dedicated servers, virtual private servers (VPS), Cloud Dedicated (bare metal with cloud flexibility), and VMware private cloud. The portfolio also features specialized ecommerce hosting platforms (Managed WooCommerce, Magento UltraStack, and Managed WordPress) with autoscaling, PCI compliance, and high-traffic optimization, plus GPU hosting for AI/HPC workloads and an integrated WordPress software ecosystem (Kadence, LearnDash, The Events Calendar, Give).

Product overview

Liquid Web by Nexcess operates as a managed hosting platform providing a comprehensive portfolio of infrastructure and application hosting solutions. The product suite centers on managed dedicated servers and VPS hosting (both self-managed and fully managed tiers), supplemented by specialized ecommerce platforms for WooCommerce and Magento (UltraStack), managed WordPress, and cloud virtualization through VMware and Cloud Dedicated. The company offers GPU hosting for AI/HPC workloads, professional software ecosystem products (Kadence, LearnDash, The Events Calendar, Give), and Signature Services for expert platform configuration. Integration infrastructure includes Acronis backups, Cloudflare CDN, and multiple control panel options (cPanel, Plesk, InterWorx), supported by a public API for developer automation. The unified brand (Liquid Web by Nexcess) consolidates three legacy entities to deliver global infrastructure with high-touch managed support across the portfolio.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Kadence: WordPress theme and blocks plugin
• LearnDash
• Give
• The Events Calendar

Products and services

• Managed Dedicated Servers Fully managed single-tenant dedicated server hosting with 99.99% uptime SLA, 10 Gbps network, DDoS protection, Acronis backups, and choice of cPanel, Plesk, or InterWorx control panels. Designed for businesses needing dedicated infrastructure with full management included.
• Self-Managed Dedicated Servers Bare metal dedicated servers with full root access and administrative control. Customer manages OS, security, and software updates while Liquid Web handles hardware and network infrastructure.
• Managed VPS Hosting Fully managed virtual private servers with 99.9% uptime guarantee, SSD storage, 10 Gbps network, DDoS protection, Cloudflare CDN, and migration assistance.
• Self-Managed VPS Hosting Unmanaged virtual private servers providing full root access, OS flexibility (Linux/Windows), and enterprise-grade hardware at lower cost with no management services included.
• Cloud Dedicated Bare metal servers with cloud flexibility using hypervisor virtualization. Provides full CPU/RAM exclusivity with cloud-like resizing capabilities for scaling up or down.
• Managed WooCommerce Hosting Purpose-built managed WooCommerce hosting with auto-scaling PHP workers (up to 100+), 99.99% uptime SLA, sales monitoring, visual regression testing, and white-glove migration services. Plans range from Spark to Enterprise with multi-site support.
• Magento Hosting (UltraStack) Fully managed Magento hosting featuring UltraStack technology with Varnish caching, Redis session handling, OpenSearch-as-a-Service, predictive auto-scaling, and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance. Plans range from XS to L with up to 31 sites.
• Managed WordPress Hosting Fully managed WordPress hosting at scale with automatic core updates, plugin management, staging environments, and expert support for WordPress-specific issues.
• GPU Hosting High-performance GPU hosting for AI and HPC workloads featuring NVIDIA L4, L40S, and H100 GPUs. Designed for machine learning training, inference, deep learning, and data analytics applications.
• VMware Hosting VMware-based private cloud hosting with multi-tenant clustered solutions, disaster recovery capabilities, and compliance-ready infrastructure.
• Signature Services Expert support services for WordPress ecosystem including LearnDash LMS, The Events Calendar, Kadence theme, and Give donation plugins. Covers setup, configuration, migrations, custom features, and ongoing maintenance.
• Kadence WordPress theme and blocks plugin offering page building capabilities, global styles, and design system features. Sold as licensed software through Liquid Web's software ecosystem.
• LearnDash Learning Management System (LMS) plugin for WordPress enabling course creation, lesson structuring, and educational content delivery. Sold as licensed software.
• The Events Calendar

Quantifiable outcome

• 67% of businesses can boost revenue by addressing website performance
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

AI capability4 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• VPN.comminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2023VPN.com expanded partnership with Liquid Web in December 2023 to offer secure hosting across Europe via Amsterdam data centers, extending Liquid Web's reach into VPN and secure hosting services.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• BigScoots: Boutique managed WordPress, WooCommerce, and dedicated hosting provider with strong service reputation. Niche competitor in the same SMB/mid-market managed hosting space.

Broad incumbents

• DigitalOcean: Cloud infrastructure (Droplets, Kubernetes, GPU droplets) and managed hosting via Cloudways. Competes on raw cloud infrastructure and managed services where Liquid Web plays.
• GoDaddy: Diversified SMB internet platform including domains, shared hosting, managed WordPress, and ecommerce. Overlaps with Liquid Web in managed WordPress/WooCommerce but with much broader portfolio.

Direct peers

• WP Engine: Pure-play managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting provider serving SMB and mid-market with proprietary stack. Closest direct peer to Liquid Web's managed WordPress/WooCommerce lines.
• Kinsta: Premium managed WordPress, WooCommerce, and application hosting on Google Cloud Platform. Direct competitor in the higher tier of managed WordPress/WooCommerce where Liquid Web competes with its Spark-Executive plans.
• Rackspace Technology: Long-standing managed cloud services provider across dedicated, private, and multi-cloud. Comparable to Liquid Web on multi-server enterprise managed services and 24/7 expert support.
• Cloudways (by DigitalOcean): Managed cloud hosting built on DigitalOcean/AWS/Google Cloud for SMB and agencies. Direct peer in agent-friendly managed hosting and server management.
• SiteGround: Independent managed shared and cloud hosting provider competing in WordPress/WooCommerce SMB tier. Comparable on price points and managed VPS positioning.
• A2 Hosting: Independent managed and unmanaged hosting (VPS, dedicated, shared, WordPress/WooCommerce). Same mid-market hosting portfolio overlap as Liquid Web.
• Bluehost: Mass-market shared, VPS, and WordPress hosting under Newfold Digital. Overlaps with Liquid Web across WordPress/WooCommerce SMB tier.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/LiquidWeb
• Facebookfacebook.com/LiquidWebInc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/liquid-web

Compliance6 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A7 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Liquid Web