This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Dylan Clayton Bost, the CEO of
Sunny HQ. We discussed how the company evolved, what separates Sunny HQ from other similar services, and how Dylan envisions the future of the industry.
What is Sunny HQ?
Sunny HQ is a full-service WordPress website hosting, support, development, management, and security company.
Sunny HQ is a place where we make WordPress websites shine and allow companies to get back to focusing on their business instead of their site.
We are defining a new class of hosting service providers beyond traditional WP-managed hosting – “Delegated hosting.”
Delegated hosting = WP managed hosting + intense focus on WP/security/speed + top tier support + results orientation. In short, we are your single point of contact and handle everything related to your WordPress website.
Please describe the story behind the company: What sparked the idea, and how has it evolved so far?
The idea was born out of a hosting service I provided in a previous branding marketing company I owned. While hosting and management were definitely outside the typical scope of a branding company, I found that organizations heavily valued completely outsourcing their website management. Even though web technologies have become less expensive and more user-friendly in the last 20 years, it is still very complex to properly host and maintain a website. It is also nearly impossible to hire a single individual with the wide variety of skills and experience needed to care for a website – design, development, server administration, SEO, web strategy, troubleshooting, website performance, etc.
Before opening Sunny HQ, I spent 18 months, on top of my ten years of customer management experience, researching and finding the perfect mix of custom, high-end services, and people to fill a major gap in the market. Before Sunny HQ, your options were limited to finding an affordable website host and then a service provider to manage your website. In other words, you’d have cheap hosting combined with a local developer or an overseas support team. This usually results in an underperforming website and slow customer service. In fact, in our six years of onboarding customers, poor performance and slow service is the number one factor cited as their reason for moving to Sunny HQ.
For us, the idea is straightforward. First, put every website on an enterprise-grade hardware platform. Whether the site receives 1,000 visitors per month or 1,000,000 – every site deserves to be fast.
Then, proactively maintain the website just as you would your own vehicle. If a website is maintained properly and on time, very few issues arise.
Lastly, we talk to our customers using plain English without a bunch of geek-speak. Some of our customers are technologically sophisticated and like to get into the details. No problem, we’re happy to geek out for those that want it! However, most of our customers know next to nothing about how a website works. They just have a problem that needs to be fixed or an opportunity to take advantage of. While this sounds basic, we’ve found this to be an enormous advantage in the marketplace. Most hosting companies, even the great ones, require customers to know too much about web hosting technology. At Sunny HQ, our customers just need to know what they need, and we’ll take care of the rest.
What services do you offer?
Our core services come in the form of plans that include complete-care hosting, maintenance, security, and US-based support for a fixed monthly fee. The plans take care of all your website’s ongoing needs and include time each month for site enhancements such as creating new forms, adding new content, creating new pages, template changes, etc. Our plans range from $129/mo to $599/mo. For our larger customers, we typically create a custom plan based on their unique needs.
You can find out more here:
https://sunnyhq.io/wordpress-care-plan/
In addition, we offer à la carte services such as: start to finish website design and build including e-commerce, on-page Search Engine Optimization, and website performance optimization.
What separates you from other similar websites/companies?
Our people-first and turnkey approach to these services! Everything we do is designed to make our customers’ lives easier. After six years, we are still the only company offering hosting, management, and support services under one umbrella. We believe this gives us a distinct advantage. Our WordPress optimized hosting environment, coupled with our turnkey support, allows us to offer a level of service unparalleled in the marketplace, and our customers feel it every day.
Who are your typical customers, and what do you think is the main challenge that your product solves for them?
We work with companies in all industries and of all sizes, from single-member LLC’s to $100MM corporations. We really don’t have a “typical” customer. We service an extensive range of organizations. For example, one of our smaller customers is a provider of locally sourced honey. One of our larger customers is a nationwide railcar provider.
What they have in common is a need for their WordPress websites to operate at peak performance 24/7, and prompt, personalized support. In addition, our customers understand the value of their time and the value of a single point of contact for their website. They get that an hour they spend working on their website is an hour not spent taking care of their customers and growing their business.
How do you envision the future of your industry?
WordPress absolutely dominates the CMS market and we believe that its popularity will continue to grow. While more companies like
Squarespace and
Webflow will come on the scene, there’s still no substitute for WordPress’s open-source structure, flexibility, enormous resources, and limitless ability to create custom web environments affordably.
Non-automated, hands-on support is growing and will continue to grow. Automation is great, but it has limits and can’t solve all problems. Companies that understand this will thrive!
Moving forward, we are looking to broaden our services to include more educational resources for our customers and website enhancement features to help them grow traffic.
