What gaps or trends in your industry led to the founding of your company, and what are your biggest milestones so far in terms of customers, revenue team, etc.?
One.com was founded in 2002 by Danish entrepreneur Jacob Jensen to address the need for an easy-to-use, affordable hosting solution. Simplicity and value have driven our global growth, and today we serve nearly 1 million customers across 140+ countries. As part of group.one, we’re evolving alongside other leading web and SaaS companies. In my six years with one.com, I’ve witnessed the company’s transformation from a traditional hosting provider to a comprehensive online presence platform with proprietary solutions. Notably:- We’ve streamlined from 20+ hosting plans to just three core flavors, Beginner to Enthusiast (+1 Guru plan for agencies), simplifying the customer experience, and meeting modern needs.
- Innovation now focuses on software, including AI-driven web creation and email tools in 2024.
What are currently the most pressing pain points that you solve, and what makes them more urgent now than in the past?
The web is becoming increasingly complex, from social media management to cybersecurity and seamless platform-website integration. It’s like the evolution of household appliances—tools meant to simplify life have instead raised expectations. Similarly, businesses now face rising demands for always-on, digital interactions. Ten years ago, many operated offline or with basic ‘brochureware’ websites. Today, every business must offer a full digital experience, from e-commerce to customer service, with consumers expecting smooth, end-to-end interactions. At one.com, we address this complexity by investing in solutions that simplify the digital landscape. For example, group.one’s acquisition of Shore, an online booking solution, will soon integrate with our platform to offer even more seamless services. As expectations rise, so do quality standards. Consumers now demand beautiful, polished websites, and generative AI is helping SMBs meet this demand. That’s why we’ve integrated AI tools like our mail writing assistant for clear communication and Website Builder GPT to help users create stunning sites in minutes.How are people usually trying to fix these problems, and what’s wrong with these solutions?
The biggest obstacle is often inaction. Many business owners are overwhelmed by the digital landscape, even though plenty of technologies and experts are available help them succeed online. I recently spoke with a shop owner who’s been a loyal one.com customer for years. He readily admitted his website was outdated and had incorrect opening hours, confusing his customers. Yet, the solution was right there—our website builder syncs with Google My Business, allowing real-time updates with just a few taps on a mobile device. Many businesses face these kinds of issues: simple, effective solutions already exist, but they’re not being used. Tools like our AI-onboarding flow could have revamped his entire site in minutes. The problem isn’t the lack of technology—it’s the hesitation to engage with it.What features or unique approaches make your way to solve them better, and how has that helped you make an impact? Can you share metrics or stories that show the difference you’re making?
To stay with that example around inaction, our priority is keeping customers informed about the ever-evolving digital landscape, so we can win online together. We do this through in-app prompts, targeted communication, and educational YouTube videos on topics ranging from phishing 101, to advanced tools like webinars on Google Ads. While many traditional hosting businesses still focus on what customers buy, we follow engagement metrics and behavioural patterns instead. Thinking like a SaaS company helps us understand our customers to evolve alongside them. For example, we track monthly and daily users for web applications, as well as specific feature adoption. For example, 84% of our mailboxes regularly use webmail, a sleek web-based interface that’s way easier than setting up IMAP on a mobile or desktop app. When we redesigned webmail last year, we closely tracked adoption rates and NPS scores* for the new interface, and listened to our customers’ feedback. That’s how Dark mode came about in early 2024, where webmail now follows device settings as well as manual settings across mail, contacts, and calendar views. This is just one example of one.com evolving its software products to ensure that our customers maximise the value of our tools to thrive in a changing online environment. * What does NPS score tell you?NPS is a metric used to measure how likely a customer is to recommend your business on a scale from -100 to +100. The higher the better.
What exciting new projects or updates are you working on right now? What made you decide to focus on them, and how are they going to benefit your customers?
2025 is set to be a transformational year with several new products and services on the horizon:- We recently launched our Virtual Private Servers (VPS), aimed at tech-savvy customers. This product will expand with more features to reduce admin overheads and provide flexible hosting solutions for ambitious projects. It’s also designed to help our agency partners exceed their clients’ expectations with high-performance solutions.
- To further enhance our customers’ online presence, we have some upcoming features like an integrated booking service within our website builder and seamless connections between our e-commerce tools and platforms like Etsy and Google Merchant Center.
- We’ve just revamped our WordPress offering, now featuring block-based SEO-friendly themes and Google Gemini AI in the onboarding flow. As far as we know, one.com is the first to integrate this AI tool into WordPress onboarding. Next year, we’ll further enhance WordPress with new plugins and optimized hosting plans.
What trends and technologies are you keeping an eye on? What opportunities and challenges will they bring to your industry?
We’re closely watching several key trends and technologies that will shape the future of the web: Green hosting and sustainabilityWith growing awareness of environmental impact, eco-friendly hosting solutions are becoming more important. Customers are beginning to prefer providers that prioritize energy efficiency and sustainable practices, which is why we’re really focused on net zero. Today one.com is already running on green infrastructure, and we’re actively working on further reducing our carbon footprint. Data privacy and cybersecurity
As businesses rely more on online transactions, protecting customer data has never been more critical. Addressing rising cyber threats and compliance with evolving regulations like the NIS2 EU will be a priority for all online solution providers. For us, this means continuously improving our security features and educating customers on best practices across an ever wider range of subjects. This year, we integrated Termly cookie banners into our site builder, so our customers can stay compliant with how they track their web traffic. Generative AI
It’s rapidly transforming content creation, customer support, and user experience. The challenge is ensuring these AI tools are intuitive and accessible for small businesses. I’ve already shared some insights in how we leverage AI in our core product offerings. In the future, we see even greater opportunities in integrating AI across our platform, helping customers automate and optimize their workflows. These trends bring both challenges and opportunities, but the key will be staying agile and adapting our products to meet customer needs while helping them navigate this evolving landscape.
