Today, we had the chance to speak to Mr. Daniel Parvanov, the CEO of Coolice Host, a French hosting company.
If you are interested to hear about a success story in the hosting industry, taking a few minutes to read this interview would be the best thing you did today.
CooliceHost started in 2013 in the USA. Could you please tell us a bit more about the beginning?
CooliceHost is a web hosting company focused on delivering suitable solutions to a wide range of website owners. That’s why our slogan is Created by webmasters for webmasters.
It all began in 2013 when our first shared hosting plan was released. Our initiative professionals launched the Nginx Web Hosting service with extended options at reasonable prices. From day one, the management and the team of CooliceHost were determined to offer cutting-edge and eco-friendly technologies, a high level of security, personal attitude to each and every customer, while still keeping competitive prices, of course.
As webmasters we understand that each customer has a different level of expertise, so we provide comprehensive tools to thousands of users worldwide – beginners or professionals, and we would welcome the opportunity to help each one in choosing the hosting package that would meet his need best.
We kept on developing and reaching further, and here is some chronology on our plans:
January 2014 – Launching our first Nginx Shared Plans
April 2013 – Presenting our new VPS Hybrid plans (Semi-Dedicated Server Hosting)
January 2016 – Launching its brand new Canadian and US Varnish + Nginx, SSD hosting with cPanel, CloudLinux 7
June 2017 – LiteSpeed and Advanced DDoS Protection were integrated in our Nginx Shared and VPS Hybrid plans
Jule 2018 – Adding more resources to all of the plans
April 2019 – DirectAdmin Control Panel for our new servers and plans
January 2020 – Redis Cache Instances for Every DirectAdmin Hosting Plan and AMD processors
December 2021 – Presenting our new Private Cloud (ex. VPS Hybrid plans), Pure Nginx Hosting Mod was added
February 2022 – We increased the resources of our Reseller and VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) plans
And these were only the major events in our history so far. We have always tried to perform better and we plan on keeping up the good work and setting higher standards.
We also did our research on your company, and we noticed that you really do introduce new products following the latest trends. Why is it important for a company to do it and to know what is best for the clients?
Web hosting services have changed significantly since the early 2000s. The entire “online life” reached a totally new level. You just can’t stay in the same spot if you want to run a business in such a dynamic field. Actually, no business could survive staying passive, but when you operate online, things happen much faster.
The customers have a great number of offers to choose from, and you must understand better their needs and find them the best solution.
For example, until mid-2010 DDOS protection was an extra option, additionally paid. Currently, it is integrated in most hosting plans. This is how a need becomes a trend.
CooliceHost strives to always be up-to-date and as competitive as possible, and it is a 24/7 job. That is why, we have integrated in our shared plans the option to use a terminal, helping users to easily manipulate their file share and databases.
We welcome our customers’ feedback and encourage them to contact us, because we understand that this is how we could plan and launch new services, and add value to our services and to our customer’s businesses. Innovative solutions should always be based on the customers’ needs. And this is what makes us different from our competitors – the firm believes that if we help our clients develop, they will help us in our development.
In 2020 you introduced your own private server. Why is it important for a company to have a private server and what are the benefits of having a private server for your customers?
Yes, in 2020 we have introduced our service – VDS, which is a private server with increased resources, ready to serve large web-based applications, stores, and intensive systems. There are some basic parameters in the standard VDS, but there is also the option to customize it in accordance with the individual needs and budget. We launched these services after considering the fact that large-scale businesses have completely different needs and we should be ready to offer numerous possibilities in order to stay helpful and competitive.
One of the advantages of these private servers is their level 3 support. It is indeed a good way to provide as much assistance as possible so that a business web site could operate properly and smoothly. Another important advantage is our advanced DDoS protection, as well as the Infrastructure Proxmox Cloud. An additional facilitator for the management is the DirectAdmin control panel that we offer.
This was the year when our VDSs won the top 10 VPS award in Hostadvice, which made us very proud and convinced that we are on the right track. The next step will be launching the option for the customer to choose his own parameters, thus he will have the opportunity to monitor the prices in real-time and what the budget would be for the configuration made.
Talking about 2020, we have to mention the COVID-19 pandemic and how it influenced the work of CooliceHost. Can you tell us a bit more about the impact that this crisis has on your business?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for all sector, hitting consumption hard and shrinking certain businesses and sectors.
Nevertheless, we actually grew during this period, thanks to the increasing number of businesses going online. We did, of coarse, our research and it turned out to be mostly the small and medium-sized stores which had to change the way of making sales, in order to stay on the market. As some sort of restrictions were imposed worldwide, the stores were pushed towards the online sales, and the hosting service providers have been quite busy.
As of our team, we have been happy to be able to do our job from different spots. Our employees have been working from home, and it was relatively easy to organize our tasks. It caused no difficulties at all, and in many aspects it has been so much easier for everyone, being able to optimize the daily agenda. We believe that it was a positive change. What is more, we could invest the saved expenses in improving our service.
During the COVID-19 crisis we proved ourselves to be flexible and responsive to the customers’ needs, and we continued in being successful.
What is your opinion on how the hosting industry will develop in the next 10 years? What are the expectations?
Our analysis shows that the general proposals addressed to large groups of clients will not work good enough in the days to come. The clients’ expectations grow, more innovative businesses go online and the hosting service provides should become maximally personalized, facilitated and easily accessible.
In the next 10 years, I expect rapid and dynamic development of the hosting industry, which would mean of coarse additional benefits to the customers. They will be able to choose quickly and easily the solution they want, resulting in hosting provider forced to be as flexible as possible in their product lines.
I believe that it is actually a good thing, the stereotypes have no place in a dynamic sector like the hosting service providing, no matter whether selling shared hosting or rented servers, each business need is strictly personal and this will lean in that direction. The hosting service providers will not bare the competition of the flexible and personalized offers in case they hold to the limited and fixed ones.
Additionally, our team never forgets that making a sale is just the beginning and not the end of our efforts. That is why we try to keep things simple and hold on to the so-called easy management. Our business strategy is to keep our clients happy thanks to high-quality services and a client-friendly team. It all must be available for you within a few clicks while sitting in your favorite chair and researching for the new home of your website.
A lot of the customers are not familiar with the terms and services you offer. Could you explain how you reach new customers who do not know your hosting provider?
Currently, we are mostly known for our accelerated hosting solutions designed for webmasters and pros. CooliceHost has become popular and preferred by this community for the reasons already mentioned above.
Our happy and successful customers are the best advertising and marketing channel. We are proud to have many clients who communicate their good experiences with us to co-workers, friends, and on social media. Our experience shows that is indeed what works in our industry. Smart consumers know that a fancy ad does not always mean the best solution, so they look for the good experiences for others. The good experience of an active client is the most effective marketing. We also reach potential clients via webmaster forums and social groups, IT websites, and places where we know that people will choose us not for the huge marketing budgets, but for the high-quality services.
We are happy and thankful to find short positive comments for our company in independent blogs and on social media written by satisfied customers. Currently, it is so easy to lose your good reputation if you leave your customers’ needs neglected, everyone and everything is online, so negative opinions on the web will eventually leave you off the market, and no advertisement would help.
It is our main goal to make sure that every interaction with a customer is cared for by our team quickly and efficiently. We also read carefully all the feedback you leave, and all the kind words mean a lot to us and motivate us to continue with our good work.
There are a lot of companies on the market offering hosting services. What makes CooliceHost different from the other companies?
Yes indeed, we work in a quite competitive market. That is why offering good and high-quality services is just not enough anymore. It is just the necessary ground.
Our management and team try to constantly upgrade and set up trends. What makes us different are also the high-tech solutions and the personal attitude. This combination works really well when you want your customers to trust you.
Additionally, we should of course mention our speedy and leading technologies. It is quite a popular and common statement, I believe, and that is why we invite users to check our services during a trial period before committing to us for a longer period of time.
We also have a loyal customers program, and with time our clients get additional bonuses to their hosting plan. This is just another proof that we really want our clients to grow so that we grow with them. Our clients feel happy being our clients, and what may seem like additional expenses for us is actually an investment, as the happy client means perfect advertisement and more happy new clients. Unlike most businesses, we offer our bonuses as a compliment and a way to thank our customers for their trust, and not as a last desperate move to make a disappointed customer change his mind about ending his business relations with your company.
You talk about happy customers, but what makes a customer happy when it comes to hosting services?
Currently, customers expect value for their money and want to get the best offer for their business. And there is nothing wrong with it, it is indeed the right thing to claim. After all, we are businessmen too, as well as webmasters too. That is why we understand perfectly what webmasters hosting providing service have to be.
Despite being very different, our customers have always been focused on several important services: reliability, speed, and security, and here we are unconditionally the leader.
For us, the majority of our assistance consists in helping the clients set up and run their projects with us. Receiving reports for problems is very rare, but of course, we handle that with care. Our technical team takes each report seriously and never neglects our customers’ issues. We have always believed that our customer’s success is our success as well.
How do you see the development of CooliceHost in the next 5 years?
The last few years showed us that one cannot actually foresee anything. That is why we prefer to plan our next necessary steps and seize the moment when it comes to turning them into real and working solutions. We plan to work hard, improve constantly, and pose CooliceHost among the leading hosting providers for webmasters, a serious player in the global market.
We understand that it is a multi-level and multi-direction job we have to do, but as long as we keep the client’s trust in the first place, I think that we are on the right track. Here are some of the steps in our mid-term plan
– Possibility for greater customization of the services, completely based on the choice and needs of the client.
– Integration of new technologies and rapid scaling of resources at the customer’s request.
– Integrating more 3rd part services into our hosting plans.
– Affiliate program with generous commissions.
Hitting the right moment, I believe that within the next few years we will be one of the most preferred hosting providers in Europe thanks to our everyday commitment and achievements.
Finally, could you share some success tips with the hosting community?
Well, our success is solely based on our serious and professional attitude towards the position we are in, a reliable partner that thousands of companies around the world rely on. We have no other choice but to take our job seriously and to keep making efforts to take good care of the online home of your business so that you have one less issue to think about, and to focus on growing bigger.
Success comes when wanting to reach further than just offering another ordinary service or product. It takes dedication and passion.
The world is too small now, and it is no longer enough to write on your site that you are the best hosting provider. Clients communicate, comments have become viral, and nothing can save your business if you do not dedicate yourself to your clients and they do not trust you. And believe me, you have a short time to prove yourself reliable, it is an everyday task.
