Milestones of Hostpoint and the digital world since 2001

Only two years after the formation of Hostpoint, the racks at the server center in Geneva are at full capacity. There are servers everywhere! At the same time, the company continues to expand, professionalize and upgrade its infrastructure. In a meticulously planned operation, the servers were driven overnight in minivans from Geneva to their new home: the Interxion server center in Glattbrugg in the canton of Zurich. With their own server rooms, redundant connectivity, separate fire protection zones and biometric access controls, the Hostpoint servers’ new site is extremely secure.

Only four years after being established, Hostpoint is already managing 40,000 domains. It has become Switzerland’s largest web hosting provider. The change from the GmbH (LLC) format to an AG (PLC) is a logical step toward further growth. At the same time, Hostpoint massively expands its portfolio of available extensions (top-level domains). With more than 220 top-level domains, customers are spoiled for choice.

A product is only as good as the software that runs it. With its new control panel, Hostpoint aims to offer its customers a more comfortable, intuitive software for managing their hosting service. Some elements of the user interface were already home-made to begin with. Now, the entire panel receives a makeover – with everything “made in-house” and “made in Switzer­land”, of course.

Adding to the website and server administration services, Hostpoint Open-Xchange lets customers manage their team communication and collaboration more efficiently. The software, which changed its name to Cloud Office in 2014, combines e-mail, calendar, contact and task management functions with an innovative document management system in an integrated application. With its launch, Hostpoint offers genuine value to small and medium-sized businesses in particular. Once again, it sets a milestone on the Swiss internet services market.

Anyone relying on excellent availability, performance and security of their website now has a real alter­native to conventional shared hosting: the new Hostpoint Managed Servers. High-availability storage clusters store web and e-mail data alongside the service level agreement. Platinum support included!

Hostpoint is the first web hosting provider in Switzerland to be accredited by the ICANN internet administration authority. The strict, multi-stage audit certifies that Hostpoint is a provider with a high level of security and dependability when it comes to the administration of domain names. In the same year, Hostpoint’s annual turnover exceeds the magical figure of CHF 10 million for the first time.

The buzzword “search engine optimization” is sweeping SMEs and private households. Anyone who presents themselves online wants to be found. Hostpoint responds to this need by launching rankingCoach, a smart, cost-efficient and professional SEO solution. Thanks to rankingCoach, anyone can optimize their website without having to pay for expensive SEO agencies.

The Federal Office of Communications orders the Swiss registry SWITCH to discontinue its service for end customers with .ch domains. The reason behind this change is Switzerland’s new “Ordinance on Internet Domains”. Many of SWITCH’s domain customers find a new home in Hostpoint. In the same year, Hostpoint begins to register .swiss domain names, an exclusive top-level domain that is available exclusively to companies and organizations from Switzerland.

Fifteen-year-old Maurin Ludwig, a budding business IT specialist, becomes Hostpoint’s first trainee. Training young people is a way of giving back to society. As the market leader in the web hosting sector and an established IT company, Hostpoint wishes to contribute to Switzerland’s dual education system.

Hostpoint moves to new office facilities to give its employees an inspiring oasis of well-being and productivity. Besides various quiet spaces and an in-house bar, the new offices have a lot more space than the old building in the St. Dionys district of Jona. In the same year, the two co-founders Markus Gebert and Claudius Röllin buy back all Hostpoint shares in equal amounts, making the company fully owner-managed.

Hostpoint continues to record strong growth. Switzerland’s largest web hosting provider increases its turnover by 12% and crosses CHF 20 million. Within only two years, the company has increased its turnover by CHF 4 million. It now manages more than half a million domains for the first time – yet another milestone!

Thanks to Hostpoint’s new Managed Flex Servers, Swiss SMEs and agencies managing their own websites now benefit from greater flexibility, an infrastructure optimized for the integration of new technologies, and maximum website stability and availability.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Hostpoint is forced to make the switch to working from home at very short notice. It implements its own video conference solution, Meet, to keep communication and colla­boration flowing. Soon after, it is made available to the public for free and without restrictions. Switzerland’s largest internet provider has thereby added one more field to its extensive portfolio of services.

You’re having a quick work session on your website on Sunday afternoon – and then a question pops up. In this scenario, the only option for Hostpoint customers used to be contacting support by email or via the contact form. Starting January 2022, however, Hostpoint becomes the first Swiss web hosting provider to offer tech support by phone on weekends. That means customers can contact Hostpoint support by phone, email, WhatsApp, Skype and contact form seven days a week, from 8 am to 6 pm.

We’ve always had a lot of e-mail customers. But since January 2023, customers have been able to set up their own e-mail address without web hosting. The new E-mail & Cloud Office services are aimed primarily at SMEs, start-ups and private individuals and offer a personalized e-mail address with a custom domain name as well as extensive collaboration features. A calendar, an address book, generous Drive storage space, shareable documents and even a free migration service for the old e-mail account are included!