Event Calendar Newsletter: Enhancing plugin performance and reliability with Managed Hosting for WordPress

Event Calendar Newsletter partnered with hosting.com to transform its WordPress hosting performance, cutting average page load times from 350–400 ms to just 49 ms while reducing infrastructure costs. With hosting.com’s managed services ensuring reliability and scalability, the team now supports 20,000+ active users with a faster experience and more freedom to focus on product innovation.

Website: eventcalendarnewsletter.com
Industry: WordPress plugin development
Headquarters: Canada

Background



Event Calendar Newsletter develops WordPress plugins designed to help websites promote events more effectively. 


The company’s flagship plugin extends the functionality of the popular Events Calendar ecosystem by adding advanced filtering, display options, and integration with email marketing tools such as Mailchimp and Brevo. 


First launched in 2016, the plugin now supports more than 20,000 active users, serving website owners, organisations, and event-driven businesses that rely on WordPress to promote activities and communicate with their audiences. 
 


Because the business is built entirely around WordPress plugins and online distribution, reliable and high-performance hosting is essential to ensure smooth product delivery, documentation access, and customer support resources.

Challenges and Requirements



Before moving to hosting.com, the business hosted its infrastructure with another provider that had recently been acquired by a larger hosting group. 


Following the acquisition, the team began noticing a gradual decline in service quality. 


Declining Performance 


Page load times began increasing, which impacted overall site responsiveness and user experience. For a business whose customers are primarily WordPress users and developers, performance expectations are high. 


Slower infrastructure created friction when customers accessed plugin documentation, downloads, and support resources. 


Rising Costs 


At the same time, the cost of the hosting environment continued to rise significantly. The previous provider was three to four times more expensive than alternative platforms being evaluated. 


However, cost alone was not the deciding factor. Performance, reliability, and support quality remained the most important considerations. 


Inconsistent Support 


Support quality also became less predictable following the acquisition. Depending on which support engineer responded, solutions could vary significantly. 


For a small business relying on stable infrastructure, this inconsistency created uncertainty when troubleshooting technical issues. 

The team began evaluating alternative hosting providers that could deliver:



• Faster WordPress performance 


• Reliable technical support 


• Migration assistance 


• Strong infrastructure stability 


• Better long-term value

The Solution



The company migrated to hosting.com’s managed WordPress hosting powered by Rocket.net technology. 


The new hosting environment provided: 



• WordPress infrastructure optimized for performance 


• Integrated CDN capabilities 


• WP Rocket performance optimization 


• Advanced caching configuration controls 


• Developer-friendly configuration flexibility 


• Migration support from the hosting.com engineering team 



One particularly valuable feature was the ability to customize caching behavior through server configuration.

Because the website includes dynamic pages like checkout and account pages, the team needed precise control over caching rules to ensure user data remained secure and accurate. 


The hosting environment allowed these adjustments while still maintaining strong performance optimisation. 


Migration support from the hosting.com engineering team ensured the transition completed smoothly without operational disruption

Impact



The company migrated to hosting.com’s managed WordPress hosting powered

by Rocket.net technology. 



Significant Performance Improvements 


Following the migration, the team recorded a dramatic reduction in page load times. 



Average response times improved from 350 - 400 milliseconds to approximately 49 milliseconds, delivering a noticeably faster user experience. 


For a WordPress plugin business serving a technically sophisticated audience, this performance improvement was particularly valuable. 



Lower Infrastructure Costs 


The move to hosting.com also resulted in substantial cost savings. 


Despite delivering stronger performance and infrastructure capabilities, the new hosting environment operates at a fraction of the cost of the previous provider.

Operational Simplicity 


The hosting dashboard provides clear visibility into traffic patterns, cache performance, and CDN activity. 


This makes it easier to monitor site performance and adjust configuration settings when needed, without navigating complex server management systems. 


Reliable Infrastructure 


Since migrating to hosting.com, the team has experienced stable performance without requiring ongoing support intervention. 


When questions arise, the team knows they can quickly reach knowledgeable engineers who understand the platform and can provide clear guidance. 


Business Outcome 


With faster infrastructure and simplified hosting management, the Event Calendar Newsletter business can focus on improving its WordPress plugins and supporting its growing user base. 


Reliable hosting ensures customers can access documentation, downloads, and resources without interruption. 
For a small, independent plugin business operating within the WordPress ecosystem, stable infrastructure provides the confidence needed to maintain long-term operations while supporting thousands of active users.

"After the migration, we haven’t had to reach out about any issues. And when I do have a question, I know I can reach out and get a helpful response quickly."

- Event Calendar Newsletter