How Servd Hosting Scaled Their Craft CMS Platform with DigitalOcean Kubernetes

Servd Hosting is a specialized hosting provider focused on delivering optimized hosting solutions for Craft CMS websites. Founded in 2020, Servd Hosting has established itself as a go-to platform for web developers who want to focus on building beautiful websites without getting bogged down in server management. With a lean team of just two full-time employees, Servd Hosting has managed to create a robust, scalable hosting platform by leveraging DigitalOcean’s Managed Kubernetes service (DOKS).

Finding the right foundation for a specialized hosting platform

Matt Gray, Servd Hosting’s founder, spent years working in web development agencies where he repeatedly encountered the same challenge: finding reliable, easy-to-manage hosting for Craft CMS websites. While developers excelled at building sites, managing servers often became a time-consuming distraction. Matt saw an opportunity to create a hosting platform specifically tailored for Craft CMS.

The first version of Servd Hosting was built on Google Cloud’s Kubernetes infrastructure, but costs quickly became a concern. When DigitalOcean announced their managed Kubernetes service (DOKS), Matt saw an opportunity to build a more cost-effective solution. “We were already looking for a cheaper alternative to what we’d been using on Google Cloud,” Matt explains. “The second version of Servd Hosting got built on top of the beta version of DOKS, and it’s stayed there ever since.”

Building a scalable platform with DigitalOcean Kubernetes

As one of the earliest adopters of DOKS, Servd Hosting has grown alongside the platform. During the beta phase, their feedback to product managers even helped guide the platform’s development. Initially, they worked closely with DigitalOcean support to ensure DOKS had the features they needed, but after DOKS came out of beta and became a full-fledged platform, it’s been smooth sailing. “When we were first using the Managed Kubernetes platform, we were having to talk to support on a semi-regular basis,” Matt notes. “Now, we don’t have anything to talk to them about.”

The decision to use DOKS has been crucial for Servd Hosting’s lean operations. Without a managed Kubernetes service, they would need a team of Kubernetes experts to maintain their infrastructure. Instead, they can run multiple large-scale clusters with just two people. “We don’t pay for the DOKS layer within DigitalOcean. We only pay for the workload that we use within that,” Matt explains. “We would be paying for that anyway, even if we were managing Kubernetes internally ourselves.”

Beyond DOKS, Servd Hosting also uses several other DigitalOcean cloud services:

• Droplets, DigitalOcean’s Linux-based virtual machines, for running ad hoc standalone servers that handle specific tasks outside their main Kubernetes infrastructure.
• Advanced networking features like Cloud Firewalls for securing their infrastructure and Load Balancers for efficiently distributing traffic across their servers.
• Premium support that includes a dedicated account manager and a designated Slack channel, giving them direct access to DigitalOcean’s technical team for rapid problem resolution.

Looking ahead to continued growth

Now approaching their fifth year in business, Servd Hosting has achieved consistent growth and established strong product-market fit. Their focus has shifted from rapid feature development to optimizing their existing infrastructure and improving customer experience. “We’re at a nice point now where we are growing without having to do a huge amount of new feature development,” Matt shares.

The partnership with DigitalOcean has enabled Servd Hosting to maintain their lean, efficient approach while scaling their business. As Matt puts it, “It gives us the ability to run huge Kubernetes clusters, multiple clusters, keep them updated, grow them, shrink them with only two of us actually working on the product on a day-to-day basis. And without necessarily needing to know all of the ins and outs that are going on behind the scenes to make that happen.”

Looking ahead, Servd Hosting is considering expanding their specialized hosting approach to other content management systems while maintaining their commitment to deep platform integration and optimization. DigitalOcean’s infrastructure continues to support their growth plans. “DigitalOcean has made that growth seamless thus far,” Matt notes. “There’s no reason why we would need to expand to other platforms to be able to support that.”