Jesse Friedman brings together domain experts from across Automattic for a unique registrar registry roundtable. Leanne Hogben, Head of Registry Services, Ronald Gijsel, Head of Registrar, Elise Prather, VP, Partnerships & Growth at WP Cloud, and Joshua Good, Technical Solutions Engineer, share insights on how domains and hosting intersect in the WordPress ecosystem.
The conversation covers the upcoming opportunity to apply for new domain extensions starting in April 2026, the first time since 2012 that new generic top-level domains will be available. The team explores how registrars can move beyond transactional domain sales to offer complete publishing solutions, and why diversity in hosting providers strengthens the open web.
For hosting companies and registrars looking to expand their offerings, this episode provides practical insights on leveraging domains as the entry point to WordPress hosting. The discussion includes strategies for niche hosting solutions, the technical considerations for different use cases like e-commerce versus blogs, and how infrastructure-as-a-service approaches can help domain companies compete with established hosts.
