What is Stackd?

Since we began work on Stackd six months ago, the most common question we’ve received has (unsurprisingly) been “What is Stackd?”. We didn’t set out to be a “stealth” startup, however we didn’t want to hype up an unfinished product. Over the past few weeks, Stackd has finally reached a point where we’re ready to share what Stackd is and why we built it.

Stackd is Collaborative Web Hosting

The hosting space as a whole has evolved a lot in the past few years. Sites like Squarespace, Doodlekit, and others have made it incredibly easy for newcomers to create and publish content online. In addition, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers like Amazon, Linode, and Rackspace have simplified the deployment of highly scalable web services, but require deep technical knowledge.

Despite these innovations, many web site owners haven’t reaped the benefits. Many users want more control over their website, but don’t have the technical knowledge or time to manage a web service with an IaaS provider. These users have been confined to middle tier hosting. This space has been largely ignored by hosting providers, and has become a commoditized nightmare:

• Obtrusive administration panels
• Difficult to collaborate
• FTP (File Transfer Pain)
• Everything “unlimited”, except performance
• Oversold, “shared” architecture

Where does Stackd fit in?

With Stackd, we set out to build collaborative hosting with:

• Ease of Squarespace and Doodlekit
• Creative control provided by middle tier hosting
• Power provided by IaaS providers like Amazon, Rackspace, and Linode

Where we are now

Stackd is nearing completion, and we expect to launch by the end of the month. In the coming weeks we’ll share updates and dive into more specific features, so keep an eye on the blog and follow us on Twitter!