Why LaunchPad Host Doesn't Sell You Security Add-Ons: The Incentive Design

The philosophy: aligned incentives

Here's the simplest way to evaluate any host: ask what happens when a customer's site gets flagged for malware. If the host makes more money from that event (via upsold cleanup, via a referral fee to a "partner" security company), the host is incentivized to flag generously. If the host makes less money (support time consumed, customer frustration), the host is incentivized to flag only when there's a real problem.

Newfold Digital (Bluehost, HostGator) has had documented revenue-sharing with SiteLock. GoDaddy owns Sucuri. Most large shared hosts have at least one "security partner" feeding referral revenue back. Even when the product itself is legitimate, the system produces false positives because false positives are profitable.

We wanted to cut that incentive out. The result is: security costs us, it doesn't earn us. That changes what we do.

The actual security stack (all plans)

Every item on this list is either open-source or a commercial product we license — the same products Newfold uses. The difference is we include them rather than resell them.

What we deliberately don't do

• We don't resell SiteLock or Sucuri or any third-party cleanup product. No commission, no referral fee, no white-label partnership.
• We don't send urgency-framed security emails. If we detect something, you get the technical finding — file path, signature, remediation advice. No "security specialist" phone calls.
• We don't suspend for vague reasons. If we need to suspend for abuse, our ticket will cite the specific TOS clause and the specific finding. You can dispute based on specifics, not vibes.
• We don't resell "emergency" cleanup. If your site has real malware and you need help cleaning it, we'll point you at Wordfence Premium, Malcare, or Sucuri direct — whichever fits your budget. We won't take a cut.
• We don't charge for basic backup access during a dispute. Your data is yours. If an account is suspended, you get a 14-day window to export everything before purge. In writing, in our AUP.

The honest tradeoff

This model has real downsides. You should know them before signing up:

1. Our margins are tighter. We don't have a SiteLock-revenue cushion to subsidize the base plan. Our pricing reflects that — we're not the $1.99/month special. Starter is $6/month. Growth $12. Scale $24.
2. We don't have a 24/7 phone "security specialist" team. We have technical support via ticket with a 4-hour response SLA. If you want a human on the phone within 15 minutes of a suspension, that's a SiteLock-style model; we're not that.
3. If you get real malware and need urgent help at 2am, our response is: here are the three vendors we trust, pick one, or send us a ticket and we'll respond in the morning. A larger host with a sales team will sell you something immediately.
4. We don't run the "security score" dashboards that some hosts include. Those dashboards often exist to create upsell triggers. If you want that reporting, you can install Wordfence free tier yourself — it's better, and we're not making money either way.

If any of those tradeoffs are disqualifying for you, we're not the right host — and that's fine. We'd rather tell you that up front than collect your signup and have you unhappy in month three. If those tradeoffs fit, the plans are here.