The acquisition gives the company a direct platform for real-world testing of its products.

cPanel, a hosting automation software provider, yesterday announced that its subsidiary, Hostbed, L.L.C., has acquired Siteocity.com, a small website hosting solutions provider. The purchase gives the company a direct platform for real-world testing of its products. Siteocity.com will continue to operate under its current name.

The company clarifies that it does not intend to become a major player in the web hosting industry but it will use this acquisition to harness data and analytics from Siteocity to make their product better. It will be able to gain a lot more information that previously was impossible to gather.

cPanel Vice President Aaron Philips said that with the Siteocity.com acquisition, the company will be able to gain a deeper understanding of how website owners use cPanel's software. "This will be accomplished by having direct access to live server data, help desk tickets, and hosting company feedback." "By running Siteocity.com, we hope to achieve a deeper connection to the hosting industry as a whole," Philips said. "We are certainly not operating Siteocity.com in order to compete with our customers."

"We are very happy to see cPanel take a step to gather data directly from end users," said Ben Welch-Bolen, CEO of Site5.com. "We believe this will help them create a better product and develop a better understanding of the needs of hosting companies."