Ovation Srl is an SME developing plugins for WordPress. It was founded in 2009 as a sole proprietorship and became a corporation in 2015.
Ovation’s main focus is developing two plugins, that extend WordPress editing features, Dynamic Content for Elementor and Dynamic Shortcodes, both available at Dynamic.ooo.
“We started with a project: to make Elementor dynamic,” – Ovation founder Giovanni Cintolo explains. – “Today, Elementor presents itself as a dynamic platform. However, we anticipated this evolution by making it dynamic well before it was officially dynamic. The creation of the Dynamic Content for Elementor plugin was followed by the progressive additions of new features. Feedback from users, who frequently asked us for features that were unavailable on Elementor, was also significant in the development of the project. We were the first ones who provided many dynamic features that were missing from the page builder.
During the first phase of our activity, we focused on the Elementor extension. Then we later added the new Dynamic Shortcodes plugin as well, which implements dynamic functionality on various page builders and on WordPress itself.”
“There are several things that distinguish us from our competition. First of all, we offer features with our plugins that are unique or we launched first. Secondly, we allowed users with more advanced level to approach page builders. Sometimes developers are hesitating to use page builders because they are often considered to be suitable for beginners or unskilled users because they lack development knowledge. We have offered new instruments and advanced features that bring developers closer to page builders.
For example, we have a feature that gives the ability to insert PHP code in Elementor at specific points on the page. Although numerous plugins designed to enhance the potential of Elementor have emerged, many of them are limited to basic additions. We aimed to meet the needs of a highly skilled audience. Over time we have since worked on making these features accessible to newbie users who are eager to try themselves with more complex tasks.”
The problem
“Ever since we started, we have tried a lot of hosting providers. The last one we used was AWS, with the support of a partner. We had a very expensive machine, but we could no longer manage it directly in spite of having premium technical support that cost us much more than Kinsta today.
At Kinsta we have much lower costs and finally so many things are easily manageable. Actually on AWS there was also a problem with the initial configuration of the project.
The main problem was with the website and came from the fact that whoever was providing support to us was not specialised in WordPress.”
You realize it’s time to change hosting when all of your technical server problems become your main job.
“Committing our time and resources to managing and solving server issues was significantly distracting us from our main goals. We were finding ourselves investing in our own support instead of focusing on the core business. What added value could we offer, then, to our customers? So we decided to try Kinsta.”
The solution
“Before we switched to Kinsta, we had several problems to solve. First of all, we needed to make our site easily accessible, but we also had several management needs: we needed staging sites, more control over data management, and, most importantly, competent technical support that would think of everything and experienced not only with server management, but also with WordPress. What we needed was a hosting provider that not only provided hosting, but provided it for WordPress.
Unfortunately, our partner, who turned out to be very experienced in the area of AWS, was less of an expert in the WordPress area, which is crucial for those who, like us, work with this platform.
We even had an oversized machine, but still we could not solve some of our problems. Now we can focus on selling the plugin without wasting time on server configuration.
By moving to Kinsta, so many things have changed. For example, now we have the ability to create a staging site in a snap. They all offer such things now, it’s true, but this is the first time we’ve been able to create a staging site so quickly and easily.
On Kinsta we can do many things with absolute simplicity. Another example is cache management. Previously we had a cache plugin for WordPress that often caused us problems. By switching to Kinsta we have eliminated it and, even redoing the site, we are on really good levels.
We had hourly back-ups on AWS as well as now, but when you have a problem on AWS, how do you fix it? That to me is the key thing. On big projects, you have to know how to handle problems quickly. We had endless back-ups, but when there was a problem, it was necessary to contact support, which wasted valuable time. So much that at one point we had to bypass support because we couldn’t even wait those 20 minutes required by the contract.”
On Kinsta we are not forced to go through support. Yes, there is a great support service, but you can do most things yourself.
“Theoretically, when you have a managed server, you shouldn’t even be the one to manage its configuration. Of course, we don’t configure Kinsta’s servers, but a lot of little things we can easily and quickly do on our own. For example, retrieve the back-up and create a staging site from that. We have hourly back-ups enabled and I know that with 1 click I can retrieve any one of them without contacting anyone. Even though I know I have a very good back-up service available, a lot of things I can do independently.”
The result
“We like what we do and we want to do it well. Our goal every day is to continue to have fun doing our work. For us, it’s great to offer support on our products and to see our customers satisfied. And then to analyze so many different cases to learn how others work.
Some of the things we accomplish are really based on what our customers accomplish on their sites. For example, when we were exploring specific features of WooCommerce, such as product variants and upsells, we decided to enrich our understanding of those features by reaching out directly to users. The reason for this was because, although we were experts in other areas, our experience in these specific areas needed deeper insights. Subsequently, we implemented integrations of this kind in our plugins. So a lot of our development work also comes from the needs of our customers. This has allowed us to keep ourselves active and receptive to market needs.”
While managing a complex project like ours, there are numerous challenges that keep us constantly busy. Having chosen Kinsta today allows us to no longer depend on the human factor. Although Kinsta is also staffed by people, the quality and efficiency of the service provided allows us to operate more autonomously, ensuring optimal management and protection of our site. With Kinsta, we have everything under control.
“Where does Kinsta really make a difference? For us in the migrations. There is no service or plugin among those we have used over the years that compares to Kinsta’s migrations.
Kinsta has done such a complex migration of our sites for us without losing a single piece of data. And that for us is the most important thing of all.
We used advanced plugins and specialized services, however, with each migration attempt, checks always showed that some data was missing. And in case the loss of data is not identified in a timely manner, for an e-commerce this could translate into considerable economic damage, potentially amounting to thousands of euros. With Kinsta’s migration, we never lost a single piece of data, even with free migrations.
And also, the migration is handled very well at the support level. They explain well how you have to migrate. For example, before we started the migration of our e-commerce, they took care to explain the process to us in depth. This level of transparency and preparation is crucial for those who run an e-commerce.”
Having support that asks the question “Are you sure about what you’re doing?” and offers targeted advice to guide you to the best solution is invaluable, even for a developer!
Loise Dizon is a writer before she is a marketer. Her passion for words, design, and storytelling led her to leave the newsroom for marketing. She now thrives as Kinsta's Digital Marketing Coordinator who produces its newsletters, case studies, and social media content.
United States 
