Leanna: The Homegrown Web Host Powering Africa’s Developers
When client’s app kept crashing because of unreliable hosting, Bruce Lucas decided he’d had enough. Instead of waiting for another server to go down, he built his own. That single frustration, a hosting provider that couldn’t stay up, became the spark behind Leanna, a Nigerian-built web hosting platform designed to deliver reliability, developer empowerment, and round-the-clock performance.
Lucas’s journey began out of necessity. “Each time my client’s app went down, I was the one who got the calls, not the hosting company,” he recalls. “I had to buy a server myself just to keep my client’s project online. That’s when I realized this problem was bigger than one client. Developers needed something more reliable.” That moment gave birth to Leanna, a platform built by a developer, for developers. Its mission is simple but powerful: ensure reliability and empower African developers to build confidently without worrying about downtime.
In a market dominated by foreign providers like Bluehost, Hostinger, and GoDaddy, Leanna sets itself apart with a deeper level of technical and human support. Most hosting companies stop at maintaining servers and domains, but Leanna goes further. The platform offers assistance not just for hosting and domains, but also for the websites, web apps, and digital projects running on them. “We understand developers because we are developers,” says Lucas. “If your web app breaks, we don’t just say ‘It’s not our problem’, we help you fix it.” This approach creates a rare developer-first support culture that resonates across
Africa’s growing tech ecosystem.
Leanna’s services are designed to meet the needs of individuals, businesses, and developers. Individuals can launch personal websites or portfolios easily, while businesses can scale corporate sites and online stores with full reliability. Developers get the most freedom; they can build, test, and host apps on Leanna’s infrastructure through its free developer hosting tier, which will soon be relaunched after an upgrade. Unlike many global providers that restrict access to features, Leanna makes everything unlimited, including email hosting, site builders, and integrations, with only the storage size setting a limit.
For WordPress users, Leanna provides an optimized hosting environment on high-performance servers, ensuring smooth experiences and faster load times. WordPress sites are automatically updated, seamlessly integrate themes and plugins, and include managed backups and restorations. The company simplifies the choice between WordPress and shared hosting by letting users decide what fits their comfort level: shared hosting for simplicity, or WordPress hosting for flexibility and control.
Reliability, however, remains the core of everything Leanna does. Domain registration and hosting setup are instant; users can go live in under ten minutes. The platform operates on its own robust server infrastructure, ensuring uptime and independence from third-party providers. Leanna is also a federally certified domain registrar, which adds both legitimacy and tighter control over its ecosystem.
Security is treated as a non-negotiable feature. Every account comes with a free SSL certificate, DDoS protection, firewalls, and spam filtering. Privacy is strictly enforced, account data is visible only to registered users, and Leanna has no reason or policy to share data with any third party. Even when accounts expire, the company performs automated backups and sends users a copy of their. Backups occur across three layers: websites, hosting servers, and account systems, to ensure no information is ever lost.
The user experience is intentionally simple. Leanna combines familiar tools like cPanel for hosting management and WHMCS for billing and account control. This setup provides power for developers and accessibility for newcomers. As websites grow, scaling up is frictionless. Users can upgrade their plans without paying for a full new year, only the price difference, a policy that reflects the brand’s philosophy of growing alongside its customers.
Looking ahead, Leanna has big plans for the next few years. The company is preparing to introduce dedicated servers for larger enterprises and premium SSL certificates for businesses seeking advanced security. Beyond Nigeria, Leanna aims to expand into other African countries, focusing on solving hosting and reliability challenges across the continent before targeting global markets.
“We’re not trying to chase the global market yet,” Lucas explains. “Our focus is Africa, ensuring developers and businesses here have reliable hosting they can trust.”
Leanna isn’t just another hosting provider. It’s a locally driven solution to a deeply local problem, one that has frustrated African developers for years. By combining developer-first support, strong infrastructure, and a mission rooted in real experience, Leanna is building more than just websites; it’s building trust.
As Bruce Lucas puts it: “We’re creating an ecosystem where developers don’t have to worry about downtime, they can just build.”