AI-assisted development is reshaping how software gets built.
HOSTAFRICA today announced the acquisition of zanode.co.za, a South African application hosting platform built around GitHub-based deployments, managed PostgreSQL and ZAR-denominated pricing. The acquisition extends HOSTAFRICA’s hosting offering beyond traditional shared, reseller and VPS products into a developer-first app platform aimed at agencies, software development companies and SaaS teams building for the South African market.
Zanode was built for teams that want a modern workflow without stitching together global PaaS providers, offshore infrastructure and complicated billing. Customers connect a GitHub repository and get a working deploy flow, framework auto-detection, Dockerfile-based deploys, managed Postgres, custom domains and automated SSL, all running on South African infrastructure with pricing in rands. The platform fills a gap that has, until now, pushed local agencies and dev shops to offshore platforms that don’t make sense for South African end-users or South African invoicing.
AI-assisted development is reshaping how software gets built in South Africa, with rapid iteration, frequent commits and reliable git-to-production pipelines becoming essential rather than optional. Zanode is built as the backbone for these automated deployments, giving agencies and product teams local infrastructure that keeps pace with AI-driven build cycles and turns that pace into a competitive advantage.
“This acquisition is about extending what hosting means at HOSTAFRICA,” said Michael Osterloh, CEO of HOSTAFRICA. “Zanode adds a modern, git-driven deployment experience on top of that foundation, which is exactly what agencies and software development companies in South Africa have been asking for. They want to push from GitHub, not drag files through cPanel, and they want their apps and their users on the same continent. With AI accelerating how quickly software gets built, that local, git-driven foundation matters more than ever.”
The zanode platform is particularly well-suited to digital agencies managing client work, software development companies shipping internal tools and SaaS products, and independent developers who need predictable ZAR pricing and local latency.
