To compare the best web hosts, we hosted the same WordPress website on each one and tested performance, customer service, and value for money. Check out the results here.
Since 1998, Webarchitects has been developing, maintaining and hosting websites and servers as well as coding and customizing CMS systems and other free, open-source web applications that run on Linux/GNU.
Webarchitects re-established itself as Webarch Co-operative Limited in 2011, and merged with ethical hosting cooperative Ecohost in 2013, but kept the Webarchitects brand name. Today, this company provides safe, ethical, green web hosting and virtual servers along with email services, colocation, domain registration and renewal, and security certificates.
Webarchitects’ website is in English, and its U.K. servers are 100% sustainably powered.
Features and Ease of Use
Webarchitects offers five shared hosting plans: Static Account, Dynamic Account, Database One Account, Database Five Account, and Database Ten Account. The dynamic accounts let you use PHP whereas the static accounts do not, and you need to go for one of the database accounts to get MySQL databases.
Some of the features provided by the shared hosting plans are:
- 1 GB to 10 GB storage
- 8 GB to 80 GB data transfer
- SSH/SCP or SFTP/SSHFS access
- Piwik web analytics
- SSL certificates to make your website secure
You can upgrade accounts by adding storage in 1 GB increments, and you can also take advantage of additional databases and Apache Virtual Hosts for hosting supplementary domain names.
Shared hosting plans include all the standard PHP libraries, NodeJS, and more. You can request the installation of any additional software you need. By default, SFTP/SSHFS access is provided, but you can request an upgrade to SSH/SCP access. Upgrades also offer additional tools like Drush, Git, Composer, WP-CLI, and Yarn.
Apart from its shared hosting packages, Webarchitects also offers three virtual server hosting packages (VPS 1, VPS 5, and VPS 10) plus a VPS Upgrade package.
Pricing and Support
Webarchitects’ shared hosting plans are cheap, and you can pay for them quarterly or annually (with a discount) by bank transfer, check, or PayPal (with a small additional charge). Interestingly, you can’t purchase plans entirely online, so you have to “order by email” via the buy buttons that generate an email message like this one:
This company offers its customers the right to cancel its services within seven days of the agreement date (which is the date on which you receive your acceptance email) providing you haven’t actually used the services. So, this isn’t much of a money-back guarantee at all.
Webarchitects’ customer support can be summoned by telephone (from 9 am to 3 pm on weekdays), email, IRC chat, and postal mail, with email being the recommended route. It promises to respond almost immediately to serious issues and to respond to all inquiries within two working days. The good news is that my exploratory email was answered in just over an hour, but only to confirm that this company doesn’t offer the service I was asking about.
Self-support resources are provided in the form of a hard-to-find documentation wiki, a blog, and a members’ forum.
