Trusted hosting companies in the human rights community

What to consider when selecting a web hosting company

When choosing an organization to host and/or provide technical support for your website, these are some questions you will want to consider:

• How is the company/organization structured and sustained? What types of vetting or reporting are they required to do, if any?
• Consider what country/countries they have a legal presence in and which law enforcement and other legal requests they would be required to comply with.
• What logs are created, and for how long are they available?
• Are there restrictions regarding the type of content the service will host/proxy, and could they have an impact on your site?
• Are there restrictions on the countries where they can provide service?
• Do they accept a form of payment you can use? Can you afford their service?
• Secure communications - you should be able to log in securely and communicate with the service provider privately.
• Is there an option for two-factor authentication, to improve the security of administrator access? This or related secure access policies can help reduce the threat of other forms of attacks against your website.
• What type of ongoing support will you have access to? Is there an additional cost for support, and/or will you receive sufficient support if you are using a "free" tier?
• Can you "test-drive" your website before you move over via a staging site?

Greenhost

Greenhost is a company based in the Netherlands that provides web hosting, virtual private servers, and managed services (including Globaleaks, Jitsi Meet and others). For human rights defenders and journalists at risk, they offer Rapid Response Services for free or low cost.

Stackspin, built and managed by Greenhost, is an online office suite in which you control your data. It includes everything a small organisation needs to get themselves organised. The Stackspin dashboard is a single place for installing and managing apps, adding and managing users, and customizing your Stackspin instance. The project is aimed at CSOs and individual activists that require online solutions and are weary of the corporate offering (or are keen to move away from them). They want these services hosted on a system that they can rely on, but do not need to maintain.

As of May 2023, the suite includes:

• NextCloud for file sharing
• Only Office for document collaboration
• Zulip for team chat
• Wordpress for website creation
• NextCloud for password management
• Wekan for task management

Virtual Road (Qurium)

Qurium’s Secure hosting solution – Virtualroad.org – is a hosting solution dedicated to protect independent media, investigative journalists, and human rights organizations working in Internet repressive regimes. Servers are based in Europe. Qurium’s Rapid Response support is a pro-bono service dedicated to independent media, investigative journalists and human rights activists in Internet repressive regimes that have been targets of digital attacks, or are likely to become a target due to its scope of work, and are in need of immediate support. This support includes:

• Sanitation and audit of at-risk websites – cleaning and upgrading outdated and insecure websites to improve resilience against attacks
• Secure Hosting of at-risk websites – 12 months hosting with Virtualroad.org, including DDoS mitigation and forensics investigations of targeted attacks.
• Mentorship – a 3-6 months remote mentorship program to strengthen and improve existing organizational procedures in digital security. Available in English, Spanish and Arabic.
• Customized support during special events – secure hosting and close monitoring of websites of public interest under election periods, military coups, and situations of civil unrest.

May First

May First Movement Technology is a non-profit membership organization based in the United States that engages in building movements by advancing the strategic use and collective control of technology for local struggles, global transformation, and emancipation without borders. Members pay dues based on their ability to pay and the resources required.

Palante Technology Cooperative

Palante Technology Cooperative, based in the United States, provides technology consulting services to nonprofit progressive, social justice, & community organizations. They specialize in tools specific to the needs of the movements we serve. Within their organizational security work, Palante guides groups through comprehensive organizational digital security processes, from assessment to analysis to implementation and beyond. They use a holistic understanding of security and a harm reduction framework that centers the politics and priorities of the organizations and the communities they serve.

Autistici/Inventati

Autistici/Inventati was born over 20 years ago to provide internet support (through website hosting, e-mail accounts, mailing lists, chat, blogs, and much more) to activists and collectives coming from the world of grassroot and social movements.

Our principles are fairly straightforward: the world should not be run on money, should be rooted in solidarity, community, mutual help, equal rights and freedom, and social justice. Easy, isn’t it? We support individuals, collectives, communities and groups whose political and social activities fit within this worldview and who share with us some fundamental principles: anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-militarism.

InfraRed

InfraRed members include over 20 independent, feminist, cooperative, anti-fascist and alternative service providers from 19 different regions that have come together in solidarity to support one another in our shared work.

Maadix

Maadix was created with the objective of giving stability to the access to operating autonomy, data security and privacy, in a professional and sustainable way. The project aims to offer efficient, practical and solid technological solutions capable of guaranteeing these values to society as a whole, regardless of the technical knowledge and resources at its disposal. Maadix provides hosting and support for popular open source tools, including NextCloud, Wordpress, Mailman, LimeSurvey, LetsEncrypt, OpenVPN and more.