Free Hosting Program Terms

Harakati Fikra provides free WordPress hosting to up to 10 registered Kenyan non-profit organizations. The program has 10 hosting spaces. Each hosting space is free for five years (section 8).

Applications are reviewed in the order they are received, subject to eligibility and available capacity. Final approval is a manual decision by Harakati Fikra; submitting an application does not by itself entitle an organization to a hosting space.

When all 10 spaces are allocated, applications close. They reopen when a hosting space becomes available.

Registered non-profit organizations in Kenya can apply for the free hosting program.

Any form of non-profit registration in Kenya is accepted. The program does not distinguish between NGOs/PBOs, community-based organizations, societies, trusts, companies limited by guarantee, or other registered non-profit forms. Churches and other religious organizations and schools qualify, provided they are registered non-profits.

Political organizations — parties, campaigns, and groups affiliated with them — are out of scope for the program. This is a scope decision, not a judgment on any organization.

Before approval, the organization shows a valid registration certificate during the verification step.

An organization does not need to already have a website or WordPress site. It can apply to migrate its existing WordPress website, or apply for hosting and then build the website itself, bring its own developer or volunteer, or ask Harakati Fikra to build it, quoted separately as a paid project. Paid development is an option, never a condition of receiving hosting.

Beyond the political-organization exclusion, Harakati Fikra does not make its own judgment calls about what an organization's website may contain. The website must be permitted under Pressable's terms of service and acceptable use policy. Pressable publishes these as its Terms of Service and its Site Guidelines.

Harakati Fikra may remove a website that does not comply with them.

Each participating organization receives free hosting for one WordPress website with up to 5 GB of storage and 15,000 monthly visits.

Visits are measured according to Pressable's hosting metrics. Pressable's default visit measurement counts a visitor once per day, so a visit is not the same thing as a page view.

The 5 GB and 15,000-visit figures are firm caps on what is free. They are not technical shutdown limits: a website that goes above its allocation stays online, and the usage above the allocation is handled as described in section 5.

A hosting space is allocated at approval. The organization's website must be live on the program hosting within six months of approval. If it is not, the space is released and the organization can re-apply when it is ready. Harakati Fikra contacts the organization before releasing a space.

The five-year term in section 8 is counted from the day the organization's website goes live on the program hosting.

The free program covers up to 5 GB of storage and 15,000 monthly visits. If your website goes above either figure, it stays online and Harakati Fikra will contact you. If your usage above the allocation causes additional hosting charges, those charges are billed to your organization at cost, with no markup. An organization that stays within its allocation is never billed.

In detail:

• The website stays online. Nothing is switched off automatically.
• Harakati Fikra contacts the organization.
• The organization is billed only when both conditions are true: its website is above its own allocation (5 GB or 15,000 monthly visits), and the shared Pressable account has run out of that resource, so a real overage charge exists.
• When a bill applies, it is at cost: the actual Pressable charge, at Pressable's current published rates, with no Harakati Fikra markup.
• If more than one organization is above its allocation when the account incurs an overage, the actual charge is split between them in proportion to how far each is above its allocation.
• If the organization does not want to pay for additional usage and cannot reduce it, another hosting arrangement is agreed and Harakati Fikra helps with the move.

The program's websites are hosted within a shared Pressable account, and the 10 allocations add up exactly to that account's capacity. The account can therefore only incur an overage if at least one organization is above its own allocation. An organization that goes above its allocation while the other sites leave room in the shared account pays nothing, because no real cost exists. It is still told it is above its allocation, since the spare capacity is not guaranteed.

Free hosting does not include:

• email mailboxes;
• storage or visits above the allocation (section 5);
• ongoing WordPress maintenance, including applying updates, which is part of paid maintenance (section 10);
• routine WordPress administration;
• unlimited content edits;
• ongoing development, new features or redesigns;
• plugin or theme customization;
• general technical work unrelated to hosting access;
• custom website development;
• hosting after the five-year term (section 8).

Email is not part of the hosting program and remains your organization's responsibility. Before migration, we check where your email lives so nothing stops working, and we can advise on which provider fits your needs. Setting up and paying for an email provider is the organization's responsibility.

Hosting is free. Maintenance and development are separate paid services (section 10).

Your website is yours. Harakati Fikra provides the infrastructure, but your organization owns its website and content. You can manage it yourself and leave the program whenever you choose.

The organization owns its domain, its WordPress website, its content and its website data. Harakati Fikra provides the hosting infrastructure.

Within the program, the organization receives:

• hosting on Pressable's platform infrastructure, with SSL;
• access to WordPress administration;
• site-specific hosting access, including SFTP;
• basic hosting and access assistance;
• migration assistance for an existing WordPress site;
• a message from Harakati Fikra when its website needs a security update;
• advice on an email provider, and a check that migration does not break existing email.

Before any DNS change in a migration, Harakati Fikra checks where the organization's email is currently hosted, who controls the domain registration and DNS, and that MX and email authentication records are preserved or moved.

Hosting in the program is free for five years for each participating organization, counted from the day its website goes live on the program hosting.

Before the five years end, Harakati Fikra gives the organization at least six months' notice. The organization then chooses one of two options:

• its website moves to a paid hosting plan with Harakati Fikra, at a price quoted to the organization before the five years end; or
• the organization moves its website to another host. Harakati Fikra provides a full backup of the website and reasonable migration assistance.

If anything about the program has to change before the five years end, participating organizations receive at least six months' notice and Harakati Fikra's help moving their website.

The five-year term does not change the six-month go-live rule in section 4 or the right to leave in section 9.

You are free to move your website to another host at any time. Organizations can leave the program at any time, and Harakati Fikra provides a full backup of the website and reasonable migration assistance.

After a website is removed from the program, backups and data may be retained for up to three months unless the organization requests earlier deletion.

Hosting is free. Paid services are separate: design and build, and maintenance. They are available to organizations and businesses generally, not only to the organizations hosted in the program. Paid services are never a condition of hosting, and hosting is never a condition of paid services.

Each paid engagement is agreed in a separate written contract, which sets the scope, the price, the milestones and the ownership of the work. That contract, not these terms, governs the paid work. Maintenance and everything else are quoted. The first call and quote are free.

WordPress maintenance

Updates every two months, plus up to 24 hours of website work per year.

• WordPress core, plugin and theme updates are performed once every two months. Routine updates are part of the plan and are not counted against the 24 hours per year.
• A security update is applied when it is discovered, without waiting for the next two-month cycle. It is treated like a routine update and does not consume the 24 hours per year, unless it changes the public website.
• If an update would change, or does change, how the public website looks or works, Harakati Fikra communicates with the organization about it, and the time spent handling that change is taken from the 24 hours per year.
• The 24 hours per year can include website fixes, content changes, minor technical changes, configuration work, troubleshooting, handling updates that affect the public website, and other reasonable WordPress website work.
• Unused hours do not disappear at the end of the plan year. They remain valid for 18 months from the start of the plan year, then expire.
• Anything beyond the included 24 hours per year is quoted and billed separately.

Payment and invoicing

This applies to paid services, hosting after the five-year term, and usage above the hosting allocation. Every payment is backed by an invoice and a receipt, and can be made by M-Pesa or bank transfer. Paid projects are paid in milestones, never 100% upfront.

Harakati Fikra may update these terms. Participating organizations are given notice of any change.

When Harakati Fikra registers as an entity, these terms will be updated to name it.

Harakati Fikra is a small independent studio. The hosting is provided as-is, on Pressable's shared platform infrastructure. Harakati Fikra makes reasonable efforts to keep participating websites online but does not guarantee uninterrupted service. Its liability is limited to the extent permitted by law.

Questions about these terms can be sent by email to hello@harakatifikra.com or by WhatsApp.