About us

Makes you feel good about your hosting

We at Halvar are on a mission. Ever since founder Ramon Fincken founded his first company, he believed everyone should do better. As in many businesses, people in IT also never seem to think about how their products and services impact the planet and the people living on it. Time to change that. Every web and app developer, web or digital agency or even personal website owners should be aware of their impact. In terms of CO2, use of materials and personal habits like travelling.

It’s why we not only provide you with green servers, we also provide you with information about how you can do and be greener yourself. In your work, and your personal life. On this website, we share this in articles, and during events like WordCamps or DrupalJams, Ramon can be found on stage promoting ‘going green’. Choosing Halvar green open-source hosting makes you feel good. Promise.

Halvar: this rock is ours to care for

Halvar is derived from the Old Norwegian name Hallvarõr. If you break it down, it says “hallr”, which means “rock/stone” and “vǫrð” which means “guard”. Halvar means “the strength of the protection as a rock”. In which we relate to our very secure server setup. But, in other translations, it also means “defender of the rock”. In which we relate to our mission to protect the earth, this rock, however we can. That’s what we do by making our hosting 200% green.

You can do greener

Green hosting is awesome, but there’s more you can do!

Fast-loading websites are a must-have. Your website visitors love it, search engines love it and … the processor (which needs the most current of a server) is less busy. Therefore, write efficient code and only load what really needs to be loaded. Reduce your images in pixelsizes before even thinking of removing the metadata and use the sizes attribute where possible. If you can: load JavaScript and CSS only on pages where needed. Use Cloudflare or Nitropack if you use WordPress. A CDN is nice, but if your visitors are from a few countries it might even not matter. Use a static HTML page cache module or plugin if your site is not a webshop. We use firewalling and so should any application check for login attempts.

We’re green tech nerds

We are tweakers. We push things to the limit. Advocating (and eating our dog food for that matter) train and bus travel as the preferred way instead of plane travel. Our crew have been contributing to Open Source since 2004 and we probably will not stop ever.

We love you, yes you, developer! Therefore our servers are equipped with SSH, rsync, wp-cli and more stuff you like. We are working on an API for spamchecks and IP blacklists ( you can still use stopforumspam.com or any other service of course ).

Agency hosting

We focus our services on agencies and web developers who maintain several setups. We offer you massive amounts of freedom on our servers because we know everything is safe and secure. We think you’re capable of managing your own settings, and updating your own code, plugins, extensions and other applications. That’s why we can offer our packages for good prices. If you need a managed hosting provider, we can recommend looking at our other company ManagedWPHosting.nl (as the name says, WordPress only) or you take a look at our partner page. If you’re not sure what you need or why managed hosting might be better for you, don’t hesitate to call support.

Spread the word, world!

If you believe as strongly in creating a better world with green hosting, you can do us, and the planet, a big favor: become a Halvar affiliate. Spread the word and also earn a very decent affiliate fee of 25%.