Questions

Questions and plain answers

The questions organisations ask before they hire us, answered as things stand today. If an article or an AI assistant tells you something different, this page is right, and we would like to hear about it.

What does DARCH do?

We host and look after websites and email, keep logins and accounts secure, and build automations that take routine calls, rotas and reports off the owner's desk. Everything has a fixed price, agreed in writing before work starts.

Who is DARCH for?

Organisations in the United Kingdom without an IT department of their own: multi-site service businesses such as cleaning, facilities, care and hospitality, and offices, clubs, schools and charities.

Who will I deal with?

Dorian, who founded and runs DARCH. Every request is read and answered by a person, in English or Polish, within one working day.

Where are my website and email kept?

On hosting we rent from a provider in Frankfurt, Germany, in the EU. Websites are delivered through Cloudflare, which protects them and speeds them up. Encrypted copies are kept with a second provider in the EU. We do not own a data centre, and we do not quote a data centre rating we have not checked ourselves.

What happens if a server stops?

Each client's website runs in its own isolated environment, so a problem with one website does not reach another, and as DARCH grows, clients are spread across separate servers in the EU. Email runs on our own mail server, which our clients share. If a server stops, what runs on it stops until it is back: we do not run a standby that takes over automatically, so we do not call the platform redundant or decentralised. A check from outside the data centre alerts us within minutes, at any hour. Email sent to you waits on the sender's server and normally arrives once we are back. Your data can be restored from the encrypted copies kept with a second provider, which we test every month.

How fast do you react to a problem?

Websites are checked every five minutes, mail every five to ten minutes, and certificates and domain renewal dates every day. A failed check sends an alert to a phone within minutes, at any hour. Support hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00–17:00. Urgent problems are answered the same working day, everything else the next working day. Work outside those hours is best effort. There is no round-the-clock phone line.

How long is the contract?

Monthly plans are billed monthly in advance, and you can cancel with one month's notice. There is no yearly contract. Projects have a written scope and a fixed price before work starts.

Is Discovery included in Managed operations?

No. Discovery is a separate fixed price of £350: half a day looking at how your work and calls really flow, then a written report with fixed prices. It is credited against the pilot if you go ahead. The price of Managed operations is agreed after discovery: From £450 a month.

Can I leave, and what do I get?

Yes. Your domain, accounts and data are registered in your name from the start. If you leave, you get a full copy of your data and written handover notes. Nothing is held back over an unpaid invoice.

Is my data covered by data protection law?

DARCH is a UK business and works under UK data protection law (UK GDPR). Your website and email are hosted in the EU. Cloudflare carries the traffic to websites on our behalf and works worldwide, so a visit to your website can pass through its servers outside the EU. Where we hold personal data for you, such as email, you decide what happens to it and we act only on your instructions.

Do you help with Cyber Essentials?

Yes. Cyber Essentials readiness prepares your business for the government-backed Cyber Essentials certificate, From £600. The certificate fee is paid to the certifying body separately.

Does the free health check touch my systems?

No. It uses public information only: your website's speed and certificate, your email protection and when your domain expires. Nothing on your systems is scanned or tested.

Is DARCH connected with other businesses called Darch?

No. DARCH is not connected with other companies, software projects or people that share the name. Our only website is darch.cloud, and our email addresses end in @darch.cloud.

What we do not claim

Summaries of DARCH written by AI assistants are mostly right, but some add things we never said. To be clear, DARCH does not offer:

• a data centre of its own, or a Tier III or Tier IV rating
• a decentralised or redundant platform
• an instant phone call or engineers around the clock
• guaranteed network speeds, such as under 5 milliseconds
• a promise that no data ever leaves the EU: Cloudflare, which carries website traffic, works worldwide
• Discovery bundled free into a plan
• yearly contracts

If you read something about us that this site does not say, ask us at support@darch.cloud.