This announcement contains updates related to 2024 Open Berkeley rate increases and platform roadmap.
Open Berkeley Rate Increases July 1; Pantheon Hosting Rate Increases November 1
Open Berkeley maintenance/support rates will increase in the new fiscal year from $120/month to $135/month. After July 1, 2024, the total cost of your Open Berkeley site (per month) will be $135 + the rate of your Pantheon hosting plan.
Beginning November 1, 2024, Pantheon rates for Open Berkeley customers are increasing as a result of a pass-through Pantheon increase:
| Hosting Plan | Old rate through 10/31/2024 | New rate effective 11/1/2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $21 | $22 |
| Performance Small | $81 | $87 |
| Performance Medium | $145 | $155 |
| Performance Large | $289 | $309 |
| Performance X-Large | $482 | $516 |
*About Pantheon and Site Traffic Limits
Pantheon is a third-party hosting provider for Drupal and WordPress websites. Beginning April 1, 2021, Pantheon began enforcing traffic limits for their hosting plans, which may result in increased costs for sites with high traffic (number of site visits). Sites exceeding the traffic limits associated with their hosting plan may be automatically upgraded by Pantheon to a higher, more expensive hosting plan. In order to use a Berkeley.edu domain, campus sites must be created within the UC Berkeley organization on Pantheon and follow applicable Guidelines for Berkeley.edu Websites.
New Platform Roadmap: Berkeley Web Builder
In the next few months, we will begin outreach to Open Berkeley site owners to discuss the transition to our next-generation platform, Berkeley Web Builder.
Berkeley Web Builder will have the same functionality and maintenance/support (including applying security patches, accessibility updates, and other privacy/compliance requirements) and will also have:
- Upgrade to Drupal 10 (from Drupal 7; Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 previously reached their end of life stages)
- Redesigned features (dashboard, page layout and customization options, and more)
- New Site Manager role
- New campus Branding (in partnership with the Office of Communications & Public Affairs)
Since we are currently focusing on developing Berkeley Web Builder, we are in maintenance mode only (addressing security vulnerabilities, accessibility improvements, privacy considerations, and bug fixes) for the current generation of Open Berkeley.
Our new platform roadmap includes a plan for upgrading existing Open Berkeley sites and their content. We do not yet know what actions will be required from our customers; however, we will communicate with site owners about the forthcoming processes at a later date.
At this point, we have no plans to charge extra for the upgrade for any existing sites. If this changes, we will communicate with our site owners/customers. Once the new version of our platform is available, we plan to use the same rate schedule as we do for the current version. If there are changes to hosting costs or our monthly maintenance rate, those changes will apply to both versions.
Accessibility and Open Berkeley
Visit the Digital Accessibility Program website to learn more about current campus accessibility requirements and deadlines.
Accessibility is built into the Open Berkeley platform, so our team handles all the technical aspects of ensuring the platform is accessible. The platform is regularly tested for accessibility, and any new features are vetted for accessibility before they are deployed. However:
Content creators (Contributors, Editors, and Site Builders) on Open Berkeley sites are responsible for ensuring the accessibility of the content they feature on their sites, including text, images, audio and video, and widget content.
We encourage site owners and builders to enroll in Siteimprove and visit our Using Siteimprove on an Open Berkeley site guide to identify and fix accessibility issues related to your site’s content.
Our Web Platform Services team (the Open Berkeley team) continues to support institutional requirements by providing a platform that complies with campus and UC-wide policies for Berkeley.edu websites (privacy, brand protection, security, and accessibility).
If you have any questions, please email web-platform@berkeley.edu, or join us at a training or office hours session.