West Arete
Mission-critical custom software
for higher education.
Colleges and universities deal with a unique set of challenges when it comes to creating and managing software, data, and infrastructure. We understand because our company's roots are in higher education.

Sometimes your team is up against a challenging new initiative. Or you're temporarily understaffed and need to get a couple projects off your plate.

We bring the best practices of the software development industry to your projects and your teams, so that you and your colleagues can get back to changing the world through teaching and ground-breaking research.
Why work with us?
Approach
We take a people-first approach to software development. The best software is produced when deep domain knowledge is combined with deep technical knowledge, and that requires extensive collaboration and feedback. Our strengths of communication and empathy rest on a strong foundation of engineering, craftsmanship, and process. Read more about our approach…
Capabilities
We were one of the early firms to be using Ruby on Rails professionally. We have been practicing Scrum for project management as long as we've been building web applications, and we have two certified ScrumMasters on staff. We've been an advocate of Test-Driven Development as a means of improving code quality and flexibility since the beginning, and we made it our standard back in 2009. Read more about our capabilities…
Experience
Our disciplined process allows us to routinely deliver large, well-crafted projects on time and on budget. We have a depth of experience in high-performance computing, mission critical applications, complex organizational workflow challenges, and financial and security concerns. Read more about our recent projects…

Featured Projects
Education for child care providers
Better Kid Care
Better Kid Care provides the online education that is necessary for professional childcare providers around the country to get their certifications. Affordable online courses guide the people that care for our country's children through topics of health, safety, and learning.
Large-scale federated authentication
Internet2 / InCommon
The InCommon Federation Manager allows people working at top research institutions all around the country to securely sign into shared apps using their own university or college login. This drastically improves both convenience and security.
Connecting faculty with industry challenges
Innovation Gateway
Everyone benefits when world-class research is applied to real-world problems. The Penn State Innovation Gateway helps to connect faculty and staff with leading industry challenges that match their expertise.
News
Awards
West Arete is awarded Visionary Company of the Year
We are honored to receive this award from the Chamber of Business and Industry in Centre County (CBICC), along with recognition for several other remarkable businesses and individuals in the region.
Sustainability
West Arete is renewed as a Silver Bike Friendly Business
After 4 years as the region's first Silver-level Bike Friendly Business, we're thrilled to be re-certified at the same level through 2020. Even better, several other regional businesses are now Silver-level certified as well.
Press
State College Magazine profiles West Arete founder Scott Woods
Read about the winding, yet oddly relevant path that Scott took on the way to founding West Arete, and how that shaped his philosophy of business leadership.
Certifications
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