For a few years now, I have a customer that requires quite a few sites hosted on various offshore hosting servers. Having to deal with many offshore VPS services during this time, I decided to compile a list of companies that offer shared, virtual and dedicated servers.
What is Offshore Hosting?
Offshore hosting will accept more content on their servers than regular hosting providers. This usually includes gambling and casino sites, torrent websites, mass mailing, adult content…etc. Don’t let the connotation with offshore banking fool you. There is no connection, really. Offshore server location is determined by data-related laws. For example Iceland, is not a tax heaven, but has very strong net neutrality and online privacy laws.
Advantages of Offshore Hosting
Based on nature of your business you might need to host your site in other country, or in a country with adequate privacy laws. Basically, for having your server data as far from local authorities as possible. For example, if you have a gambling site, it’s better to host it in Curacao than in Utah. Local laws allow offshore hosting providers not to reveal personal information of their customers and ignore complaints and DMCA takedown requests.
List of Best Offshore Hosting Providers:
Shared hosting 4 USD per month
VPS hosting 35 USD per month
Dedicated server 233 USD per month
This is hands down the best offshore hosting provider out there. Email address is all you need to open an account. No name, phone or address required, so your personal information can’t leak. Downtime is extremely low. I never had to contact them due to site being offline. Customer service replies within minutes, even during crazy hours like 3 AM. Their support is very helpful and ready to go extra mile to fix issues that should be your responsibility to take care of. Servers are located in Iceland, so you can benefit from privacy-friendly laws.
2 – shinjiru.com
Shared hosting 4 USD per month
VPS hosting 12 USD per month
Dedicated server 50 USD per month
Malaysia based offshore hosting company, provides services for over 15 years now. You can tell by performance of their servers why prices are so cheap. My site hosted on their VPS has loading speed problem. Customer service is very friendly and usually replies withing an hour. If you’re on tight budget, I recommend using this company.
3 – prq.se
Dedicated server 113 USD per month
PRQ is “notorious” company located in Sweden, hosting controversial sites like Pirate Bay and Wikileaks. This hosting provider hosts sites that no other company would touch with a ten feet pole. As such, it was raided by Swedish police in 2012.
4 – goip.com
Shared hosting 3 USD per month
VPS hosting 35 USD per month
Dedicated server N/A
This offshore hosting provider would made it to top of the list if not the lack of customer service. On one hand, their servers are super reliable. They promise 99.5% uptime, but I never saw that missing 0,5%. Lightning fast website is not enough when you can’t reach customer service, even for an upgrade request. It takes them ages to reply to support tickets. Sometimes they don’t reply at all.
5 – abelohost.com
Shared hosting 7 USD per month
VPS hosting 12 USD per month
Dedicated server 60 USD per month
This is a newcomer to offshore hosting business. I’m not sure if they are re-sellers or run own company. I used their services for about a year and they are pretty good. My site has never been offline even once, but it freezes for a few seconds every now and then. Support tickets are getting replies the same day. They accept wide variety of payment methods, including crypto currencies and webmoney.
Shared hosting 3 USD per month
VPS hosting 9 USD per month
Cloud Servers 16 USD per month (it’s not the same as dedicated one)
Panamanian company with privately owned data center in Panama. A few times I found my site offline for god knows how long time and had to contact support to get the site back online. Once the ticket was opened, the website came back quickly.
7 – flokinet.is
Shared hosting 3 USD per month
VPS hosting 10 USD per month
Dedicated server 130 USD per month
Another company from Iceland. This provider offers to host your site on servers in Iceland, Romania or Finland. Very stable servers with no downtime and decent loading speed. Customer service, however, leaves much to be desired. It takes them some time to reply.
8 – panamaserver.com
Shared hosting 4 USD per month
VPS hosting 30 USD per month
Dedicated server 200 USD per month
I used only shared hosting from this provider and my site went offline once per week.
9 – ccihosting.com
They sell domain privacy for $35, which is way too expensive. I didn’t bought anything from this site.
Side notes:
If you want to remain anonymous, always pay with bitcoins for your offshore hosting account. Some prices might be higher if you want to include cPanel.
1984.is a hosting company in Iceland but it is not a reliable website, the hosting is a scam, I will tell my story: About 7 months ago I hired them for my website, during the first week everything was fine, I made the payment but to finish my page was without service, they canceled everything to me and they did not inform me the reasons, they were left with the money. I tried to contact them but they did not give me an answer.