The best way to take control of your privacy and security is by hosting things yourself. This could be your own website, email, NextCloud, Mastodon, Notstr relay, crypto node, front-end service, or even your own proxy VPN. This list will compare the pros and cons of VPS hosts only if they allow anonymous sign-ups for cryptocurrency.
Pro: Very cheap. Very seamless setup, easy for beginners not used to SSH keys. The backups here are really reasonably priced and good. They accept Monero.
Con: You can’t evade that Cloudflare can definitely see your passwords and therefore all data. They’re just a re-seller of Hetzner, which is a huge company with questionable privacy history. Also servers guru itself is a US firm. Unfortunately they also have third party Google JavaScript that the company told me removing was “not a priority right now”, but it can be blocked with uBlock Origin.
Note: You need to show them your DNS records to unblock email ports, which is okay because the IPs are usually not on spamhaus blacklists.
Pro: Very private, no Big Tech integration. Accepts Monero & in Romania. Tor onion address.
Con: It’s possible these IPs may get on the spamhaus email list, and even if you write spamhaus, they might put you back on it.
Pro: Malaysia. Company’s reputation for allowing free speech is good. If you look them up, the only criticism we found is someone complaining they would NOT take down someone else doing copyright infringement. While of course, we can not endorse breaking the law, we do support free speech.
Also Shinjiru has fast and reliable customer service. And great prices, especially for a Malaysian company. Most companies that aren’t US or EU charge more. The general rule is the less developed the area, the MORE expensive the servers because of the infrastructure. Shinjiru also lists other countries and the prices are good there as well. IPs are usually not on spamhaus blacklists.
If you’re looking for a neutral country that wants business bad enough to not harass you, while having good enough infrastructure for speed. Then Malaysia is a good choice in our opinion. When you compare them against the 7 other choices on this list, you’ll see the point. No take-downs, No KYC crypto, no-US no-EU, no Cloudflare front-end seeing logins, unblocked email ports that are kept off spam lists and offer domains too.
Con: Overpriced backups, but you can do your own backups without them. Layer 1 Bitcoin fees only, and a 5% processing fee makes them not as cheap as they initially appear but it’s still competitive. If you do shared WordPress hosting, then and only then you’re getting your website Cloudflare’d against your will. But Shinjiru’s main website doesn’t use Cloudflare so the VPS and dedicated are fine! For the dedicated boxes, they charge $50 to setup Debian, but Ubuntu is free. We recommend the dedicated boxes, the support is great but keep in mind it’s asian timezone support. They got Google third party JavaScript, but you can block it with uBlock Origin and it’s fine.
Pro: Iceland. Excellent reputation on both free speech and privacy. Fast customer service response times and the support is knowledgeable. They accept Monero.
IPs are usually not on email spamhaus blacklist.
Con: High prices. The server hosting is real high, but the domain names are reasonable compared to other anonymous providers.
Pro: Iceland and Seychelles based. Previous Wikileaks host. Good prices and great country selection (Romania, Finland, ect). They accept Monero.
Con: Horribly slow customer service response times, you might wait up to a week to get a reply if you have an issue. Also, they list covid-19 misinformation as a term of service for suspension. Finally, their DNS uses cPanel which is closed source and going to dragnet surveillance your browser fingerprint. But the other info you enter into the DNS is public.
Pro: Great country selection, including Iceland, Switzerland, and controversial Russia*. They appear to have a privacy-friendly attitude. Tor onion address. And pre-made Tor packages, but you can host Tor yourself without paying them extra if you want to learn how. They accept Monero. IPs are usually not on email spamhaus blacklist.
Con: Support staff is retarded. They will respond quick but with bad information, so you really need to know what you’re doing. You likely will lose money due to them being so inept and time passing by. This is a bad first time host for beginners. And they have expensive pricing on some countries. They also promote left wing propaganda within the web app itself.
* = we do not advise breaking sanctions, please consult legal counsel for your specific situation.
Pro: Sweden. XMPP support available. Tor onion address.
Con: Outgoing email banned. More expensive VPS than the other providers on this list, but the domains are okay.
Note: They strictly ban illegal content.
Pro: Privacy friendly stance. Good prices. Tor onion address.
Con: Slow to respond customer service, especially on new dedicated racks. They’re a US company.
Keep in mind that all US servers are going to be cheaper because of the infrastructure in place. And that domain name registration is always going to be more expensive if anonymous, as you’re not paying the WhoIs privacy.
Conclusion
If you want Linux tech support or help setting up any kind of (legal) service, reach out to us. We have combo packages with email, XMPP/SimpleX, and Cryptpad docs. Almost all these providers can improve your privacy, security, and self-sovereignty. Large firms such as Vultr and Linode often require linking a credit card and should be avoided for privacy. There are quite a few other anonymous VPS providers that were not covered here, but this is a great starting point.
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