Searching for the best offshore web hosting?
There are dozens of reasons you might want to choose offshore web hosting. However, there are nearly as many providers that offer this service. With so many options available, finding your ideal match can feel impossible.
Fortunately, a few candidates stand out above the rest. By evaluating the features offered by the top offshore hosts, you should be able to find a service that fits your needs and budget.
In this article, we’ll go over a ⏩ few features that you may want to look for in an offshore web host. Then we’ll cover ⏩ six of the best options available today, before wrapping it up with responses to some common ⏩ offshore hosting FAQs. Let’s dive right in!
What to look for in an offshore web hosting provider 🕵️
There are plenty of reasons to choose offshore web hosting. Perhaps you prefer more flexible privacy laws than the U.S. can offer. Alternatively, you might want to maintain your anonymity. Whatever your motivation, there are a few features that you can look for to support these needs.
Server location
For starters, you need to consider the server location of your offshore hosting provider. Some countries have stricter privacy laws than others. Popular locations for hosting companies to house their offshore servers include the Netherlands and Russia (or other nearby countries such as Bulgaria).
Language support
Furthermore, you might want to consider a provider’s multilingual support options. Even experienced users can run into technical difficulties with their host. If this happens to you, you’ll probably want to work with an employee who speaks your language.
Payment options
Another possible hurdle with offshore providers is payment. International transactions can be complicated. That’s why you might want to look for a service that offers different ways to pay, such as a cryptocurrency option. For example, some PayPal alternatives could be very affordable across borders.
Owner anonymity
Finally, you may also want to think about your own privacy during registration. If you’re looking for anonymous offshore hosting, then it’s clear that you don’t want your name attached to your website. Consider finding a provider that understands this and collects as little of your data as possible.
Best offshore web hosting providers 🏆
Now that we’ve talked a little about what to look for in an offshore web hosting provider, let’s look at six top options. Each of our showcased hosts offer high-performance technology, stacked with global coverage, so your best option will depend on your budget and the features your project demands.
1. Hostinger
- 🗺️ Main headquarters: Lithuania and Cyprus
- 💻 Server locations: Netherlands, Lithuania, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, UK, USA
Hostinger is a popular choice for both local and overseas hosting. You can choose from a range of budget or premium options and Hostinger uses LiteSpeed Web Server for improved performance.
⚙️ Features
- A custom cache manager to provide quick load times consistently
- One-click installation for over 100 apps
- Strong firewalls to protect your page
Furthermore, you get a lot of control with Hostinger. You can choose from seven different server regions around the world, including options in privacy-friendly jurisdictions like the Netherlands. Each location uses powerful Tier-3 databases.
This also means you can pick the location with the best privacy laws for your content. As such, Hostinger could be a smart choice if you value having control over your offshore server.
Moreover, Hostinger’s admin panel is very user-friendly. Combined with around-the-clock support, you can probably count on a smooth experience with this brand of offshore web hosting.
💵 Pricing
Shared offshore plans start at just $1.99 per month. This makes it the most affordable option on our list. If you’re planning on using offshore hosting for your small business, consider opting for the $3.99 per month Business plan.
2. Koddos
- 🗺️ Main headquarters: Hong Kong
- 💻 Server locations: Netherlands and Hong Kong
If you appreciate high-quality hardware, look no further than Koddos. This company offers offshore web hosting in the Netherlands. However, you can also choose Hong Kong if you want.
⚙️ Features
- Unlimited MySQL, email, and FTP for all plan levels
- Advanced Cloudflare and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection
- All offshore servers are connected to at least 1 Gbps for reliable service
Given all these aspects, we recommend Kodos if you prize a speedy site. Additionally, since Kodos specializes in combating DDoS attacks, your site will be very secure.
Koddos is also a logical choice if you’re looking for a hosting reseller. This is one of the many services that this company offers. If you’d like to reap the benefits of both reseller and offshore hosting, Koddos should be on your shortlist for consideration.
Additionally, Koddos doesn’t require you to sign a contract. As such, it’s also a fitting choice if you don’t want to be locked down. This may also make it easier to scale up or down if you need to.
💵 Pricing
Koddos has options starting at $8.95 per month. You can scale all the way up to $39.95 per month. Higher tier plans give you more storage, bandwidth, and domains.
3. Shinjiru
- 🗺️ Main headquarters: Malaysia
- 💻 Server locations: Netherlands, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia
With a strong track record of reliable uptime and a scalable hosting infrastructure, Shinjiru caters to websites of all sizes. Whether you’re launching a personal blog, an ecommerce platform, or a high-traffic enterprise application, Shinjiru’s offshore hosting solutions can adapt to your specific requirements and continuously grow with you.
⚙️ Features
- Robust infrastructure equipped with advanced DDoS protection measures to safeguard your site
- Anonymous domain registration services allow you to maintain your privacy
- More than 50 customer support agents that are available via live chat and an online ticket system
Because Shinjiru has been in business for over 20 years and specializes in offshore web hosting, they have a very impressive menu of both plans and features that come with those plans.
We found their WordPress offshore hosting plans to be particularly attractive in terms of what they offer. Among other things, they set you up with Litespeed, which delivers significantly faster page load times compared to classic Apache or NGINX programs. You also get a free SSL certificate, a web application firewall, automatic backups, and Imunify360 for malware protection.
As if all that isn’t enough, they let you pay in four different ways: Bitcoin, Ethereum, credit cards, and via bank transfer. If anonymity is an important factor in your choice of offshore hosting provider, then the Bitcoin and Ethereum payment options sweeten the deal.
💵 Pricing
The cheapest offshore hosting option with Shinjiru – as with most other providers – is shared hosting. If you’re a WordPress aficionado, then you’ll want to go with their WordPress offshore hosting plan, which starts at $5.95 per month for one website. Otherwise, the absolute cheapest option is their budget offshore hosting plan, which will set you back $3.95 per month on a 3 year contract.
4. Phanes Cloud
- 🗺️ Main headquarters: Netherlands
- 💻 Server locations: Netherlands
Phanes Cloud is a Dutch offshore hosting solution that offers high performance shared web hosting plans. They design and build their servers themselves and use only the best hardware brands. It allows them to confidently stand by the quality of their offshore web hosting services because everything is done in-house. As of the time of this writing, they have over 50,000 customers and over 2,500 servers.
⚙️ Features
- Uses the Litespeed webserver with cache, which is up to 25x faster than standard webservers
- Offshore servers are equipped with high-performance AMD Epyc & Ryzen and Intel Xeon processors to ensure low load averages
- Websites are stored using ultra fast NVMe storage and your storage capacity is unlimited (as long as you don’t abuse it)
Additionally, Phanes Cloud might be a particularly fitting choice if you’re thinking about launching a website that contains adult content. They are intentionally vague about what “adult content” means and they never define it, other than saying it’s allowed.
Their Terms of Service doesn’t clarify it either, but there is an important line written under Article 15 that gives a clue: Phanes Cloud prohibits the Customer to use the service for any activities forbidden by Dutch law.
In other words, if the Dutch government would consider your site content illegal, then it can’t go on your site. However, if you’re genuinely unsure about whether your site will get you in trouble, then you can always contact their customer service team and ask them directly.
💵 Pricing
Phanes Cloud’s entry-level offshore hosting plan starts off at an affordable €4.99 per month. However, there are tons of plans to choose from, topping out at €139.99 per month for their Ultimate Pro hosting plan. That will be more than enough for most people, but just in case you still need more, they also have cloud hosting and dedicated server options.
5. The Onion Host
- 🗺️ Main headquarters: Bulgaria
- 💻 Server locations: Bulgaria and the Netherlands
You may not be familiar with The Onion Host, but this flexible provider can deliver impressive power at affordable prices. This is partially thanks to its Tier 1 data center in Bulgaria.
The Onion Host’s user-friendliness is also a major factor. This service arguably offers the easiest way to get the most effective results. Here are a few features that we feel demonstrate this fact:
⚙️ Features
- Automated provisioning for a stress-free maintenance experience
- Choice of CentOs, Debian, or Ubuntu as your operating system
- Ability to use a variety of payment options for your bill, including Bitcoin
In addition to your choice of operating system, you can also choose from shared, VPS, or dedicated offshore hosting. When combined with optional full root access, you have the final say on how the most important parts of your offshore web hosting will run.
💵 Pricing
If you’re interested in shared hosting, plans start at $3.99 per month. If you prefer a dedicated server for your content, those options start at $70 per month. As a bonus, The Onion Host offers a 100% money-back guarantee. Thus, it might be a smart starting point if you’re cautious about signing up for offshore web hosting.
6. WebCare360
- 🗺️ Main headquarters: St. Kitts & Nevis
- 💻 Server locations: Ukraine, Sweden, Russia, Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria
One of the major benefits of offshore web hosting is privacy and anonymity. WebCare360 integrates that advantage into its service philosophy. As such, it collects the bare amount of information during registration. All you need to provide is your name, email address, phone number, and payment data. No documentation is required at all.
⚙️ Features
- Top-tier NVME-SSD hosting for incredible speed no matter where your visitors are
- No monitoring of your site content, and no re-selling of your data
- Built-in Attracta SEO tools to support your traffic numbers as well as your privacy
In addition to these elements, the support team at WebCare360 personally responds to all queries – there are no automated messages to waste your time. The service also offers cPanel to manage your hosting.
Because of the limited information that you need to supply, WebCare360 can be a good option if you value privacy.
💵 Pricing
Shared hosting costs range from $3.99 to $99.99 per month. While features such as storage may differ, all plans include 24/7 robust support and advanced privacy measures.
Offshore web hosting FAQ 🙋
Offshore hosting provides website owners with the ability to host their websites on servers located in a different country than their own. It is commonly used to protect identities, exercise freedom of expression, and ensure data privacy in situations where the user’s home country has a legal or political environment that poses risks or challenges with the type of content they are publishing.
Offshore hosting provides website owners with advantages such as increased privacy and freedom from certain legal constraints, allowing them to operate their websites in a jurisdiction that offers more favorable conditions for their specific needs.
For example, a political writer exposing their government’s wrongdoings might opt for offshore hosting to protect their identity and content from potential persecution or censorship.
A less noble example would be an online entrepreneur who wants to start an online gambling website in a country where online gambling sits in a legal grey area.
No, offshore hosting services are not typically offered for free. Offshore hosting, by its nature, can be considered a “premium” feature. Anyone looking for offshore hosting has a very specific reason for doing so, and that reason is strong enough to pay a premium for it. You’ll sometimes see regular hosting companies offer their services for free, in an attempt to lure customers with the hopes of converting them to a paid plan. Offshore hosting has enough of a market demand however, that companies who specialize in it have no real incentive to follow this customer acquisition strategy.
Hosting refers to the practice of providing server space and resources to make a website accessible on the internet. Offshore hosting does the same thing, with the caveat that the servers are located in a different country from where the website owner resides. Although nobody calls regular hosting “onshore”, you can think of it that way when contrasting it to “offshore” web hosting, since the primary distinction is the location of the servers. That offshore location then unlocks a whole host of benefits, namely increased anonymity and data privacy.
Get started with offshore web hosting today 🌏
Selecting the right hosting provider can be a little challenging. If you’re seeking hosting on offshore servers, this choice can be even more difficult. Fortunately, a careful evaluation of the features offered by the best providers can help you make an informed decision.
In this article, we covered six formidable offshore hosting services. However, we’re particularly impressed by The Onion Host. With an incredible amount of customization features for your site, you’re likely to find a powerful option that will help you maintain your privacy.
If you want to see how offshore hosting providers stack up to more mainstream options, you can browse our collection of the best web hosting to see how they compare.
And once you pick your hosting, you can follow our guide on how to make a website to get started.
Do you have any questions about finding your perfect offshore web hosting provider? Let us know in the comments section below!
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