Skip to main content

VPS hosting

VPS-1

VPS-1 is the smallest virtual private server we operate, sized for a project that needs a host but does not yet need a fleet — a single static archive, a Tor relay, an investigative team's quiet wiki, a low-volume mailing list. One vCPU, two gigabytes of error-correcting memory, twenty-five gigabytes of NVMe storage, a one-terabyte monthly transfer allowance.

$8 per month

Order this plan → No KYC · No DMCA · Crypto only
  • 1 vCPU (AMD EPYC)
  • 2 GB DDR4 ECC
  • 25 GB NVMe SSD
  • 1 TB / month

Specification

Processor
1 vCPU (AMD EPYC)
Memory
2 GB DDR4 ECC
Storage
25 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth
1 TB / month
IPv4 addresses
1
IPv6
yes
Virtualization
KVM
Uplink
1 Gbps
Uptime SLA
99.9%
Operating systems
Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky, Fedora, Whonix

Who this plan suits

A first deployment — not a 'starter plan' in the marketing sense, but the size that matches a workload that has not yet asked for more. Concretely: a freelance investigation's static reading list, a Ghost instance for an embedded reporter, a Synapse server for a Matrix room of a few dozen contributors, a Pleroma instance for a single user rebuilding their public surface after a deplatforming, a Tor relay or Snowflake bridge contributing capacity to the network.

It is undersized for a production publication with an active comment system and a search index. It is undersized for a leak archive that ingests submissions daily. The next tier up — VPS-2 — is the honest answer when the workload demonstrably outgrows two gigabytes of memory or twenty-five gigabytes of storage; we would rather move a customer up than keep them on a tier that no longer fits the brief.

Where this plan can be operated

VPS-1 can be deployed in Iceland or Switzerland. Iceland's hosting jurisprudence rests on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (Resolution 23/138 of the Althingi) and a press-freedom posture that has consistently refused to enforce foreign DMCA-shaped notices on Icelandic-hosted material. Switzerland's posture rests on the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (revFADP, in force since September 2023) and a courtroom culture that demands a specific suspicion before disclosure.

Both jurisdictions sit outside the Five-Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement; both refuse routine cooperation with foreign press-suppression orders. For most VPS-1 deployments the deciding factor is latency to the reader: Iceland lands EU readers in 30-50ms, Switzerland in 10-20ms for central-European readers. Where the threat model includes an EU prosecutor with bilateral cooperation channels, Iceland's geographical and legal distance is the more conservative choice. The detailed comparison sits at our dossier on the two jurisdictions.

What the operator sees, and what it does not

What we see, mechanically: the billing email address you signed up with (which can be a forwarder), the IP address from which you connect by SSH, the hostname you pick at provision time, the system metrics published by the hypervisor (CPU, memory, network counters), and the volume of network traffic in and out of your machine. We do not log your TLS payload. We do not have read access to your disk contents while the machine is running, and we do not require an unencrypted disk at rest.

What we cannot see — and a sober reader should verify rather than trust: your application logs unless you ship them to a syslog endpoint we operate (we do not operate one), your container contents, your encrypted disk volumes, your in-memory secrets. The KVM hypervisor isolates tenant memory; the operator's reach into your VM is bounded by what a customer with root would expose. Payment is in Monero, Lightning, on-chain Bitcoin, or cash by post — the financial surface is decoupled from the technical surface so the billing identity does not need to match the operating identity.

Jurisdictions

The offering is available from the jurisdictions listed below. The choice between them is made at the order step; this section discloses what the choice is, so the reader knows before the form opens.

Ordering this plan

The order step confirms the jurisdiction, the payment rail, and the contact detail before any service is provisioned. Questions about the plan or migration ahead of an order go through the contact form.

Order this plan →