Server hosting privacy ratings

VPS, dedicated and cloud servers, including providers that allow mail servers.

24 server hosting are rated against 13 public criteria, and 24 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Our pick is DataPacket. Of the 24 with a known jurisdiction, 10 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 16 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.

Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown

Server hosting privacy ratings, sorted by pick and then by grade
Name	Grade	Score	Data	Jurisdiction	Open source	No trackers or telemetry	No ads or data sales	Independent audit	Transparency report	Tells users about requests	Mail-friendly (port 25)	Reverse DNS	IPv6	Anonymous payment	TLS configuration	Security headers	Modern web standards
DataPacket Our pick Dedicated servers, IP transit and bandwidth on its own global network, from DataCamp Limited in London.	Grade D	43	100%	United Kingdom Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Exoscale Swiss cloud provider, part of the A1 Group, offering compute instances, GPUs, managed Kubernetes, object storage and databases in European zones.	Grade C	65	100%	Switzerland Outside Eyes	No	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
UpCloud Finnish cloud provider offering virtual servers, GPU servers, managed Kubernetes, databases and object storage in datacenters in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.	Grade D	53	100%	Finland Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Not tested yet
Google Cloud Cloud computing platform from Google offering virtual machines (Compute Engine), Kubernetes, storage, databases and data analytics services.	Grade D	50	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Not tested yet
DigitalOcean US cloud provider offering virtual machines (Droplets), Kubernetes, managed databases and object storage.	Grade D	48	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Hetzner German provider of cloud servers, dedicated servers and storage, with its own datacenters in Germany and Finland and cloud locations in the US and Singapore.	Grade D	48	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	Partial	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Njalla Provider of VPS, domains and VPN run by njalla.srl in Costa Rica, with servers in Sweden. Accounts need only an email or XMPP address, and crypto payments are accepted.	Grade D	48	100%	Costa Rica Outside Eyes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Amazon Web Services Cloud computing platform from Amazon offering virtual servers (EC2), storage, databases and hundreds of other services in regions worldwide.	Grade D	45	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Not tested yet
Infomaniak Swiss provider of web hosting, VPS and OpenStack public cloud, running its own datacenters and network (AS29222).	Grade D	45	100%	Switzerland Outside Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	Partial	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Not tested yet
OVHcloud French provider of VPS, dedicated servers and public cloud, running its own datacenters in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.	Grade D	44	100%	France Nine Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet	No	Not tested yet
1984 Icelandic provider of web hosting, VPS, email and free DNS, running on its own network (AS44925) and hardware. Accepts Bitcoin and Monero.	Grade D	43	100%	Iceland Outside Eyes	No	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Akamai Cloud (Linode) Cloud computing platform from Akamai, formerly Linode, offering virtual machines, Kubernetes, object storage and managed databases.	Grade D	40	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
Bunker French cloud from France Nuage SAS offering virtual machines, managed open-source apps, PostgreSQL and S3-compatible storage in its own datacenters in France.	Grade D	40	100%	France Nine Eyes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Not tested yet
Microsoft Azure Cloud computing platform from Microsoft offering virtual machines, Kubernetes, storage, databases and AI services in regions worldwide.	Grade D	40	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet
BuyVM VPS provider owned by Cloudzy, offering KVM slices, storage VPS, block storage and anycast IP addresses in Las Vegas, New York and Luxembourg.	Grade F	38	100%	United Arab Emirates Outside Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	Partial	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Not tested yet
UltaHost Provider of shared hosting, VPS, VDS and dedicated servers, headquartered in Delaware with offices in the UK, Turkey and Dubai.	Grade F	38	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Not tested yet
Vultr US cloud provider of virtual machines, bare metal servers and GPUs in many locations worldwide.	Grade F	38	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet
Contabo German provider of VPS, cloud and dedicated servers. Outgoing mail on port 25 is limited to about 25 messages per minute.	Grade F	35	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Not tested yet
RackNerd US provider of budget KVM VPS, dedicated and shared hosting in many North American and European datacenters.	Grade F	33	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Not tested yet
RareCloud Romanian provider of KVM VPS, OpenStack cloud VMs, managed Kubernetes and web hosting, with datacenters in Europe, the US and Asia.	Grade F	33	100%	Romania Outside Eyes	No	No	Partial	No	No	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet
DartNode US provider of VPS and dedicated servers, run by Snaju Inc in Houston on its own network (AS399646) and hardware.	Grade F	30	100%	United States Five Eyes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Partial	Partial	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Not tested yet
Hostinger Lithuanian provider of web hosting, VPS and website building services. Port 25 is open on VPS plans, limited to 5 messages per minute.	Grade F	30	100%	Lithuania Outside Eyes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Not tested yet
netcup German hosting provider offering virtual and root servers, web hosting, managed servers and domains, with datacenters in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the US and Singapore.	Grade F	30	100%	Germany Fourteen Eyes	No	No	Partial	Partial	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Partial	Not tested yet
Scaleway French cloud provider, part of the Iliad group, offering virtual instances, bare-metal servers, Kubernetes, storage and AI infrastructure in European datacenters.	Grade F	30	100%	France Nine Eyes	No	No	No	Partial	No	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Not tested yet

Questions

What is the most private option among server hosting?

Our pick is DataPacket. Dedicated hardware on its own network, open port 25, configurable reverse DNS and native IPv6. Suited to running mail servers without sharing hardware with other customers.

How are server hosting rated?

Each entry answers 13 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, mail-friendly (port 25), Reverse DNS, IPv6 and anonymous payment. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.

Does jurisdiction matter?

Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.