Bulletproof, offshore, and just normal hosting

Every country has its laws, just like the internet. Plus, there are a lot of gray areas of activity. We are not talking about unimaginable crimes, and even less about criminality, but about activities more likely to run the risk of drowning in a flood of complaints - software distribution, mailing lists, adult content, copyright, etc.

To bypass bans, blocking, and complaints, just and help such bulletproof hosting server or vps. Such hosting, often offshore or located in countries with sufficiently protected rights and creating problems for the site's owner, can only be through the courts. They (hostings) allow different content without much censorship or fear of being removed unexpectedly. There are restrictions here too, of course - on advocacy of violence, narcotics, etc. But they are pre-announced and much more lenient. Hosting providers comply with the law of the country where the data center is located.

If you want a hosting service that ignores complaints, you need to realize a simple thing: there are very few truly bulletproof-resistant hosting services out there. A bit more offshore hosting (they are located in Panama, Malaysia, etc., and therefore quietly ignore the DMCA - such countries simply don't have legislation on such matters). In other areas, they are also loyal... until the complaints start coming in. And there are a lot of ordinary (yes, good, fast, high-quality, responsive support...) hosting providers, which after a couple of complaints will put you "out in the cold". At the same time, such hosting sites are often promoted and advertised as bulletproof hostings. SEO and SMM specialists simply cover all the queries that they can. Plus, it's typically just regular hosting, but it has a section that is almost impossible to find from the home page, but only through a Google search.

And, of course, not all clients of these services are Captain Hooks, breaking the law at every turn or selling the.... (I'm not going to go on, you know what I mean).

We have a fascinating case study on this issue. One of our first customers is a link shortening service that is being complained about... by anyone who's not too lazy to do it. As a matter of fact, this is where our cooperation began - the client received complaints about his links every(!) day. Including complaints to the hosting providers and domain registrar. Every day, clients shortened links and some were mailed out (yes, including in spam mailings). And so, actually, for that reason, the flood of complaints about his site was a daily occurrence. Of course, where possible, the client cleaned up the links that had the highest flow of complaints. But at some point, his site was removed from the Cloudf**** and he got a letter from Hetz*** - you need to solve a problem right away or... We'll withhold the name of the companies, but you've probably guessed it by now.

That's when we met. Alas, there are still complaints, but we change the client's IP address from time to time.

Reverse proxy server vs bulletproof hosting

Actually, our service is just about that - we use a reverse proxy server to hide the real IP-address of the site or server. Our website - https://hideyourhosting.com.

What a reverse proxy server is doesn't need to be explained to Habr readers. We even made a trial site so anyone could see how it works. And it's not something new (I think almost everyone knows about Cloudf****), but from this angle (as far as we know) we're the only ones selling this product.

Scheme of operation of reverse proxy server:

And it's better and cheaper than real bulletproof hosting because:

1. It's easy to change not only the IP address, but also the country;

2. Ease of communication - we understand Russian and English;

3. Flexibility of tariffs - it all depends on the number of sites, required IP and channel width;

4. You are not tied to any country and its laws - we just change the proxy server and that's it (see point 1);

5. Payment in cryptocurrency only - we have no bank account or legal entity;

6. Cheaper... because cheaper. This is in spite of the fact that in addition to our service, the client also needs hosting where his site(s) is actually located. Below will be a comparison table.

7. We don't have caching. It's not a fact that this is a plus, but... it's just the way it is.

This is a boxed product - we do not notify the client about proxy server changes, complaints about their site, etc. We simply change the gasket and the customer are not distracted from their work.

In addition to the proxy server itself, we provide such additional settings (at the customer's request):

1. A free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt is obtained to the address of the proxy server;

2. Redirects on the site http->https and with www. on without www.;

3. Another site host - on your usual, convenient and favorite hosting you can create a host google.com (actually as well as any other name) and the proxy server will request site data from this host from the specified IP. Well, your hosting provider's and will not know that your site is hosted by him and complaints about it will not come to him. Again, please note - it's at the customer's request.

Reverse proxy vs bulletproof hosting: compare prices

There are many VPS and servers and each has its own parameters.

First and foremost, the weakest VPS:

A little more powerful:

And more powerful:

And more powerful:

Of course, the figures are current as of March 2024 and are subject to change.

There was also a thought of a comparison table for dedicated servers, but based on the data above, we can say that it doesn't make sense. A reverse proxy server is simply cheaper than bulletproof hosting. And considering that people rarely have 1–2 sites, more often they have many on a server (or servers) - it's more a matter of convenience than anything else.

We also made a fully functional bot in Telegram https://t.me/Hideyourhosting_bot - can get acquainted with the product, test it for 7 days for free, buy and customize it right there.