OVH

They offer the lowest domain prices I could find. Their VPS' and web hosting are affordable too. They are an honest business. You can read exactly how much a domain renewal or web hosting costs. No misleading marketing, no surprise fees. When they change the price, you get an email with the data sheet. The WHOIS protection is free, you get small web hosting with your domain too.

I'm surprised how many computer scientists use this service. The service is a bit technical, menus load slowly and the support is unimpressive, but other than that is quite solid.

You don't hear about this service often, but it's the biggest hosting provider in Europe for a reason.

I've enjoyed using my VPS with no issues or hassles on OVH.

Summary: Very Large. Strong Security & Privacy. Offer OpenStack. No TFA Yet On OpenStack Dashboard. Slow To Upgrade Their OpenStack Version.

Strength:

• No censorship if your content is lawful • OVH owns the world's largest datacentre in surface area. In Montreal, Canada. Source https://archive.fo/j0yOn • OVH is the largest hosting provider in Europe. Source https://archive.fo/wBrN8 • OVH is the 3rd largest in the world based on physical servers. Source https://archive.fo/iejpc • 28 datacenter worldwide. Including, optionally within the USA. • Free, automated, and optional protection against DDoS attacks. Source https://archive.fo/U5zjc • Optional OpenStack software for their "Public Cloud". OpenStack is fully open source. Thus available for public review and contribution. In turn this means stronger privacy and stronger privacy for you. • OVH head office is located in France. So free from both the Cloud Act & the Patriot Act. • WikiLeaks used OVH for a while. Source at https://archive.fo/r91FP • In 2018 OVH announced its five-year plans to triple investment starting in 2021. Which represent between US$4.6 to $8.1 billion (4 to 7 billion euros). https://archive.fo/5VXHQ • Offer bilingual English or French services • They both use and support the strong security security and strong privacy open source OpenStack

Challenge:

• Lots of fake & false reviews about OVH. Paid smear? Most of those are people who choose to use their services WITHOUT support. But then are unhappy that it is without support. This could easily be resolved by using OVH's services WITH support. As most of their products are offer either WITH or WITHOUT support. For you to not get fooled into FAKE reviews, I suggest to try OVH for yourself, then review their services for yourself. Then you will notice that the real products offer by OVH do not match those fake & false reviews. • The version of OpenStack is not the latest. They do periodically update their OpenStack but as of October 2020 they are really slow at it. • As of October 2020, their OpenStack dashboard is NOT yet protected by Two-Factor Authentication (TFA). But they are interested to add this feature in the future.

What is the Cloud Act?

If you are not familiar with the "Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act or CLOUD Act (H.R. 4943)" (aka the Cloud Act) from 2018 it is really really BAD for your security and your privacy. Because, if you are a person or company with lawful behaviors, someone with Evil behavior into one of the many spy agencies could use the Cloud Act to demand access to data stored on servers hosted by US based tech firms with head office in the United States (U.S.), including their servers located overseas.

For example, if you choose Amazon as a host, as you know their head office is within the Cloud Act, but what if you use an Amazon datacenter in Europe? Well any U.S. federal law enforcement can use a warrant or subpoena to get you data stored on servers regardless of whether the data are stored in the U.S. or on foreign soil. WITHOUT notifying you and WITHOUT any legal representation for you. The Cloud Act is much much much worse than the "Patriot Act". Weak privacy? With security? Source: • https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Interview-OVH-CEO-on-offering-a-European-alternative-to-the-US-public-cloud-giants ___• https://archive.fo/Iq9nf

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act ___• https://archive.fo/7rKZ1

What is the Patriot Act?

If you're not familiar with the Patriot Act, it means that your cloud host can be spy on, access, shut down, seize, or unwarranted search WITHOUT notifying you and WITHOUT any legal representation for you. Weak privacy? With security? Sources: • https://www.wired.com/insights/2011/12/us-cloud/ ___• https://archive.fo/mJSzi ___• https://archive.fo/q62zV#selection-4361.1-4361.126 ___• https://archive.fo/QpndN

What Is OpenStack?

OpenStack is a free and open-source software platform for cloud computing, mostly deployed as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), whereby virtual servers and other resources are made available to customers.

Try OpenStack for free at https://www.openstack.org/passport

Disclaimer

Most people in host companies in the USA are good people, and friendly with lawful, and mature behaviors. But unfortunately both the U.S. Cloud Act and the Patriot Act override and cancel their good intent.

Most people in the CIA or other spy agencies are good people, with mature, ethical, and lawful behaviors. But allegedly, a minority of people in there are bad people, with Evil, unethical or criminal behaviors.

I am not affiliated with OVH or OpenStack. I am just a customer happy with their products & services, their values, strong security, and strong privacy.