LibertyVPS is a self-proclaimed free-speech host that offers offshore hosting with a focus on privacy. The English-language website includes minimal information about the company itself, but I can tell you that its data center is located in the Netherlands (which it describes as “a very good free-speech country”).
Features and Ease of Use
LibertyVPS offers a small range of offshore hosting services that have the following core features:
- Netherlands data center
- Manual backups available
- One domain limit
- Up to 100 GB disk space
- Up to unmetered monthly bandwidth
Other notable features include the cPanel control panel, LiteSpeed Web Server (which is far faster than Apache), and CloudLinux (which isolates you from the adverse effects of noisy hosted neighbors).
Clearly, the most notable characteristic of LibertyVPS is its commitment to privacy, which is why it houses its servers in Amsterdam’s Ecatel data center. Connections are secure and anonymous, and you shouldn’t be subject to the privacy laws in your own country, but I suggest you do a bit more research because the Netherlands is a member of the European Union.
Although LibertyVPS aims to provide a safe place for people who’ve faced censorship, discrimination, and pressure, it doesn’t allow any illegal activities. Also, note that LibertyVPS is not responsible for your data, so you’ll have to do your own backups.
Pricing and Support
Keeping with the privacy theme, you won’t be surprised to hear that LibertyVPS allows you to pay with Bitcoins as well as by more traditional methods such as PayPal. The downside is that prices are incredibly high; more in line with dedicated servers provided by other companies. You get what you pay for, I guess, and maybe you can’t put a price on privacy.
You can pay for hosting plans on one, six, or twelve-month billing cycles, but there are no discounts for longer-term commitments, and there is no money-back guarantee as far as I can see.
Since LibertyVPS isn’t a domain registrar, you’ll have to buy your domain and SSL certificate from someone else, which adds even more to the cost.
Customer service seems limited to an online contact form and live chat (which was offline whenever I wanted to try it). If you have to resort to self-support, you’ll be disappointed to see that the “articles” section contains only one paragraph of information and the two-entry knowledge base is not much use at all.
