Hostwinds vs HostKey
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Hostwinds and HostKey.
Quick Verdict
3.4/5
Hostwinds
0 reviews
3.1/5
HostKey
0 reviews
Hostwinds is rated higher (3.4 vs 3.1). Seattle-based hosting provider with VPS (Linux and Windows), dedicated servers, and shared hosting. Nightly backups included, 24/7/365 live chat support, and 99.9999% uptime SLA. Affordable starting price. HostKey provides dedicated servers with GPU options in Netherlands and US. RTX and A100 GPU servers available for ML workloads. Custom hardware configurations and anti-DDoS.
Hostwinds US VPS with nightly snapshots and 24/7 support | HostKey GPU-enabled dedicated servers in EU and US | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.4 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.1 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $3.29/mo✓ | From $40/mo |
| Best for | US small businesses and developers who want responsive 24/7 live support and predictable renewal pricing more than raw speed | ML and rendering teams wanting dedicated GPU servers in the EU, and buyers who want bare metal with BYOIP and hourly billing at low cost |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ✓ | |
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | Amsterdam NL, USA, Turkey, Finland (site also shows FR/DE/UK pickers and legacy RU listings) |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | hourly billingipv6ddos protectionbackups includedwindows availableus datacenterapi access | nvme storageipv6ddos protectiongpu availableeu datacenterus datacenter |
| Visit Hostwinds → | Visit HostKey → | |
Hostwinds
Pros
- + 24/7/365 live chat backed by staff with direct access to owned hardware
- + Flat, non-promotional pricing: shared from $3.29/mo, managed VPS from $7.14/mo
- + 99.9999% uptime SLA with 2N-redundant facility design and multi-carrier fibre
- + Owns and operates its own data centres, hardware and network gear
- + Windows and Linux VPS both available; dedicated servers built to order
Cons
- - US-only data centres (Seattle and Dallas) — poor shape for European and Asian audiences
- - Nightly backups are a paid add-on per company docs despite 'included' marketing language
- - No free domain; performance evidence is thin and partly self-published
- - Hourly billing and API access are tagged but unverified on the pages we read
HostKey
Pros
- + GPU pricing is competitive: RTX-class bare metal from €118/mo, GPU VPS from €70/mo, A100/H100 available
- + Cheap bare-metal entry at €40/mo with IPMI/iDRAC and unmetered 1 Gbps on advanced NL servers
- + Hourly and monthly billing on instant servers — rare for dedicated hardware
- + BYOIP/AS announcement free on the instant EPYC line; custom builds up to 190 cores and 4.6TB DDR5
- + Amsterdam base with EU data residency plus US and Turkey options
Cons
- - No published uptime SLA percentage or credit schedule
- - Small provider: thin documentation, sales-led quotes, and listings that mix hardware eras
- - Footprint beyond Amsterdam is thin; no multi-region story
- - Mixed pricing currencies (euro lists, dollar tiers) and 'from' prices that require confirmation
- - Backups and snapshots are add-ons; no free tier
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