So You Start vs Hostwinds
A detailed comparison to help you choose between So You Start and Hostwinds.
Quick Verdict
3.6/5
So You Start
0 reviews
3.4/5
Hostwinds
0 reviews
So You Start is rated higher (3.6 vs 3.4). So You Start is OVH's mid-tier dedicated server brand — between Kimsufi budget and OVHcloud premium. Faster hardware, more RAM, anti-DDoS. Datacenters in France and Canada. 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.
So You Start OVH mid-range dedicated from €26.99 | Hostwinds US VPS with nightly snapshots and 24/7 support | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.6 (0 reviews)✓ | 3.4 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $33.2/mo | From $3.29/mo✓ |
| Best for | Developers, homelabbers, and small businesses wanting dedicated servers with large RAM and disk at mid-range prices, who are comfortable managing Linux themselves | US small businesses and developers who want responsive 24/7 live support and predictable renewal pricing more than raw speed |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | nvme storageipv6ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenter | hourly billingipv6ddos protectionbackups includedwindows availableus datacenterapi access |
| Visit So You Start → | Visit Hostwinds → | |
So You Start
Pros
- + Dedicated metal with 32 GB ECC from around the price of a small VPS elsewhere
- + Anti-DDoS (VAC), backup storage slot, and 16 included IPs on every server
- + Wide configuration ladder: Xeon D/E3 up to 24-core EPYC with 256 GB RAM
- + OVH backbone network with multiple Tier 1 carriers and a 99.9% SLA
- + Game line with latency-tolerant anti-DDoS for game hosting
Cons
- - Previous-generation hardware by design (DDR3-heavy entry line, modest single-thread speed)
- - Unmanaged: business-hours email/phone support, you run the OS and RAID yourself
- - France and Canada only — no US or APAC datacenter for this brand
- - OVH single-operator risk (2021 SBG fire) — take off-site backups despite the included slot
- - Pricing is currency-dependent across storefronts; setup fees on some configurations
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
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