About HostingWinList
Most VPS review sites answer "which host is fastest?" or "which is cheapest?" Those are fine questions, but they skip the one that actually blocks people: "will this provider let me do what I need?" Port 25 policies, Plex-on-VPS restrictions, game server DDoS exposure, AUP clauses that ban specific workloads. HostingWinList maps that terrain.
Who writes this
HostingWinList is written by Nate Corwin, a self-hosting practitioner who's been running mail servers, game servers, and media stacks on budget VPS since 2017. Before going independent, Nate managed infrastructure for a small web agency, which is where the port-25-block education started — a client's transactional email went dark overnight because the provider quietly blocked outbound SMTP on the entire subnet.
That experience, and a few more like it, led to documenting which providers allow what. Not speed benchmarks, not pricing tables — use-case compatibility. Does this host open port 25? Will they let you run Plex without a TOS complaint? Can you host a Minecraft server without getting DDoS'd off the network? The answers are always buried in AUP fine print, scattered across Reddit threads, or available only by opening a support ticket and waiting three days for a one-word reply.
How we research
- Provider documentation first. ToS, AUP, and published support articles are the primary source. When a provider's official docs say port 25 is blocked, that's authoritative.
- Community reports for the gaps. Official docs are often silent or outdated. For those cases, we cross-reference Reddit (r/selfhosted, r/homelab, r/VPS), LowEndTalk policy threads, and support-ticket screenshots posted by users. When a data point comes from community reporting rather than official docs, we say so.
- First-hand experience where we have it. Nate has personally run services on several (not all) providers covered here. Where personal experience applies, it's noted. Where it doesn't, the guide relies on the sources above.
- No fake "we tested all 20 providers" claims. Nobody has active VPS instances at every provider simultaneously. We aggregate the best available data and tell you where it comes from.
What this site is not
HostingWinList doesn't run benchmarks, doesn't publish speed tests, and doesn't maintain a price-comparison database. For that, other resources exist. Our lane is use-case compatibility: can you run what you want to run, and what will stop you.
How we make money
Some links are affiliate links. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This never changes what we write — if a provider blocks port 25, we say so regardless of their affiliate program. See our full disclosure.
Got a correction, a policy update, or a provider experience worth documenting? Get in touch.