If you’re planning to host a website anonymously, this article is for you, as here you’ll find all the information you’ll need to have an online presence incognito. To understand how to host a website anonymously, you first need to understand what anonymous hosting is.
In a nutshell, anonymous web hosting governs when a website is hosted by an anonymous site owner or web hosting provider. There are several different grades of anonymous web hosting (or what is considered as an anonymous host), all of which is based on just how anonymous you want your website to be.
There are several options available if you want to have a completely anonymous website, even down to how you choose to pay for your website hosting - with some of the best anonymous hosting providers also offer the option of paying with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
We’ll show you how to host your website anonymously, explain the benefits, and highlight the best anonymous hosting provider for the job.
Benefits of anonymity
One of the biggest benefits of anonymous web hosting is, well, being anonymous. If privacy is something that’s essential for your website and your business, there’s not doubt you will benefit from anonymous hosting.
All your personal information including your business address isn’t listed, therefore, it should be impossible to link your business location to your website.
Another important benefit is that anonymous hosting is a great way to keep your online website activity under wraps, and it also protects you from spam, online threats and DDoS attacks.
How to host a website anonymously in five steps
1. Get a VPN
If you want to make sure your personal data, including your IP address, location, name and more. remains anonymous, the first step is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). You can use an anonymous VPN, which combines the power of military-grade encryption and IP address masking, that lets you navigate online without having your activities traced back to you. There are plenty of VPN providers online such as NordVPN or TorGuard to help you get started.
2. Purchase an anonymous email address
Get yourself a Protonmail account, which promises end-to-end encryption with zero access to the data by the company behind it. While no one can guarantee you 100% intractability, you can significantly improve your privacy by using anonymous email accounts, which keep your address secret and also encrypt your connections. In addition to this, you can also use an alias system to create several profiles to protect your identity.
3. Register an anonymous domain name
When registering a domain name, you can use domain extensions that do not necessarily require you to provide your personal data. Nowadays, it's fairly simple to purchase a domain name and keep your name out of public view. Some of the best domain registrar services that have anonymous domain names offer “WHOIS” privacy protection.
WHOIS is a public database that holds the personal information of web hosting account holders, including their name, address, email address and telephone number, and can be used to find out who owns a domain.
4. Get anonymous hosting
Choose a hosting provider that allows you to sign up anonymously. When you sign up for anonymous web hosting, you will not be asked to enter any personal information, and therefore, your details won’t be passed on when you sign up with the hosting provider. Any hosting provider that claims to offer anonymous services but requires such information, simply isn’t anonymous hosting. For the best anonymous hosting service provider, we recommend Hostinger.
Hostinger doesn’t demand an identity verification process, and you can pay for additional domain privacy and protection options. If you live in a country that doesn’t have strong privacy laws, you may want to consider using an offshore anonymous hosting service, which means you’ll be hosting your website on a server located in a different country to where you’re based. Hostinger has data centers in seven countries, including the US, UK, Brazil, and Indonesia.
5. Pay for your domain and hosting anonymously
Many of the top anonymous hosting and domain name providers accept cryptocurrency payments so that you can pay anonymously with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, or another cryptocurrency. Bitcoin payments are a must for anonymous hosting. Whilst these methods are still not 100% untraceable, you can still get a much better anonymity than using conventional payment methods.
Conclusion
Hosting a website anonymously is perfectly legal and is targeted at people who want to remain, well, anonymous. Despite being anonymous, should you choose to take this route, you are still required to abide by the laws of the web hosting provider that you’ve signed up for.
Also note that depending on national or international laws in your region, government agencies can force your web host to reveal your private information if you are working on politically sensitive material online. Even if your identity is concealed, your website could still be taken down if it breaches the laws in your country.
- If you need more than basic web hosting but can't afford a dedicated server, the best VPS hosting provider could be what you're looking for.
