Locations & jurisdictions
Is Iceland good for hosting?
Short answer
Yes, particularly for publishing and journalism. Iceland is in none of the Eyes alliances, has unusually strong constitutional speech protection developed under the IMMI framework, runs on essentially entirely geothermal and hydroelectric power, and gets free cooling year-round. The cost is about 20–30 ms of extra latency to mainland Europe.
Iceland is in the EEA, so the GDPR applies — which is a benefit if you process EU personal data and a consideration if you would rather be outside that regime entirely.
It is our recommended jurisdiction for Tor relays and for publishing projects, where the combination of speech protection and no alliance membership matters more than the last twenty milliseconds.
7 answers in Locations & jurisdictions
- Which VPS location is best for European users? Frankfurt or Amsterdam for the lowest latency — DE-CIX and AMS-IX are the two densest exchanges in Europe and both reach most of the continent inside …
- Which VPS location is best for Asian users? Singapore for Southeast Asia and India, Tokyo for Japan and Korea, Hong Kong for Greater China, and Mumbai for the subcontinent. Singapore is the safe…
- Which VPS location is best for Latin America? São Paulo for Brazil — IX.br is the largest exchange in the southern hemisphere and nothing else comes close for Brazilian users. Miami for the rest o…
- Which VPS location is best for African users? Johannesburg for southern Africa — NAPAfrica is by far the largest exchange on the continent. Lagos for West Africa, Nairobi for East Africa, and Cair…
- How do I get US latency without US jurisdiction? Nassau in the Bahamas is roughly 45 ms from Miami, and Panama City about 60 ms — both outside US jurisdiction, outside the Eyes alliances, and with no…
- Is Switzerland good for privacy-focused hosting? Yes — it has the strongest and best-tested statutory framework in our fleet. Swiss law treats hosted data much like correspondence, so disclosure requ…