--- title: "Offshore Hosting Locations: 7 Countries Compared" description: "Iceland, Switzerland, Moldova, Romania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Malaysia compared: DMCA and EU rules, takedowns, latency." url: https://offshoreserv.com/locations lang: en updated: 2026-09-27 source: HTML page at the url above (canonical); this is its Markdown version --- 7 jurisdictions · 3 regions # Offshore locations. Choose which law applies. Seven offshore hosting jurisdictions, one price list. US DMCA notices are not actioned in any of them; what differs is the local law, the EU rules and the latency to your users. Here they are side by side. - 4 outside the EU - Removal needs a local court - Latency from 20 cities - Same prices everywhere Seven jurisdictions - [Iceland No DSA](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/iceland) - [Switzerland No DSA](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/switzerland) - [Moldova No DSA](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/moldova) - [Romania EU · DSA applies](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/romania) - [Netherlands EU · DSA applies](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/netherlands) - [Bulgaria EU · DSA applies](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/bulgaria) - [Malaysia No DSA](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/malaysia) Same prices in all sevenUS DMCA notices not actioned in any ## Seven jurisdictions, side by side. The legal profile, the EU status, what it takes to remove content, and what you can deploy there. | Jurisdiction | Legal profile | EU rules (DSA) | Removal requires | London · NY · SG | Available | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Iceland Reykjavík 64°08′N 21°56′W | Free-speech haven Home of the IMMI press-freedom resolution. Outside the EU: the Digital Services Act is not in force. | Do not apply | Icelandic court order | 29 · 63 · 169 | VPS DED RDP GPU | | Switzerland Zürich 47°22′N 8°33′E | Privacy law Strict Federal Act on Data Protection and no EU platform rules. Swiss copyright law applies locally. | Do not apply | Swiss court order | 13 · 94 · 151 | VPS DED RDP | | Moldova Chișinău 47°01′N 28°50′E | Best value EU candidate, not a member: no DSA. Content is assessed under Moldovan law only. | Do not apply | Moldovan court order | 33 · 113 · 129 | VPS DED RDP GPU | | Romania Bucharest 44°26′N 26°06′E | Budget EU Blanket data retention struck down twice by the Constitutional Court. EU notice rules apply. | Apply | Romanian court order | 32 · 113 · 131 | VPS DED RDP GPU | | Netherlands Amsterdam 52°22′N 4°54′E | Network hub Best-connected location in Europe (AMS-IX). US DMCA notices carry no legal force here. | Apply | Dutch court order | 7 · 87 · 154 | VPS DED RDP GPU | | Bulgaria Sofia 42°42′N 23°19′E | Budget EU Data-retention law annulled by the Constitutional Court in 2015. Solid peering to the Balkans. | Apply | Bulgarian court order | 31 · 112 · 134 | VPS DED RDP | | Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 3°08′N 101°41′E | Asia gateway Only Malaysian copyright procedure applies, and a false takedown notice is a criminal offence. | Do not apply | Malaysian court order | 155 · 221 · 6 | VPS RDP | Latency figures are round-trip estimates in milliseconds from distance and typical routes, not measurements. No jurisdiction is lawless: local courts can always act, and in EU locations the EU notice-and-action rules apply too. [How we handle complaints](https://offshoreserv.com/dmca-policy) ## One page per jurisdiction. The law in detail, the servers available and latency estimates from 20 cities. - [Iceland Reykjavík Free-speech haven — EEA · outside the EU · no DSA — London **~29 ms** New York **~63 ms** Singapore **~169 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/iceland) - [Switzerland Zürich Privacy law — Outside the EU & EEA · no DSA — London **~13 ms** New York **~94 ms** Singapore **~151 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/switzerland) - [Moldova Chișinău Best value — Outside the EU · no DSA — London **~33 ms** New York **~113 ms** Singapore **~129 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/moldova) - [Romania Bucharest Budget EU — EU member · DSA applies — London **~32 ms** New York **~113 ms** Singapore **~131 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/romania) - [Netherlands Amsterdam Network hub — EU member · DSA applies — London **~7 ms** New York **~87 ms** Singapore **~154 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/netherlands) - [Bulgaria Sofia Budget EU — EU member · DSA applies — London **~31 ms** New York **~112 ms** Singapore **~134 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/bulgaria) - [Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Asia gateway — Asia-Pacific · no DSA — London **~155 ms** New York **~221 ms** Singapore **~6 ms**](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/malaysia) - [Estimate latency from your city — Round-trip estimates from 20 cities to all seven jurisdictions, in one table.](https://offshoreserv.com/network) ## How to choose a jurisdiction. Start from your users and your risks, then pick the law that fits. > In short > > - Seven locations: three in the EU (Romania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria), one in the EEA (Iceland) and three outside both (Switzerland, Moldova, Malaysia). > - US DMCA notices have no legal force in any of them, and local courts can act in all of them. > - In EU locations the Digital Services Act's notice-and-action rules apply; elsewhere, local law and local procedures decide. > - Each plan has one price wherever it is offered; product availability varies by location. > - Choose by audience first: Amsterdam for connectivity, Iceland or Switzerland for speech and privacy, Moldova for the full catalog outside the EU, Kuala Lumpur for South-East Asia. ## Region first, then the law Start with your audience. Distance sets a floor under latency that no legal choice removes, so pick the region first and the jurisdiction second. Then match the legal profile to what you publish and to how much procedure you want between a complaint and your server. | Location | Legal status | DSA | Products | Strongest for | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Iceland](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/iceland) (Reykjavík) | EEA, not EU | Not yet | VPS, RDP, AMD dedicated, GPU | Press freedom, publishing | | [Switzerland](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/switzerland) (Zürich) | Outside EU and EEA | No | VPS, RDP, AMD dedicated | Non-EU privacy law, central Europe | | [Moldova](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/moldova) (Chișinău) | EU candidate | No | Full catalog | Hardware choice outside the EU | | [Romania](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/romania) (Bucharest) | EU member | Yes | VPS, RDP, six dedicated, GPU | EU data residency, GPU in the EU | | [Netherlands](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/netherlands) (Amsterdam) | EU member | Yes | Full catalog | Connectivity, bandwidth | | [Bulgaria](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/bulgaria) (Sofia) | EU member | Yes | VPS, RDP, two Intel dedicated | Lean EU presence, the Balkans | | [Malaysia](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/malaysia) (Kuala Lumpur) | Outside Europe | No | VPS, RDP | South-East Asia | ### Privacy and free expression Iceland and Switzerland are the strongest fits. Iceland combines constitutional protection against censorship, the 2010 IMMI resolution and 12th place in RSF's 2026 index. The DSA is not yet part of the EEA Agreement, but Icelandic law has its own copyright notice procedure with a counter-notice right. Switzerland ranks 8th, sits outside the EU and has data protection the EU recognizes as adequate. Its courts act on defamation claims, and a paused surveillance reform could widen identification and retention duties. Six of our seven locations are outside the Five, Nine and 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing groups; only the Netherlands is in the Nine and 14 Eyes. Our guide to [the 14 Eyes countries and hosting](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/14-eyes-countries-hosting) explains why the legal channels to your data matter more. ### Value and hardware choice Each plan costs the same wherever it is offered, so value comes from what a location lets you buy. Moldova is the only location outside the EU with the whole catalog: all nine dedicated servers from $47.49, the storage and 10 Gbps models, GPU servers and the shared RDP seat. Inside the EU, Bulgaria and Romania also offer the entry-level Xeon servers and the shared seat. In Moldova, check the retention and administrative removal rules and the reputation of your IP range before you commit. ### An EU audience If your users are in the EU and you want their data to stay there, choose Amsterdam for connectivity, Bucharest for GPU servers and six dedicated models, or Sofia for a lean setup near the Balkans. All three apply the GDPR and the DSA. Zürich is the non-EU alternative with an EU adequacy decision. ### Asia latency Kuala Lumpur is about 310 km from Singapore and gives the lowest latency to South-East Asia of our locations. It offers VPS and Windows RDP only, and it comes with Malaysia's statutory copyright notice procedure and stricter speech laws. ## EU and non-EU locations In Romania, the Netherlands and Bulgaria, the [Digital Services Act](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj) adds a common procedure on top of national law: - **Notice and action.** Anyone can send a notice that explains why content is illegal and where it is (Article 16). It gives the host actual knowledge but is not an automatic takedown: the host must decide diligently and objectively. - **Statement of reasons.** If content is restricted, the customer must be told why and how to challenge the decision (Article 17). - **Orders from authorities.** Courts and competent authorities can order action against specific content or request information (Articles 9 and 10). Under a separate regulation, terrorist content can be ordered offline within one hour. - **No general monitoring.** Hosts cannot be required to monitor everything they store (Article 8). Outside the EU, each country follows its own rules. Iceland is in the EEA, where the DSA is still under scrutiny, and its Act No. 30/2002 has its own copyright notice procedure. Switzerland has no DSA and plans a platform law only for very large services. Moldova, an EU candidate, has drafted a DSA-style law, and its cybercrime law already allows administrative removal orders for specific criminal content. Malaysia has a statutory copyright notice procedure with criminal penalties for false notices. US [DMCA](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/dmca-ignored-countries) notices have no legal force in any of the seven countries; our [DMCA policy](https://offshoreserv.com/dmca-policy) explains how we answer them. Data protection follows a similar split. The GDPR applies in the three EU locations and in Iceland. Switzerland's revised data protection act is recognized by the EU as adequate. Moldova's Law No. 195/2024 and Malaysia's Personal Data Protection Act are modern laws, but neither country has an EU adequacy decision, so GDPR-covered data stored there needs a safeguard such as standard contractual clauses. ## What no jurisdiction can offer - **Immunity from local courts.** Every one of our locations has courts that can order the removal of content or the disclosure of data, and valid orders are followed. - **Distance from EU law for EU-facing services.** If you run a platform for people in the EU, EU rules such as the DSA and the GDPR can apply to you as the operator wherever your server is, and EU authorities can act against your domain, your payment channels or access to your site. - **Protection for abuse.** Child sexual abuse material, malware, spam, phishing, attacks and fraud are acted on immediately in every location under our [acceptable use policy](https://offshoreserv.com/acceptable-use-policy). Read [offshore vs bulletproof hosting](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/offshore-vs-bulletproof-hosting) for the difference. - **Anonymity by default.** We ask only for an email address and accept crypto, but most blockchains are public ledgers, so a payment can be traced unless you use a privacy coin such as [Monero](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/pay-for-a-vps-with-monero). What we store is listed in our [privacy policy](https://offshoreserv.com/privacy-policy). - **Permanence.** Laws change. The DSA may come to Iceland, Switzerland may widen its surveillance duties, and Moldova is aligning its law with the EU as it negotiates accession. We track these changes on each location page, our [transparency report](https://offshoreserv.com/transparency-report) lists the requests we receive, and our [warrant canary](https://offshoreserv.com/warrant-canary) is renewed every quarter. For the legal background, read [Is offshore hosting legal?](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/is-offshore-hosting-legal) and our [jurisdictions compared](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/offshore-hosting-jurisdictions-compared) article. ## Jurisdictions, answered. **Another question?** The full FAQ answers what people ask before an order: payments, privacy, complaints and support. ### How do I choose a jurisdiction? Start with where your users are, because distance drives latency. Then match the legal profile to your needs: Iceland or Switzerland for speech and privacy, Moldova for the full catalog outside the EU, Amsterdam, Bucharest or Sofia for an EU audience, and Kuala Lumpur for South-East Asia. ### What changes between EU and non-EU locations? In Romania, the Netherlands and Bulgaria the Digital Services Act applies, so a notice that meets its requirements or an order from a competent authority can require action. In Iceland, Switzerland, Moldova and Malaysia, local law and local courts decide, including the statutory copyright notice procedures of Iceland and Malaysia and Moldova's administrative removal orders. ### Which of your locations are outside the 14 Eyes? Six of our seven: Iceland, Switzerland, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Malaysia are in none of the Five, Nine or 14 Eyes groups, and the Netherlands is in the Nine and 14 Eyes. These groups share intercepted communications; data on a server is obtained through the courts of its country, so weigh the legal profile first. ### Can I move my server to another location later? Yes. Order the same plan in the new location, copy your data across and cancel the old service; the new server comes with its own IP addresses. Your account balance can always pay for other services. ### Do prices differ between locations? No. Each plan has one price in USD wherever it is offered. What differs is availability: GPU servers, for example, are offered in Moldova, the Netherlands, Iceland and Romania, and Malaysia offers VPS and Windows RDP only. ### Which location is fastest for Europe, the US and Asia? For Europe and North America, start with Amsterdam, our best-connected location; for South-East Asia, choose Kuala Lumpur. Latency estimates for every location are on our network page, which also shows how to measure the real latency yourself. ### Do you ignore DMCA notices everywhere? We do not act on US DMCA notices in any location, because the DMCA has no legal force in these countries. That is not the same as ignoring copyright: complaints are checked against local law, EU locations follow the DSA, Iceland and Malaysia have statutory notice procedures, and courts can order removals everywhere. ## Go deeper. - [Iceland vs Switzerland vs Moldova Three non-EU privacy jurisdictions compared in depth.](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/iceland-vs-switzerland-vs-moldova) - [Offshore jurisdictions compared The long read: seven countries, their laws and trade-offs.](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/offshore-hosting-jurisdictions-compared) - [Is offshore hosting legal?A plain-English answer, country by country.](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/is-offshore-hosting-legal) ## Picked your jurisdiction? 1. Choose a server 2. Pay in crypto, no ID asked 3. Online in minutes Same prices in all seven jurisdictions --- OffshoreServ is an offshore hosting provider: VPS, dedicated servers, Windows RDP and GPU servers in seven jurisdictions (Iceland, Switzerland, Moldova, Romania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Malaysia), paid only in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Tether (USDT) and Solana), with no identity checks (no KYC). Prices and plans: https://offshoreserv.com/pricing · Answers: https://offshoreserv.com/faq · Every page: https://offshoreserv.com/llms.txt