Hello, ladies and gentlemen, in this article, I will tell you that companies GoDaddy, FastComet, Hetzner have discontinued their services for Russians. Now residents of the Russian Federation will no longer be able to use the services of these companies, which means they will have to look for alternatives within Russia or try to find ways to continue using the services of these companies.
Why GoDaddy, FastComet, Hetzner Stopped Providing Services to Russians
The first to make this decision was FastComet, a company offering hosting, VPS, VDS services, and serving as a domain registrar. FastComet announced that it would cease providing all services to residents of the Russian Federation on October 1, 2023.
As of now, the company’s website is inaccessible from Russia, and all services have been discontinued.
Roskomnadzor did not impose any restrictions on the company, so all limitations from FastComet were a result of the company’s own initiative.
To bypass the restrictions imposed by the company, users can change their payment region and pay for services with an international card. However, access to the website and hosting control panel is only possible if you change your IP to one located outside of Russia.
Following suit, the German company Hetzner also decided to exit the Russian market, announcing the discontinuation of services for Russians.
Clients received the following letter:
We regret to inform you that due to the tense geopolitical situation with Russia, we will be ending our contractual relationship with customers from Russia.
Political decisions have led to changes in the legal regulations that affect our business with Russian-based customers. Unfortunately, we can no longer have contracts with customers with Russian postal addresses. This will affect everyone with a Russian address stored on Hetzner Accounts.
After we analyze the customer databases, we will send the affected customers a notice of termination for all products and services on Friday, 15 December 2023. It will take effect from 31 January 2024. We recommend that you take appropriate measures now.
We very much regret the inconvenience, ask for your understanding in this challenging situation, and thank you for your continued cooperation.
We will answer any questions you may have. Please write to us by logging onto your account on our administration interface and going to “Support” in the menu.
Certainly, there is a possibility that a simple change of address and payment with international cards might help. However, there is also a chance that the company will block access to services and demand confirmation that the client resides outside of Russia, such as a residence permit, citizenship from another country, or receipts proving residence in another region, like utility bills in your name. So, attempts to “cheat” in such a manner may prove ineffective.
GoDaddy has also decided to cease operations in Russia, but they will cut off all Russians from their services by December 31, 2023. This gives less time for service migration and seeking alternatives compared to what Hetzner has provided.
GoDaddy notified clients by sending notifications via email.
This decision likely stems from the “On Communications” and “On Information” laws. According to new amendments, starting from February 1, 2024, only hosting providers registered with Roskomnadzor will be allowed to operate in Russia. Additionally, any company performing the functions of a hosting provider or domain registrar, with clients in Russia, must have a representative office under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.
It’s probable that these companies do not wish to comply with Roskomnadzor’s requirements or work in accordance with Russian legislation, so they chose not to violate it and simply cease operations with residents of the Russian Federation.
Consequently, alternatives will need to be sought now.
Alternatives to GoDaddy, FastComet, Hetzner
These companies serve as domain registrars and hosting providers. If you need simple VPS or hosting, there are many alternatives in Russia.
Several foreign companies have also not discontinued services for residents of Russia, such as Namecheap and Regway.
However, there is a challenge: most foreign hosting providers and registrars do not support .ru, .su, .рф zones and do not accept payments from Russia. While Namecheap accepts cryptocurrencies, this option may not be suitable for everyone.
There are also no guarantees that they will continue to provide services to Russians in the future.
Certainly, you can consider working with Russian hosting providers, but the cost is often significantly higher, and not all the necessary tools are available. For example, Russian hosting providers often lack equivalents to cloud services like Hetzner or Storage Box at comparable prices.
Moreover, companies’ solutions can be unique; for instance, Hetzner’s Storage Share. In Russia, alternatives to such solutions are simply not seen.
Therefore, if you need to register a domain, get VPS or VDS, you can use Russian hosting. However, for many unique solutions, you simply won’t find equivalents in the Russian market. You may have to either take the risk with foreign hosting providers or develop these solutions independently.
