HOSTKEY kicked off the year at a steady, workmanlike pace. January was spent scaling infrastructure, polishing internal services, and quietly outlining what comes next. The company updated its control panel, strengthened network capacity across several regions, and expanded its server lineup — without loud announcements, but with a checklist long enough to notice.
Control Panel Updates and an S3 Beta Without the Hype
On the user-facing side, HOSTKEY focused on the parts that tend to cause the most friction when neglected. The support section now includes ticket search, DNS configuration has been simplified, and server management can be delegated to sub-accounts. Users can also change billing periods on their own, switching between monthly, quarterly, and other options as needed.
The built-in AI assistant received a practical upgrade as well: it now understands screenshots — the same ones that used to require lengthy explanations. Technical documentation was refreshed, and the Looking Glass service was updated as part of the same push.
Alongside these changes, HOSTKEY launched a beta test of its S3-compatible object storage in the Netherlands. The service is available under a Free Beta plan, with Germany, Poland, and the UK next in line. The choice of locations suggests this is more than a short-lived experiment.
Infrastructure, GPUs, and a Bit More Bandwidth
During January, HOSTKEY expanded capacity in data centers across Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. Network throughput was increased in the Netherlands and Finland, including the deployment of a 100G private network interconnect with Meta, shortening the path to Meta’s services and trimming latency where it matters.
The server portfolio also grew. New configurations featuring NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell and AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 32 GB GPUs were added, along with a larger pool of servers equipped with RTX 5090 and RTX 6000 PRO cards. For CPU-focused workloads, HOSTKEY prepared new builds based on AMD EPYC 9354, with provisioning promised in about 15 minutes — a rare case where the number sounds believable.
Additional behind-the-scenes work included improved automated server testing and enhanced monitoring of data center life-support systems, aimed at reducing unexpected incidents. The process of leasing and commissioning IP subnets was also simplified.
VPS, Marketplace, and Plans Without Sharp Turns
In the VPS segment, HOSTKEY expanded the selection of additional IPv4 addresses, optimized provisioning for servers with popular software, and modernized the infrastructure to better support new operating systems and hypervisors. Virtual servers ordered without an operating system are now provisioned in under a minute, according to the company.
The marketplace received its own updates. Images for Debian 13, Moodle, RabbitMQ, Palworld Server, aaPanel, Magento, Pterodactyl, and WordPress were refreshed. New additions include DocuSeal, Haltdos Community WAF, ClickHouse, FreePBX 17, and NATS Server.
HOSTKEY also addressed pricing head-on. Memory, storage, and infrastructure costs continue to rise, and service prices are being adjusted accordingly. The company says these changes are gradual, supported by cost optimization and in-house engineering — a measured approach rather than a sudden shock to invoices.
Looking ahead, HOSTKEY plans to introduce direct ordering of additional IP addresses from the control panel, launch a new virtual server monitoring service, and expand its VPS line with guaranteed resources (VDS). Over the next three months, the provider also intends to grow its server fleet across all data centers.
Taken together, HOSTKEY’s January reads less like a marketing announcement and more like a working logbook — understated, methodical, and clearly aimed at setting the tone for the rest of the year.