alt Hacker NewsA study in contrasts,
I signed up my business with Hetzner. And the first thing I saw during onboarding was a demand to upload my ID to spend $5 to test their service (I was testing before we bought). I wrote to customer service and got,
Dear Client,
We received your email. Thanks for writing to us.
You have probably realized that this is an automated message.
We need some time to process each email that we receive, but we will write back to you personally as soon as we can.
Kind regards
Hetzner Online GmbH
[...]
www.hetzner.com
Guess where I'm going to recommend spending our money?
Replies
Hetzner if you have sense.
I haven't found a competent supplier who doesn't want to know who you are.
I entirely exclude Digital Ocean from competent suppliers.
Low friction is cool but it leads to tons of abuse
This reads like an ad for Hetzner. Thanks, antispam experience!
When was this? I signed up recently and don't remember this requirement.
In a hostile jurisdiction, I suppose based on your argument.
The German providers have always been more aggressive on KYC & simply saying no to potential clients in some cases.
What works best for you I guess.
To be fair: all hosting providers deal with A LOT of abuse happening on their systems. Malware being hosted, people abusing trial periods ands free plans etc.
No sure if requiring a ID upfront is the perfect solution (if i recall, i never had to provide a ID on my private or business Hetzner accounts) but it isn't just there to annoy you.
Welcome to Europe, the land of sustainable business. We do not need to grow just to pollute our planet and die a painful death, individually and as a species.
If you still think your Hetzner registration process is convoluted, try getting a license for IDA Pro.
You'll love the experience, I promise.
!/s
Count on German companies to make things more complicated than they need and to squander clients for minor nitpicks
If your entire business decision is driven solely by an emotional response to Hetzner having a policy that needs ID, maybe you’re not the right person to be making these sort of decisions?