The launch of HQinternet in 2003

In 2003 HQinternet went online. Web hosting was very different back then: websites were small, connections were slow and 1 GB of traffic per month was plenty for most sites. In this article we look back at how it started and how our offering has changed over 23 years.

Our first packages

HQinternet's first hosting packages ranged from 30 MB to 250 MB of web space, with 1 to 3 GB of traffic per month. Every package came with a control panel, support for MySQL, CGI and PHP, and a free .nl domain name. We still do that last one today.

The early years: never overcrowded, plenty of space

Our news page from back then shows how the offering grew in 2005:

• 25 February 2005: more traffic for all packages.
• 28 August 2005: introduction of the Small hosting package.
• 29 September 2005: double the disk space for the reseller package.

A few years after the launch HQinternet offered unlimited email addresses, databases and subdomains per package, and you could pre-register your .eu domain with us. All our servers were in Amsterdam. We deliberately kept it to a maximum of 300 websites per server, while many providers put 1,000 to 1,500 on one. Fewer websites per server means more speed for every website.

2015: Plesk and Windows hosting

In 2015 our packages ranged from 500 MB to 5 GB of storage, with both Windows and Linux hosting, daily backups and the Plesk control panel. The space grew along with what websites needed.

Today

Today our hosting packages start at 10 GB of storage with unlimited traffic, still with Plesk and free SSL. Your website runs on our own servers in the Netherlands or Jakarta, and besides web hosting we also offer VPS. What hasn't changed in 23 years: a dedicated support team that thinks along with you.

See for yourself

Curious what our website used to look like? The Internet Archive has kept our site since 2003: view HQinternet in the Wayback Machine.