Need VPS for Twitch Chat Bot I'm looking for a cheap, unmanaged VPS for a basic Twitch.tv chat bot. It's just a lightweight Python script, nothing fancy. The problem is that Twitch uses IRC for their chat and it seems like IRC applications are against the TOS of many providers. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If You want to buy cheap web hosting then visit http://Listfreetop.pw and select the cheapest hosting. it can be suitable for all your needs. list of top cheapest hosting Listfreetop.pw Listfreetop.pw Listfreetop.pw +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Although it connects to Twitch via their IRC channel, it's really not an "IRC bot" in the traditional sense, so I wrote to a couple of providers I found on here to see if it would be allowable. TurnkeyInternet's prompt response was that it would not be allowed (along with an absolutely crazy amount of unrelated advertising copy). The other provider I wrote to, Forwardweb.net, did not respond at all. Does anyone have any suggestions for a provider? It's a really basic chat bot for use in Twitch streaming, used only by myself and a couple of my friends. The script is lightweight and low resources, and it's 100% within the Twitch and Twitch API TOS. I have been running it on a basic Linux box in my home for the last year with no issues, but I don't want to leave the machine running 24x7 anymore so I'm looking for a place to host it. I need a basic unmanaged VPS with no control panel, the ones I was looking at are around $5 a month. I would like a provider with at least an above-average reputation and uptime record. I guess I'll answer my own question. I found a thread here comparing DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr. I signed up with one of them (I'm not going to say which one because I don't want to give a plug to a company I've only been with for 24 hours). I guess I've been out of the loop as far as what's available in the hosting market, but I'm absolutely amazed and delighted at how easy it is to create a VPS with any operating system you want in pretty much any part of the world you want with just a few clicks. The pricing is exactly what I wanted to pay. Even better, you pay by the minute so if you just want to set up a VPS to experiment with for an afternoon and then delete it it costs you literally pennies. The VPS I set up for my bot doesn't need a control panel, but the pricing and simplicity of the service will allow me to set up some test VPSs and evaluate some open-source control panels and probably move my existing websites over and save me a good chunk of money every month. Importantly, the place I signed up with has a reasonably straightforward TOS that doesn't have restrictions on chat bots. I have to say I'm really surprised that the traditional hosts I originally contacted flatly turned me away. (Well Forwardweb.net didn't exactly turn me away, they just ignored my pre-sales message.) I realize their TOSs say "no IRC bots," but I was very upfront and communicative about exactly what my bot does, how it is not a traditional IRC bot, how it is well tested, well behaved and low resource usage, etc. But nope, they were completely inflexible and unbending. It seems to me that customer acquisition is difficult and costly in any field of business, and I would think it would be especially so in the competitive come-and-go world of web hosting. They not only lost my current business but any future business as well. As it turns out this was a blessing in disguise for me, as it forced me to keep looking, and I happily found something better. If you don't mention it I don't think you will have a problem. As long as your server isn't attracting DDoS attacks and the IRC server is secured properly it will be fine, IRC is one of many things providers blanket ban in ToS to cover their ass "just in case" – there are many other not-huge companies to look at like BuyVM or RamNode, both have good plans under $5/m. ≡ ExtraVM - DDoS Protected SSD VPS, Game Servers, NVMe Web Hosting ≡ 99.95%+ Up-time | U.S. Support | Fast Modern Hardware ≡ Dallas, TX (US) | Montreal, CA | London, UK | Singapore | Vint Hill, VA (US) | Gravelines, FR Most companies don't care about this type of thing as Mike said long as you are not attracting DDoS attacks this was more a problem years and years ago back with IRC was a huge thing. Sales/Support - sales @ purevoltage.com / 1-855-787-8658 PureVoltage.com Premium Colocation, Dedicated & VPS Hosting, along with Remote Hands NY Enterprise Hardware with 6 Global Locations - Seattle | Dallas | Chicago | Los Angeles | New York | Amsterdam If you don't mention it I don't think you will have a problem. I had that idea too and I was tempted to just sign up and do my thing and everything would have been fine, but I decided to "do the right thing" and be up front and a good neighbor and all that and it backfired. As it turns out it backfired for them as I am so far one happy camper with the service I wound up going with. Time will tell if the provider I chose is reliable and has decent tech support; they do have positive reviews here so I am confident. The easy way around this is Twitch Chat supports websockets - just use those. Their IRC gateway is extremely unpreferred/low-feature and they would prefer you use the websocket version. I wasn't aware of that, I will have to look into it. I'm not a serious developer, this was just a fun little project for me that would allow me to get something more customizable and satisfying than Moobot or one of those. As it turned out a few friends liked it and wanted to use it too so I thought it was about time to move it off of a server in my house and into something with better availability. Appreciate the honesty about wanting to be upfront - truth be told Twitch bots although using IRC are not traditionally an IRC but do keep in mind if your bot is popular it can still be prone to attacks so if you plan on growing make sure you look around for a DDoS Protection provider, I'd recommend phoenixNap when you grow - personally have friends in the twitch community hosted bots on there before and have not run into any issues. For now you should be fine on a Digitalocean VM, I have used DO and personally recommend them over other small providers. Since it's just connecting out to an IRC server and not running an IRC server itself you should be fine hosting that anywhere, a DO/Linode/Vultr VPS would more than suffice. If you're not providing a public web frontend (like Nightbot/moobot) I wouldn't worry about being attacked, nobody can see your bots IP address through Twitch chat. EZPZ Hosting - Dependable and Affordable Web Hosting LiteSpeed SSD Powered cPanel Shared & Reseller Hosting | Budget VPS, Managed VPS and Dedicated Reseller Hosting Specialists | WHMCS-Based End User Support | Unlimited SSLs | UK, USA and India 99.9% Uptime Guarantee | 24/7 Support | 30 Day Money Back Guarantee I believe Moobot and Nightbot both have load balancing API connections so not every connection is via the same IP. They used to get DDosed in the past. generation x hosting make money zulutrade hosting candidate forum freebitco.in host committee hosting 4gb hosting angular 6 hostel 7 london www.planet-traffic.com