The principle: every claim on a hosting pricing page is verifiable from inside the server, before you build on it. Each trap below comes with the check — run them during your first week, not after the migration.
1. "Indian IP" that isn't an Indian server
An IP geolocated to India in a WHOIS/MaxMind lookup does not mean the physical machine is in India — GeoIP records are updated by request and lag reality. A cheap "India VPS" can be a Singapore or Frankfurt VM behind an India-registered range.
The check: measure latency, don't read labels. From an Indian broadband connection, a real in-country server is typically 5–50ms away; a foreign one is 90ms+ even on a good route. Run mtr/traceroute to the IP and watch where the hops leave the country. Our ping tester does this from your browser. Our VPS nodes are physically in Delhi NCR and Mumbai facilities — verify them the same way.
2. Foreign-exchange markup you never see itemized
Most foreign clouds bill only in USD or EUR. Paying with an Indian card adds a forex markup your bank charges — ICICI, SBI Card, Kotak, HSBC and American Express all publish a 3.5% cross-currency markup plus GST, and a refund can attract the markup again. On a $20/mo server that's ~$8–9 a year vanishing into conversion, plus card international-transaction limits to manage.
The check: prefer providers that accept domestic rails. We take UPI and bank transfer (INR), USDT TRC-20, Binance Pay, bKash, Easypaisa and JazzCash — no card forex markup on any of them.
3. A container sold as a "VPS"
OpenVZ/LXC "VPS" share the host's Linux kernel: no Windows, restricted Docker, no kernel modules, and RAM/CPU limits that are soft by design — the classic architecture for overselling. A KVM virtual machine runs its own kernel: real isolation, real allocated RAM.
The check: ask "can I run Windows?" — Linux-templates-only means containers. On a trial Linux VM, run systemd-detect-virt: it prints kvm, openvz or lxc directly. All HostCraft VPS run KVM on Proxmox, which is also why licensed Windows Server 2022/2025 can ship on every tier. Full explanation: KVM vs OpenVZ.
4. "Dedicated" cores that are a queue
"Dedicated vCPU" is a marketing claim until you measure it. A node with 64 physical threads can honestly host 64 vCPUs — or be packed to 256. The symptom is CPU steal time: your vCPU ready to run, waiting behind other VMs.
The check: run top at your peak hour and read the st column — sustained 0–2% is normal, sustained 5%+ means the node is oversold. The full method (steal time, Minecraft TPS, peak-hour timings) is in how to check if your VPS is oversold — run it on us too.
5. Spinning disks sold as "SSD"
"SSD storage" on a pricing page can mean anything from enterprise NVMe to SATA HDDs behind a small SSD cache. The difference shows up exactly where it hurts: database writes, Minecraft chunk loading, Windows updates.
The check: ask what storage pool your VM lands on and test with fio (4K random read/write) after deploy. For our part: Delhi N1 and Delhi N3 VMs land on NVMe pools; Delhi N2 (Noida) and Mumbai land on SSD-RAID pools — no spinning disks in the provisioning path.
6. "RDP hosting" that is a shared seat, not a machine
A large part of the "cheap RDP" market sells a user account on a Windows install shared with strangers: your files sit beside other customers', the software is the host's choice, and one abusive seat degrades everyone. It is cheap because it is not a VM.
The check: if you can't install software for all users, can't reboot the machine, and can't see the OS you supposedly rented — you bought a seat. A private Windows VPS gives administrator access to your own licensed install. Details: RDP vs VPS.
7. No dedicated IPv4 — the "VPS" behind NAT
The cheapest plans on the market put you behind carrier-grade NAT with a shared IPv4 and a handful of forwarded ports. That's fine for a private bot — and broken for game servers, email, SSL verification edge cases, and anything that needs to accept inbound connections predictably.
The check: ask whether the plan includes a dedicated IPv4 before paying. Every HostCraft VPS tier includes one — it's in the plan table, not in the fine print.
How we score on our own list
The same checks apply to us: KVM virtualization on Proxmox, dedicated vCPU/RAM allocation, dedicated IPv4 on every tier, NVMe/SSD-RAID storage, physical nodes in Delhi NCR and Mumbai, licensed Windows Server 2022/2025 included, and INR/crypto/region-local payment methods. Plans start at ₹246/mo — the Windows-ready tiers most people land on start at ₹475/mo on the VPS & RDP page.
One honesty note: our policy is that provisioned services are non-refundable (failed provisioning refunds automatically to your wallet) — so run these checks in your first days, while changing providers is still cheap. Refund policy.