KnownHost Review for HIPAA or PCI Compliance Needs

The research in brief

KnownHost is a mixed fit for hosting for HIPAA or PCI compliance. It is a reasonable entry-level option for a small regulated retail business that needs a PCI-hardened hosting environment and can manage the remaining compliance work itself, but it is a weak fit for a healthcare practice that must host protected health information. Four of seven platforms named KnownHost during the ranking stage. The strongest reason to consider it is published PCI Hosting pricing starting at $24.95 per month with server-level hardening, WAF, enforced TLS, and isolated accounts. The main limitation is that KnownHost's own Privacy Policy states its services are not designed for HIPAA, that it is not a HIPAA business associate, and that it makes no HIPAA-compliance guarantee ^[16].

Research Snapshot

Why KnownHost Qualified for This Study

Questions explored

• Is KnownHost a good choice for hosting for HIPAA or PCI compliance?
• Why did KnownHost appear in AI platform rankings for entry-level compliance hosting?

KnownHost qualified because it publishes a dedicated, named PCI Hosting product line at an entry-level price, which is the exact profile this study screened for. Four of seven platforms named it during ranking discovery, and it reached the final ranking at position 3 with an average listed rank of 3.75 and a best rank of 1 (Gemini).

The qualification rests on a specific, verifiable product rather than general hosting reputation. KnownHost offers PCI Compliant Hosting in three tiers - Entry, Business, and Corporate - and markets the environment as hardened to PCI DSS technical requirements ^[14]. Entry PCI Hosting is listed at $24.95 per month, which is materially lower than the compliance-hosting entry points several platforms cited for competitors ^[6].

It also qualified because platforms treated it as a genuine but bounded answer. Every platform that evaluated fit flagged the same structural limit: the PCI product covers the hosting environment only, and KnownHost's public HIPAA position is negative rather than neutral ^[17]. That combination - a real, cheap PCI product plus an explicit HIPAA exclusion - is why it belongs in this study as a test case rather than as a default recommendation.

This review sits inside the broader hosting for HIPAA or PCI compliance comparison, which covers the full field of providers screened for this buyer.

The hosting offering in focus

Questions explored

• Which KnownHost plan should a small retailer choose for PCI-compliant hosting, and what does the Entry tier include?
• Does KnownHost offer a HIPAA-compliant hosting plan or a signed BAA for a small healthcare practice?

The relevant product is Entry PCI Hosting, with Business and Corporate PCI Hosting as higher-capacity alternatives. There is no HIPAA product to evaluate.

Entry PCI Hosting is listed at $24.95 per month and includes one website, 2 CPU cores, a 2 GB memory limit, 50 GB NVMe storage, unlimited premium bandwidth, LiteSpeed, cPanel, a dedicated IPv4 address, and free SSL certificates ^[14]. KnownHost also lists SSH access, daily backups, managed operating-system and software patching, and isolated account environments ^[14].

Business PCI Hosting is listed at $34.95 per month with 4 cores, 4 GB memory, and 100 GB NVMe storage; Corporate PCI Hosting is listed at $79.95 per month with 6 cores, 6 GB memory, and 150 GB NVMe storage. Both remain one-website PCI Hosting plans according to the comparison page ^[10]. One platform reported different Business and Corporate figures - $54.95 and $104.95 per month - which conflicts with the $34.95 and $79.95 figures other platforms and the comparison page show ^[14]. Buyers should confirm current tier pricing directly.

On HIPAA, the answer is negative on the company's own terms. KnownHost's Privacy Policy states that its services are not designed to comply with HIPAA, that KnownHost is not a HIPAA covered entity or business associate, and that customers should not store or disclose HIPAA-protected health information using the services ^[16]. One platform noted a 2017–2018 forum post in which a KnownHost executive described future expansion into HIPAA-compliant services, but found no current evidence that such a service, BAA, or pricing was ever launched ^[11].

What the AI Platforms Agreed About

Questions explored

• What do AI platforms agree on about KnownHost's PCI hosting features and pricing?
• Do AI platforms agree that KnownHost is unsuitable for HIPAA-protected health information?

Agreement was strong on the PCI product's existence, price, and feature set, and unanimous on the HIPAA limitation.

On PCI, platforms converged on the same core facts. KnownHost offers PCI Compliant Hosting in Entry, Business, and Corporate tiers, with Entry at $24.95 per month ^[14]. The environment includes isolated account containers, network firewall and ModSecurity WAF controls, enforced TLS 1.2/1.3, disabled weak protocols and ciphers, closed unnecessary ports, and managed patching ^[14]. Platforms also agreed that the PCI product covers the hosting environment only, leaving application code, cardholder-data handling, quarterly ASV scans, SAQs, and payment-processor submission with the customer ^[17].

On HIPAA, agreement was unanimous across every platform that addressed it: KnownHost does not offer a documented HIPAA hosting plan or a signed BAA, and its own policy language excludes HIPAA-protected data ^[16]. Independent guidance supports why this matters: a signed BAA is mandatory for any hosting provider handling protected health information, and without one no hosting environment is HIPAA compliant regardless of its security features ^[26].

Platforms also agreed that KnownHost's PCI marketing language and its contract language do not match. Marketing describes plans as designed to pass PCI scans out of the box, while the Terms of Service disclaim any warranty that a specific scan will pass ^[14].

Where the AI Platforms Disagreed or Were Uncertain

Questions explored

• How do AI platforms rate KnownHost differently for PCI compliance hosting?
• Is KnownHost's PCI compliance independently certified, or is it self-assessed?

Fit ratings diverged. Grok rated KnownHost a "good" fit for entry-level PCI compliance needs ^[14]. OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Google, and Perplexity all rated it "mixed" ^[14]. Kimi rated it "weak," arguing that the low price trades off compliance transparency ^[14]. No platform rated it strong for the combined HIPAA-or-PCI use case.

Independent certification is the largest unresolved question. The reviewed public materials do not identify an independent PCI Qualified Security Assessor, a formal Attestation of Compliance, a Report on Compliance, or third-party certification for the specific plans ^[14]. One platform noted that a third-party review mentions SOC 2 and ISO 27001 ^[25], while another found no independently verifiable certifications discoverable in public search ^[9]. One platform pointed to KnownHost's data center partner Evocative operating SOC 2 Type II facilities that physically support HIPAA and PCI DSS physical security, while clarifying that this covers the physical facility, not KnownHost's software layer ^[9]. Physical facility certification is not the same as a certified hosting platform.

Encryption at rest is also unresolved. Platforms agreed TLS 1.2/1.3 is enforced in transit and free SSL is included, but the reviewed public materials do not establish encryption-at-rest coverage, key-management practices, or backup encryption ^[14]. Independent guidance states HIPAA requires encryption for ePHI both at rest and in transit, with AES-256 as the standard for data at rest ^[26].

Backup terms conflict internally. The PCI product page lists daily backups, while the Terms of Service describe one weekly and two recent daily backups for shared and PCI customers, while disclaiming guarantees of backup availability, integrity, or functionality ^[14]. One platform reported 7-day backup retention ^[25].

Features for this workload

Questions explored

• What security features does KnownHost's Entry PCI Hosting include for a small e-commerce site?
• Does KnownHost PCI hosting include file integrity monitoring or audit logs?

KnownHost's PCI plans include a defined set of server-level controls, and a defined set of gaps.

Included controls, per company documentation: isolated account environments, PCI-oriented OS and network hardening, network firewall and WAF controls, enforced TLS 1.2/1.3, disabled weak protocols and ciphers, closed unnecessary ports, managed patching, cPanel, SSH, a dedicated IPv4 address, free SSL certificates, and backups ^[14].

Documented gaps: the entry-level PCI plans do not include built-in file integrity monitoring or audit logging, leaving merchants responsible for those controls ^[24]. Each PCI tier supports only one website, which limits multi-site operators ^[24]. Public materials reviewed do not establish encryption at rest, independent certification, formal audit reports, or a comprehensive compliance documentation package ^[14].

KnownHost lists Atlanta and Seattle data centers for PCI Hosting, along with Amsterdam ^[14]. This may support a U.S.-based deployment, but the reviewed materials do not establish a complete data-residency, subcontractor, or cross-border data-processing policy ^[14].

For HIPAA workloads, the capability set is not applicable. KnownHost states its services are not designed for HIPAA and warns against storing HIPAA-protected health information ^[16]. Buyers who need HIPAA-capable infrastructure should compare against providers that publish BAA availability and third-party audits ^[28].

Pricing, renewal terms, and ongoing costs

Questions explored

• How much does KnownHost PCI hosting cost per month, and are there setup or cancellation fees?
• What contract term and refund policy applies to KnownHost PCI Hosting?

Published PCI Hosting pricing is $24.95 per month for Entry, $34.95 per month for Business, and $79.95 per month for Corporate, with Entry shown renewing at the same $24.95 per month ^[14]. One independent pricing page reported lower effective rates on a one-year term - $20.92 per month for Entry and $29.30 per month for Business - but that source is independent and was not confirmed against KnownHost's own plan page ^[20]. One platform reported conflicting Business and Corporate figures of $54.95 and $104.95 per month ^[14]. Treat tier pricing above Entry as unconfirmed.

Known fees beyond the plan price: a $10 late-payment fee when an account becomes inactive for non-payment, and a $10 restoration fee when an account terminated for non-payment is restored (Evidence ID openai:c3, official:C2). Bandwidth overages are billed at $20 per TB, and unused bandwidth does not carry over (official:C2). Additional full rebuilds or data restorations beyond the included allowances incur a $10 one-time fee per request, and partial data recovery may be offered at $20 per request (official:C2).

Contract and cancellation terms: the agreement uses an initial term and automatically renews for a term of equal length unless written termination notice is provided at least seven days before the end of the term ^[17]. New customers may request a full refund within the first 30 days, subject to exclusions; payments are generally non-refundable after the first 30 days, and early termination can leave unpaid fees for the remainder of the initial or renewal term due (Evidence ID openai:c3, official:C2). The 30-day guarantee excludes dedicated servers, domain registrations, and SSL certificates, and is void if bandwidth limits are exceeded or the terms are violated within the first 30 days (official:C2). One platform reported a 30-day money-back guarantee with one-month or one-year terms available ^[3].

Costs not included in the hosting price: quarterly external vulnerability scans by an Approved Scanning Vendor, SAQ completion, application remediation, payment-processor requirements, compliance consulting, and independent backups ^[17]. These are customer-funded and can exceed the hosting line item.

Best Suited For

Questions explored

• Who is KnownHost PCI hosting best suited for among small regulated businesses?

KnownHost is best suited to small e-commerce or regulated retail sites where the merchant retains responsibility for application security, payment processes, ASV scans, and PCI documentation ^[14]. It fits low-to-moderate traffic websites that need a managed, cPanel-based PCI-oriented environment at a relatively low monthly price ^[14]. It also fits businesses that want the hosting provider to maintain server-level patching, firewall, TLS, and related infrastructure controls rather than configuring them in-house ^[14].

Platforms specifically named straightforward payment models - SAQ A or A-EP using third-party processors or hosted payment forms - as the profile where this product makes most sense ^[14]. Buyers who will independently verify compliance artifacts and contract terms before purchase are also a reasonable fit ^[15].

Probably Not Best Suited For

Questions explored

• Who should not choose KnownHost for HIPAA or PCI compliance hosting?

Healthcare practices that will host protected health information or require a HIPAA business associate agreement should not choose KnownHost on the reviewed evidence ^[16]. Organizations requiring independently verified HIPAA eligibility, formal compliance attestations, extensive audit evidence, or enterprise governance controls are also a poor match ^[14]. Businesses needing a guarantee that a specific PCI scan will pass without customer remediation should look elsewhere, because KnownHost disclaims that warranty ^[17].

Multi-site operators are a poor fit because each PCI tier supports only one website ^[24]. Buyers who need built-in file integrity monitoring or audit logging at the entry level will not find them included ^[24]. Organizations with PCI Level 1 processing volume or complex, highly sensitive cardholder-data environments are also outside this product's documented scope ^[14].

When Another Option May Be Better

Questions explored

• What is a better alternative to KnownHost for a small practice that needs a signed HIPAA BAA?
• When should a buyer choose a managed or dedicated compliance host instead of KnownHost PCI shared hosting?

Choose a HIPAA-focused host when protected health information will be hosted and a BAA is required. Platforms named Atlantic.Net, Nexcess, Revion, MedhaCloud, Liquid Web, Rackspace, and OVHcloud as providers that document BAA availability, HIPAA-oriented controls, or third-party audits ^[14]. Reported entry pricing for those alternatives is materially higher - Atlantic.Net HIPAA Developer at $552.31 per month, Nexcess from $199 per month, and MedhaCloud from $99 per month ^[6]. Those figures are company-reported and should be confirmed directly.

Choose a provider with published attestations when the buyer's own auditors or acquirers require them. Platforms pointed to providers offering PCI AoC on request, SOC 2 Type II reports, or HITRUST certifications as lower-risk options despite higher price ^[5].

Choose managed VPS, cloud, or dedicated infrastructure when the application needs stronger isolation, custom security controls, higher capacity, or more direct administrative control than entry-level shared PCI hosting provides ^[14]. One platform noted that a KnownHost co-founder historically stated he could not imagine a serious site required to obtain PCI-compliant status running on shared hosting, and that VPS was historically the minimum for PCI work at the company ^[13]. That is a company-side historical statement, not a current product limitation, but it is relevant context for buyers weighing shared versus dedicated.

Buyers comparing the wider field can review the shared and small business web hosting category directory for adjacent provider coverage.

Questions to ask before choosing a provider

Questions explored

• What should a buyer confirm with KnownHost before signing a PCI hosting contract?
• What compliance documentation should a buyer request from KnownHost before purchase?

Ask KnownHost directly, in writing, before committing:

• Will KnownHost sign a BAA for the exact account, plan, data types, and services being purchased? ^[17]
• Can KnownHost provide a current PCI responsibility matrix, ASV-scan remediation procedure, and any available AOC, ROC, or independent assessment documentation? ^[14]
• Which exact PCI DSS version and requirements are covered by the plan, and which controls remain the customer's responsibility? ^[14]
• Are backups encrypted at rest, where are they stored, how long are they retained, and can the customer obtain restoration and deletion evidence? ^[17]
• Are databases, email, logs, temporary files, and support-access records included in the stated security controls? ^[14]
• What are the exact monthly, annual, renewal, migration, IP, software-license, support, and cancellation charges for the selected billing term? (Evidence ID openai:c3, official:C2)
• What happens if an ASV scan identifies a server-level finding, and what response and remediation time is contractually committed? ^[17]
• Can the required payment application, plugins, APIs, and older integrations operate with the enforced TLS, cipher, patching, and firewall settings? (Evidence ID openai:c3, official:C2)
• Is the customer permitted to select Atlanta or Seattle for all relevant data, backups, support operations, and subprocessors? ^[14]
• Does KnownHost undergo independent SOC 2, ISO 27001, or other security audits with reports available under NDA? ^[9]

The consensus assessment

KnownHost is a mixed fit for hosting for HIPAA or PCI compliance, and the split is clean: usable for PCI-oriented retail hosting, not usable for HIPAA.

For PCI, the case is real but bounded. KnownHost publishes a named PCI Hosting line at $24.95 per month with server-level hardening, WAF, enforced TLS, isolated accounts, and managed patching ^[14]. That is a genuinely low entry price for a PCI-hardened environment. But the product covers the hosting environment only, and the customer retains application security, cardholder-data handling, ASV scans, SAQs, and payment-processor obligations ^[17]. KnownHost also disclaims any warranty that a specific PCI scan will pass ^[17]. Buyers should treat the PCI product as one infrastructure component of compliance, not as a legal or operational compliance guarantee.

For HIPAA, the case is closed on the reviewed evidence. KnownHost's own Privacy Policy states its services are not designed for HIPAA, that it is not a HIPAA business associate, and that customers should not store HIPAA-protected health information on its services ^[16]. No platform found a signed BAA, a HIPAA plan, or HIPAA-specific controls. A small healthcare practice should not select KnownHost for this use case.

The unresolved items are documentation, not features: no independent PCI attestation, no published AOC or ROC, no confirmed encryption-at-rest specification, and conflicting backup terms between the product page and the Terms of Service ^[14]. Buyers who need those artifacts should request them in writing before purchase, and should not assume they exist.

How This Review Was Produced

This review was produced from seven AI platform responses collected for the research prompt on entry-level hosting for HIPAA or PCI Compliance Needs, with a study research date of 2026-10-03. Each platform independently evaluated KnownHost's fit for the use case and supplied its own citations. Four of seven platforms named KnownHost during ranking discovery; all seven evaluated fit. Fit ratings were recorded as supplied: Grok "good"; ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, and Perplexity "mixed"; Kimi "weak."

Platform responses were treated as platform-reported evidence, not independently verified facts. Company-owned citations materially outnumber independent citations in the supplied evidence, so company claims are described as company claims throughout. Where platforms conflicted on pricing, certification, or backup terms, the conflict is disclosed rather than resolved. The supplied URLs were collected from platform responses and were not independently validated at the writing stage.

Research limitations

• Platform-reported research dates differ from the authoritative run date. DeepSeek reported a research date of 2026-01-26; all other platforms reported 2026-10-03. Platform-reported dates are provenance metadata and do not independently prove freshness.
• All included platforms evaluated fit, but the platform-mention count reflects only platforms that named KnownHost during ranking discovery.
• Conflicting product names, pricing, and capabilities were not resolved by guessing. Tier pricing above Entry, certification status, and backup retention remain contested or unconfirmed.
• Company-owned citations materially outnumber independent citations. Company claims are not described as independently verified.
• Citations are platform-reported evidence, not independently verified facts. Claims from platforms without search enabled require explicit verification before being treated as current facts.
• No personal testing, hands-on evaluation, or customer experience research was performed for this review.
• AI-platform agreement does not prove product quality. It indicates that multiple models surfaced similar information from similar sources.

Sources

Company-Owned Sources

1. HIPAA Compliant Hosting | PCI, SOC 2 & ISO 27001 Cloud - MedhaCloud: https://medhacloud.com/cloud-hosting/security-compliance
2. Compliant Cloud Hosting | HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SAP, ERP | Medha Cloud: https://medhacloud.com/cloud-hosting/specialty-hosting
3. PCI DSS Hosting | KnownHost LLC: https://my.knownhost.com/order/main/packages/pci-dss/?group_id=51&pricing_id=1056
4. HIPAA Hosting Services | Secure Healthcare Cloud Hosting: https://revion.com/hipaa-hosting/
5. Compliance Hosting | Fully Compliant Hosting Solutions | Atlantic.Net: https://www.atlantic.net/compliance-hosting/
6. HIPAA-Compliant Hosting | 2026 Award Winning HIPAA Hosting: https://www.atlantic.net/hipaa-compliant-hosting/
7. Heroku's ISO, SOC, HIPAA, PCI Compliance and Certifications: https://www.heroku.com/compliance/
8. IBM Cloud HIPAA compliance: https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/compliance/hipaa
9. KnownHost - Managed Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Servers: https://www.knownhost.com/
10. Compare PCI Compliant Hosting Options | KnownHost: https://www.knownhost.com/compare/pci-compliant-hosting
11. Exciting Changes at KnownHost & cPanel Pricing: https://www.knownhost.com/forums/threads/exciting-changes-at-knownhost-cpanel-pricing.5353/
12. PCI Compliance: https://www.knownhost.com/forums/threads/pci-compliance.2294/
13. PCI Compliant?: https://www.knownhost.com/forums/threads/pci-compliant.408/
14. PCI Compliant Hosting | Pass PCI Scans Out of the Box | KnownHost: https://www.knownhost.com/pci-compliant-hosting
15. PCI Compliant Shared Hosting - KnownHost: https://www.knownhost.com/pci-compliant-hosting.html
16. Privacy Policy | KnownHost: https://www.knownhost.com/privacy-policy
17. Terms of Service | KnownHost: https://www.knownhost.com/terms-of-service
18. Security & Compliance Hosting | Nexcess: https://www.nexcess.com/platform/security-compliance-hosting/

Independent Sources

19. What's New with HIPAA-Compliant Hosting in 2026: https://cybernews.com/partner-content/whats-new-with-hipaa-compliant-hosting-in-2026/
20. KnownHost Pricing 2026: Every Plan and What It Actually Costs: https://ecommerceparadise.com/knownhost-pricing/
21. KnownHost vs Convesio (2026): We tried both - see who wins: https://rfp.wiki
22. KnownHost - 2026 Company Profile, Team & Competitors - Tracxn: https://tracxn.com/d/companies/knownhost/__vkiXJg4JCVfJbvYD8EMlpyXdI1xtslF3Z2lfnNXzphw
23. Business Associates - HHS.gov: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/business-associates/index.html
24. KnownHost PCI Compliant Hosting Review (2026: https://www.itechguides.com
25. KnownHost PCI Compliant Hosting Review (2026: https://www.itechguides.com/products/knownhost-pci-compliant-hosting/
26. HIPAA Compliant Web Hosting: 2026 Complete Guide: https://www.keragon.com/blog/hipaa-compliant-web-hosting
27. PCI Compliance for Shared Hosting: A Beginner's Guide: https://www.pcicompliance.com/shared-hosting-pci/
28. Top 5 HIPAA-Compliant Hosting Providers in 2026: https://www.scnsoft.com/healthcare/hipaa-compliance/hosting-providers
29. KnownHost Reviews - Trustpilot: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/knownhost.com