// origin story
How this started.
Before Holtzhost had a name, it was a collection of a collection of servers, VMs, and projects spread across Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, and most of Illinois. Built out of curiosity and stubbornness. Over the years, that became the foundation for helping friends, small businesses, and organizations get off shared hosting and onto infrastructure that actually respects them.
The further Holtzhost got into professional systems work — the more obvious the gap became between what big hosting providers sell and what useful infrastructure actually looks like. Holtzhost exists to close that gap: real engineering, real support, real ownership of your data.
We are happy to assist with any technical issues. If you have specific questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask.
// what we stand for
The way we work.
Three principles that shape every decision we make — on the server and in conversation.
Open-Source, All the Way Down
Every tool in our stack — is open source. No proprietary layers. No vendor lock-in. The infrastructure down to the application. We audit, test, secure, and verify all code. No proprietary layers in this system.
Your Data Is Not the Product
We don't analyze your traffic, mine your content, or sell your information to anyone. Your server is yours. Your files are yours. We provide the connection to the upstream gateway, maintain hardware, running applications, and the OS.
Real Engineers, Not Queues
When something breaks, you reach the person who built the server. No advice like, "Did you jiggle the handle?" You have a fantastic support channel to use to submit issues, and supply help.
// the principal behind it
Marcus Holtz.
Marcus is a systems engineer based in Denver, Colorado with over a decade of hands-on experience across Linux administration, DevOps, virtualization, and web infrastructure. He's the kind of engineer who reads RFCs for fun and writes automation before he does a task twice.
His work spans the full stack of modern infrastructure: from bare-metal Proxmox clusters and ZFS storage to containerized workloads, CI/CD pipelines, and privacy-respecting network deployments. Holtzhost is a direct product of that depth — infrastructure that's built the way it should be, not the way that's cheapest to sell.
- Linux systems administration & server management
- Docker · Kubernetes · Proxmox virtualization
- Nginx · HAProxy · Let's Encrypt · Fail2ban
- Terraform · Ansible · GitHub Actions
- ZFS · disaster recovery · Prometheus monitoring
- GPG, SSH hardening & network security
// what we offer
Our services.
Two focused products. No bloat, no confusing contracts.
Web Hosting
Managed web hosting powered by HestiaCP. Websites, email, databases, SSL, backups, and DNS from one clean dashboard. Debian-based, open-source all the way through, with direct access to help when you need it.
Learn more →Your Own Apps
Privacy-respecting, fully managed open-source alternatives to Big Tech. Email, file storage, video conferencing, chat, password management, and more — running on infrastructure you control, with data that never leaves your server.
Learn more →// say hello
Let's talk.
Whether you're moving an existing site, starting from scratch, or just curious what the right setup looks like — reach out. No pitch, no pressure. Just a helpful conversation.