I’m a former Hyper Expert customer and used my VPS for several years.  I had a great experience with them.

They’ve gone through some changes and refocused their enterprise (indeed, their whole mission) and we thought it’d be a good opportunity to sit down with their founder, Ali, and catch up on what’s new with this provider. 

If you’re a student or teacher, you definitely need to check out this provider because you may qualify for a free VPS!

Learn more on their web site, or drop in on their Discord to chat with the team and their community.

Enjoy!

Q: Before we start, I joked that I helped kill your previous company with that one dollar per year VPS. Sorry about that LOL

Haha. Honestly, that one dollar VPS deal is one of the things people still mention to me.

It makes me smile more than anything. If anything ended Hyper Expert 1.0, it definitely was not you, or the one time Black Friday one dollar VPS deal.

Q: Where in the world are you located?

I am based in the Greater Seattle Area.  Hyper Expert services are hosted at the Hurricane Electric data center in Fremont, California.

Q: So bring us up to speed. This is Hyper Expert 2.0? Why did 1.0 end? Lessons learned?

Yes, you can call this Hyper Expert 2.0.

The first version ended because I was doing too much by myself. Hardware, support, development, networking, monitoring, everything. It became overwhelming, and instead of growing in a healthy way, the project stalled out.

The lesson I learned is simple. Do not be afraid to slow down, reset, and rebuild things the right way.  This time, I am taking a more thoughtful and sustainable approach, and focusing on purpose rather than pushing for volume.

More importantly, the focus of this version of Hyper Expert is very clear. This project exists first and foremost to support students and educators in need, who otherwise lack the financial means to access real infrastructure.

Q: I remember you invested a lot in your panel. Was it custom? Are you using any of that now?

Back in 1.0, I built a lot of things from scratch. I have a background in design, so I tried to do it all myself. Website design, billing, management, and provisioning. I wanted full control and I genuinely enjoyed the challenge.

It started with hiring a development team to build a fully custom panel based on Red Hat Virtualization, now OpenShift, and GlusterFS. We had a production ready module live in 2017 for a few months. Many people enjoyed it, but it was limited in scope.

Later, I moved to a heavily customized WHMCS setup to make things easier operationally. The frontend and user experience looked nothing like a typical WHMCS install. Most people did not even realize it was WHMCS. The admin side stayed mostly stock.

In 2.0, I am keeping things simpler. I still enjoy building tools, but I am not trying to reinvent every wheel anymore. I use what makes sense and build only what actually adds value.

I am obsessed with simplified user experiences and tightly integrated infrastructure. I am a computer science major, and infrastructure is genuinely my passion. I chose the ISPsystem suite because of how tightly billing, provisioning, data center management, and DNS integrate together. I want the experience to feel cohesive and intentional, not like a collection of tools loosely duct-taped together.

When it comes to infrastructure, I am my own worst critic. I want the experience to be something I would personally approve of and use myself.

Q: Was your console or terminal on the website written from scratch? It looks cool.

The terminal style interface is based on xterm.js, and I built it with a lot of help from people in the Hyper Expert Discord community. Honestly, I would not have been able to do it without them.

It is a fun project, part nostalgia and part personality. The site is intentionally designed with no buttons and no traditional navigation, and instead focuses entirely on a command line experience. That felt appropriate, since the command line is exactly what users interact with once they spin up a virtual machine.

A nice side effect of this approach is the ability to hide fun promo codes, easter eggs, and references from Hyper Expert’s past directly inside commands. Long time community members still get a kick out of that.

This community has also helped me build other creative projects over the years. One example was a simple web based game we built together, where the user with the highest score earned a promo code for a free VPS. It was more than just a game. It became a shared experience where the community collaborated, contributed ideas, and created something memorable that we still talk about years later.

Q: The site says students and educators get free access, supported by general users. How is that going?

This is really the heart of the project.

The primary goal of Hyper Expert is to provide real infrastructure resources to students and teachers who need them, especially in computer science and related fields.

Hyper Expert is a professional and powerful platform. Students and educators are given access to the same level of tooling, reliability, and structure they would encounter in real world environments.

If you are a computer science student, or an educator who needs infrastructure for your students without spending money out of your own pocket, I want to help you. You can simply email contact@hyperexpert.com. There is no complicated application process or gatekeeping. If you are trying to learn or teach, I want to help.

I do not want cost to be the reason someone cannot properly learn Linux, deploy real applications, or find it challenging to teach practical, real world skills in a classroom using professional infrastructure.

Paying users help make this possible, and so far the response has been incredibly positive. Many people remember learning on small virtual machines themselves, and they like knowing that their subscription is directly helping someone else get started. I highly encourage everyone to read the mission statement and about pages on https://hyper.expert

Q: Pricing looks fair, but six dollars for one gigabyte is DigitalOcean territory. Any features that justify the price?

This is where I want to be very clear. Hyper Expert is not trying to compete with DigitalOcean or other traditional VPS providers.

The market already has many excellent for profit VPS companies, and that is a good thing. Hyper Expert is not meant to replace them, undercut them, or race them on pricing or scale.

Hyper Expert’s focus is performance, consistency, and reliability. It exists primarily as a community driven platform and a trusted resource for professionals. The paid plans exist to keep the project sustainable and to fund free access for those who need it.

That said, paying users still receive:

• Unlimited bandwidth
• NVMe storage
• Snapshots included
• Dual stack IPv4 and IPv6 with self service reverse DNS
• Ability to upload your own ISO
• Virtual networks when running multiple virtual machines
• A clean, simple environment without upsells or hidden fees
• Friendly Discord community

Just as important, Hyper Expert is intentionally community driven. The platform is designed to be a safe, reliable, and trusted resource where users know what to expect, know where to get help, and know the environment is built with care. The goal is long term stability and trust, not rapid growth.

But the real differentiator is the mission. Every paid virtual machine helps support students and teachers in need.

Q: Where do you see Hyper Expert in five years?

I hope it grows into a place where students, teachers, beginners, hobbyists, and professionals feel welcome and supported.

Not the biggest platform, just a thoughtful, professional, and reliable one.

Something stable, friendly, and built with intention instead of hype.

If in five years there is a small ecosystem of people doing meaningful work because Hyper Expert gave them a place to learn or teach, I would consider that a huge success.

Q: Anything else the world should know about Hyper Expert?

The entire project is fueled by purpose, not profit.

Hyper Expert exists to lower barriers to education and professional learning. It is meant to be a resource first, and a service second.

If you are a student in need, or an educator who wants to provide infrastructure for your students without spending your own money, you can reach out at contact@hyperexpert.com.

And if you are a paying user, know that you are directly helping make that possible. It truly is a win for everyone.

Visit https://hyper.expert to learn more about the project and help support the mission.

You can also join the community on Discord at https://discord.hyper.expert and come chat with us.

Thanks for the time, Ali!  Be sure to keep an eye on this provider and watch them grow in 2026.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.