A server for your accounting practice, hosted in France
The firm's server leaves the cupboard: a Windows machine in France, open over RDP to your staff, at the office and from home.
Starting at €26/mo
Introduction
Plenty of accounting practices still run production on a tower sitting under a desk or in a utility cupboard. It carries the production software, the payroll package, the client files, and nobody dares turn it off. Moving that server into a French datacenter changes three concrete things: the machine stays powered on, it is reachable over RDP from any workstation, and it can be rolled back with a snapshot. At By-Hoster this use case starts at €26/month incl. VAT.
For a practice, we recommend Windows - Max at €26/month incl. VAT: 16 vCores, 32 GB of RAM, 500 GB of SSD and 500 Mbps. The arithmetic is easy to lay out. Our published rule of thumb is 4 GB of RAM for a single user doing RDP and office work, and 8 GB as soon as you add business software, a SQL Server Express engine or several concurrent users. Five people connected at once means five full Windows sessions stacking their consumption on one machine.
The point few hosts put in writing: Windows Server allows 2 concurrent administrative RDP sessions. Beyond that, Microsoft requires RDS CAL licences, bought on your side. We do not supply them, any more than the Microsoft licence or the licences of your business software. We deliver a bare Windows machine in our single DC-FR_NA(01) datacenter in Nouvelle-Aquitaine: your data stays under French jurisdiction, within the GDPR framework, with no transfer outside the European Union.
What we deliver, what the practice brings
32 GB of RAM on the Max plan
Windows - Max at €26/month incl. VAT: 16 vCores, 32 GB of RAM, 500 GB of SSD, 500 Mbps. It is the configuration we point to for a practice, because several RDP sessions open all day, each with its production software and mail client, add up on the same machine.
The 2 administrative session ceiling
Windows Server allows 2 concurrent administrative RDP sessions, not one more. To open application RDP access to five, eight or twelve colleagues, Microsoft requires RDS CAL licences bought on your side. By-Hoster neither supplies nor resells them, and would rather say so before you order.
A snapshot before a sensitive deadline
Trigger a snapshot from the client area before a version upgrade, a year-end rollover or a risky operation, then roll back to the previous state if the result is not what you wanted. A full reinstall of the server is also available on your own.
NVMe, dedicated IPv4, Anti-DDoS, 24/7 support
NVMe storage, a dedicated IPv4 address, Anti-DDoS protection, a fallback VNC console and full administrator access on all four configurations. No commitment, 48-hour money-back guarantee, human 24/7 support by ticket, Discord and phone. Annual billing takes 10% off.
What a remote server changes in a practice
Unplugging the tower in the cupboard
No more machine humming behind a door, no UPS to watch and no drive to swap on a Friday evening. Hardware becomes a monthly subscription, and you only manage what runs on the server.
Staff working from home
The same Windows desktop, identical, from the office workstation or the computer at home. Nothing to reinstall on each machine, nothing to resynchronise at night, no client file left sitting on a personal laptop.
Filing season, everyone at once
That is when sizing becomes visible. Several sessions open in parallel, simultaneous data entry, batch printing running: the 32 GB of the Max plan leave the headroom the 8 GB of the entry plan simply do not have.
Reaching a client file remotely
The software and its database stay in one place; everyone opens a session instead of copying folders from one workstation to another. You work on the current version, not on a copy three days old.
A seasonal hire, one session
Someone joins for the busy season: you create their Windows account on the server. Useful reminder — beyond the 2 administrative sessions you need Microsoft RDS CALs, to budget alongside the business software licence.
Changing plan without buying hardware
The practice grows and the machine follows: from Plus (16 GB, €13/month) to Max (32 GB, €26/month) then Titan (64 GB, €49.99/month). No capital to write off over five years, no old server to resell.
Frequently asked questions
We recommend Windows - Max at €26/month incl. VAT: 16 vCores, 32 GB of RAM, 500 GB of SSD. The reasoning is public: our rule of thumb is 4 GB for a single user doing RDP and office work, and 8 GB as soon as business software or a SQL Server Express engine is added. Five sessions open at once, each with a browser, a mail client and the production software, stack their consumption. The Plus plan (16 GB, €13/month) fits two or three seats; beyond that, 32 GB spare you arbitrating mid-deadline.
This is the question most hosts dodge, so let us be plain. Windows Server allows 2 concurrent administrative RDP sessions: two colleagues, or one colleague while your integrator works. To open application RDP access to five, eight or twelve people, Microsoft requires the Remote Desktop role and the purchase of RDS CAL licences. By-Hoster neither supplies nor resells them: they come from Microsoft or a reseller. Budget the matching RAM too — that is exactly why we point at the Max plan rather than the entry one.
Four configurations, monthly prices incl. VAT: Core at €8 (4 vCores, 8 GB, 50 GB SSD), Plus at €13 (8 vCores, 16 GB, 200 GB), Max at €26 (16 vCores, 32 GB, 500 GB) and Titan at €49.99 (24 vCores, 64 GB, 800 GB, 1000 Mbps). Annual billing takes 10% off. That price covers the machine, the network and human 24/7 support. It does not include the Microsoft licence, RDS CALs, SQL Server or your business software. No commitment, 48-hour money-back guarantee.
No licence is supplied. The Microsoft licence remains on you: we install the operating system, we do not sell it with a licence. Same rule for SQL Server — Express is free but capped at 10 GB per database, 1 socket or 4 cores and 1.4 GB of RAM for the engine; Standard and Enterprise are paid. Licences for your production, payroll or invoicing software stay the practice's own. We are not a partner of any business-software vendor and provide no support on those applications.
We deliver a bare Windows machine in 10 minutes, with its dedicated IPv4 address and the Administrator account. From there the move goes like any new server: you or your integrator install the software, restore the databases from your current backups, then switch the workstations over. By-Hoster does not perform the application migration and does not touch business configuration. Practical advice: keep the old machine powered on for a few weeks, and take a snapshot once the new one is validated.
We can tell you where the data sits; we do not certify your compliance. Your files are hosted in our single DC-FR_NA(01) datacenter in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, operated directly by the technical team. Virtualisation runs on KVM with Proxmox. They stay under French jurisdiction, within the GDPR framework, with no transfer outside the European Union. However we claim no sector certification and we take no position on your professional, ethical or record-keeping obligations: those belong to your own analysis and advisers.
What is included are snapshots, triggered from the client area: an image of the machine at a given moment that you can return to. It is the tool for "before the update" and "before the risky operation". There is no automatic off-site backup of your client files, and no retention policy that we would run on your behalf. A practice must keep its own archiving strategy, outside the server. We would rather write that than let you assume otherwise.
Everything travels over RDP: if the practice loses its Internet access, the server keeps running but nobody at the office can see it. A decent fibre line is plenty, since the RDP access is tuned up to 60 FPS. Two useful reflexes: a mobile hotspot as a fallback, and the fact that the server stays reachable from anywhere — someone working from home carries on even when the office is cut off. The fallback VNC console is included to regain control of the machine.
Three systems are offered at checkout, at no extra cost: Windows Server 2025 (mainstream support until 13 November 2029, security until 14 November 2034), Windows Server 2022 (security until 14 October 2031) if your software vendor only certifies that one, and Windows 11, which belongs on an individual workstation because it is a client operating system, not designed to host a multi-user service. Windows Server 2019 can no longer be installed. The choice can be changed later through a reinstall from the client area.