Hosting vs Home Mining: A Fair Comparison

Two ways to run the same machine

You can run an ASIC miner in your own space, or you can send it to a hosting site that runs it for you. You own the machine either way. What changes is who provides the power, the cooling and the care.

There is no single right answer. It depends on your electricity price, your space and how hands-on you want to be.

The comparison

	Home	Hosting site
Electricity	Your own tariff, often a residential rate	The host’s rate, plus any fees
Noise and heat	Yours to manage, and they are significant	Not your problem
Setup	Suitable power connection, cooling, network, firmware	Ship the machine, and the host installs it
Uptime and repairs	You	The provider, under its terms
Control	Physical access to the machine	Remote access through a dashboard
Main risks	High power cost, noise complaints, circuit limits, hardware faults	Provider reliability, contract terms, one location for all your machines

Electricity is the deciding cost

For mining companies, electricity is the largest cash expense, according to Cambridge’s industry survey. That is why the comparison usually starts with one question: what do you pay per kilowatt-hour at home, and what is the host’s all-in rate?

Do not compare a headline rate with your home bill. Hosting invoices can have several line items on top of the base electricity price, so ask for the all-in rate: electricity, delivery or demand charges, management fees and anything else you would pay.

What you take on at home

Running machines at home is more than plugging them in:

• Noise. ASIC fans are very loud, which is a problem in a living space.
• Heat. A machine turns almost all the electricity it uses into heat. In winter that can be useful. In summer it is a cost.
• Power. The circuit must handle the machine’s draw safely.
• Upkeep. Firmware, faults, network drops and repairs are yours to handle.

Home mining can make sense if you have low power prices, a suitable space and the patience to manage it, or if you can use the heat.

What you take on with hosting

Hosting trades those chores for a few different considerations:

• Fees. You pay the host’s rate and any other charges, whether or not mining is profitable that month.
• Concentration. If your host has a power outage or a regulatory change, all your machines there are affected at once.
• Less hands-on control. You manage your machine through a dashboard, not with your hands.
• Terms. Contract length, uptime promises, payouts and how to get your machine back all matter.

Questions to ask any host

1. What is the all-in rate per kWh, and which fees are on top?
2. How long is the contract, and what are the exit terms?
3. How is uptime measured, and what happens if it falls short?
4. Where does the power come from? See mining and energy.
5. Can I see my machine’s status and hashrate, and match it to the pool?
6. If I want the machine back, how is it shipped and who pays?
7. How do payouts work, and where do they go?

For a longer checklist, see how to check a mining hosting company.

On OneMiners

OneMiners lists hosting sites across Africa, the Middle East, the USA, Europe, the Americas and Asia, and says customers keep ownership of their machines. If you would rather mine at home, it also publishes a guide on how to start mining crypto at home. Its FAQ covers data centers, shipping and warranty.

Our tutorials show the website steps: OneMiners hosting sites compared and how to pay for mining electricity.