---
name: hostdirect-compare
description: Compare the selected Dutch and European hosting, email and storage packages in HostDirect's public catalogue using price status, official sources, location evidence and migration caveats. Use for package shortlists and source-backed comparisons, not account management or purchases.
---

# Compare packages with HostDirect

Use this skill for questions such as “Which investigated hosting packages have EU location evidence?”, “Compare Cloud86 and mijn.host including renewal conditions”, or “What source supports this package price?”. The catalogue is a selected editorial comparison, not the whole market or an independent performance benchmark.

## Read the public catalogue

Fetch `https://hostdirect.nl/api/catalog` with GET. No login, key or user data is required. Without parameters it returns every public provider and page in one response. Optional limit and offset provide pagination; follow pagination.next until null. If MCP is available, connect to `https://hostdirect.nl/mcp` with Streamable HTTP and use `search_providers`, `get_provider` or `compare_providers`. Setup: https://hostdirect.nl/docs/mcp/.

1. Match the requested category and exact package. Standalone email, S3 storage and webhosting are not interchangeable.
2. Read suitable/unsuitable claims, specifications and limitations. Do not rank by affiliate availability.
3. Read `price.status`, `price.checked`, the VAT basis, billing period and contract conditions. `historical` means last known, not currently confirmed. `unknown` or null never means free or zero.
4. Present a shortlist with package, introductory and renewal price status, location evidence, limitations and a link to each provider profile. Preserve official source URLs and their original dates. `generatedAt` is only export time.
5. Refer the user to the provider to confirm the final offer. This skill does not authorize purchasing, contacting providers, changing DNS or accessing accounts.

Add source cents across the relevant period before VAT conversion and rounding. A monthly equivalent does not imply monthly billing. Unknown setup, domain and migration costs remain separate. Distinguish primary storage, backups, ownership and external processing; Switzerland is outside the EU.

## Failure handling

Check HTTP status and content type. API errors contain `code`, `message`, `data.status`; unknown routes are 404 and unsupported methods 405. Correct those requests instead of retrying unchanged. For temporary 5xx errors retry GET at most twice with increasing delay; respect Retry-After on 429. Infrastructure failures can have non-JSON bodies. If access still fails, state the limitation and use linked public pages without inventing prices.

Field definitions: https://hostdirect.nl/openapi.json. Editorial method: https://hostdirect.nl/redactionele-verantwoording/. Affiliate disclosure: https://hostdirect.nl/affiliate-uitleg/.