Bare metal servers
Bare metal servers ordered like a cloud, with no hypervisor
Bare metal servers are whole physical machines rented to one customer, with no hypervisor and no other tenant on them. Ours are ordered online, handed over in about 30 minutes when the machine is already racked, and billed by the hour or by the month.
- One tenant per machine
- No hypervisor
- Hourly or monthly
- Unmetered port
You get the processor, every core, all the memory and the disks, root or Administrator from the first login, and a remote console that works when the operating system does not. What you give up is what a hypervisor does for you. This page sets out both, so you can decide before you order.
Priced live from the catalogue
Three ways into bare metal
The cheapest ready machine in each of our three hardware families, with the price it is sold at today. Each figure belongs to the exact machine listed under it.
Moonshot cartridge
AMD Opteron X2150
$9.00/mo
or $0.0160/hr by the hour
- Memory8 GB
- StorageSATA-SSD 64 GB
- Port500 Mbps Unmetered
- CityNew York
Single-socket server
Intel Xeon L5639
$36.96/mo
or $0.0658/hr by the hour
- Memory16 GB
- Storage2 x SAS 73 GB
- Port500 Mbps Unmetered
- CityNew York
Dual-socket server
Intel Xeon E5-2630L
$59.46/mo
or $0.1059/hr by the hour
- Memory16 GB
- StorageSATA-SSD 240 GB
- Port1 Gbps Unmetered
- CityNew York
Hourly billing applies to ready machines as they stand: no setup fee, no minimum term, one hour minimum. Machines built to your configuration are billed monthly and show their one-time setup fee on the order page before you pay. The full catalogue lists every line.
Definition
What is a bare metal server?
A bare metal server is a physical computer used by one customer, with the operating system installed straight onto the hardware. Nothing sits between your kernel and the processor, so nothing else competes for the cores, the memory bus, the disk controller or the network card.
The name exists to mark the difference from a virtual machine, which is a slice of a larger host shared with other customers and run by a hypervisor you do not control.
What is bare metal cloud?
Bare metal cloud is the same physical server delivered the way a cloud delivers a virtual machine: picked from a list, paid online, ready in minutes, reinstalled from a panel, billed by usage, released when you are done. In cloud computing, “bare metal” is the instance type with no virtualisation layer. That is what this page sells.
| Question | Cloud virtual machine | Bare metal server |
|---|---|---|
| Who else is on the hardware | Other customers | Nobody |
| What a CPU means | A vCPU, one thread of a shared chip | A named processor, every core |
| Performance under load | Depends on the neighbours | The same at any hour |
| Outbound traffic | Billed per gigabyte | Unmetered port, no per-gigabyte charge |
| Billing | Per second or hour | Per hour or month |
| Resize while running | Yes | No, a scheduled hardware change |
| Live migration | Yes | No |
The trade
What you keep from a cloud, and what you give up
A cloud built from whole machines is better than a virtual machine at some things and worse at others. Which list matters depends on what you run, so here are both.
You keep
- Ordering without talking to anyone. Pick a machine, pay, and it is handed over.
- About 30 minutes to handover on a ready machine, 4 to 24 hours on one we build for you.
- Billing by the hour on ready machines, and release whenever you like.
- SSH keys and a user-data script at order time on Linux, so the first boot comes up configured.
- Reinstalling the operating system from the control panel, as often as you need, at no charge.
- An API key for reboots, reinstalls, IP addresses and reverse DNS, and a webhook when a server is ready.
- A remote console and power control that still work when the operating system has stopped answering.
- A choice of five cities on one network.
You give up
- Live migration. There is no hypervisor to move you to another host, so hardware maintenance is scheduled with you.
- Resizing in place. More memory or another disk is a planned visit to the machine, not a slider.
- Hypervisor snapshots. Backup is an option in the configurator that writes scheduled, encrypted images to your own Google Drive.
- An autoscaling group. You add capacity by ordering another machine.
- Ordering through the API. A key can run your servers but cannot pay or buy, so new machines are ordered on the site.
Need live migration or snapshots of guests? Run the hypervisor yourself: Proxmox and VMware hosts are ordinary configurations, with nobody underneath you sharing the hardware.
Reasons
Why people move workloads to bare metal
None of these is about a lower price per gigabyte of memory. Each one is about a decision that stops being somebody else's.
Nobody else is on it
No steal time and no neighbour saturating the disk queue. The controller and the network card are yours, so a busy Tuesday afternoon measures the same as four on a Sunday morning.
You know the processor
Every line names the actual chip, its core count and the memory it takes, so you size against a part number. The catalogue lists them all.
Per-core licences cost less
Software licensed by the core is cheaper on a few fast cores than on a wide virtual machine sized for the same throughput. Here you choose which processor you license.
Traffic is not metered
No transfer allowance and no per-gigabyte egress line, which usually decides it for video, backups and downloads. Ports and speeds.
The rate does not move
The monthly or hourly rate is fixed when you order. Nothing is charged per request or per gigabyte, so there is no spend alert to set up and no invoice to reconcile.
It is your operating system
Your kernel, your modules, your firewall. Nothing runs underneath it that you did not put there.
Network
Bare metal on ports up to 100 Gbps
Every port is unmetered and carries your server's traffic alone. Ready machines list the port they come with; faster ones are added to the machine for a fixed monthly amount.
1 Gbps
Included on 10 of 18 configurable lines
$79 a month on the others
40 Gbps
From $2,799 a month
Sold on 2 lines
Port prices are added to the price of the machine. All five cities, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Bucharest, are on our own network, AS19624. The data centers.
Pricing
How bare metal server pricing works
Monthly
Each machine has one monthly price, shown before you pay. No contract. Paying for 12 months at once takes 15% off, and the price you start on is the price you renew on.
Hourly
A ready machine can be rented by the hour at its monthly price divided by 730 and multiplied by 1.3. Nothing is paid up front: you save a card, use the server, and the hours are invoiced afterwards.
Built to order
A machine configured to your spec is billed monthly and carries a one-time setup fee, listed on the order page. Build one.
Full price list: server pricing. Against a hyperscaler bill: bare metal compared with AWS and Azure.
On top of the metal
Hypervisors and clusters, run on your own hardware
Many customers take bare metal so they can run the virtualisation layer themselves.
Answers
Bare metal server questions
What is a bare metal server?
A physical server used by one customer, with the operating system installed directly on the hardware and no hypervisor in between. You get every core, all the memory and the disks, and nobody else shares them.
What is bare metal cloud?
Bare metal cloud is a physical, single-tenant server delivered like a cloud instance: ordered online, ready in minutes, reinstalled from a panel and billed by the hour or month. It keeps the self-service of a cloud and drops the hypervisor.
What is bare metal in cloud computing?
In cloud computing, bare metal is the instance type with no virtualisation layer: the customer's operating system runs on the physical machine. Providers offer it beside virtual machines for workloads that need steady performance, full hardware access or per-core licensing.
Bare metal vs cloud: which should I choose?
Choose bare metal for steady load, heavy outbound traffic, databases, media and anything licensed per core. Choose a virtual machine when you need to resize while running, live migration, or capacity that changes minute to minute. Many setups use both: bare metal for the steady part, a small elastic tier for the bursts.
How much does a bare metal server cost?
Each machine has a fixed monthly price, shown with its specification on the order page; the cheapest in each hardware family is listed above. Ready machines can also be rented by the hour at the monthly price divided by 730 and multiplied by 1.3, and paying 12 months ahead takes 15% off.
Can I get a 40Gbps bare metal server?
Yes. A 40 Gbps unmetered port starts at $2,799 a month on top of the machine and is sold on 2 of our lines. 10 Gbps starts at $529 and 100 Gbps is $3,999.
Is the bandwidth metered?
No. Every port is unmetered, with no transfer allowance and no per-gigabyte charge, in or out. 1 Gbps is included on 10 of 18 configurable lines and costs $79 a month on the rest.
Can I pay for a bare metal server by the hour?
Yes, on a ready machine. You save a card, which carries a one-week pre-authorization, and the hours are invoiced afterwards. You can release the server at any time; a server released within its first hour pays for one hour.
How fast is a bare metal server delivered?
About 30 minutes after payment is approved when the machine is already racked, and 4 to 24 hours when it is built to your configuration.
Can I run virtual machines or Kubernetes on it?
Yes. Proxmox and VMware hosts are ordinary configurations, or install KVM yourself. Our Managed Kubernetes, in New York, uses your dedicated servers as worker nodes while we run the control plane.
Where are your bare metal servers?
New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Bucharest, all on our own network, AS19624. You choose the city when you order.
What support comes with a bare metal server?
Live chat answers in seconds. The assistant can check your account and your server while you talk, and a person from our team takes over whenever you ask.
Where to go next
Pick the page for your next question
- Dedicated serversEvery line we run, with prices
- Instant serversMachines racked and ready to hand over
- Custom buildsA machine built to your specification
- Value serversWhy older hardware still earns its place
- MigrationMoving a server you already run
- Hetzner alternativeUS bare metal set against Hetzner’s German and Finnish rooms
Order a bare metal server
Pick a machine and a city, pay by the hour or the month, and log in about 30 minutes later.