Writer: Lynn Cadet
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Christina Lewis
Bare metal servers provide business and academic research groups with custom hardware configurations to support high-performance solutions. The cloud hosting company provides dedicated hardware without virtualization.
While most development teams building cloud-native applications prefer fully managed data center hardware that can scale on demand with project growth, bare metal servers are guaranteed single-tenant occupancy for the highest levels of isolation in production.
Bare metal server platforms are increasingly being used for artificial intelligence and machine learning. These applications require the web server to be equipped with a GPU for dedicated use. Let’s explore some of the top options I recommend for dev teams and research groups.
1. IONOS
I chose IONOS as the best bare metal server provider for its balance of price and features. The company offers both Intel and AMD servers at different configurations with billing by the minute that maxes out at monthly rates for consistent budgeting. A 32-gigabyte RAM Intel six-core CPU with two terabytes of storage will run no more than $100 per month.
You can create custom configurations with different hardware, like SSD and HDD storage. AMD Ryzen Pro and EPYC processors are cheaper, starting at $41.00 monthly.
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $41.00
- Best for teams wanting enterprise dedicated hardware at affordable prices
- AMD EPYC, Ryzen, and Intel Xeon — GPU servers also available
- Unlimited bandwidth, RAID included, up to 80 TB storage
- 99.995% server availability across 6 global data centers
- Every plan includes a dedicated personal consultant
- Get started on IONOS now.
Christina Lewis
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes | 480 GB SSD – 4 TB SATA HDD | 4 – 32 cores | 16 GB – 256 GB |
If you need more than one dedicated server and are looking for a bare metal solution, you can build your own cloud server network of any size at IONOS for discounted rates.
Bare metal server hosting at IONOS includes personalized customer service that is designed to meet the requirements of BPO in enterprise IT. The prices are much lower than those of IBM Cloud and most other public cloud hardware solutions.
2. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting offers bare metal dedicated server plans for applications like high-frequency quant trading and private cloud implementations.
Compared to a virtual machine or VPS hosting with cPanel administration, developers will get the fastest performance speeds for their hardware specifications with a bare metal cloud app.
InMotionHosting.com
Monthly Starting Price $35.00
- Best for businesses needing enterprise hardware with managed support
- Bare-metal or fully managed dedicated servers from $35/mo
- Intel Xeon to AMD EPYC, up to 16 cores and 192 GB DDR5 RAM
- Monarx security & 500 GB backup storage with Premier Care
- 24/7 Advanced Product Support from senior sysadmins
- 99.99% uptime SLA, up to 10 Gbps unmetered bandwidth
- Get started on InMotion now.
Dave McQuilling
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes | 960 GB SSD – 7.68 TB NVMe | 4 – 16 cores | 16 GB – 192 GB DDR5 |
Cloud computing includes virtual desktop deployments where the physical server is located in a remote data center.
Dedicated server hosting will be more expensive over time if your business or organization relies on an in-house IT management team for systems administration. InMotion Hosting bare metal plans start at $35.00 per month. Compared to most of the other dedicated hosts I’ve reviewed, InMotion’s bare metal servers are a steal.
3. Liquid Web
I’ve always appreciated Liquid Web for its no-fuss professional services. It’s base-level dedicated server offers similar specs to InMotion’s Aspire line, but it costs a bit more. A four-core server with 16 gigabytes of RAM and eight terabytes of bandwidth costs $55.50 per month.
Unlike a virtual server on shared hardware, your organization can use the hardware for data management to support any cloud infrastructure. It is your choice to install Linux, BSD, or Windows server software.
LiquidWeb.com
Monthly Starting Price $55.50
- Best for mission-critical sites needing fully managed dedicated hardware
- Save up to 50% for 2 months with this HostingAdvice offer
- Fully managed or self-managed — Linux or Windows
- PCI-ready environments with 99.99% uptime SLA
- cPanel, Plesk, or InterWorx — 24/7 Heroic Support® included
- Get started on Liquid Web now.
Christina Lewis
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 minutes | 383 GB SSD – 3.2 TB SSD | 4 – 32 cores | 12 GB – 192 GB |
Liquid Web has one of the best reputations in the industry as a bare metal server provider. It also provides traditional dedicated server solutions that are configured for high-performance requirements.
A bare metal cloud server can be cheaper than a fully managed hosting solution because of the division of workload responsibilities. Developers can use bare metal hosting at Liquid Web with any cloud service.
4. AccuWebHosting
Bare metal server accounts at AccuWebHosting start at $103.00 per month and provide dedicated resources at higher price ranges for data center outsourcing.
A bare metal cloud solution at AccuWebHosting will support any OS or web software stack you need to run for database-driven applications. Its data center specializes in Intel Xeon servers, which are much cheaper than Alibaba Cloud, AWS, GCP, or Azure.
AccuWebHosting.com
Monthly Starting Price $103.00
- Choice of 11 global datacenters
- 100% uptime, network & power SLA
- Fully or self-managed options
- Optional proactive monitoring
- Remote reboots for all servers
- Get started on AccuWebHosting.
Jack Wallen
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 250 GB SSD – 16 TB | New or Transfer | 8 minutes |
AccuWebHosting includes bare metal server backups with a service-level agreement that is generated for enterprise compliance requirements. Unlike shared or reseller hosting, you will never share your hardware environment with other users.
Bare metal dedicated servers at AccuWebHosting will network with other cloud provider resources to build out complex systems for microservices and mobile applications.
5. HostGator
HostGator has a dedicated server line famous for reliability, uptime, and affordability. To order a server under the bare metal plan, you will need to contact the customer service department directly.
Dedicated servers are fully managed hosting solutions designed for multi-domain publishing at the cheapest rates. A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is another budget option at HostGator. The managed platform offers dedicated cPanel hosting.
HostGator.com
Monthly Starting Price $141.19
- AMD EPYC processors, DDR5 RAM, and NVMe SSD on all plans
- Linux or Windows — cPanel/WHM or Plesk included
- 100 Gbps port speed with unmetered bandwidth
- RAID 6 storage, DDoS protection, and live kernel patching
- Guided server setup and 24/7/365 support included
- Get started on HostGator now.
Lynn Cadet
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 minutes | 1 TB – 3 TB NVMe | 8 – 32 cores | 32 – 128 GB DDR5 |
HostGator delivers bare metal hardware resources on demand to enterprise clients, academic groups, and other groups with custom workload activity for dedicated hardware.
As a bare metal server provider, HostGator lacks the cloud server engineering resources for private cloud and Windows server solutions. Choose them when you need a cheap cPanel host with support for unlimited domain names and a suite of bonus offers on sign-up.
6. Bluehost
Bluehost is another popular cPanel host with a great reputation for WordPress hosting on shared servers. Web publishers can scale their sites and mobile applications through affordable levels of VPS and dedicated server hosting.
For bare metal cloud server accounts, you will need to contact customer service directly. The default dedicated server plan is fully managed.
Bluehost.com
Monthly Starting Price $144.19
- AMD EPYC processors, DDR5 RAM, and NVMe SSD on all plans
- RAID-1 storage mirroring and automated offsite backups
- DDoS protection >2 Tbps with Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
- Full root access with WHM/cPanel included
- 24/7 Tier 3 support —
- Get started on Bluehost now.
Sead Fadilpasic
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 minutes | 1 TB – 3 TB NVMe | 8 – 32 cores | 32 – 128 GB DDR5 |
Bluehost maintains independent data center locations, which are a viable alternative to public cloud resources for some enterprise workloads. As a cloud service, you can network with other hardware resources to build microservice apps with APIs that guarantee compliance with industry privacy requirements using physical server isolation.
Most WordPress publishers will be able to scale on virtual machine plans by transitioning from shared to VPS hosting.
7. InterServer
I’ve reviewed many dedicated servers in my time, and I’ve found InterServer has some of the lowest rates in the industry for bare metal server configurations, starting at $78.00 a month. If you need to build out custom cloud infrastructure for different apps and business departments, the dedicated resources at InterServer are engineered for every level of support.
You can order bare metal, fully managed, or GUI dedicated server plans that support high-performance requirements.
InterServer.net
Monthly Starting Price $78.00
- Privately owned datacenters in NYC, Dallas, and Los Angeles
- AMD EPYC, Ryzen, and Intel Xeon — 80+ configs available
- IPMI access, zero setup fees, and unmetered 1 Gbps
- InterShield w/ ML firewall, DDoS protection, malware cleanup
- Price-lock guarantee — rates never increase at renewal
- Get started on InterServer now.
Sead Fadilpasic
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 minutes | 250 GB SSD – 80 TB HDD | 4 – 56 cores | 15 GB – 256 GB |
Web server snapshots make it easy to install full-stack solutions on dedicated servers without a lot of complex systems administration.
Bare metal dedicated servers at InterServer give you the command line tools and root access required to build out any web server configuration. This is great for programming teams to support non-standard databases and programming languages with dedicated resources at low prices.
8. GreenGeeks
The policy at GreenGeeks is that managed dedicated servers include the full stack of administrative and runtime software as its VPS and shared hosting plans, while any unmanaged dedicated server plans are provided as bare metal with the individual installation of any web server stack combination.
This makes it easy to transition production apps to better hardware plans as traffic scales or build microservice apps. GreenGeeks pledges carbon neutrality by contributing back its data center electricity usage to charity organizations and environmental groups.
GreenGeeks.com
Monthly Starting Price $169.00
- Server-grade Intel hardware
- Up to 10TB of data transfers
- 24/7/365 support and 99.9% uptime
- Choice of 4 datacenters
- 300% offset by wind energy credits
- Get started on GreenGeeks now.
Dave McQuilling
| Money Back Guarantee | Disk Space | Domain Name | Setup Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 500 GB – 1 TB | New or Transfer | 6 minutes |
Dedicated servers start at $169.00 per month at GreenGeeks with Intel Atom 330 Dual Core servers. You get five IP addresses and 10 TB of data transfer monthly, but the general specifications of the web servers are less robust than other choices.
Bare metal options are sold as unmanaged dedicated server plans with subscriptions for managed services priced extra. The GreenGeeks advantage is superior customer service and long-term data center engineering experience for security, uptime, and performance.
9. Hostwinds
Hostwinds dedicated servers come in at $122.00 per month for an E3-1270 v3 CPU with four cores and eight gigabytes of RAM. You only get one TB HDD storage with the base configuration, while the upgrade to one TB SSD storage is $30 per month.
This configuration can be useful for projects that need to manage SSD and HDD storage resources together. However, I don’t recommend HDD for CMS apps.
Hostwinds.com
Monthly Starting Price $122.00
- Highly configurable servers with a choice between Windows or Linux
- Fully managed support and nightly backups
- SAS Type II and Tier 4 datacenters
- 99.999% uptime guarantee and DDoS protection
- 1-hour hardware replacement
- Get started on Hostwinds now.
Jack Wallen
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 minutes | 120 GB SSD – 12 TB HDD | 4 – 16 cores, 8 – 20 threads | 8 GB – 32 GB |
Hostwinds makes it easy to configure each dedicated server with a choice of Linux operating systems or Windows. Another advantage is that the platform provides full IPMI access to VNC KVM controls with more configuration, maintenance, and ISO mounting options available in an integrated control panel.
The control panel contains real-time hardware monitoring, metrics, and traffic reports that are helpful for active site management. I find its customer support is usually quick and reliable.
What Is a Bare Metal Server?
A bare metal server consists of the CPU, RAM, storage, motherboard, and I/O networking of a dedicated web server without the installation of any layers of the software stack. Customers are able to install the exact operating system, server framework, database, and extensions required.
A bare metal server can be compared to a dedicated server with a managed software stack that is pre-installed and maintained over time by the web host. In contrast, access to a bare metal server is limited to the systems administration team, which is in complete isolation.
What Are the Disadvantages of a Bare Metal Server?
The disadvantages of a bare metal server depend on the requirements of your development project. Bare metal servers provide functionality that cannot be built on managed cloud platforms. This means companies will need to invest more in systems administration over time.
The ability to access secure hardware partitions using virtual machines or VPS platforms makes bare metal servers a more expensive option. Users of shared hardware will have limitations on data processing that bare metal servers overcome with single-tenant occupancy.
Why Should You Use Bare Metal Servers?
Shared hosting plans limit the number of data requests that can be processed at one time, as well as quotas for the total number of monthly page hits or database requests permitted per plan. Shared hosting platforms host multiple domains under a single IP address using pooled server resources. This means that the performance of websites may vary in production.
With shared hosting, thousands of domains can run on a cloud web server with various rates of traffic, non-aligned domain ownership, and varieties of content under publication. Some sites may attract more malicious activity from bots or hackers — so security is better on bare metal.
VMs and VPS platforms include an independent operating system and web server configuration for each account using virtualization to provide isolation on multi-tenant hardware at rates cheaper than dedicated hardware. Dedicated servers with managed cloud plans remove systems administration duties for development teams and provide pro tools for programmers.
With bare metal servers, the business or academic group using the hardware has guaranteed single-tenant occupancy, which includes full use of web server resources in production. This means you won’t need to share RAM, CPU usage, or traffic congestion with other users.
What’s the Difference Between a Bare Metal and a Dedicated Server?
A dedicated server guarantees a fixed level of RAM, CPU allocation, storage, and bandwidth every month with the security of a single-tenant environment. But, dedicated servers also include a managed web server stack where the web host maintains the OS, database, and other runtime extensions for the hardware environment — this is not provided on bare metal.
With bare metal servers, your team gets root access to the web server hardware with guaranteed single-tenant occupancy but must install all of the components of the software stack manually through DevOps tools or command line utilities. Your team must also manage the security upgrades and software patches over time to maintain the integrity of the environment.
Is a Managed Dedicated Server Worth it?
A managed dedicated server will save business and academic groups a lot of money over time by providing security upgrades to the web server stack. Otherwise, with bare metal servers, you will need to employ your own staff and maintain operations at a high state of vigilance.
If you are a multi-domain publisher accustomed to using tools like cPanel and Plesk, a managed server will make it simpler to set up and deploy domains, email accounts, FTP transfers, database installations, and programming language settings.
Bare Metal Servers: Compliance & Security
Bare metal server solutions are generally marketed to enterprise groups that need guaranteed single-tenant occupancy on hardware for the purposes of industry compliance. VM and VPS plans both run on shared hardware where the business owner has no control over the type of web traffic that other accounts will generate. The difference with dedicated servers is that not even the web hosting company will have access to your server environment.
Another major benefit of bare metal servers is that they can be accessed at near-commodity rates for groups that need large volumes of resources in a data center. Bare metal platforms can support web server clusters that scale well past the resources of a single dedicated server to hundreds or thousands of autonomous units. Your IT department can then configure the hardware to meet the needs of different departments and groups with different stack software.
HostingAdvice.com is a free online resource that offers valuable content and comparison services to users. To keep this resource 100% free, we receive compensation from many of the offers listed on the site. Along with key review factors, this compensation may impact how and where products appear across the site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). HostingAdvice.com does not include the entire universe of available offers. Editorial opinions expressed on the site are strictly our own and are not provided, endorsed, or approved by advertisers.
Our site is committed to publishing independent, accurate content guided by strict editorial guidelines. Before articles and reviews are published on our site, they undergo a thorough review process performed by a team of independent editors and subject-matter experts to ensure the content’s accuracy, timeliness, and impartiality. Our editorial team is separate and independent of our site’s advertisers, and the opinions they express on our site are their own. To read more about our team members and their editorial backgrounds, please visit our site’s About page.
