Following on from the previous post about having a plan C for a bare metal server in the cloud for running my own services, I’ve had a look at a number of different data center operators in Europe and how they offer bare metal servers. I’ve been very happy so far with Hetzner, as they make it very simple to rent a physical server and get an operating system installed. If you already have an account, that bare metal server is only a few clicks away. Entry level offers with two 500GB SSDs start around 50 euros a month, currently without an installation fee, give or take a few euros. So what are others doing?
Note: I’m sure there are many data center operators offering bare metal servers, so my selection below is by no means complete. But my selection shows interesting approaches to the topic that differ quite a bit. Also note that I’m not linking to any of them, because I’m not in the advertising business.
The first company I looked at was 1und1, also known as IONOS these days. I have a lot of services such as my email and some DNS stuff with them for pretty much the last 20 years and I’m quite happy with them. They also have virtual machines and other things you can rent from them at competitive prices. When it comes to bare metal servers, however, they only have a web form where you can let them know you are interested. Hm, not quite what I was looking for.
Next, I had a look at OVH. Their pricing starts at around 60 euros per month for systems with a 2021 Intel CPU and two 500GB SSDs, but they ask for a 60 euro installation fee and state that the waiting time is around 24 hours. OK, already better than IONOS, but nothing to experiment with easily or to fail-over to quickly.
I then came across Scaleway. In their data centers in France and the Netherlands, a two 1TB SSD dedicated bare metal server starts at around 35 euros a month, no setup fee and instant installation. They are billing by the month or even by the hour! The price for the hourly rental is around twice the amount for the monthly rental, but ideal for experimenting before going for a more permanent commitment. 35 euros per month sounds cheap. So what is the catch? It’s an interesting one and I’ll go into more details in the next post.
So much for a cliffhanger 🙂