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As others have noted, most "traditional" dedicated server hosters should have good offers. Hetzner in Germany for example has 8 TB HDD with 32 GB RAM and a i7-

As others have noted, most "traditional" dedicated server hosters should have good offers. Hetzner in Germany for example has 8 TB HDD with 32 GB RAM and a i7-6700 Quad-Core for ~55 USD per month. edit: US hosters seem to be quite a bit more expensive. Does anyone know why there is such a difference?

adventured 9y ago
Simply put, they can command it. US GDP per capita is ~1/3 higher than in Germany, as is the median income. It's why companies like Softlayer or Rackspace, with relatively high prices, built such substantial businesses in the dedicated space years ago: US businesses could afford it. The underlying cost structure is also more challenging in the US for most dedicated hosts. Building a data center in the US, as with most infrastructure, costs more than it does in Germany. When you account for the higher cost of infrastructure and the higher productivity (economic output), a $80 Hetzner server becomes a $120 or $140 server in the US. It's the same reason housing in Australia is so expensive (their incomes have skyrocketed over the last 15 years), or why the cost of living is so high in Switzerland (very high incomes). If you cut US GDP per capita from ~$57k-$60k down to $28,000 (just as an example) - dedicated hosts in the US would not be able to command the same high prices, the market would not bear that.
- king_phil 9y ago
  What difference does it make? The price is the price is the price.
  - devdoomari 9y ago
    as a user? some milliseconds of latency maybe?
- dx034 9y ago
  That doesn't explain why OVH can offer servers in Canada for about the same price (via soyoustart.com or OVH). Electricity in Quebec is cheap but parts of the US are similar (OR, WA). Perhaps many US companies don't trust European providers so that they have to win on price?
  - mosselman 9y ago
    Why doesn't it? Canada isn't the US and Quebec isn't New York. What doe the electricity cost of some regions of the US have to do with the costs where data centers actually are like New York? The GDP per capita in Canada is $46.000[1] and in the US it is $57.400[2]. [1]: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... [2]: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...
    - dx034 9y ago
      > What doe the electricity cost of some regions of the US have to do with the costs where data centers actually are like New York? I'd expect electricity to be a major cost item for data centers. GDP per capita is not a good proxy for the cost of running a data center. It is only loosely related to labour costs and not at all to cost of infrastructure projects and regulation. So I still don't completely understand why US data centers are more expensive, esp at locations like Kansas or Oregon where energy is cheaper than in most/all of Europe.
  - tyingq 9y ago
    Supposedly, OVH is opening a US data center in Oregon, and one in Virginia. https://www.ovh.com/us/news/cp2435.global_iaas_leader_ovh_continues_north_american_deployment_plan_bringing_innovative_green_data_centers_to_the_us https://www.ovh.com/us/news/cp2435.global_iaas_leader_ovh_co...
- smueller1234 9y ago
  I'm not sure I buy this. Cost of employment in Germany is high as are power costs. Disclaimer: lived in both countries, operated sizeable DCs in both countries, but didn't do the math just now. Edit: spelling
veeti 9y ago
I wouldn't host a database on a server without ECC RAM like most Hetzner offerings.
outside1234 9y ago
My guess is that economies of scale are starting to hit - it wouldn't surprise me to learn that dedicated hosting is draining rapidly from competition from the cloud.
jurgenwerk 9y ago
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT host serious applications on Hetzner. Firstly, their equipment is incredibly unreliable. It happened three times to me that their server stopped responding due to hardware failures. Secondly, their support (especially their support website) is beyond awful, hard to get, and sometimes even arrogant over the phone.
- mad182 9y ago
  I have the exact opposite experience. I have only used their support once, but it was great. One of my servers had hardware issue (unable to access half of RAM), and less than hour after first contacting them via website they had moved drives to another, identical machine and everything was running fine (and most of that time was spent waiting for my responses).

adventured 9y ago

Simply put, they can command it. US GDP per capita is ~1/3 higher than in Germany, as is the median income. It's why companies like Softlayer or Rackspace, with relatively high prices, built such substantial businesses in the dedicated space years ago: US businesses could afford it. The underlying cost structure is also more challenging in the US for most dedicated hosts. Building a data center in the US, as with most infrastructure, costs more than it does in Germany. When you account for the higher cost of infrastructure and the higher productivity (economic output), a $80 Hetzner server becomes a $120 or $140 server in the US. It's the same reason housing in Australia is so expensive (their incomes have skyrocketed over the last 15 years), or why the cost of living is so high in Switzerland (very high incomes). If you cut US GDP per capita from ~$57k-$60k down to $28,000 (just as an example) - dedicated hosts in the US would not be able to command the same high prices, the market would not bear that.

king_phil 9y ago
What difference does it make? The price is the price is the price.
- devdoomari 9y ago
  as a user? some milliseconds of latency maybe?
dx034 9y ago
That doesn't explain why OVH can offer servers in Canada for about the same price (via soyoustart.com or OVH). Electricity in Quebec is cheap but parts of the US are similar (OR, WA). Perhaps many US companies don't trust European providers so that they have to win on price?
- mosselman 9y ago
  Why doesn't it? Canada isn't the US and Quebec isn't New York. What doe the electricity cost of some regions of the US have to do with the costs where data centers actually are like New York? The GDP per capita in Canada is $46.000[1] and in the US it is $57.400[2]. [1]: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... [2]: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...
  - dx034 9y ago
    > What doe the electricity cost of some regions of the US have to do with the costs where data centers actually are like New York? I'd expect electricity to be a major cost item for data centers. GDP per capita is not a good proxy for the cost of running a data center. It is only loosely related to labour costs and not at all to cost of infrastructure projects and regulation. So I still don't completely understand why US data centers are more expensive, esp at locations like Kansas or Oregon where energy is cheaper than in most/all of Europe.
- tyingq 9y ago
  Supposedly, OVH is opening a US data center in Oregon, and one in Virginia. https://www.ovh.com/us/news/cp2435.global_iaas_leader_ovh_continues_north_american_deployment_plan_bringing_innovative_green_data_centers_to_the_us https://www.ovh.com/us/news/cp2435.global_iaas_leader_ovh_co...
smueller1234 9y ago
I'm not sure I buy this. Cost of employment in Germany is high as are power costs. Disclaimer: lived in both countries, operated sizeable DCs in both countries, but didn't do the math just now. Edit: spelling

veeti 9y ago

I wouldn't host a database on a server without ECC RAM like most Hetzner offerings.

outside1234 9y ago

My guess is that economies of scale are starting to hit - it wouldn't surprise me to learn that dedicated hosting is draining rapidly from competition from the cloud.

jurgenwerk 9y ago

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT host serious applications on Hetzner. Firstly, their equipment is incredibly unreliable. It happened three times to me that their server stopped responding due to hardware failures. Secondly, their support (especially their support website) is beyond awful, hard to get, and sometimes even arrogant over the phone.

mad182 9y ago
I have the exact opposite experience. I have only used their support once, but it was great. One of my servers had hardware issue (unable to access half of RAM), and less than hour after first contacting them via website they had moved drives to another, identical machine and everything was running fine (and most of that time was spent waiting for my responses).