The Best Bare Metal Hosting Services for 2026

Bare metal hosting is single-tenant physical hardware you rent from a provider—no shared neighbors and no hypervisor overhead. It’s the right fit when you need consistent latency, dedicated I/O, strict isolation for compliance, or direct access to hardware for demanding databases and compute workloads.

For mission-critical workloads in 2026, bare metal hosting remains the superior choice over standard virtualization. By giving you direct access to single-tenant hardware, bare metal eliminates resource contention, ensuring consistent latency for AI and database applications, and simplifies compliance with strict standards like HIPAA and PCI-DSS.

The best bare metal hosting services for 2026 are Atlantic.Net (Best for Compliance & Support), PhoenixNAP (Best for API-Driven DevOps), IONOS (Best for Enterprise Value), Hetzner (Best for Budget), and AWS (Best for Hyperscale Integration).

Compare Top Bare Metal Providers

Why bare metal hosting still matters in 2026

Bare metal is not a “bigger VM.” It’s single-tenant physical hardware reserved for your use. That matters when you need:

• Predictable performance: no shared-resource contention.
• Isolation: simpler segmentation for sensitive workloads.
• Hardware control: direct access to CPU, memory, and storage behavior (useful for certain databases, virtualization stacks, and low-level tooling).

1. Atlantic.Net

Best for: Compliance-First Workloads (HIPAA/PCI) & Managed Support

Atlantic.Net continues to lead the market in 2026 for organizations that cannot afford compliance risks. Unlike providers that offer “raw” hardware and walk away, Atlantic.Net specializes in secure, audited environments tailored for healthcare, fintech, and contractors. Their bare metal solutions are designed to meet strict regulatory frameworks (HIPAA, HITECH, PCI-DSS, SOC 2/3) out of the box.

• Compliance Ready: All infrastructure is audited for HIPAA and SOC standards, making it the safest choice for processing ePHI or sensitive financial data.
• High-Performance Specs: Configurations support up to 128 vCPU threads, 1 TB+ RAM, and redundant NVMe storage, ideal for high-throughput databases.
• Human-First Support: Includes 24/7/365 US-based support that acts as an extension of your IT team—critical for preventing downtime in regulated sectors.
• Flexible Deployment: Offers both unmanaged options for total control and fully managed hosting where the provider handles OS updates, security patches, and firewalls.

What stands out

• Dedicated hosting plans are published with example configurations and pricing (useful for budgeting).
• Dedicated server service level guarantee language is clearly stated (network/infrastructure components).
• Compliance hosting positioning is front-and-center for regulated workloads.

Who should choose Atlantic.Net? Healthcare providers, fintech companies, SaaS teams undergoing audits, and anyone who needs a vendor that can support security and compliance conversations (not just sell hardware).

2. PhoenixNAP

Best for: DevOps, Automation, and “Bare Metal Cloud”

PhoenixNAP has bridged the gap between dedicated hardware and cloud agility. Their “Bare Metal Cloud” platform allows developers to provision physical servers in minutes via API, CLI, or Terraform, rather than the days-long provisioning cycles of traditional hosts. This makes them a top choice for CI/CD pipelines and agile teams in 2026.

What stands out

• API-First Architecture: fully compatible with Terraform, Ansible, and Pulumi for “Infrastructure as Code” deployments.
• Hourly Billing: One of the few bare metal providers offering true hourly billing, allowing you to spin up high-power instances for short-term rendering or compilation tasks.
• Global Footprint: Strong presence across the US, Europe, and Asia, ensuring low latency for globally distributed applications.

Who should choose PhoenixNAP? DevOps engineers, SaaS platforms needing automated scaling, and teams who want to treat physical servers like ephemeral cloud instances.

3. IONOS

Best for: Enterprise Value & European Presence

IONOS (formerly 1&1) remains a powerhouse for businesses seeking reliable enterprise-grade hardware without the hyperscaler price tag. They are particularly strong in the European market but have a good US presence. Their commitment to sustainability—running data centers on renewable energy—is a key differentiator for ESG-focused companies in 2026.

• Predictable Pricing: Offers transparent monthly contracts that avoid the unpredictable egress fees common with larger public clouds.
• Modern Hardware: Extensive inventory of Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC processors with unlimited traffic options on 1 Gbit/s ports.
• Security Standard: ISO 27001-certified data centers with built-in SIEM and DDoS protection included in most enterprise plans.

What stands out

• Sustainability: Data centers are powered largely by renewable energy.
• Traffic Policy: Unlimited traffic on many configurations eliminates egress anxiety.
• Pay-as-you-go: Offers hourly billing options alongside monthly contracts.

Who should choose IONOS? Companies doing business in the UK/EU, or US enterprises looking for a secondary provider with predictable monthly billing.

4. Hetzner

Best for: Budget & Raw Performance Value

For technical teams who are comfortable managing their own infrastructure, Hetzner offers the best price-to-performance ratio in the industry. While they offer minimal hand-holding (support is strictly hardware-focused), their pricing for high-core AMD Ryzen and EPYC servers is very good.

• Unbeatable Value: High-performance servers often start at a fraction of the cost of major US competitors.
• Hetzner Cloud Integration: Ability to mix bare metal servers with their cloud VPS offerings via private networks (vSwitch).
• Auction Server Market: Unique “Server Auction” allows users to bid on older, fully functional hardware for non-critical workloads at rock-bottom prices.

What stands out

• No Contracts: Most servers are available on a month-to-month basis with no long-term commitment.

Who should choose Hetzner? Bootstrapped startups, media streaming services, and technical teams who are comfortable managing their own Linux stack and want to minimize infrastructure costs.

5. AWS (Amazon EC2 Metal)

Best for: Hybrid Cloud & Hyperscale Scalability

Amazon Web Services offers “Bare Metal” instances (e.g., i3.metal, m5.metal) that allow applications to run directly on the underlying hardware while still integrating with the broader AWS ecosystem. While significantly more expensive than standalone providers, this option is vital for enterprises that need to run legacy applications (like VMware stacks) inside their existing AWS VPCs.

• Deep Integration: Bare metal instances sit inside your Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and work seamlessly with AWS storage (EBS/S3) and security groups.
• Legacy Support: The only viable way to run legacy virtualization stacks that require direct hardware access within a public cloud environment.
• Elasticity: While it is physical hardware, it can be provisioned and terminated with the same ease as a virtual EC2 instance.

What stands out

• Global reach: Available in virtually every AWS region worldwide.

Who should choose AWS? Cloud-native teams needing temporary raw power, or enterprises migrating legacy applications that require direct hardware access but must live inside an AWS VPC.

6. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) 

Best for: HPC & AI Workloads

Oracle has aggressively targeted the high-performance market in 2026. Their bare metal instances are designed for massive throughput, supporting clustered networking that is ideal for AI model training and complex simulations. They offer some of the highest core-count configurations available publicly.

• Key Specs: Up to 192 cores (AMD EPYC), 2TB+ RAM, NVIDIA GPU clusters.
• Compliance: Comprehensive global and regional compliance certifications.
• Support: Oracle Cloud Support (included with paid accounts).
• Verdict: If your primary metric is raw compute performance per dollar—specifically for AI or database workloads—OCI is the heavy hitter.

What stands out

• Cluster Networking: Provides low-latency connectivity between bare metal instances, critical for HPC.
• Aggressive pricing: Outbound data transfer costs are often significantly lower than AWS or Azure.
• Specific hardware focus: Configurations are explicitly designed for Oracle Database and high-load scenarios.

Who should choose Oracle OCI? Data scientists, research institutions, and enterprises running massive Oracle Databases or training large language models (LLMs).

7. OpenMetal

Best for: Private Cloud & OpenStack

OpenMetal disrupts the standard “rent a server” model by providing a private cloud core. Instead of a single standalone server, you typically deploy a cluster of three bare metal servers pre-configured with OpenStack. This gives you the autonomy of single-tenant hardware with the flexibility to create your own virtual machines.

• Key Specs: Converged usage (Compute + Storage), Ceph storage, OpenStack control plane.
• Compliance: ISO 27001 certified data centers; hardware isolation aids compliance.
• Support: Provider-assisted; engineering support for OpenStack.
• Verdict: The best middle ground for teams who want the features of a public cloud (APIs, VM spinning) but want to own the underlying hardware physically.

What stands out

• Open Source focus: No vendor lock-in; you are using standard OpenStack.
• Speed: Deploys a full private cloud cluster in roughly 45 minutes.
• Transparency: Clear pricing on hardware versus software/support costs.

Who should choose OpenMetal? SaaS providers and DevOps teams who want to build their own internal cloud infrastructure without paying hyperscaler margins.

8. IBM Cloud

Best for: Custom Enterprise Configurations

IBM Cloud differentiates itself with granular customization. While other clouds offer “T-shirt sizes” (Small, Medium, Large), IBM allows you to configure over 11 million combinations of processor, RAM, and drive types. It is built for complex, hybrid enterprise architectures.

• Key Specs: SAP-certified servers, extensive NVIDIA GPU options, and Intel/AMD custom builds.
• Compliance: FFIEC, HIPAA-ready options, rigorous enterprise standards.
• Support: Enterprise-grade support structures tailored for Fortune 500s.
• Verdict: The go-to choice for complex legacy migrations where the hardware must match specific vendor requirements exactly.

What stands out

• Global Private Network: Free data transfer between your IBM servers across different data centers.
• Customizability: You can pick the exact drive model and RAM speed you need.
• Satellite: Ability to extend IBM cloud services to your own on-prem infrastructure.

Who should choose IBM Cloud? Large financial institutions, SAP users, and enterprises that need exact hardware specifications to meet vendor software requirements.

9. InterServer

Best for: Budget & Unmanaged Power

InterServer focuses on delivering raw power at an accessible price point. They strip away the “managed services” overhead to offer high-bandwidth dedicated servers for technical users. Their “Price Lock Guarantee” ensures your hosting costs won’t creep up over time.

• Key Specs: 10Gbps port options, huge bandwidth allocations, Rapid Deploy servers.
• Compliance: Standard data center security (tier 3/4).
• Support: 24/7 ticket/phone, but scope is limited to hardware/network uptime.
• Verdict: Excellent value for users who are comfortable managing their own OS and security stack.

What stands out

• High Bandwidth: One of the most generous bandwidth policies for the price.
• No Setup Fees: Frequently waives setup fees on rapid deploy servers.
• Simplicity: A straightforward “you rent the box, you run the box” model.

Who should choose InterServer? Sysadmins, media streaming startups, and budget-conscious projects that need significant bandwidth without the enterprise markup.

Bare Metal vs Dedicated Servers vs Cloud VMs

In practice, “bare metal” and “dedicated server” often describe the same outcome: one tenant, one machine. The difference is usually the purchase experience:

• Dedicated server hosts tend to be monthly, hardware-catalog driven, and offer hands-on support options.
• Cloud bare metal (AWS/OCI/IBM) is provisioned like cloud infrastructure, often with on-demand billing and API-first workflows.

If you need burst capacity and tight integration with managed cloud services, cloud bare metal often wins. If you need a provider-led compliance posture and predictable monthly operations, dedicated hosts are often simpler to run.

2026 watch-out: Equinix Metal shutdown (migration planning)

If you’re currently on Equinix Metal, plan a migration now. Equinix states the Equinix Metal service will sunset on June 30, 2026.

A practical path is to first map your current server shapes, networking requirements, and automation dependencies (Terraform, image pipelines, IP allocations), then decide whether you want:

• Cloud bare metal (Atlantic.Net/AWS/OCI/IBM) for API-first provisioning, or
• Dedicated hosts/private cloud (Atlantic.Net/OpenMetal/IONOS-type options) for steadier monthly operations.

How to choose a bare metal provider (2026 checklist)

1. Define the workload clearly. CPU model preference, RAM, storage type (NVMe vs SATA), and whether you need RAID.
2. Decide on management responsibility. Unmanaged saves money but shifts patching, monitoring, and incident response to you.
3. Model bandwidth costs. Look for published port speeds, including transfer, or a clear overage method.
4. Pick locations for latency. Shorter physical distance still matters for user experience and replication.
5. Validate security/compliance fit. Ask what the provider covers vs what you must configure (shared responsibility).
6. Run a short trial. Benchmark your real workload, not synthetic tests.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between bare metal and dedicated hosting?

While the terms are often used interchangeably, “dedicated hosting” traditionally refers to renting a physical server on a monthly contract. “Bare Metal Cloud” describes physical servers that can be provisioned and automated instantly (often hourly) like virtual cloud servers, but without the hypervisor overhead.

Why choose bare metal over a standard cloud VPS?

Bare metal offers predictable performance. In a VPS (Virtual Private Server), “noisy neighbors” on the same physical machine can impact your speed. Bare metal guarantees 100% of the CPU, RAM, and I/O resources belong to you, which is critical for databases, AI training, and real-time processing.

Is bare metal necessary for HIPAA compliance?

It is often preferred. While you can achieve HIPAA compliance in a shared cloud, single-tenant bare metal servers drastically reduce complexity. Physical isolation eliminates the risk of data leakage between tenants and simplifies the auditing process required for handling ePHI.

Can I scale a bare metal server?

Scaling bare metal is “vertical” (upgrading RAM/Disk) and usually requires downtime. However, modern providers like Atlantic.Net and PhoenixNAP allow you to deploy additional servers quickly, enabling “horizontal” scaling by distributing workloads across multiple physical machines.

Do I need a managed or unmanaged plan?

If your team has strong Linux/Windows administration skills, unmanaged is cheaper. If you need guaranteed uptime and help with security patching, firewalls, and compliance audits, a Managed Service provider (like Atlantic.Net) is highly recommended to reduce operational risk.