What is a Bare-metal Server, and why are we calling It that?

In the world of servers, there are two types: Dedicated Servers and VPS Servers. Dedicated servers are more expensive, but they offer a lot more power than VPS servers. These days though, we’ve been seeing people use the term “bare-metal” to describe Dedicated Server systems. What does this mean? And why do we call them bare-metal in the first place?

The Bare Metal Server Explained: Dedicated Servers vs Virtual Private Servers

When Dedicated Servers first came onto the scene, there were no Virtual Private Servers yet. Dedicated Servers meant that a single server would be dedicated to running one application or website at a time. There could be other Dedicated Server options as well as VPS and Cloud Computing services on the same machine, but they’d all be separate from each other. Dedicated Servers also meant that the server wasn’t shared with anyone else, so it would have its physical hardware and operating system to run on.

What is Bare Metal?

The term “bare-metal” is used with Dedicated Servers referring to the solid, physical structure of the Dedicated Server. It doesn’t have a virtualization layer on top of it and instead is running directly on physical hardware. So we called Dedicated Servers “bare-metal servers” because they don’t run in any software container as VPS servers do.

Why is a Bare-Metal (Dedicated) server better than a VPS server?

With Dedicated Servers, you can upgrade your CPU and RAM depending on what kind of power you need. Dedicated servers are also much faster than VPS servers because their hardware isn’t shared with anyone else. When it comes down to Dedicated or VPS though, Dedicated Servers generally offer better performance for the money.

We help you find the perfect server, no matter what your needs are. We have a range of dedicated servers and VPS and private cloud options for every business or project size!