Do you prefer an old and non-ecological dedicated server at double the price? We focused on comparing server hostings in the Czech Republic provided by international providers.
Hosting servers are a globally very popular service. It offers not only high flexibility and scalability but, above all, maximum comfort for the client. The guarantee of hardware replacement, cooling, connectivity, and server consumption is already included in the rental price, allowing you to focus solely on managing the server and its content without interruptions. It is therefore not surprising that in almost every country in the world, several dozen local or global hosting centers provide such services, and with just a few clicks, you can have a server wherever you need.
The Czech Republic is often seen as a figurative business gateway for expansion into Europe, whether to the western or the eastern part. International companies often test the Central European region in the Czech Republic during the initial phase of their expansion, particularly in one of the wealthiest regions of the European Union, Prague. And what is the easiest and cheapest way to test the market? To rent a server in the expansion location and launch a corporate e-shop or website on it.
Selection of Hosting Providers Sample
We decided to explore dedicated physical servers offers from the perspective of a foreign client looking for this service in Prague or the Czech Republic for his expansion. We entered a simple phrase into the Google search engine: “dedicated server Prague” and compared the servers with the lowest prices for rent from foreign providers who facilitate dedicated hosting in Czechia.
We intentionally chose the cheapest server models, because the quality of the services provided should be based on the basic model. This philosophy is also advocated by many companies from abroad. They want to be assured of high-quality services and technical support, regardless of the model and price of the server, before ordering a custom server for hundreds of Euros. We subsequently compared the starter servers within a benchmark against our starter dedicated server.
Results of Dedicated Servers comparison
From the results provided by Google, we carefully examined the offerings of the top 20 international providers/intermediaries of dedicated hosting in the Czech Republic, primarily from the perspective of the CPUs performance, their age, and the overall price. The processor is usually the most expensive component in pricing and the most important factor when selecting a server. Additionally, we factored in an internet connection speed of 1 Gbps upload/download to all networks, as is the standard in our data center.
Out of the entire sample, only 20% of all hosting providers offered fair server configurations on their websites regarding performance, CPU age, and rental prices. The portfolio of two providers included servers with new generation AMD Zen 4 processors, namely Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9, or Epyc. Three other companies favored Intel Xeon Silver processors or the Xeon E-2236 (comparison of performance between Ryzen R7 and Xeon E-2236). All servers with the mentioned CPUs were supplied with DDR4 RAM of a minimum size of 32 GB and most commonly paired with two SSDs, each with a capacity of 480 GB.
CPU older Than 6 Years At Double the Price
A significant disappointment and an eye-opening moment was the offer from the remaining 80% of hosting providers. The infrastructure used for all processors was surprisingly older than 2018! An interesting finding was that more than two-thirds of intermediaries offered dedicated servers with a four-core Intel Xeon E3-12XX processor (most commonly E3-1230v5) or E5-26XX (most commonly E5-2660v3) with 10 cores. These are processors that have long since passed their prime in terms of performance and energy consumption.
And now for the financial aspect. If you think that server configurations with older processors will cost a few Euros, you are completely out. In some cases, prices for servers equipped with new types of processors paradoxically turned out to be much more advantageous and cheaper than those of providers with older CPUs and much worse parameters for RAM and storage. An extreme example was a configuration: Intel Xeon E3-1230v5 with 32GB DDR4 and 2x 2TB HDD for an incredible 330 EUR per month. The standard price for this configuration in this category of providers ranged from 35 to 250 Euros.
Higher performance and more memory for less money
You can find detailed comparisons at CPU Benchmark.
According to the comparison at CPU Benchmark, the Ryzen 7 achieves the highest score among all the listed processors from international providers. In terms of both performance and maximum processor consumption, known as TDP. Also, compared to the other configurations, the starter Barebone server has 64 GB of RAM and the same size SSD disks as the other configurations, all for more than half the price: 56.5 EUR per month. In other words, more performance for much less money. Additionally, it is possible to buy this dedicated server after 2 years of rental for one-time fee € 3, thus enabling you to build your own IT infrastructure.
Choose a direct operator
And what can we take away from our comparison? Strictly speaking, where there is demand, there will be always supply. If there are clients or companies that are willing to rent this type of server hosting under these conditions, it may indicate a lack of sufficient analysis and/or knowledge of the local IT market. And such intermediaries can only benefit from this unfamiliarity and they are not motivated to change these conditions. At the same time, as sellers of such services, these intermediaries are not the final point in the supply service chain. Higher hosting prices may often be caused by added margins or retroactive referral bonuses or affiliate marketing. And the higher the margin, the better it is for these hosting companies.
So, if you are considering dedicated server rental, whether in the Czech Republic or anywhere in the world, we recommend choosing a local hosting company or data center and carefully reviewing all server components. The difference in server performance, consumption (TDP), and price can be as much as double, so why pay for polished and overpriced misery?
Your Coolhousing team
