20 Gbps Dedicated Servers | Unmetered from $1629

Two servers or one port

Twenty gigabits can be one server holding a 20 Gbps port, or two servers holding 10 Gbps each. Both are on the same order form, so this is a comparison rather than an opinion.

Both columns are the AMD Opteron 6300 line, its cheapest complete build, read from the order catalogue when this page was served.
Per month	One server at 20 Gbps	two servers at 10 Gbps
The hardware	$51.86	$103.72 2 × $51.86
The ports	$1,629	$1,058 2 × $529
Total	$1,680.86	$1,161.72
Cores, memory and disks	One machine’s worth	Two machines’ worth

The cheaper answer is usually two servers

Splitting the traffic saves $519.14 a month and brings a second machine’s cores, memory and disks with it. We would rather say that here than have you find it on the invoice. Going from 10 Gbps to 20 Gbps adds $1,100 to the bill; the whole server underneath costs $51.86.

So buy this port for the one reason it is worth buying: splitting is the thing you cannot do.

When the traffic will not split

Every case below is a job where a second machine does not help, or costs more elsewhere than it saves here.

One transfer can use all of it

The 20 Gbps port is a single link, not two 10 Gbps links bonded together. One connection can fill it. Split the same capacity across two servers and no individual transfer goes past 10 Gbps, however evenly the traffic is balanced.

One address to publish

A licence server, a game backend, an API a partner has firewalled by IP. Two servers means two addresses and something in front choosing between them.

One copy of the data

If the machine serves a library that must be identical everywhere, one server is one copy. Two servers is a sync job, and a sync job that falls behind is an outage that looks like a bug.

Nothing to run the split

Balancing across two machines is a load balancer or a DNS rotation, plus the monitoring that decides when one is unhealthy. If nobody is going to own that, the port is the simpler purchase.

Peaks that land in one place

A release, a match, a launch. Headroom on one machine absorbs a spike with no scheduling; headroom spread across two only helps if the traffic was already spread.

Software licensed per machine

Where the licence is per server or per socket, the second machine is not the price of a second machine. Check that before comparing our two columns.

Where 20 Gbps sits on the ladder

A different machine from the one above — the Intel Xeon Silver / Gold line, which is the only one that sells every port we offer. Pricing all four steps on one machine is the only way the last column compares like with like.

Every rung on the Intel Xeon Silver / Gold line — its cheapest complete build at $83.67, plus the port. Read from the order catalogue when this page was served.
Port	The port	Machine and port	Per gigabit
10 Gbps	$529	$612.67	$61.27
20 Gbps this page	$1,629	$1,712.67	$85.63
40 Gbps	$2,799	$2,882.67	$72.07
100 Gbps	$3,999	$4,082.67	$40.83

Read the last column and 20 Gbps is the most expensive gigabit we sell — dearer per gigabit than the step below it and than both steps above. That is not a mistake in the price list. It is a small step in capacity charged at the point where the network stops being a line item and starts being the product.

Servers that take a 20 Gbps port

9 of our 18 server lines accept one, at the same $1,629 on every one of them — so pick the machine on its cores, memory and disks, then add the port. Anything in stock ships with the port already set.

Answered on another page

These questions are not specific to 20 Gbps, and answering them here as well would only mean two pages saying it slightly differently.

What unmetered means, and every step from 1 to 100 Gbps Unmetered servers →
The step below this one, and what it carries 10 Gbps servers →
Why no filtering is sold alongside any of these ports Read that answer →
The step above this one, on 2 server lines 40 Gbps servers →

Questions people ask before buying 20 Gbps

The ones that are about this step rather than about ports in general.

Is one 20 Gbps server cheaper than two 10 Gbps servers?

No. On the cheapest line that sells both, one server with a 20 Gbps port is $1,680.86 a month and two servers with 10 Gbps each are $1,161.72. The pair also doubles your cores, memory and disks. Buy the single port when the traffic has to arrive in one place, not to save money.

Why is the jump from 10 to 20 so much bigger than the one before it?

Because the steps below it are shares of a link we already run to the rack, and this one is not. Moving from 5 to 10 Gbps adds $70; moving from 10 to 20 adds $1,100. The price list is showing you where the capacity stops being spare.

Which servers can take a 20 Gbps port?

9 of our 18 lines, at the same price on each. The cheapest complete machine among them is the AMD Opteron 6300 at $51.86. The order form marks the port on the lines that cannot take one, so you will not be sold a combination that does not exist.

Can a single transfer use all 20 Gbps?

The port does not stand in the way. It is one link rather than two 10 Gbps links bonded together, so a single connection is not capped at half of it — which is exactly what would happen to that transfer if the same capacity were split across two servers. Whether it actually reaches 20 Gbps then depends on the far end, the distance and the protocol. The port is the part of that we control.

Can I start at 10 Gbps and move up later?

Yes, and on most of these lines the port is the only thing that changes — same machine, same disks, same address. Ask support before you order if you expect to move within the first month, because a line that stops at 10 Gbps cannot be upgraded past it without a migration.

Still not sure this is your step?

Tell our team what you are serving and how it is addressed, and we will say whether one port or two servers is the better buy — including when the answer costs us the bigger sale.