South African dedicated server price comparison

South Africans looking for a hosting service to develop and release an app, or for their online business, have several options to choose from.

Cloud hosting is versatile and robust, but this could get expensive if you aren’t careful.

Dedicated servers are an alternative that can be more affordable while still offering excellent uptimes.

When choosing a dedicated server provider, essential aspects to consider include monthly traffic allowances, the cost of the service, and the server’s hardware.

While there are cheaper alternatives to managed servers — including virtual private servers and shared hosting services — these are aimed at basic websites, and likely won’t provide the traffic allowance or performance required for larger services.

MyBroadband compared the cheapest dedicated servers from a range of South African providers in terms of pricing and specifications.

Providers used for the comparison include Xneelo, Host Africa, Afrihost, 1-Grid, and RSAWeb.

Dedicated server spec and price comparison

The cheapest option was Xneelo’s managed server with 8GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage for R1,490 a month.

It is powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon CPU, and the package allows traffic of up to 2TB before additional costs are incurred.

Notably, for R10 more per month, Host Africa’s D0 Server allows unlimited traffic. However, it provides only half the storage of Xneelo’s package.

Host Africa’s D0 Server is powered by a 3.3GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon CPU and 16GB of RAM.

1-Grid’s cheapest dedicated server product features 32GB of RAM, 2TB of HDD storage, and a 3.1GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon CPU.

It allows up to 4TB of traffic for R1,574 per month.

Afrihost’s lowest-tier dedicated server — its Bronze product — costs R1,870 a month and provides a traffic allowance of 4TB.

It is powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon CPU with 8GB of RAM and features 2TB of HDD storage.

The most expensive dedicated server compared is available through RSAWeb. Its MX3 Dedi Server is priced at R2,822 per month and features 2TB of HDD storage and a traffic allowance of 500GB.

It features a 3.4GHz Intel Quad-Core Xeon CPU and 16GB of RAM.

The specifications and pricing of several dedicated servers from South African providers are summarised in the table below.