When choosing an unmetered dedicated server you want to be sure that your provider is sticking to a bandwidth model that does not have the potential to cause any surprise bills or restrict your servers throughput. Transparent pricing models ensure you know exactly what you're paying each month without worrying about additional fees that can appear when usage patterns change unexpectedly.

Providers who charge overages can quickly turn an affordable hosting solution into an unpredictable expense, especially when legitimate business growth drives increased network utilization. Unmetered solutions deliver predictable costs by eliminating variable charges tied to consumption, allowing teams to budget infrastructure spending with confidence. This approach to infrastructure billing enables finance teams to forecast hosting expenses accurately quarter over quarter, supporting predictable monthly costs that align with enterprise budgeting cycles.

Unfortunately there are many providers that will deliberately throttle your servers speeds and state that certain ports are ‘unmetered’ only to later reveal that they are actually a shared resource. Also the actual hardware used for your unmetered dedicated server is very rarely the same as what the provider lists in the specifications when you check out. The operating system version advertised may differ from what's actually installed, requiring manual verification and potential reinstallation after deployment.

On top of that, Netrouting operates its own dedicated servers and AS6206 backbone with 2.4 Tbps+ of capacity across 10 locations in Europe, North America and Asia, making it capable of handling even the most demanding projects. Unmetered 10 Gbps network connections are included with every single dedicated server we are offering.

In case you require more bandwidth for your dedicated server (e.g. because of very high throughput), we are also able to offer up to 40 Gbps. Every server comes with unlimited bandwidth and is protected by always-on DDoS protection, monitored 24/7 by our experienced NOC staff. Organizations running real-time applications or high-volume workloads often find that 10gbps unmetered connectivity provides the ideal balance between performance headroom and predictable monthly expenses.

This configuration proves especially valuable for enterprises running resource-intensive applications that generate demanding workloads requiring sustained high-speed connectivity throughout the day. Reliable infrastructure with high uptime guarantees ensures that mission-critical workloads remain accessible even during maintenance windows or unexpected hardware events. The always-on DDoS protection layer defends infrastructure against malicious attacks while maintaining full line-rate performance for legitimate client connections.

For those near a buying decision this guide cuts through the hype to explain the 5 key criteria to help you determine if a server is truly unmetered or just sales blurb. Port speed & burst policy, hardware generation, network topology, SLA terms and support response are all covered in detail.

What Operating System Runs on Unmetered Dedicated Servers?

An unmetered dedicated server is a physical, bare-metal machine which we rent out as an unmetered, or ‘unlimited’ dedicated server to one customer. Our unmetered servers are billed by a fixed network port or ports, so we never measure or charge you for outbound traffic. For community perspectives, see Need Dedicated Server with Unlimited, unthrottled bandwidth.

How Unmetered Dedicated Server Bandwidth Usage Actually Works

Unmetered bandwidth, no overage fees & no monthly transfer cap. Your fixed port speed is the ceiling.

Unmetered dedicated servers and "unlimited" servers are two very different things. While there is no such thing as "unlimited" data transfer (each port has a physical limit), unmetered servers simply mean that the provider is no longer counting your data transfer. You will be able to consume as much as the port will allow.

Unmetered Dedicated Server vs. Metered Plans for Most Demanding Projects

Without unlimited bandwidth, costs can very quickly shoot up in an unpredictable manner as usage increases during periods of high traffic. Unmetered dedicated hosting takes the opposite approach, charging a single monthly fee regardless of actual network performance demands or how much bandwidth is consumed through the pipe.

• Metered: billed per GB/TB, overage fees apply.
• Unmetered: fixed monthly cost, no measurement, no penalties.

Where Netrouting Fits With Demanding Workloads on Dedicated Servers

Our unmetered dedicated servers are supplied with 10 Gbps as standard. This means high-bandwidth services on dedicated servers, such as video on demand, large-volume backups, and game servers, can transfer as much data as needed without the fear of incurring additional charges.

We operate 10 datacentres worldwide, so you can place a server nearest to your target audience and utilize the port bandwidth to its full potential. Routing intelligence ensures packets take the fastest path between your server and end users, minimizing latency regardless of geographic distance. Understanding how traffic takes different routes through the network helps optimize delivery performance for latency-sensitive applications.

High Bandwidth Dedicated Server vs. Metered Bandwidth: Key Differences

For the majority of customers that are looking for unmetered bandwidth throughput then Netrouting would be the way to go. With unmetered 10 Gbps bandwidth there is no restriction on bandwidth, no overage charges and the total cost of ownership will not increase with the usage of the bandwidth.

When businesses benefit from predictable infrastructure expenses, they can allocate resources more effectively toward growth initiatives rather than monitoring consumption metrics. This pricing model gives infrastructure teams total control over their hosting budget without the need to constantly monitor usage dashboards or adjust capacity thresholds.

For customers that require a broad managed service offering, Hyperscaler dedicated servers via bare metal would be the better option. However, the metered egress and traffic limits will make it difficult for the provider to compete on price at larger scales against an unmetered dedicated server option. Once you have decided on the unmetered option then the decision of port speed will then be determined by the workload of the customer.

Choosing the Right Port Speed: 1 Gbps vs. 10Gbps Unmetered

The port speed of your server refers to the amount of data it is able to move at any one time. Choosing the wrong port speed tier for your server can mean either paying too much for a connection with excess headroom that you never use.

Alternatively, hitting a wall and finding that your dedicated servers, even without unlimited bandwidth, are unable to handle your workload at exactly the worst time. This article provides information to help you choose the right connection speed for your server’s needs. Servers with unlimited bandwidth eliminate the risk of hitting consumption thresholds that could throttle performance during critical business operations.

Assess Your Throughput Requirements for Dedicated Servers

1. Estimate peak concurrent demand. 1 Gbps port will support approximately 100 Mbps of actual usable throughput. This will allow for moderate web traffic, small SaaS applications, etc. Video, gaming servers, CDN nodes, etc. typically max out a 1 Gbps port.
2. We can map users to bandwidth. So at 5 Mbps per HD stream, 1 Gbps can support approximately 200 concurrent users viewing HD quality before the quality begins to degrade. But 10 times that amount of concurrent users (2,000+ concurrent streams) would require 10 Gbps of unmetered headroom to deliver consistent throughput.

Note: Unmetered servers remove bandwidth caps, but port speed still caps your burst ceiling. Unmetered dedicated servers cost more at higher port tiers, confirm the link speed in the contract, not just the "unmetered" label. Providers typically structure unmetered dedicated servers cost based on the port tier selected, with 1 Gbps options starting lower and 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps configurations commanding premium pricing.

Match the Tier to the Workload on Dedicated Servers

3. Choose 1 Gbps for low-to-medium workloads (e.g. corporate intranets, dev environments, low-traffic web sites). This port delivers high speed connectivity at a cost that is predictable without excess capacity.
4. High bandwidth servers: Step up to 10 Gbps for high-throughput workloads. For high-volume transfers of large amounts of data, for live streams or for large-scale hosting, constant high speeds over short periods of time are needed. We supply your dedicated server with unmetered 10 Gbps as standard or even up to 40 Gbps if required.

Verify Dedicated Servers Before You Deploy

5. Just double check the interface speed is written down somewhere and review your service agreement. A lot of providers list the speed of their servers as “up to” because in reality the actual speed that is achieved under a load is never actually reached. At Netrouting our dedicated servers are provisioned at the network link speed you contracted for, no shared contention, no fine print.

Now that the uplink speed has been locked to the appropriate value for your work load, the next thing to consider is whether your work load requires unmetered bandwidth and what deployments could use this.

Top Use Cases for Unmetered Dedicated Server Plans

Unmetered bandwidth removes the ceiling on data transfer. Unmetered is best for workloads with unpredictable, continuous or massive traffic.

Video Streaming and High-Definition Delivery With Dedicated Servers

Many streaming services today are pushing gigabytes per viewer per hour of video. As the number of sessions scale up to hundreds or even thousands of concurrent sessions, the data transfer required to stream all that video across dedicated servers to all those viewers starts to add up very quickly.

Platforms experiencing rapid growth in concurrent viewers must provision sufficient network capacity to maintain stream quality across all active sessions simultaneously. Machine learning models trained on large data sets also benefit from unmetered connectivity when ingesting training material or serving inference requests at scale.

With dedicated servers offering an unmetered 10 Gbps port, you can stream as much video as your audience wants without worrying about your billing meter going through the roof. For streaming high definition video using adaptive bitrate delivery and 4K encodes, running an unmetered dedicated server is key to ensuring the sustained throughput needed to deliver high quality video to every viewer without relying on burst allowances of bandwidth.

Dedicated Server Hosting for Online Multiplayer Games

The unique constraints for game server hosting are low latency and consistent throughput. A dedicated server hosting provider delivers a noise-free environment for CPU-intensive workloads, along with large amounts of unmetered bandwidth to handle sudden traffic spikes on launch days or during events. No risk of throttling or worst of all overage charges that could result in a server going offline in the middle of a live game session.

Choosing dedicated server hosting with unmetered connectivity ensures game publishers can scale player capacity without rearchitecting their infrastructure or renegotiating contracts mid-season. Multiplayer environments that host real-time player interactions require consistent server performance to prevent lag or disconnections that degrade the gaming experience.

CDN Nodes, File Hosting, Proxy Services, and Analytics

CDN edge nodes and file hosting platforms continuously distribute large static assets. Thus, unmetered bandwidth provides the cost efficiency that metered alternatives are not able to provide.

Proxy services are by definition designed to forward third-party traffic.

Big data analytics pipelines are typically designed to transfer large amounts of data between compute resources and storage systems. Within a pipeline the Ingest, Shuffle and Export phases all generate internal transfer volume. The key point here is that low latency, unmetered connectivity within your own dedicated servers environment means that these jobs will run on time and not against a transfer quota. For more context, see Dedicated hosting service.

Knowing which workloads benefit from the new capabilities is only half the battle.

What to Look for in Unmetered Dedicated Servers Plans

Unmetered dedicated server s from different providers are not all equal. Before you decide on one, compare them on these criteria. The differences can have a significant impact on performance under load.

True Unmetered vs. Soft-Capped Plans

Some service providers call their service “unmetered” but then list out fair-use policies to reduce traffic during peak times. Make sure you get a straight answer about dedicated servers: Is the connection speed guaranteed or is it 'up to' with occasional bursts to handle peak demand?

• When renting a server look for a committed bandwidth cap, eg: 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, etc.
• Check for any fair-use or acceptable-use clauses which limit sustained throughput in the long run.
• Please confirm if there are any data transfer limits for specific protocols or destinations.

Dedicated Servers, Traffic Limits, and Network Quality

To benefit from unmetered bandwidth, the underlying hardware needs to match it. Additionally, top end dedicated servers using chassis from suppliers like Dell or Supermicro help ensure the server itself doesn't become a bottleneck before the port size does.

Check if the hosting provider peers at Internet exchanges and has multiple Tier 1 upstreams.

Dedicated Servers SLA, DDoS Protection, and Support

Also confirm provisioning time to deploy bare metal within 60 minutes or less.

Custom configurations and responsive support are key to keeping long term infrastructure costs down. 1 hour ticket times, unlimited bandwidth, and 24/7 NOC monitoring for production workloads is the minimum that will be considered.

Why Choose Netrouting for Unmetered Dedicated Servers

Netrouting's unmetered dedicated servers ship with unmetered 10 Gbps bandwidth as standard, up to 40 Gbps available for high-bandwidth workloads. No overage fees. No hidden restrictions. Just consistent throughput at a predictable monthly cost.

• 2.4 Tbps+ network, under 40% port utilization. Our network capacity means your unmetered server runs at full speed even during traffic spikes, reliable performance guaranteed.
• Tier 1 backbone on AS6206. Dense IX peering at AMS-IX, DE-CIX, FL-IX, and NetNod delivers low latency across Europe, North America, and Asia.
• 10 data center locations. Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Miami, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, The Hague, Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Bucharest, place your unmetered dedicated server closest to your users.
• Always-on DDoS protection included. L3/L4 mitigation ships with every server. No additional costs, no configuration required.
• Bare metal in under 60 minutes. Rapid deployment with ISO 9001, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 certifications and 24/7 NOC support backed by a 1-hour ticket guarantee.

Whether you run video delivery, multiplayer game hosting, big data analytics, or proxy solutions, our unmetered dedicated server plans remove data transfer fees from the equation entirely. Speak with our team to compare dedicated server options for your workload.

Unmetered dedicated servers eliminate bandwidth anxiety, you get a fixed line speed and pay the same every month, regardless of traffic spikes. The network link speed you choose matters for consistent performance: 1 Gbps with unlimited data transfer suits most workloads, while 10 Gbps is the right call for high-throughput applications like media streaming, large-scale file distribution, or busy game servers.

Not all unmetered plans are equal.

Netrouting delivers unmetered 10 Gbps on dedicated servers backed by a 2.4 Tbps+ network on AS6206, with always-on DDoS protection and bare metal provisioned in under 60 minutes. Browse our dedicated server configurations or contact sales to discuss a custom build.