What happened
If you priced a dedicated server in 2026, you noticed: the same machine often costs far more than a year ago. The cause is not hosting margins but the two components that make a server a server — memory and flash storage.
Market tracker TrendForce expected server DRAM contract prices to rise about 90% in a single quarter in Q1 2026 — a record — followed by another 58–63% for conventional DRAM in Q2. NAND flash followed the same path: +55–60% in Q1, +70–75% in Q2. Demand from AI data centres absorbed a large share of production, and suppliers prioritised high-margin memory for accelerators over commodity server modules.
How hosts responded
Large European providers repriced throughout the year. Publicly announced increases on new orders ranged from about +12% to +51%, and some popular models more than doubled when ranges were refreshed. Setup fees went up in several places, and renewal prices started to move too.
The practical effect for buyers: last year’s benchmarks are no longer a useful reference. A 16-core, 128 GB server at 2025 prices simply does not exist any more.
How we price our servers
We buy memory and drives at today’s market prices, like everyone else, and our range reflects it. What we do differently:
- No setup fees, on any server.
- Quarterly and annual terms are fixed for their full duration.
- At least 60 days of notice before any price change on an active server — enough time to renew early or move.
- Previous-generation platforms stay in the range where they remain the best value: our dual EPYC 7532 carries 1 TB of DDR4 at a price no DDR5 system can match right now.
If you are buying now
- Size memory honestly. It is the most inflated component: measure what your workload really uses before paying for more.
- Consider DDR4 platforms for memory-heavy work that is not bandwidth-bound — the price gap with DDR5 is unusually wide.
- Lock the price with an annual term if the server is a long-term fixture.