Compare management tiers
Same hardware on every tier. The difference is how much of the operating system work we take on, and how fast we answer.
| Unmanaged Hardware price | Essential Managed +$69/mo per server | Pro Managed +$179/mo per server | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Root / Administrator access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Failed hardware replaced | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Basic network DDoS (L3/L4) filtering | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| OS security patching | – | Monthly + urgent CVEs | Monthly + urgent CVEs |
| Initial security hardening | $99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ |
| 24/7 monitoring and alerting | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nightly offsite backups | – | 100 GB, 14 days | 250 GB, 30 days |
| We handle hardware tickets with the data center | You open, we relay | ✓ | ✓ |
| Configuration changes | – | – | ✓ |
| Admin time included | – | – | 2 hours / month |
| Outage first response, 24/7 | 4 hours | 4 hours | 1 hour |
| Routine requests | Next business day | Next business day | Same business day |
| Quarterly health review | – | – | ✓ |
Picking a tier
Unmanaged suits teams with configuration management already in place (Ansible, Salt, Nix) and their own monitoring. Essential Managed is the default for a production server that needs to stay patched and backed up without anyone thinking about it. Pro Managed is for when you also want hands on the server: someone to tune MySQL, add a vhost, rotate a certificate setup or chase a slow query.
Admin hours
Pro includes two hours a month. Extra time on any tier is billed in 15-minute increments at the rate in your order confirmation, and we always say when a request will go past the included time before starting.
Switching tiers
Upgrade at any time; the new fee is prorated from that day. Downgrades take effect at the next renewal, and on a downgrade to Unmanaged we hand over backup copies and remove our monitoring agents.