I spent a month testing Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting, and in this review, I’ve shared everything I learned to help you decide if it’s worth using in 2026.
If you’re in a rush, here’s what you need to know:
Liquid Web Bare Metal Review Overview
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers are perfect for businesses that host resource-heavy applications and high-traffic websites. They deliver power, control, and reliability, justifying their premium pricing.
Overall rating: 4.75/5
Pricing: From $79/mo
Pros
Cons
Want to learn more? Dig into the rest of my review to find out if Liquid Web is the right choice for you.
Overview of Liquid Web’s bare metal servers
Liquid Web launched cloud bare metal hosting in October 2023 to provide businesses with high-performance, enterprise-grade infrastructure at an affordable price.
The only caveat with their cloud servers was that they came with a hypervisor and fixed configurations.
Liquid Web’s new dedicated bare metal servers give you uninterrupted performance, root access to your servers, and the ability to customize your server configuration to suit your unique business needs.
Let’s dig into what Liquid Web’s bare metal servers offer.
Top features of Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting
With dedicated resources, optimized environments, and secure backups, Liquid Web provides everything you need to keep your applications running smoothly.
For those reasons, I rate Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting features a solid 5 out of 5.
Let’s dig into the specifics to understand why.
1. Dedicated resources for maximum performance
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers come with various CPU, storage, and memory configurations. The cheapest bare metal server plan uses an Intel Xeon 4 core E-2134 CPU whereas the most expensive option uses an Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y Dual CPU.
You also have the option to upgrade to even faster NVMe drives and the flexibility to add GPUs, extra networking ports, and self-encrypting drives for more data security.
Dedicated resources and the absence of a hypervisor allow you to access all the computational power available to your server to handle demanding workloads.
2. Optimized server environments
Liquid Web’s server optimization extends beyond the hardware and even includes the physical environment where the bare metal servers are placed.
Every aspect of the server’s operation is carefully evaluated, from cooling and airflow to power supply and rack placement.
When you sign up for Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting service, you can choose a server location from any of the above three locations to suit your business needs or compliance requirements.
And that’s only possible because Liquid Web operates its own data centers across the US and EU. That’s different from what many other hosting providers do.
For example, Kinsta, a premium WordPress hosting provider, uses Google Cloud Platform’s C3D and C2 virtual machines to host websites.
3. Secure, scalable data centers
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers are located in three highly secure data centers, in the following locations:
- US Central: Located in Lansing, MI, with 33,000 servers.
- US West Phoenix: Located in Phoenix, AZ, with 2,000 servers.
- EU Central Amsterdam: Located in Amsterdam, NL, with 8,000-25,000 servers.
Each data center has biometric access controls, 24/7 monitoring, and redundant power systems, ensuring your server is protected and operational even during unforeseen events. This robust security means you can focus on your work, knowing your data is safe.
Operating their own data centers also gives Liquid Web the flexibility to build custom bare metal servers. So they can work with you to set up a fully custom hosting infrastructure as your business grows and its needs change.
Keep in mind that scaling a bare metal server takes a few days. If you want the ease of scaling up or down based on demand, use Liquid Web’s cloud bare metal servers or try something like Cloudways Autonomous.
4. Unrestricted access and control over your servers
When you sign up for a plan, Liquid Web starts you off with the basics: a dedicated hardware environment, an operating system, and a web server. From there, you control everything installed on your server.
You can install any application you like or split your server into multiple virtual machines to run different applications. It doesn’t get any better than that.
5. Advanced remote server management capabilities
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers come equipped with remote management tools, ensuring you can maintain complete control no matter where you are or the operating system you use: Linux or Windows. Linux users can use SSH to manage their servers, and Windows users get remote desktop access.
So whether you’re running your own application or looking to use their bare metal servers as a remote gaming server, Liquid Web has your back. Liquid Web will handle the physical infrastructure of your server while you manage the virtual environment remotely.
6. Enterprise-grade backup solutions
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers come with robust backup solutions to ensure your data is always safe.
When you sign up for a bare metal server, Liquid Web starts you off with Acronis Cyber Backups for secure backup management.
The advantage of choosing Acronis backups is that it includes real-time backups, ransomware protection, and has virtually zero impact on your server performance.
Liquid Web allows you to store the backups off-server in the Liquid Web Cloud or off-site in Acronis Backup Cloud. The pricing for the backups varies depending on the backup location and remote storage size.
For example, if you choose Liquid Web Cloud as your off-server backup storage, your storage options will start from $20 per month for 500GB of storage space to $117.50 for 5TB.
On the other hand, if you choose Acronis Cloud, pricing will start from $35 per month for 500GB and go up to $255 for 5TB.
The main difference between the two storage options is that Liquid Web Cloud storage is only off-server, whereas Acronis Cloud is off-server and off-site. You can choose whichever meets your business needs.
Liquid Web ease of use testing
After testing Liquid Web’s bare metal servers for a month, I rate its ease of use 4 out of 5. While Liquid Web does an excellent job at making its bare metal servers easy to use, their server provisioning times and server monitoring dashboard need some work.
Here’s a more detailed account of my experience using Liquid Web’s bare metal server, accessing it remotely, using the dashboard, and managing backups.
1. Server provisioning
Setting up the server with Liquid Web was surprisingly easy but the entire process took a bit longer that I anticipated.
The process started with configuring the server hardware.
I selected the $150 per month, self-managed bare metal hosting plan.
What I liked about the sign up experience was that even though the processor was preconfigured to each plan, Liquid Web gave me the flexibility to add more RAM and storage.
If you want an even more customized server, I’d recommend inquiring about their custom bare metal server setup service instead. That’ll let you fine tune your server configuration to suit your needs.
Once I selected my datacenter location and hardware options, I had to choose an OS and web server.
Liquid Web provides multiple OS and web server application options for Linux users. While the OS options are free, Apache is the only free web server application.
Windows users get four different OS editions, an antivirus, 8 MS SQL Server options, and additional terminal licensing for Microsoft Remote Desktop.
I selected Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64-bit and Apache for my bare metal Linux server.
No matter which OS you select, Linux or Windows, you’ll have the same backup and bandwidth options.
Luckily, Liquid Web lets you opt out of their paid backup service and even discounts your pricing by a minimum of $20 when you choose No Backups.
If you choose to proceed with Acronis Cyber Backups, which I did and recommend you do, you’ll have the option to store your backups off-server in the Liquid Web Cloud, or off-site in Acronis Backup Cloud.
Liquid Web Cloud’s off-server backup storage starts from $20 per month for 500GB of storage space and goes up to $117.50 for 5TB.
On the other hand, Acronis Cloud backups start from $35 per month for 500GB and go up to $255 for 5TB of remote storage.
Liquid Web gives you one free dedicated IP address with your server and allows you to buy more addresses for an additional $2.50 per month per address.
Similarly Liquid Web gives you free unlimited inbound bandwidth and up to 10TB of outbound bandwidth with your plan. You also have the option to upgrade your outbound bandwidth to 15TB or 20TB for $75 and $100 per month, respectively.
Beyond that, Liquid Web charges $0.25 per GB of data usage.
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers use Gigabit uplink ports to maximize data transfer speeds. That’s super important when you’re buying a dedicated server to handle high traffic volumes.
Once I placed the order for my bare metal server, I was curious to see how long it would take for the server to be fully provisioned and ready to use.
In a little over two minutes after placing my order, they sent me an email letting me know that my order was in progress and it might take them up to 24 hours to get it up and running.
And although the email stated my server would be up and running in 24 hours, it actually took them a little more than 2 business days to set it up for me.
Liquid Web’s bare metal service was only recently launched when I tested it so they probably were still working on optimizing their processes.
So if you’re in a rush, Liquid Web’s cloud metal server has a shorter deployment time. You’ll get access to a cloud metal server in as little as 30 to 60 minutes.
Two business days after I placed my order, Liquid Web sent me an email letting me know my server was up and running.
While I would’ve liked earlier access to my server, the sign up process itself was pretty smooth.
It’s guided and intuitive, and a lot like Cloudways, a budget VPS hosting provider. Read my Cloudways review to see the similarities in their sign up processes.
2. Server management and setup experience
Once my server was ready, I evaluated the following three factors that contribute to the ease of using a dedicated bare metal server:
- Server access methods.
- Server management.
- Backups management.
A. Server access methods
The first thing I tested on my bare metal server was how easy it was to access the server via the command line interface (CLI).
Liquid Web shares your server’s root user password through the Secure notes area inside the Liquid Web dashboard. I copied my root password from there and logged into my server in a little under two minutes.
I found the entire process quite easy. Plus, having Liquid Web’s customer support team a couple of clicks away to help me was reassuring too.
I’ll share my experience with their support team in a bit. Before that, here are my thoughts on Liquid Web’s bare metal server management experience.
B. Server management
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers are offered as is. All you get is an operating system and web server of your choice and root access to your server hardware.
Liquid Web doesn’t offer an elaborate control panel to manage their bare metal servers.
You really can’t do much from the Liquid Web account dashboard other than managing backups, rebooting the server, and monitoring its usage.
That’s expected when you choose a bare metal server with root access. But more server management options and better monitoring tools would be helpful.
C. Backups management
Accessing and managing your bare metal server backups with Liquid Web is straightforward thanks to Acronis.
Just log into your Liquid Web account at my.liquidweb.com, head to the server you want to manage, select Backups, and click Access Acronis Portal.
That takes you to the Acronis Backup Portal, where everything is laid out clearly.
Creating a backup from the Acronis Portal is super easy too. All you need to do is go to Devices > All devices, select BACK UP NOW, and click Server. That’s it!
What about restoring a backup?
You can do it from the same place. Just click Recover and you’ll see a list of your backups. Select a backup of your choice and click RECOVER… or RUN AS VM.
That’s as easy as it gets. It’s nearly as easy as creating a backup on Cloudways which caters to a much less tech-savvy audience.
By default, all backups are configured to run incrementally. That takes up less storage space and reduces the strain on your network too.
I would have liked an option to switch backup schemes, but that’s an Acronis issue, not a Liquid Web restriction.
Performance & uptime test results
When I started testing Liquid Web’s bare metal servers, I was expecting its performance to be good, but honestly—the results of my performance tests blew me away.
To really see how powerful these servers are, I decided to skip using something like WordPress and went with Magento 2—a resource-hungry application used by medium and large businesses. Something that would truly push the bare metal server to its limits.
I set up a Magento store with sample data. And I didn’t use Redis, Varnish, or any optimizations because I wanted to push the server in suboptimal conditions to test how well it would perform.
Then, I ran the following tests on my website:
- GTMetrix Testing: To measure server-specific performance like Time to First Byte (TTFB) and Backend Duration.
- k6 Load Testing: To test performance under load with 100 virtual users browsing the store simultaneously.
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers aced my performance tests without breaking a sweat.
Right off the bat, I saw a TTFB of 224 ms and backend processing time of 103 ms in the GTmetrix test.
Those are truly impressive numbers considering Magento’s complexity, resource demands, and that my store wasn’t optimized in any way.
As for the k6 load test, I had high hopes going into the test—and Liquid Web didn’t disappoint.
Liquid Web’s bare metal server delivered a 95th percentile response time of 37 ms, which is incredible. It handled more than 4.2 million requests over a 30 minute duration without crashing or running into errors.
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers proved they’re capable of handling heavy traffic, keeping up with a large number of requests, and serving concurrent users effortlessly.
But that’s not the only reason why Liquid Web is one of my top recommendations for a high availability host.
Liquid Web offers a 100% uptime guarantee with their hosting. And after monitoring my store during this bare metal review, I can confidently say that it’s true.
Liquid Web delivered a perfect 100% uptime during my testing. Here’s a screenshot of the uptime report:
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers handled everything I threw at them. They powered through Magento’s tough demands, proving they’re ready for whatever you need—whether it’s running a busy store, a high-traffic site, or a resource-heavy application.
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers deliver on their performance claims. For those reasons, they score a solid 5 out of 5 for performance and uptime.
Security measures
The biggest advantage of using a bare metal server is the dedicated nature of the hardware. You maintain full control over your and have the flexibility to customize your security protocols to match your business needs.
And because you aren’t sharing resources with other tenants, your data is physically isolated, reducing the attack surface. This absence of resource sharing makes it much harder for an attacker to penetrate your system.
Naturally, when you’re renting a bare metal server with Liquid Web, you don’t get advanced managed security measures. You only get the “bare metal” server components and Acronis antimalware protection if you opt for Acronis backups.
Looking beyond the servers, Liquid Web’s bare metal servers are housed in data centers with redundant security.
Liquid Web’s data centers have 24/7 security, CCTV cameras, and controlled access. They also have high-security construction, redundant power infrastructure, and regular audits to ensure HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR compliance.
It’s worth noting that even though Liquid Web’s infrastructure is HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR compliant, you need to implement your own measures and undergo an audit yourself to ensure your server and application is compliant.
But Liquid Web makes your job a lot easier. In fact, I’m so impressed with Liquid Web’s security that it’s becoming a top contender for my list of the most secure WordPress hosts in 2026.
If you’re worried that you don’t have the experience to optimize server security or inhouse staff to do that for you, I recommend opting for their managed bare metal servers.
All things considered, I rate the security of Liquid Web’s bare metal servers 5 out of 5. They give you full control over your servers while also simplifying regulatory compliance for those who need it.
Support and customer service experience
Liquid Web offers 24/7 assistance 365 days a year across multiple support channels, including phone support, live chat, and support tickets.
But is their support any good? Here’s what I found.
I reached out to Liquid Web’s chat support quite a few times, and I was impressed with their responsiveness.
Getting connected to a real human took seconds—not minutes.
More importantly, every support agent I was connected with was prompt, knowledgeable, and helpful.
For example, there was a time when I needed their help to restore SSH access to my server because I ended up rebooting it incorrectly.
I reached out to Liquid Web support from my account dashboard and the assigned agent, Derick D. quickly understood my issue, tried troubleshooting it, and when he couldn’t resolve it, created a ticket for their server admins to look into it.
In approximately 30 minutes of creating the ticket, their admins were able to reboot the server and restore access. I was expecting it to take at least a couple of hours.
It’s worth mentioning that Liquid Web’s support scope for bare metal servers is limited compared to their managed services and the quality of customer support can vary based on the agent assigned.
So keep that in mind if you’re someone who might need help with server setup, security, or optimization.
That said, based on my experience interacting with Liquid Web’s support team, I’m sure they’ll do their best to address your concerns.
In addition to great support, Liquid Web also has a ton of help documentation on their website. Their online knowledge base has tutorials and how-to guides that can be useful for managing your server.
While most resources are focused on their managed hosting environments, there are a few relevant to bare metal servers with insights on server setup, security practices, and performance optimization.
That, in combination with their helpful support makes me confident that you’ll have all the help you need to get started with a bare metal server. For that reason, I rate Liquid Web’s support 5 out of 5.
Pricing and value for money
The pricing for Liquid Web’s bare metal servers starts from $79 per month and goes up to $518 per month for a 32 core Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y Dual Windows server, excluding discounts.
Liquid Web generally offers a discount on the first month, so you end up getting the bare metal server for up to 50% off for your first month.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the current Liquid Web bare metal server pricing and available discounts:
| CPU | Cores | Storage | Memory | Bandwidth | Starting from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Xeon E-2134 | 4 @ 3.8 GHz | 2 x 480 GB SSD RAID-1 | 16 GB | 10 TB | $79/mo* |
| Intel E-2356G | 6 @ 3.2 GHz | 2 x 960 GB SSD | 32 GB | 10 TB | $150/mo* |
| Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y | 16 @ 2.9 GHz | 2 x 960 GB NVMe | 64 GB | 10 TB | $375/mo* |
| Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y Dual | 32 @ 2.9 GHz | 2 x 960 GB NVMe | 128 GB | 10 TB | $475/mo* |
| CPU | Cores | Storage | Memory | Bandwidth | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel E-2356G | 6 @ 3.2 GHz | 2 x 960 GB SSD | 32 GB | 10 TB | $193/mo* |
| Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y | 16 @ 2.9 GHz | 2 x 960 GB NVMe | 64 GB | 10 TB | $418/mo* |
| Intel Xeon Gold 6526Y Dual | 32 @ 2.9 GHz | 2 x 960 GB NVMe | 128 GB | 10 TB | $518/mo* |
There’s no denying that Liquid Web’s pricing is a bit higher than its competitors like OVHcloud, but it’s also more transparent and comes with a 30-day money back guarantee that OVHcloud doesn’t offer.
I’ve written a detailed Liquid Web vs OVHcloud bare metal comparison. Give that a read to see which is better for yourself.
More importantly, Liquid Web’s bare metal servers don’t have any setup fees, offer double the amount of storage as compared to OVHcloud, and Acronis Cyber Backups by default.
And that’s all even before you factor in the industry-leading support Liquid Web offers.
All things considered, I believe that Liquid Web’s bare metal server offers excellent value for money. While it costs more than some of its competitors, you get more storage, enterprise-grade backups, and a 30-day money back guarantee for extra peace of mind.
For those reasons, I rate Liquid Web’s pricing 4.5 out of 5.
With that out of the way, let’s answer the final question you might have before choosing Liquid Web as your bare metal hosting provider.
Should you use Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting?
Liquid Web’s bare metal servers are perfect for those who need maximum performance and full control. That includes businesses with demanding workloads like enterprise applications, gaming servers, and ecommerce stores.
If that’s you, I recommend signing up to Liquid Web’s bare metal service and taking it for a spin. You can test it out for 30 days and if you don’t like it for any reason, just reach out to their support team and request a refund.
Managed vs unmanaged bare metal: Here’s which one to choose
Managed bare metal servers are ideal for companies that want to focus on their core business without worrying about server maintenance. This means you don’t need a dedicated technical team to handle server management, and you can contact support anytime for assistance.
If you want to offload the heavy lifting of server management, Liquid Web’s managed bare metal server is the way to go.
Unmanaged bare metal servers offer complete control and come with a lower price tag. You’ll be responsible for installing and configuring the operating system, security protocols, and even hardware maintenance. But you’ll get limited help when things go wrong.
If you or your team has the skills to manage a server and wants full control, Liquid Web’s unmanaged bare metal server is cost-effective.
Review verdict: What I really think of Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting
After thoroughly testing Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting, it’s clear that it delivers on features, performance, control, and support.
The server provisioning process is effortless, customer support is excellent, and the performance is one of the best I’ve experienced in 10+ years of hosting websites.
If you’re in the market for an unmanaged bare metal server, I strongly recommend trying Liquid Web.
To quickly recap everything I covered in this review, here’s a summary of all my review scores:
- Features: 5 out of 5.
- Ease of use: 4 out of 5.
- Performance: 5 out of 5.
- Security: 5 out of 5.
- Support: 5 out of 5.
- Pricing: 4.5 out of 5.
- Overall rating: 4.75 out of 5.
Keep in mind that with Liquid Web’s bare metal server, you are responsible for managing security, firewalls, and DDoS protection. That can be overwhelming, if you aren’t used to managing servers or don’t have any system admins on your team.
Even with Liquid Web’s excellent support and documentation, I’d only recommend opting for the unmanaged bare metal servers if you’re a business that manages high-traffic applications or sensitive data and has inhouse system admins.
For smaller businesses and those looking to set up gaming servers, Liquid Web’s managed bare metal servers are a better choice. They give you all the performance benefits of a bare metal server without the overheads of server management.
Have more questions about using Liquid Web’s bare metal servers? Get in touch with us here.
Liquid Web Bare Metal Review: Incredible Speed, But Is It Worth the Cost? – Ecommerce Launcher
Liquid Web’s bare metal hosting delivers on features, performance, control, and support. The server provisioning process is effortless, customer support is excellent, and the performance is one of the best I’ve experienced in 10+ years of hosting websites. If you’re in the market for an unmanaged bare metal server, I strongly recommend trying Liquid Web.
Price: 79
Price Currency: USD
Operating System: Windows, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Application Category: BusinessApplication
4.75
How we tested Liquid Web for this review
We researched and wrote this Liquid Web bare metal review using our precise 10-step review methodology and code of conduct.
Every test, every screenshot, and every opinion in this review is based on our first-hand experience using Liquid Web’s bare metal server and is fully funded by us.
