Dedicated server price showdown in South Africa

The number of dedicated server options available to South African businesses has dwindled over the past year, with just three prominent local providers offering dedicated server products in January 2025.

A MyBroadband analysis of dedicated servers in February 2024 compared product offerings from six providers.

It is critical that businesses in the modern age establish an online presence to reach a broader audience. In January 2025, companies can get a managed dedicated server product for as little as R1,640 per month.

It should be noted that there are alternatives like cloud hosting services that are robust and offer more flexibility, but these can be expensive, depending on your business’s needs.

Dedicated servers can offer a more affordable solution while still offering impressive uptimes.

MyBroadband compared managed dedicated server products available to South African businesses in terms of specifications, traffic allowance, and price.

We compared products from local providers Afrihost, Host Africa, and Xneelo.

For reference, a similar comparison was conducted in February 2024, comparing six local providers. However, some of these providers have since stopped offering managed dedicated servers or have moved to vCPUs for their entry-level products.

Xneelo offers the most affordable dedicated managed server product. The Xneelo Managed package features an Intel Xeon Quad Core 3.2GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 500GB of SSD storage.

It allows 2TB of monthly traffic and costs R1,640 per month. However, it also charges a once-off setup fee of R685.

However, we couldn’t include these in our article as the pricing fluctuates. It also isn’t clear if Hetzner offers managed services for these dedicated server auctions.

At R2,050 per month, Afrihost’s Managed Bronze package is the third-most affordable option. It features an Intel Xeon Quad Core 3.20GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 2TB of HDD storage.

Afrihost’s managed dedicated server packages allow for unlimited monthly traffic.

The last option listed is Host Africa’s D1 Server, which costs R2,170 per month. The package features an Intel Xeon Quad Core 3.60GHz CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and unlimited monthly traffic.

Afrihost and Host Africa’s managed dedicated server pages make no mention of a once-off setup fee, as is the case with Xneelo.

The table below compares entry-level managed dedicated server products from Afrihost, Host Africa, and Xneelo.

It should be noted that other providers are available. However, their entry-level products list virtual CPUs or vCPUs, and were therefore excluded these from our comparison.