Quick answer
Should I move from AWS to bare metal servers?
Move from AWS to bare metal servers when EC2, EBS and egress form a large, steady bill and your team can run its own operations. On 1 November 2026, an m7i.8xlarge in Frankfurt cost $1,410.36 a month on demand, before storage and $0.09/GB egress. Lumenfer's Lumen 16 is $205.27 with NVMe and traffic; crypto, no KYC.
AWS against bare metal, in short
| EC2 m7i.8xlarge, Frankfurt | $1.932 an hour, $1,410.36 a month on demand: 16 cores / 32 threads, 128 GiB |
|---|---|
| EBS gp3, Frankfurt | $0.0952 per GB-month, plus $0.006 per provisioned IOPS-month above the baseline |
| Egress to the internet | 100 GB a month free, then $0.09/GB up to 10 TB, $0.085/GB for the next 40 TB |
| Leaving AWS | Free data transfer out for eligible customers who move off, on request to AWS Support (since 5 March 2024) |
| Lumen 16 | $205.27 per 30 days: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (2024, 16 cores / 32 threads), 128 GB DDR5, 2 × 1.92 TB NVMe in RAID 1, 60 TB a month at 1 Gbit/s, 1 IPv4 and an IPv6 /64 |
Which signs say a workload is ready to leave AWS?
A workload is ready when it is steady, simple to host and expensive where it is:
- Instances run around the clock at a steady CPU load in CloudWatch.
- EC2, EBS and data transfer make up most of the bill, not managed services.
- Egress is a visible line on every invoice.
- You use few AWS-only services, or open-source tools can replace them.
- Your users are close to one of the cities: Amsterdam (Netherlands), Reykjavik (Iceland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Bucharest (Romania): all five plans in all four cities, one price everywhere.
- Your team can patch, monitor and back up Linux servers.
Stay if you lean on Lambda or DynamoDB, or if load swings tenfold within a day.
What does the same workload cost on AWS and on Lumenfer?
Take one steady application server: 16 cores, 128 GB, about 1.9 TB of disk and 10 TB of outbound traffic a month.
| Item | AWS, Frankfurt, on demand | Lumenfer Lumen 16 |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | m7i.8xlarge, 16 cores / 32 threads, 128 GiB: $1,410.36 | AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, 16 cores / 32 threads, 128 GB DDR5 |
| Storage | 1,920 GB of EBS gp3 at $0.0952 per GB-month: $182.78 | 2 × 1.92 TB NVMe in RAID 1, included |
| Traffic out, 10 TB | 10,140 GB billed at $0.09 after 100 GB free: $912.60 | Included: 60 TB a month at 1 Gbit/s |
| Total per month | $2,505.74 | $205.27 per 30 days |
Prices checked on
AWS prices read 2026-11-01 (EC2 price data published 2026-10-29); a month is 730 hours. Snapshots, load balancers, NAT gateways and support plans are left out. AWS's r7a.4xlarge (16 cores, 128 GiB) would cost $1,071.87 instead of the m7i.
For one steady 16-core server with 10 TB of traffic, the AWS on-demand bill came to $2,505.74 a month on 1 November 2026. Lumen 16 costs $205.27.
Commitments shrink only one line of that bill. AWS advertises up to 72% off with EC2 Instance Savings Plans, in exchange for a long commitment. Storage and egress stay at list price. The three-cloud comparison is on is bare metal cheaper than the cloud.
Which AWS services map to what on a bare-metal server?
Most of a typical EC2 stack has a standard open-source replacement. A few parts are better left on AWS.
| AWS service | On a bare-metal server | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | The server itself, or VMs under Proxmox VE | Linux images only, no Windows |
| EBS | Local NVMe in RAID 1 | Snapshots become your job: LVM, ZFS or a backup tool |
| RDS for PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL with a streaming replica on a second server | Failover is yours to script and test |
| Elastic Load Balancing | HAProxy or nginx in front of the app | One IPv4 per server: plan the public entry point |
| EKS | kubeadm, k3s or Talos on the servers | No cloud load balancer: use MetalLB or a proxy |
| S3 | Keep S3, or run an S3-compatible store | S3 stays a sound place for off-site backups |
| CloudWatch | Prometheus and Grafana | You own the alerting rules |
| Auto Scaling | No equivalent | Size for the peak, or keep a small cloud pool |
| SES | Keep SES or another mail provider | Direct delivery on port 25 is closed |
On mail: Outbound SMTP on port 25 is blocked on every server and is never unblocked; submission ports 465 and 587 to mail providers remain open. Database hosting is covered on the best dedicated server hosting for PostgreSQL, and clusters on how to run Kubernetes on bare metal servers.
How does a move from AWS work, step by step?
Seven steps for one application stack:
Measure a full month
Export Cost Explorer by service and read CloudWatch CPU and network for your busiest instances. Steady, always-on load moves first.
Map instances to plans
Match cores, RAM and disk, not vCPU counts: on m7i, two vCPUs share one core. Sizing help is on how many CPU cores you need.
Order early
Lumenfer prepares each server by hand: Up to 72 hours from the moment your payment is confirmed. Order before you fix the cut-over date.
Ask AWS for free egress
Open an AWS Support case before you copy data out, and ask for the free transfer-out rates for customers who move off.
Copy and keep in sync
Stream databases with replication, copy files with rsync, and keep both sides in step until the switch.
Switch with a short DNS TTL
Lower TTLs a day ahead, switch, watch error rates, and keep AWS running until the new side has carried real traffic.
Clean up AWS
Delete unused EBS volumes, snapshots and public IPv4 addresses.
Will AWS charge egress to move your data out?
Not if you qualify. On 5 March 2024, AWS announced that it waives data transfer out to the internet for customers moving off AWS. You ask AWS Support for the free rates, and AWS grants credits for the migrated data.
AWS says you do not need to close your account. An October 2026 update to the announcement gives customers outside the EU 180 days to finish the move. EU customers switching under the EU Data Act follow a separate process.
Ordinary traffic keeps the usual allowance: 100 GB a month free, across all services and regions.
What do you give up when you leave AWS?
You give up speed of change and managed safety nets:
- Instant capacity. A new EC2 instance starts in minutes; a Lumenfer server is prepared by hand (setup time: Up to 72 hours from the moment your payment is confirmed).
- Managed failover for databases, queues and storage.
- Regions and zones. Lumenfer runs in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Reykjavik (Iceland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Bucharest (Romania): all five plans in all four cities, one price everywhere.
- Hourly billing. Lumenfer bills 30 days at a time; a 6-month Lumen 16 term is $985.29, a 12-month one $1724.26.
- Console and hardware care. There is no IPMI or KVM-over-IP console for customers: you request reboots and reinstalls in the dashboard and the team performs them.
- Backups. Backups are not included: keep copies of your data somewhere else.
- Card or invoice billing. Lumenfer takes crypto only: BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC.
For steady load, none of these is a reason to stay; each is a cost to plan for.
How long does bare-metal setup take compared with EC2?
Hours to days, against minutes for an EC2 instance. In Lumenfer's check of 30 October 2026, bare-metal sellers promised setup within a median of 24 hours, with promises from 30 minutes to 10 business days.
Lumenfer sits above that median, because a person prepares each machine. Put the order into the migration calendar, not the cut-over day.
| Option | Time to a running server | 16-core monthly price |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon EC2 m7i.8xlarge | Minutes | $1,410.36 on demand (read 1 November 2026) |
| Bare-metal sellers checked by Lumenfer | Median promise 24 hours | Median $430.21 at 8 hosts no-KYC crypto hosts |
| Lumenfer Lumen 16 | Up to 72 hours from the moment your payment is confirmed | $205.27 per 30 days |
Prices checked on
Setup promises and bare-metal prices from Lumenfer's check of 30 October 2026; the price median covers comparable 16-core current-generation plans.
Should you move everything or only part?
Move the steady core first and keep the parts AWS does uniquely well. Databases, application servers, CI runners and caches move cleanly. S3 for backups, SES for mail, a CDN and a small burst pool can stay.
Traffic between the two sides is AWS egress, so keep chatty services together on one side. For web front ends, see what dedicated server hosting a high-traffic website needs. Prices and terms for every plan are on how much a Lumenfer bare-metal server costs.
Moving from AWS to bare metal: FAQ
How long does a move from AWS to bare metal take?
For one application stack, plan two to four weeks: a week to measure and order, the setup window, then sync and cut-over. AWS's free-egress program allows 180 days outside the EU.
Can I run Kubernetes after leaving EKS?
Yes. kubeadm, k3s or Talos run well on bare metal. MetalLB or a proxy replaces the cloud load balancer, and local or replicated storage replaces EBS volumes.
Do I need two servers?
For anything that must stay up, yes. Run a primary and a replica in two of the four cities, and keep backups off both machines.
Can I pay for bare metal the way I pay AWS?
No. Lumenfer takes crypto only (BTC, USDT, USDC, ETH, SOL, LTC): you top up a balance, at least $25 at a time, and servers are paid from it. There is no card billing and no KYC.
Is a Savings Plan a better answer than leaving?
If you need many AWS services, often yes for the compute line: AWS advertises up to 72% off. It does not reduce EBS or egress, and it binds you to a commitment.
Move the steady part of your AWS bill
NVMe and traffic included, from $91.65 per 30 days, each server prepared by hand. No KYC, paid in crypto.
- Operator: DomaineGoat LLC, Panama
- Prices checked against 13 hosts, 30 October 2026
- No KYC: no ID, no card, no phone
- Built by hand within 72 h of payment
Sources (7)
- Amazon EC2 On-Demand Pricing (EU Frankfurt, Linux; price data published 2026-10-29) — Amazon Web Services (read 2026-11-01)
- AWS Price List: AWSDataTransfer, eu-central-1 (data transfer out to the internet) — Amazon Web Services (read 2026-11-01)
- Amazon EBS pricing (gp3, EU Frankfurt) — Amazon Web Services (read 2026-11-01)
- Free data transfer out to internet when moving out of AWS (5 March 2024, updated October 2026) — AWS News Blog (read 2026-11-01)
- Amazon EC2 instance types: general purpose specifications — Amazon Web Services (read 2026-11-01)
- Amazon EC2 instance types: memory optimized specifications — Amazon Web Services (read 2026-11-01)
- Compute Savings Plans and EC2 Instance Savings Plans pricing — Amazon Web Services (read 2026-11-01)