IBM Cloud vs Hivelocity
A detailed comparison to help you choose between IBM Cloud and Hivelocity.
Quick Verdict
3.2/5
IBM Cloud
0 reviews
3.9/5
Hivelocity
0 reviews
Hivelocity is rated higher (3.9 vs 3.2). IBM Cloud offers Virtual Server Instances, Kubernetes, bare metal, and strong mainframe (Z-series) integration. Used by financial services needing IBM Z connectivity. 60+ global datacenters. Hivelocity provides dedicated servers with configurable hardware, DDoS protection, and 24/7 support. Built for applications requiring guaranteed performance and resource isolation.
IBM Cloud Enterprise cloud with mainframe integration | Hivelocity Bare metal servers with direct hardware control and low latency | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.2 (0 reviews) | 3.9 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | paid |
| Starting price | Free tier available✓ | From $65/mo |
| Best for | Enterprises anchored to IBM Z, Power, SAP, or Oracle estates, and regulated financial services teams needing certification coverage and mainframe adjacency | Ops-capable teams needing bare metal in specific US, European, or Asia-Pacific locations with responsive human support and an SLA with teeth — game servers, latency-sensitive apps, and colocation customers. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | 6 vCPU |
| RAM | — | 16 GB |
| Storage | — | 480 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | 20 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | — | 99.99% |
| Data-center count | — | 40 |
| €/vCPU/mo | — | €10.83 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | — | €4.06 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | Tampa, FL (TPA1/TPA2)Miami, FL (MIA1)Atlanta, GA (ATL2)Jacksonville, FL (JAX1)Chicago, IL (ORD1)Dallas, TX (DAL1)+21 |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierhourly billinggpu availableeu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi access | nvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedus datacenter |
| Visit IBM Cloud → | Visit Hivelocity → | |
IBM Cloud
Pros
- + IBM Z (mainframe) and Power Virtual Server integration that no commodity host offers
- + Credit-backed 99.99% SLA on Virtual Server for VPC with multizone regions of three or more separate data centers
- + Ten instance profile families including Confidential Computing and storage-optimized shapes
- + Bare metal, spot-style transient servers, reserved capacity, and hourly billing in one contract surface
- + Free Lite account plus generous rotating new-account credits for trials
Cons
- - Two overlapping platforms (Classic and VPC) with different APIs, images, and pricing
- - Roughly 10x the monthly cost of value leaders for a comparable 2-vCPU VM
- - DDoS scrubbing is a separate paid product (Cloud Internet Services)
- - Metered extras (boot volume, egress, load balancers) make cost prediction work
- - Base support tier is not the enterprise support IBM's reputation implies
Hivelocity
Pros
- + Real single-tenant hardware with IPMI/KVM, private management LAN, IPv6, and server hardening included
- + Wide footprint: 40+ advertised data centers on six continents with 28 named instant-deploy locations including Asia-Pacific and Australia
- + Strong support reputation: 24/7 human support, NPS 79 claimed, consistently high third-party review scores
- + Contractual 99.99% uptime SLA with service credits plus a 4-hour hardware replacement guarantee on colocation listings
- + No setup fees on dedicated servers; instant-deploy in minutes and custom builds to exact spec
Cons
- - Mid-market pricing: $97 promo / $129 regular entry config is roughly double European value providers, with 20 TB metered transfer
- - Promo-versus-regular pricing and rotating inventory (the cheapest config changed between August and September 2026)
- - Unmanaged by default: backups, security, and managed services are paid add-ons despite our database's backups-included tag
- - Reported location-based price surcharges ($20–75/month depending on city) and no free migrations
- - SLA figures published inconsistently across the site (99.99%, 99.999%, and 100% appear on different pages)
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