What to look for in an equinix metal alternative

Equinix Metal will be discontinued in June 2026. Companies that don't begin migrating their bare metal workloads now risk major disruptions and significantly higher costs in the near future.

Across many industries, bare metal serves as the foundation for latency-sensitive applications, edge deployments, Kubernetes clusters, and hybrid cloud environments.

Replacing a provider like Equinix Metal means more than simply spinning up servers elsewhere. It means finding a new ecosystem that can support the same compute and bandwidth requirements, but this time with the flexibility and developer-first experience that Equinix Metal failed to deliver.

If you already know the answer, sign up on our platform. If not, keep reading.

What to look for in an Equinix Metal Alternative

Global Coverage with Low-Latency Connectivity

One of Equinix Metal’s strengths was its global reach. From New York to Tokyo, customers could deploy close to end-users, reducing latency and improving availability. 

A good alternative should offer a diverse and strategic global footprint, featuring modern data centers on multiple continents, and the ability to move workloads between them easily.

It’s also vital to assess network performance and interconnection. 

Whether you're building a SaaS platform or a media streaming service, the ability to connect privately to clouds or partners, peer over high-bandwidth IXs, and avoid noisy neighbors can make a measurable difference.

Bare Metal Flexibility & Performance

Equinix Metal allowed users to choose from a wide variety of configurations, from compact single-socket systems to powerful dual-CPU machines. 

When migrating, look for providers that offer a broad hardware portfolio, including the latest-generation Intel and AMD CPUs, NVMe storage, DDR5 memory, and the ability to scale vertically or horizontally.

It’s also crucial that your new bare metal provider gives you the ability to customize servers to meet specific needs, which often becomes crucial to get the most out of your bare metal instances. 

Off-the-shelf configurations may be sufficient in some cases, but it is always advisable to have the option to adapt your servers as needed.

Single-tenant infrastructure remains essential for applications that demand consistent performance, hardware-level access, or compliance with data sovereignty and security requirements. 

You should expect complete control, including custom OS installs, and everything else that allows you to enable the best possible conditions for your infrastructure strategy.

Private Networking & Advanced Routing

For many Equinix Metal users, Layer 2 VLANs, private networks, and BGP peering were critical for building secure, high-performance infrastructure. 

Your next provider should support similar functionality, enabling you to isolate environments, run private clusters, and connect across availability zones without public traffic or egress fees.

Bonus points if the platform offers DDoS protection, On-ramps to other cloud providers, and support for advanced topologies, such as underlay/overlay networks.

API-First Experience & Developer Tooling

A significant part of Equinix Metal’s appeal was its developer-friendly approach, featuring modern APIs, Terraform modules, CLI tools, and support for Infrastructure as Code. 

This made it easy to treat bare metal as programmable infrastructure, not just physical boxes.

When evaluating alternatives, look for platforms that offer a mature and well-documented API, native Infrastructure as Code (IaC) integrations, and tooling for common programming languages. The more automated your provisioning workflows, the smoother your migration will be.

Transparent Pricing & Scalable Billing

Pricing should be straightforward, with no surprises or unpredictable fees. Like Equinix Metal, your new provider should offer hourly and monthly billing, optional bandwidth pooling, and predictable costs at scale. 

Whether you're spinning up one machine or a global fleet, billing should work the way your business does.

Support, SLAs, and Compliance

Last but not least: support quality and enterprise-readiness. If your infrastructure runs 24/7, your provider should too. 

That means live support, defined Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and certifications such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS—especially for regulated industries.

How Latitude.sh Measures Up

If you're navigating the transition away from Equinix Metal, Latitude.sh offers a seamless path forward, one that doesn’t just replicate the bare metal experience but significantly evolves it. 

The platform was built for developers and businesses that expect immediacy, control, and global performance from their infrastructure.

Latitude.sh operates in 18 global locations, spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia. 

This broad presence allows you to deploy your workloads close to users or across multiple regions for redundancy, all with consistent low-latency performance. 

Whether you're building latency-sensitive applications or distributed edge networks, the platform’s global architecture is designed to keep you close to your users.

The bare metal configurations available are tailored for everything from lightweight workloads to compute-heavy tasks. You’ll find the latest generation of AMD processors, blazing-fast NVMe storage, and generous DDR5 configurations. 

All servers are single-tenant, giving you complete control over the operating system, boot process, and hardware-level access, without noisy neighbors or virtualization overhead.

Networking is where Latitude.sh truly stands out. Every instance comes with 20 TB of free egress and includes free private networking capabilities, letting you build secure clusters, isolated environments, or hybrid infrastructure across regions. 

Support for BGP, custom VLANs, and direct routing means you can architect advanced topologies with minimal complexity. And because DDoS mitigation is included by default, your workloads stay protected from day one.

Developers familiar with Equinix Metal’s automation will feel at home here. Latitude.sh offers a robust API, a Terraform provider, and command-line tools that integrate easily into CI/CD pipelines and provisioning scripts. 

Whether you’re deploying one machine or orchestrating an entire fleet, you’ll have the automation and repeatability needed to scale without friction.

Lastly, Latitude.sh keeps billing predictable and straightforward. You can choose between hourly and monthly pricing, with bandwidth pooling across your account to optimize usage. No hidden fees, no surprise surcharges. Just a pricing model that works at scale.

Sign up and deploy in just a few seconds with Latitude.sh

The end of Equinix Metal marks a turning point—but also an opportunity. Instead of settling for a stopgap, you can embrace a next-generation bare metal platform built to scale with your business. 

Latitude.sh offers a developer-first experience, powerful global infrastructure, and the flexibility to adapt to your most demanding workloads. Don’t wait until 2026 to rethink your strategy—start building with confidence today.

Why Latitude.sh is the right move:

• Operates in 18+ global locations with consistently low-latency performance

• Powerful, customizable bare metal with AMD CPUs, NVMe, and DDR5

• Free private networking, BGP, VLANs, and DDoS mitigation included

• Developer-centric with robust API, Terraform, and CLI tools

• Transparent pricing with bandwidth pooling and no hidden fees

• Live support and enterprise-grade SLAs and compliance certifications

Let Latitude.sh power the next chapter of your infrastructure.

Are you ready to join hundreds of businesses who've already secured the future of their infra with Latitude.sh? Get started on your migration today!