At bare-metal.io, we believe in empowering businesses to take control of their infrastructure. The cloud has long been sold as the ultimate solution for scalability and simplicity, but for many companies, it’s a costly trap with hidden complexities and vendor lock-in. Basecamp’s recent cloud exit is a powerful case study that proves owning your hardware can save millions while delivering superior performance and flexibility. Let’s dive into how bare-metal.io’s bare metal servers can help you achieve similar savings, avoid lock-in, and reclaim control over your infrastructure.
Basecamp’s Cloud Exit: A $10 Million Lesson in Cost Savings
In 2022, Basecamp (operated by 37signals) spent a staggering $3.2 million on cloud services, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. Their biggest expense? $907,838 for AWS S3 storage to manage 8 petabytes of data, followed by $759,983 for compute services like EC2 and EKS. Despite years of optimization, including reserved instances and private pricing agreements, the promised savings from cloud simplicity never materialized.
Frustrated by escalating costs and complexity, Basecamp decided to exit the cloud entirely. They invested $700,000 in Dell servers and Pure Storage arrays, setting up their own infrastructure in two data centers managed by Deft. The result? They reduced their annual infrastructure costs from $3.2 million to $1.3 million in 2024—a savings of $1.9 million per year. By summer 2025, when they complete their exit from AWS S3 (costing $1.5 million annually), Basecamp projects total savings of $10 million over five years.
Here’s a breakdown of their savings:
- Compute Costs: Basecamp replaced $759,983/year in AWS EC2/EKS with Dell servers costing $1,287/month amortized over three years (288 vCPUs, 1.3TB RAM, 15TB NVMe storage).
- Storage Costs: Their $907,838/year S3 bill will be replaced with a dual-DC Pure Storage setup (18 petabytes) costing roughly $1 million upfront, equivalent to one year of S3, with minimal ongoing service contracts.
- Total Annual Costs: Cloud ($3.2 million/year) vs. bare metal ($840,000/year for compute, storage, and data center space), saving $2.36 million annually once fully transitioned.
Basecamp’s story isn’t unique. Companies with stable workloads, like SaaS providers or mid-sized enterprises, are realizing that renting computers from cloud giants comes with obscene margins and no real simplification. With bare-metal.io, you can achieve similar savings without the cloud’s baggage.
How bare-metal.io Delivers Cost Savings Over Cloud Providers
At bare-metal.io, our bare metal servers provide the raw power, predictability, and ownership you need to slash infrastructure costs. Here’s how we stack up against the top cloud providers:
1. Upfront Ownership, Long-Term Savings
Cloud providers charge a premium for renting compute and storage, often locking you into long-term contracts with unpredictable pricing. With bare-metal.io, you own your servers outright, amortizing costs over years instead of bleeding cash monthly.
- Example: Basecamp’s $700,000 hardware investment paid for itself in under a year, compared to their $3.2 million cloud bill. A bare-metal.io server with 96 cores, 256GB RAM, and 3.84TB NVMe storage starts at $500/month (or $18,000 upfront for ownership over 5 years). Compare that to AWS EC2 instances, where a similar c5.24xlarge instance costs $3,000/month ($180,000 over 5 years).
- Savings: Over 5 years, a single bare-metal.io server saves you $162,000 per server compared to AWS, not including data transfer or storage fees.
2. No Storage Premiums
Cloud storage services like AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Blob Storage charge exorbitant rates for data at rest and retrieval. Basecamp’s $1.5 million/year S3 bill for 10 petabytes is a prime example of cloud storage’s runaway costs.
- bare-metal.io Solution: Our high-density NVMe storage servers offer terabytes of fast, local storage at a fraction of the cost. A 48TB NVMe server costs $1,200/month or $43,200 to own over 5 years. Compare that to AWS S3’s $0.023/GB/month for standard storage, which totals $1.1 million/year for 48TB.
- Savings: Storing 48TB on bare-metal.io saves $5.5 million over 5 years compared to S3.
3. Predictable Costs, No Surprises
Cloud bills are notoriously unpredictable, with hidden fees for data egress, API calls, and overprovisioned resources. Basecamp’s optimized $3.2 million cloud budget still couldn’t compete with the fixed costs of owned hardware.
- bare-metal.io Advantage: Our pricing is transparent—pay for the server, power, and bandwidth you need, with no hidden fees. Colocation through partners like Deft (as Basecamp used) costs around $60,000/month for two full racks, supporting dozens of servers. Compare that to AWS, where Basecamp’s compute alone cost $63,331/month.
- Savings: For a mid-sized SaaS business running 10 servers, bare-metal.io with colocation costs $200,000/year vs. $600,000/year for equivalent cloud resources, saving $2 million over 5 years.
4. Performance That Outpaces the Cloud
Basecamp’s cloud exit didn’t just save money—it boosted performance. After moving Basecamp Classic to their own hardware, median request times dropped from 67ms to 19ms, and 95% of requests fell below 300ms. This was achieved on Dell R7625 servers, each with 196 vCPUs, costing $20,000 (amortized to $333/month over 5 years).
- bare-metal.io Performance: Our servers, powered by the latest AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon processors, deliver dedicated resources without the virtualization overhead of cloud VMs. A single bare-metal.io server with 128 cores and 512GB RAM can handle workloads that would require multiple cloud instances, reducing latency and improving user experience.
- Savings: Fewer servers mean lower costs. One bare-metal.io server can replace 5–10 cloud instances, cutting compute costs by 70–80%.
Escape Vendor Lock-In with bare-metal.io
Cloud providers thrive on vendor lock-in, tying you to proprietary services like AWS Lambda, Google Kubernetes Engine, or Azure Functions. Basecamp’s exit was smoother because their apps were containerized, but they still faced challenges with AWS’s managed services (e.g., RDS and Elasticsearch). With bare-metal.io, you’re free from these shackles:
- Open-Source Flexibility: Run your choice of OS (Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows Server) and tools like Docker, Kubernetes, or Kamal (Basecamp’s lightweight container orchestrator). No proprietary APIs to rewrite when you move.
- Portability: Your bare metal servers are yours to configure, migrate, or repurpose. Unlike cloud services, there’s no penalty for moving data out—AWS charges up to $0.09/GB for data egress, which can cost millions for petabyte-scale migrations.
- Control: Own your hardware, your data, and your destiny. Basecamp cited “independence and loyalty to the original ethos of the internet” as a driving factor in their exit. With bare-metal.io, you’re not beholden to a cloud giant’s pricing whims or data policies.
Who Benefits from bare-metal.io?
Basecamp’s cloud exit highlights that bare metal is ideal for:
- Mid-Sized SaaS Businesses: Companies with stable workloads, like Basecamp or HEY, can save millions by owning hardware instead of renting.
- Data-Intensive Applications: If you’re storing terabytes or petabytes, bare-metal.io’s high-capacity NVMe servers crush cloud storage costs.
- Performance-Critical Workloads: Applications requiring low latency (e.g., real-time collaboration tools) thrive on dedicated bare metal.
- Cost-Conscious Enterprises: If your cloud bill is creeping into the millions, bare-metal.io offers predictable, fixed costs with no surprises.
The bare-metal.io Difference
Basecamp’s journey shows that the cloud isn’t the only path. By moving to bare metal, they saved millions, boosted performance, and regained control. At bare-metal.io, we make this transition seamless:
- Customizable Servers: Choose from a range of configurations, from 48-core workhorses to 128-core beasts, tailored to your needs.
- Colocation Partnerships: Work with trusted providers like Deft for secure, redundant data center space at a fraction of cloud costs.
- Expert Support: Our team helps you plan, deploy, and optimize your bare metal infrastructure, ensuring a smooth migration.
- No Lock-In: Own your servers, run your software, and move your data freely—without penalties or proprietary handcuffs.
Ready to Exit the Cloud?
The cloud’s promise of simplicity and savings has been oversold. Basecamp’s $10 million savings over five years is proof that owning your infrastructure is smarter, cheaper, and more liberating. With bare-metal.io, you can ditch the cloud’s obscene margins, avoid vendor lock-in, and build a high-performance infrastructure that’s truly yours.
Contact us today at sales@bare-metal.io to calculate your savings and start your cloud exit journey. Let’s bring the power back to your hardware.
Inspired by Basecamp’s cloud exit story at basecamp.com/cloud-exit. All savings figures are based on Basecamp’s reported data and industry-standard pricing comparisons.
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