Cheap Colocation Hosting: Lower Costs, Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure

Anyone who has ever priced out a server room renovation knows the sticker shock. Power distribution units, dedicated cooling lines, redundant uplinks, fire suppression, biometric access — the bill balloons faster than a denial-of-service flood. That is exactly why "cheap colocation hosting" has become one of the most searched phrases among sysadmins, indie game developers, MSPs, and small-to-mid businesses that own their hardware but cannot justify building a private data center. The idea is simple: you bring the server, a carrier-grade facility supplies the power, cooling, bandwidth, and physical security, and you pay a fraction of what an in-house build would cost.

This article walks through what actually makes colocation "cheap" without being cheaply built, the trade-offs worth understanding before signing a contract, and how one long-running provider — Sharktech — fits into the affordable colocation landscape with plans starting as low as $35/month for 1U–6U and $280/month for a full 10–42U footprint.

What "cheap" really means in colocation

Price in colocation is driven by four line items: space (measured in U or rack units), power (in watts or amps), bandwidth (in Mbps or Gbps with included transfer), and location. A 1U server sitting in a Tier IV facility in downtown Manhattan will never be as cheap as the same server in a Tier III facility outside Chicago, because real estate and power density costs differ. The trick to finding genuinely cheap colocation hosting is not chasing the absolute lowest sticker — it is finding a facility that hits the right balance of redundancy, connectivity, and price for your actual workload.

A few practical points worth keeping in mind:

• Power budget matters more than rack space. A 1U server drawing 1200W will often cost more to colocate than a 4U server drawing 400W, because the data center is selling you electricity and cooling capacity, not just metal shelves.

• Included transfer is the hidden cost. Some "cheap" quotes bill every gigabyte over a small allowance. Look for plans that include hundreds of terabytes or unmetered ports.

• DDoS protection is not always included. If your workload is a game server, a streaming node, or anything public-facing, attack mitigation can easily double your real monthly cost if it is billed separately.

• Location affects latency, not just price. Pick a data center close to your users or close to a major internet exchange; the cheapest facility is worthless if your packet round-trip is 200ms.

Why people colocate instead of renting or self-hosting

The conversation usually comes down to three options: rent a managed dedicated server, build a closet server room, or colocate. Renting is the easiest but the most expensive per unit of compute over time, and you never own the asset. Self-hosting gives maximum control but burdens you with generator maintenance, UPS battery swaps, and 3 a.m. cooling failures. Colocation splits the difference — you keep your hardware and your capex, but you hand off the boring and expensive parts to a facility that already solved them.

Sharktech, the brand behind the offer we are looking at today, has been operating hosting and DDoS-protected services since 2003. They run five data centers in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, and Amsterdam, all housed in enterprise-grade facilities from Equinix, CoreSite, H5 Data Centers, and CrownCastle. That detail matters because you are paying for colocation in the same buildings that hyperscalers and Fortune 500s use, but at a price aimed at the small-business and developer market — which is exactly the "cheap colocation hosting" sweet spot.

Sharktech colocation plans, location by location

Sharktech lists two main colocation sizes — a 1–6U option for single or small servers, and a 10–42U option for partial to full rack — across all five locations. Every plan includes 10Gbps to 100Gbps connectivity starting at 300TB of included transfer, which is generous for the price tier and removes the bandwidth overage surprise that sinks many "cheap" colo deals.

Chicago — the lowest entry point

• 1–6U: starting at $35/month, 200–1200W power

• 10–42U: starting at $280/month, 1600–5500W power

• Best for: cost-sensitive single-server colocators and small rack deployments serving the U.S. Midwest

Chicago is where Sharktech's pricing gets genuinely aggressive. If your definition of cheap colocation hosting is "smallest monthly number on the invoice," this is the location to look at first, and the same redundant network and on-site engineering apply.

👉 Check Sharktech's Chicago colocation pricing

Denver — competitive mid-tier pricing

• 1–6U: starting at $65/month, 200–1200W power

• 10–42U: starting at $520/month, 1600–5500W power

• Best for: low-latency reach to both U.S. coasts and disaster-avoidance workloads

Denver is geographically attractive because it sits inland, away from hurricane and major earthquake zones, while still offering strong connectivity to both coasts. Pricing is modestly higher than Chicago but still well below coastal facilities.

👉 Explore Denver colocation plans

Las Vegas — desert pricing with West Coast reach

• 1–6U: starting at $65/month, 200–1200W power

• 10–42U: starting at $520/month, 1600–5500W power

• Best for: West Coast and Pacific traffic with natural-disaster resilience

Las Vegas shares Denver's pricing but gives you a West Coast presence without the California premium. The desert climate also simplifies cooling economics, which is part of how the price stays low.

👉 See Las Vegas colocation options

Los Angeles — premium market, mid-tier price

• 1–6U: starting at $99/month, 200–1200W power

• 10–42U: starting at $792/month, 1600–5500W power

• Best for: Asia-Pacific traffic, media and streaming workloads, IX connectivity

Los Angeles is a major internet exchange, which is why colocating here typically costs more. Sharktech's $99 starting point is still well below typical LA carrier hotel pricing for the same class of facility.

👉 Get Los Angeles colocation details

Amsterdam — European presence

• 1–6U: starting at $99/month, 200–1200W power

• 10–42U: starting at $792/month, 1600–5500W power

• Best for: EMEA users, GDPR-anchored data, transatlantic peering

Amsterdam is one of Europe's densest peering markets. Having a Sharktech footprint there at the same $99 entry as LA gives you a genuinely global two-region setup for under $200/month combined — a compelling option for businesses that need cheap colocation hosting with international reach.

👉 View Amsterdam colocation plans

What is included beyond the price tag

The sticker price only tells part of the story. Across all Sharktech colocation plans, the following are part of the package:

• 10Gbps to 100Gbps uplinks with 300TB+ included transfer — overage anxiety basically disappears for most workloads

• DDoS protection as a core competency, not an upsell, given Sharktech's two-decade specialization in attack mitigation

• 24/7 on-site technical support in every facility, meaning remote hands and eyes are available without a per-incident fee structure that quietly inflates your bill

• Enterprise-grade facilities — Equinix, CoreSite, H5 Data Centers, and CrownCastle buildings, the same infrastructure tier used by hyperscalers

• Redundant power and cooling, with backup generators designed to keep critical infrastructure online through extended utility outages

Who actually benefits from this kind of plan

Cheap colocation hosting is not for everyone. If you do not already own a server, a managed dedicated server or VPS is usually cheaper to start. But for several groups, the math flips quickly:

• Game server operators running their own hardware and absorbing frequent DDoS attacks — Sharktech's own testimonials reference gaming clients whose servers survive multi-gigabit floods without flinching

• Indie SaaS and app developers who have outgrown VPS pricing but want to amortize owned hardware over three to five years

• MSPs and resellers who need a partial rack to aggregate client equipment across multiple regions

• Hardware enthusiasts and homelab graduates moving from a noisy server in the living room to a real facility, often for less than the cost of a residential power bill for the same gear

The Sharktech FAQ puts it bluntly: anyone needing long-term IT infrastructure can benefit, because the data center handles power, cooling, and backup at scale for a price an individual business cannot match in-house.

A note on "cheap" versus "inexpensive"

There is a useful distinction to make here. "Cheap" suggests cutting corners — unbranded power supplies, single-uplink network, no on-site staff. "Inexpensive" means paying less for the same class of service. Sharktech lands firmly in the second category: the buildings are enterprise-grade, the network is multi-100-gigabit redundant, and the support is 24/7 on-site. The price is low because the provider has been doing this since 2003, runs five facilities, and benefits from scale — not because the infrastructure is skimpy.

For anyone whose search for cheap colocation hosting is really a search for "how do I get my own server into a real data center without paying Equinix list prices," Sharktech is worth a serious look, especially the Chicago and Denver/Las Vegas tiers where the entry cost is among the lowest you will find for this caliber of facility.

👉 Start with Sharktech colocation

Final thoughts

Colocation only becomes a smart financial play when the math works for your specific workload. If you are paying $300/month for a managed dedicated server and you already own equivalent hardware, dropping that hardware into a $35/month Chicago 1U slot pays for itself in a couple of months, even after shipping and setup. If you are still renting because you do not want to own hardware, stay renting — the colocation savings only materialize when the asset is already yours.

Either way, the providers worth comparing are the ones that publish real pricing, run real facilities, and let you bring your own hardware without bundling in services you do not need. Sharktech checks those boxes across five locations, with entry pricing that genuinely earns the "cheap colocation hosting" label while still housing your gear in the same buildings as the big players. Worth a quote, especially if your workload can tolerate a Chicago or Denver footprint.

👉 Get a free colocation consultation from Sharktech