Guide

Dedicated servers

A dedicated server is a single-tenant VM that runs only your databases. It is billed at one flat monthly price per server with no usage meters. Buying one puts you on the Custom plan, which covers that server and nothing else. This page covers the sizes, how a server is provisioned, how to prepay a stretch of months, how your databases land on it, and exactly what happens when you cancel.

What you get

Custom is the box: a single-tenant VM with every engine available, client-certificate (mTLS) authentication, and hourly backups with 30-day rolling retention on the databases that run on it. Each database can pick its own schedule on the Settings tab (hourly, every 6 hours, every 12 hours, or daily) if hourly is more than it needs. Branches are the usual exception: they stay off the schedule until you turn on their automatic backups, same as everywhere else. Egress is included on the US servers, so there is no bandwidth metering on them. Transfer allowances apply only to locations outside the United States: a server in Brazil includes a stated amount of outbound transfer each month, listed with its size below. If you expect to go over, contact us and we will size a plan for you. The server is region-pinned and always on: it is never hibernated or paused. Team seats work the same way they do on the other paid plans.

There is no database cap and no branch cap on that server. Run as many databases as fit its memory and storage - the only limits are the box's RAM and disk. All engines are available, including TigerBeetle (Alpha), which runs only on dedicated servers and is not offered on the shared cloud.

On the shared cloud fleet, a server on its own includes the Free plan's allowance: up to 2 databases with 5 GB storage, and no always-on pool or pool blocks. More shared cloud comes with Pro at $15/mo, which runs alongside a dedicated server.

How a server is billed

Every dedicated server is its own subscription. Buying one takes you through a short checkout for the full monthly price of that server, whether or not you already have Solo or Pro. Nothing is prorated and nothing is added to your plan, and a second server is a second subscription. Your plan and each server renew and appear on your invoices separately.

Because they are separate, you can change one without the other. You can add Pro at any time from the Plan page and your servers keep running untouched. You can also cancel Pro and keep a server: Pro stays until the end of the period you paid for, and if you would like the unused part of that period back, email support@layerbase.com and we will refund it. A server on its own keeps the Free plan's shared-cloud allowance, so when Pro ends up to 2 of your shared-cloud databases keep running. Any beyond that are over the allowance: we email you, and 72 hours later those are paused. Nothing is deleted.

Servers bought before November 2026 may be billed on the same subscription as your plan. Those keep working exactly as before, but canceling that plan also ends the server. The cancel dialog says so, and support can move such a server to its own subscription first.

The sizes

You pick a location first, then a size. Every preset below is self-serve and provisioned automatically, and each is a flat monthly price on its own subscription.

Need a region or size outside this catalog, or far more memory or storage? That is what a bespoke Custom configuration is for. See the dedicated servers page to get in touch.

Buying and provisioning

You buy a dedicated server from the plan page under Dedicated servers. Pick a location, then a size and region, then pay at checkout. The server is added as a line on your existing Layerbase subscription rather than as a separate bill, and it is charged today.

You do not need Pro first. If you already have a paid plan the server is added to it; if you are on Free, buying a server runs a quick checkout that starts your Custom plan.

Provisioning is automatic everywhere we sell. A US server is usually ready in 15 to 30 minutes and always within the hour; a server in Brazil builds from a bare image and takes about 30 minutes, still within the hour. A banner across the dashboard shows while a server is being prepared, and we email you the moment it is live. You do not have to do anything while it builds.

Prepaying a server

A dedicated server bills monthly by default, but you can pay for a stretch of months up front instead and spend less per month. The standing offer is 12 months for the price of 10, so two months are free. You buy it from the same Dedicated servers area of the plan page as the server itself, as a one-time payment.

Prepaying is offered on servers in the United States only. Servers in other locations bill monthly and cannot be prepaid, so the prepay area does not appear on the plan page for them.

The term starts at your next renewal. The month you are in has already been billed, so a prepayment covers the renewals that follow rather than the one you just paid for. Prepaying is not a separate annual subscription either: you keep the monthly subscription you already have, and the prepayment is applied to it as a credit worth one month of your server at every renewal for the length of the term. Only the dedicated part of your bill is covered, so if you also pay for Pro, that part keeps billing normally.

Canceling during a term does not tear the box down: the cancellation is scheduled for the end of the term and you keep the server for every month you paid for. For the same reason, plan switches, ending your plan immediately, and deleting your account are blocked while a term is running. When the term finishes, billing resumes at your normal monthly server price, and we email you about two weeks beforehand. Prepayments themselves are non-refundable: canceling stops the renewal that would have followed the term, but it does not return the months you did not use. You can ask support for a refund and we may grant one at our discretion, worked out at the standard monthly price for every month the term has already covered. The full mechanics, including the refund policy and the remaining-credit figure in your dashboard sidebar, are on the billing page.

How your databases land on the box

Once the server is live, you create databases on it the same way you create any Layerbase database. In the create flow, a server picker lets you place the new database on your dedicated box. Everything after that works exactly like a normal cloud database: connect strings, the query console, backups, and branching all behave the same.

You can run more than one dedicated server. Each is a separate single-tenant VM, all managed from the same dashboard and invoiced together on your one bill.

An engine's binaries download to the server the first time you create a database of that type, so nothing needs installing up front. If you want to warm one ahead of time, or take back the disk an engine you no longer run is holding, see engines on a dedicated server.

Moving existing databases

Use Move server in your database settings to move an eligible database onto your dedicated server. Plan a downtime window for the final copy and cutover. Keep the source database until the move has completed successfully. If the move reports a new direct port, update clients that use that port; clients using the standard hostname-routed connection keep their connection string.

Upgrading a server

A Dedicated 4GB server in the US can be upgraded in place to Dedicated 8GB. It keeps its data, its IP address, its hostnames and every connection string. Start it from the Upgrade button next to the server. Other sizes and the Brazil servers are not offered yet; for those, create a new server of the size you need and move your databases to it.

Your databases on the server are unavailable for about 8 minutes; plan for up to 15. Connections are refused during that time and reconnect on their own afterwards. You choose when it happens: as soon as possible, or a window in 15 minute steps from 30 minutes out up to 14 days ahead, shown in your local time with UTC beside it. A scheduled upgrade can be rescheduled or canceled until 15 minutes before its window.

The run is automatic: a fresh backup of every database goes to off-site storage, the databases stop cleanly, the server restarts on the bigger size, the databases start and are checked, and storage grows to the new size with no further interruption. The server card shows each step live, with a downtime counter, and a dashboard banner announces the upgrade from 24 hours before its window and while it runs. If anything goes wrong during the resize, the server is put back on its original size automatically and the charge is reversed. If the upgrade cannot start within its window, nothing on the server is changed, any charge is reversed, and you can schedule it again.

You pay the difference for the rest of your billing period when the upgrade starts, not when you book it, so a canceled or rescheduled upgrade is never charged. From then on the server bills at the new monthly price. If the payment does not go through, nothing on the server is touched and the card offers a retry. A prepaid server cannot be resized: create a new server of the size you need and move your databases to it, and if you end up paying for both during the move, contact support to request a partial refund.

Closing a server and keeping your databases

If you want to give the server up but keep what is running on it, we can move its databases into the shared cloud first and only then tear the box down. Nothing is destroyed until every move has succeeded: if any single move fails we stop, your server keeps running, and your databases stay where they are.

Each database keeps serving while it is copied. At the end of its move it pauses briefly so the last changes come along too: new connections are refused and open ones are closed, for about as long as the copy took, plus about a minute. Nothing written before the pause is lost. Connection strings that use the hostname keep working unchanged, but the direct port may change: the connection details on the database page always show the current one.

The offer appears next to each active server on the plan page, and it is only enabled when the destination plan can actually take them. We check four things: every engine has to be one we can move today, the databases have to be running and free of branches, the database count has to fit your plan's limit, and the always-on memory and storage they use have to fit your pool. When something does not fit, the control is grayed out and tells you exactly what to trim, with real numbers, and offers pool blocks where extra memory or storage would close the gap.

Moving databases onto the shared cloud needs a plan that covers them, so on the Custom plan you subscribe to Pro ($15/mo) first, then close the server. On Solo or Pro the server's subscription simply ends and your plan is untouched. Once your databases have moved, the empty server keeps running until the end of the period you paid for, then it is deleted.

If a payment fails

Each server follows the subscription that pays for it. When that payment fails, we email you right away: the server will be stopped if the payment is not fixed within 24 hours, and deleted on a date 14 days after the failed charge if it is still unpaid. The server card on your plan page shows the same dates. The 24 hours are for customers who have paid us before: if no payment has ever gone through on your account (a 100% discount code counts as no payment), the server is stopped as soon as that email is sent.

After 24 hours, the server is stopped. Every database on it is shut down cleanly and the server is powered off. Your databases are unreachable while it is stopped, but nothing on it is deleted, and we email you when it happens. As soon as the payment goes through, the server starts again on its own: we bring its databases back and check that each one answers before we tell you it is running. Your connection details do not change.

After 14 days still unpaid, the server is deleted. Three days before, we send a final notice with the date. Right before the deletion, every database on the server gets a final backup, and the server is only torn down once every one of those backups is confirmed in storage. We keep them for 30 days. To restore them after paying, contact support within that time.

A server's failed payment never pauses your Solo or Pro plan or its databases on the shared cloud, and a failed plan payment does not stop a server on its own subscription. A server bought before November 2026 that is billed on your plan subscription follows that subscription's payment instead. A server inside a prepaid term is never stopped for non-payment: the term is already paid.

Canceling a server

Cancellation is per server and lives next to each server on the plan page. It is a two-step, type-to-confirm dialog: you type the server's name, then confirm on a final screen. Only an active server can be canceled. A server that is still being prepared, or already winding down, shows the control grayed out with a reason.

This is the path that does not keep your databases. The dialog names how many databases are on the server so you know what goes with it, and each one is backed up before the box is destroyed. If you want to keep them, use the migrate-and-close option above instead.

On a server you pay for month to month, a cancel takes effect at the end of the period you paid for. The server keeps running until then and you are not billed again; your plan is not touched. Until that date the plan page shows when the server ends, with a Keep server button that undoes the cancel. A cancel made from the billing portal works the same way. The one exception is a server with no successful payment behind it, for example one bought with a 100% discount code or one whose first payment failed: there is no paid time to keep, so the cancel takes effect at once.

A prepaid server is the exception. While a prepaid term is running, canceling that server is scheduled, not immediate: the box keeps running and the cancellation takes effect when the term you paid for ends, so you keep the server for every month you have already paid for. Ending your plan immediately is refused mid term for the same reason. See Prepaying a server above, and the billing page for the rest of the prepaid rules.

When the paid period ends, the server moves to Winding down: every database on it gets a final backup, kept for 30 days, and then the box is destroyed. If that server was the only paid item on a Custom account, the subscription is canceled outright so you are not left paying for nothing.

Once the server is gone it does not come back, so export or download any data you want to keep before the date. To restore from a final backup within those 30 days, contact support.