What Rackforest does

RackForest Zrt. is a privately held Hungarian infrastructure-as-a-service and hosting provider founded in 2013 and headquartered in Budapest. The company offers a broad portfolio that includes dedicated server rental, virtual private servers (VPS in Linux, Windows, and Premium AMD tiers), cPanel-based shared and premium web hosting, server colocation, managed server operations, Veeam-based backup, Kubernetes and OpenStack platforms, software rental (Microsoft, cPanel), domain registration, and streaming services. Its underlying infrastructure runs on AMD EPYC NVMe and Intel Xeon processors across three georedundant Budapest data center locations interconnected by fiber optics, with dual power feeds, mixed-vendor UPS systems, diesel generators, and free-cooling technology. RackForest operates both self-service online ordering (rackforest.com and a customer portal) and consultative sales for enterprise customers, with revenue generated primarily through subscription contracts and hourly usage-based cloud billing in Hungarian Forint.

The company primarily serves Hungarian small and medium businesses, technology companies, web development agencies, e-commerce/webshop operators (over 10,000 hosted), and regulated financial services customers requiring PSD2-compliant hosting. Pricing ranges from basic shared hosting at approximately 3,800 HUF/year to enterprise-grade managed services at 80,000 HUF/month and custom-quoted dedicated infrastructure. As of 2019, RackForest managed over 2,000 servers, reported annual revenue exceeding 500 million HUF, and had stated a target of 1 billion HUF; subsequent product launches (Premium Web Hosting in 2020 and Kubernetes in 2022) and active hiring indicate continued portfolio expansion beyond that disclosed baseline.

Name

Rackforest

Legal name

Rackforest Informatikai Kereskedelmi Szolgáltató és Tanácsadó Zártkörű Részvénytársaság

Website

https://rackforest.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

RackForest Zrt. is a Budapest-based hosting and infrastructure provider offering dedicated servers, VPS, cloud, Kubernetes, web hosting, colocation, and managed services across three georedundant Budapest data centers, primarily serving Hungarian SMBs, technology firms, webshops, and PSD2-regulated financial services customers via subscription and usage-based billing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cloud Infrastructure Hosting

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Equipment Rental & Leasing, Nec (7359)

akta.pro primary industry

Wholesale Colocation (Powered Shells / Suites) (HDABACAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Server Hardware Platforms (Rack/Tower/Blade) (HDABADAA)

Keywords

• Managed server hosting
• Virtual private servers
• Dedicated server rental
• Cloud infrastructure services
• Web hosting solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Budapest

HQ country

Hungary

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Dedicated Server Rental: Rental of physical dedicated servers with indefinite contract terms and no premiums. Includes 2-hour hardware replacement SLA.
2. VPS (Virtual Private Server): Virtual server rental with 100% SSD storage, Intel Xeon Gold processors. Includes free 5-day trial for customer acquisition.
3. Cloud Services: Public cloud with hourly billing, API access, and configurable private networks on AMD EPYC and Intel infrastructure.
4. Web Hosting: cPanel-based web hosting with 100% SSD storage, free SSL certificates, email, and spam filtering.
5. Premium Web Hosting: Premium tier with maximum 12 customers per server, dedicated IP, and guaranteed resources.
6. Server Management: Managed services including 5-hour monthly monitoring package with continuous Zabbix monitoring, PagerDuty alerting, system patching, and engineering consultation.
7. Domain Registration: Domain registration services including .hu and international TLDs.
8. Software Rental: Rental of Microsoft products and cPanel/web server software licenses.
9. Streaming Services: Media streaming infrastructure services.
10. Veeam Backup Solutions: Backup and disaster recovery services using Veeam technology.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

RackForest provides professional server hosting, server rental, server colocation, VPS, cloud infrastructure, web hosting, and managed server operations from three georedundant data center locations in Budapest. The portfolio spans dedicated servers, virtual private servers, cloud platforms built on AMD EPYC NVMe and Intel Xeon hardware, cPanel-based web hosting, Kubernetes and OpenStack platforms, Veeam backup, domain registration, software rental, and streaming services for Hungarian businesses and developers.

Product overview

Rackforest is a Hungarian hosting provider offering a broad portfolio of infrastructure-as-a-service products. The core offering spans dedicated server rental (Dedikált Szerverbérlés), virtual private servers (VPS in Linux, Windows, and Premium AMD tiers), standard and premium shared web hosting (Webtárhely / Prémium Webtárhely), server colocation (Szerver Hosting), and managed operations (Szerver Üzemeltetés). The portfolio extends to cloud services including a Cloud platform (built on AMD EPYC NVMe + Intel, with API access and hourly billing), Kubernetes container orchestration, and OpenStack private cloud. Add-on services include Veeam backup solutions, domain registration, software rental (Microsoft, cPanel), and streaming. The company operates three georedundant data center locations in Budapest with high-bandwidth connectivity.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cloud (CLOUD) Public cloud infrastructure service built on AMD EPYC NVMe and Intel processors with API-based resource management, hourly billing, configurable private networks, and three georedundant Budapest locations. Designed for Hungarian developers and enterprises needing elastic compute with high availability.
• Dedikált Szerverbérlés (Dedicated Server Rental) Dedicated physical server rental with indefinite contract terms and a 2-hour hardware replacement SLA for Hungarian customers without their own hardware or with aging server infrastructure.
• VPS (Virtual Private Server) Virtual private server rental with 100% SSD storage and Intel Xeon Gold processors, available in Linux, Windows, and Premium AMD configurations, with a free 5-day trial for prospect evaluation.
• Webtárhely (Web Hosting) cPanel-based 100% SSD web hosting with free automatic SSL certificates, email, and spam filtering, designed for beginners with an easy-to-navigate control panel.
• Prémium Webtárhely (Premium Web Hosting) Premium shared hosting capped at 12 customers per physical server with dedicated IP address and guaranteed vCore/RAM resources, positioned above standard shared hosting for higher performance and isolation.
• Viszonteladói Tárhely (Reseller Hosting) White-label reseller hosting package enabling partners to resell web hosting services under their own brand.
• Szerver Hosting (Server Colocation) Colocation service allowing customers to place their own servers in RackForest's data centers, featuring three georedundant Budapest locations, 1–10 Gbps internet connectivity, and 24-hour server access.
• Szerver Üzemeltetés (Server Management) Managed server operations service including 24/7 monitoring via Zabbix and PagerDuty, system patching, and systems engineering support, starting at a 5-hour monthly plan at HUF 80,000/month.
• Kubernetes Container orchestration platform enabling flexible infrastructure, automated scaling, and workload portability across cloud and dedicated server environments for enterprise customers.
• OpenStack OpenStack-based private cloud platform providing IaaS capabilities with self-service provisioning and orchestration for enterprise workloads.
• Veeam Mentési Megoldás (Veeam Backup Solution) Backup and disaster recovery solution powered by Veeam technology for data protection across hosted servers and virtual environments.
• Domain Regisztráció (Domain Registration) Domain name registration service covering .hu (via ISZT) and international TLDs (via Resellerclub, Netim, Hexonet, CentralNic), with DNS zone management available through the customer portal.
• Szoftverbérlés (Software Rental) Licensed software rental including Microsoft products (Windows Server, SQL Server, Office) and cPanel/web server licensing, bundled with RackForest hardware infrastructure.
• Streaming Media streaming service for live and on-demand video/audio delivery, supporting content distribution for enterprises and media companies on RackForest infrastructure.

Quantifiable outcome

• Zero physical servers reported (emphasizing virtualization/VPS approach)
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• PayU S.A.coreTechnology or IntegrationPayment processor for credit card transactions. PayU handles card payment data including full name, email, phone, address (postal code, city, street, house number), and IP address for payment processing. Located in Poznan, Poland.
• MailchimpsupportingTechnology or IntegrationNewsletter distribution platform used for sending email newsletters to subscribers. Classified as a data processor with appropriate data protection measures in place.
• Internet Szolgáltatók Tanácsa (ISZT)coreTechnology or Integration.hu domain registry intermediary for domain registration services. Required for all .hu domain registrations.
• Resellerclub, Netim, Hexonet, CentralNicsupportingTechnology or IntegrationInternational domain registrars for non-Hungarian domain registrations (TLDs beyond .hu).
• IP-Telekom Kft.supportingTechnology or IntegrationIP telephony provider responsible for recording customer service calls for quality assurance, complaint handling, and evidence purposes.
• Dun & BradstreetsupportingOthersBusiness credit rating and certification service. RackForest holds a certificate indicating low business risk for customer confidence.
• Neighbor Data CentersupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMutual aid agreement for diesel generator backup. If one facility's generator fails, the system switches to the partner's generator (and vice versa), providing additional redundancy without the cost of a second backup generator.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• OVHcloud: European cloud and bare-metal/dedicated server provider with owned data centers; competes head-on with RackForest in the dedicated-server, VPS, and private cloud categories across SMB and enterprise customers.
• DigitalOcean: Cloud platform specializing in VPS, dedicated servers, Kubernetes, and developer-friendly infrastructure — directly comparable on product mix, target audience, and usage-based pricing model.
• Hetzner Online: German hosting/cloud provider offering dedicated servers, VPS, and colocation on its own infrastructure — a near-identical operating model to RackForest, serving SMB and developer customers with competitive pricing.
• Invitech: Hungarian ICT and data center operator providing cloud, hosting, colocation, and managed services — the most direct domestic competitor serving the same SMB and enterprise segments within Hungary.
• Vultr: Global cloud provider focused on hourly-billed VPS, dedicated servers, and bare-metal instances — comparable in cloud infrastructure, pricing transparency, and developer-centric product strategy.
• Dataplex: One of Hungary's largest carrier-neutral data center operators offering colocation and managed hosting — directly comparable to RackForest's colocation and infrastructure services within the Hungarian market.
• Tárhely.eu: Hungarian web hosting and domain registration provider focused on SMBs — closely comparable in product scope (shared hosting, VPS, domains) and target customer base within Hungary.
• Linode (Akamai): Cloud provider specializing in VPS, dedicated servers, and managed Kubernetes — directly comparable on Linux-friendly infrastructure, hourly billing, and SMB/developer focus, now operating within Akamai's edge platform.

Broad incumbents

• Magyar Telekom: Hungary's incumbent telecom offering cloud, data center, and managed IT services to enterprise and public sector — competes in the same infrastructure space but as part of a much broader telecom portfolio.

Emerging players

• Hostinger: Globally scaled hosting provider with strong presence in CEE on shared hosting, VPS, and managed WordPress — comparable in serving SMB web hosting customers though typically without owned enterprise colocation infrastructure.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/rackforest
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rackforest-kft-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rackforest