1. QuickCloud
  2. Load Balancers

More servers. One address.

Spread your traffic across several servers and keep your site online when one of them fails. QuickCloud Load Balancers check your servers continuously, send visitors only to healthy ones and handle HTTPS certificates for you, from our UK datacentre.

Create a Load Balancer View Pricing
  • Automatic health checks
  • Free HTTPS certificates
  • HTTP, HTTPS and TCP
  • £5.04/month maximum
Round robin: visitors are shared evenly across 3 healthy servers. Illustration
Balancing
Visitorshttps://shop.example.com
Load balancerHTTPS :443 · certificate active
web-01
Healthy weight 1
Requests: 0
web-02
Healthy weight 1
Requests: 0
web-03
Healthy weight 1
Requests: 0

Illustration with example servers. Sticky sessions follow one example visitor (shown in yellow).

Own UK DatacentreWe own and operate it
ISO 9001 & ISO 27001Certified operations
Hosting Since 2012Experienced UK support team
QuickCloud IntegrationManaged alongside your servers

Why QuickCloud Load Balancers

Keep your applications fast and online.

A load balancer sits in front of your servers and shares visitors between them. If one slows down or fails, the others carry on, and your visitors never need to know.

Share the Load

No single server does all the work.

Spread traffic evenly, by weight, or keep each visitor on the same server with sticky sessions.

Automatic Failover

Failed servers are taken out of rotation.

Health checks watch every backend and stop sending traffic to one that stops responding, then add it back when it recovers.

HTTPS Made Easy

Certificates handled for you.

Add your domain, verify it, and a free certificate is issued and renewed automatically.

HTTP, HTTPS and TCP

Websites and more.

Balance websites and APIs over HTTP and HTTPS, pass TLS straight through, or balance other services over TCP.

Highly Available Itself

No single point of failure.

Your load balancer runs on a redundant fleet, so it keeps working even if one of our nodes has a problem.

Simple Pricing

Billed hourly, capped monthly.

Pay by the hour from your QuickCloud credit, never more than £5.04 a month per load balancer.

How it works

Up and running in minutes.

  1. 1

    Create a Load Balancer

    You get a shared UK address and your own quickcloud.uk hostname straight away.
  2. 2

    Add Listeners

    Choose HTTP, HTTPS, HTTPS passthrough or TCP for each service.
  3. 3

    Add Your Servers

    Pick your QuickCloud VMs, private network addresses or QuickHost servers.
  4. 4

    Point Your Domain

    Verify your domain and HTTPS is set up for you.

Listeners

The right listener for every service.

Each load balancer can have up to 5 listeners, so one can handle your website, your API and other services together.

Port 80

HTTP

Plain web traffic, routed to your servers by domain.

Port 443

HTTPS

Encryption handled at the load balancer, with free certificates issued and renewed automatically for your verified domains.

Port 443

HTTPS Passthrough

Encrypted traffic passed straight to your servers untouched, for when your servers hold the certificates.

Ports 10000–19999

TCP

Balance other services, such as databases, mail or game servers, on a port of your choice in that range.

Balancing and health

You decide how traffic is shared.

Choose a balancing method for each listener, and let health checks keep failed servers out of the way.

Round Robin

Visitors are shared evenly across your servers, one after another.

Weighted

Send more traffic to bigger servers, or ease a new server in gently.

Sticky Sessions

Keep each visitor on the same server, for apps that store sessions locally.

Health Checks

Servers that stop responding are taken out, and added back when they recover.

Load balancers or Smart DNS? A load balancer sits in the path of every connection and shares it across your servers. Smart DNS decides which address a visitor is given. Many setups use both. About Smart DNS

Pricing

One simple price per load balancer.

Billed by the hour from your QuickCloud credit, with a monthly cap so you always know the most you will pay.

Per load balancer£5.04/month maxBilled hourly
Per hour£0.0075Until the monthly cap
HTTPS certificatesFreeFor verified domains

Included with every load balancer

  • Up to 5 listeners, 5 backend servers and 5 custom domains per load balancer
  • Free HTTPS certificates for your verified domains
  • Highly available load balancer fleet
  • Up to 5 load balancers per account

Example: one load balancer

£5.04/ month max
ListenersUp to 5
Backend serversUp to 5
Custom domainsUp to 5
BillingHourly, from credit
Create a Load Balancer

Prices exclude VAT. Your backend servers are billed separately.

Your servers

Built for your QuickHost infrastructure.

Put a load balancer in front of the servers you already run with us, in the cloud or on dedicated hardware.

  • QuickCloud VMs in your workspace
  • Servers on your private network, kept off the public internet
  • QuickHost dedicated servers
  • Colocated servers in our datacentre

Manage it your way

Click, script or just ask.

Part of QuickCloud

Build the rest of your stack.

Load balancers work best alongside the rest of QuickCloud, all in one workspace.

Explore QuickCloud Workspace

Cloud VMs

Run your application servers behind the load balancer.

Learn more

Enterprise Smart DNS

Health-checked DNS failover across sites.

Learn more

Cloud Firewall & VPN

Protect your servers and private network.

Learn more

Managed Databases

A managed database for your application tier.

Learn more

Dedicated Servers

Balance traffic across dedicated hardware.

Learn more

FAQ

Questions about Load Balancers

Something else? Talk to our UK team.

What does a load balancer do?

It sits in front of your servers and shares incoming traffic between them, so no single server is overloaded and your service stays online if one fails.

What happens if one of my servers fails?

Health checks notice it has stopped responding and the load balancer stops sending it traffic. When it recovers, it is added back automatically.

Is the load balancer itself a single point of failure?

No. Load balancers run on a highly available fleet, so they keep working if one of our nodes has a problem.

Do I get HTTPS certificates?

Yes. Add your domain and verify it, and a free certificate is issued and renewed automatically. If you would rather keep certificates on your servers, use an HTTPS passthrough listener.

Which protocols are supported?

HTTP, HTTPS, HTTPS passthrough and TCP. TCP listeners use a port between 10000 and 19999 on the load balancer address.

Which servers can I balance?

QuickCloud VMs, servers on your private network, and QuickHost dedicated or colocated servers.

Can visitors stay on the same server?

Yes. Turn on sticky sessions and each visitor keeps going to the same server. You can also use round robin or weights.

How much does it cost?

Billed hourly from your QuickCloud credit, up to £5.04 a month per load balancer. Your backend servers are billed separately. Prices exclude VAT.

What are the limits?

Each load balancer can have up to 5 listeners, 5 backend servers and 5 custom domains. Talk to us if you need more.

Is this the same as Smart DNS?

No. A load balancer handles every connection and shares it across servers. Smart DNS changes which address visitors are given, which is useful across sites. Many setups use both.

Ready to scale out?

Put a load balancer in front of your servers in minutes, with health checks and HTTPS included, from our UK datacentre.

Create a Load Balancer View Pricing