Which Seedboxes Actually Sell GPU Transcoding? We Read the Plan Pages

Two hosts sell a GPU, one sells QuickSync with a catch, the rest sell CPU

If you want hardware transcoding on a shared seedbox, your real choice today is two companies: us and Cloudboxes.io. ElfHosted is a third answer with an asterisk, because you get Intel QuickSync but their nodes kill any 4K transcode on purpose. Ultra.cc, Whatbox, RapidSeedbox, Evoseedbox and Feral Hosting do not mention a GPU on their plan pages at all.

We used to say on one of our own pages that we were the only seedbox provider with a GPU. That was wrong, and it is the sort of thing that is easy to write once and never re-read. Cloudboxes sell GPU transcoding on their home page, with prices, and they have for a while. So here is the honest version, with everything read on 4 October 2026 on each host's own site.

What eight plan pages actually say

Cloudboxes' GPU Small is EUR 19.95 for 10 GB of NVMe plus 2 TiB of SAS on a 2x10 Gbit port, with 4 TB of traffic before the port drops to 100 mbit. Our GPU Appbox starts at EUR 25 for 1 TB with 6 TB of traffic on 10 Gbit, and 2 TB is EUR 32. So at 2 TB of storage they are cheaper than we are, and anyone telling you otherwise has not read their price list. What you are paying the difference for is the traffic allowance, the app catalogue and the published transcode number. Decide whether that is worth it for the way you watch.

The number that actually decides your evening

A GPU in the chassis is not a promise about your streams. The question is how many simultaneous transcodes you are allowed, and that is where almost every plan page in this market goes quiet.

We publish it per plan, in a column called Transcodes. On the plain Appbox it scales with the plan: Appbox Lite at EUR 5 for 500 GB gives you 2, the EUR 11 1 TB plan gives 3, and it climbs to 10 on the EUR 96 18 TB plan. On the GPU Appbox every tier reads 6, from the EUR 25 1 TB box to the EUR 144 18 TB one, because the GPU is the limit there rather than the CPU share.

Nobody else in the table above publishes a number. Ultra.cc at least says so out loud: their own documentation explains that they cannot guarantee a specific number of simultaneous transcodes, since it depends on the source codec and bitrate, the resolution, whether subtitles need burning in, the client, and whatever else is running on the box. That is a fair description of the problem. It is also not something you can budget against before you pay.

ElfHosted's transcode-killer is the most honest page in the market

ElfHosted support QuickSync and tell Plex Pass users to turn hardware transcoding on. Then their docs explain that the nodes run a script that terminates three things: any transcode from HEVC to H264, any transcode not using QSV, and any 4K transcode at all. Their words: "even with QSV this is very resource-intensive, 4K should only be direct-played."

That reads harsh until you notice it is just the truth about shared hardware, written down. A 4K HEVC transcode is one of the most expensive things you can ask a media server to do, and on a box you share it will hurt your neighbours. Most hosts have the same physical limit and simply let you discover it at 21:00 on a Friday. ElfHosted put it in the manual.

What a GPU fixes, and what it does not

Worth being clear, because plenty of people buy a GPU box for a problem a GPU cannot touch.

A GPU helps when:

• You stream to clients that cannot direct play your files, so Plex or Jellyfin has to re-encode on the fly.
• You burn in subtitles. Image-based subtitles like PGS and VOBSUB force a video transcode every time.
• Several people watch at once and some of them need a different format each.
• You keep one 4K copy of everything instead of a 4K and a 1080p version.

A GPU does nothing for:

• A slow connection at the watching end. If the stream will not fit down the pipe, the encoder is not your problem.
• A client that refuses the container or audio codec outright. That is a remux job, not a transcode job.
• Disk contention. If the library is on a busy spindle, the GPU sits idle waiting for bytes.

The first thing to try is still direct play, on any host. We wrote up how transcoding actually gets triggered in 4K transcoding on a seedbox, GPU vs CPU, and the Jellyfin side of the same question in do you need a GPU for Jellyfin. Between them they will save a fair number of people EUR 20 a month.

How we would choose

Buy a plain box and leave transcoding alone if your clients direct play. An Apple TV 4K, a recent Shield or a current smart TV will play almost anything you throw at them, and then the transcode count on your plan never comes up. Appbox Lite is EUR 5 for 500 GB and Appbox +1 is EUR 11 for 1 TB, both with 2 and 3 transcodes respectively for the odd phone.

Buy a GPU box if you share your library with people on browsers and older TVs, or if you keep 4K files and watch them away from home. Ours starts at EUR 25 for 1 TB with 6 transcodes on every tier, and the plan table is at /plans with the full GPU line at /gpu-appbox.

Shop Cloudboxes properly if price is the deciding factor at 2 TB, because at that size they are cheaper than we are. Read the traffic allowance before you sign: 4 TB on their GPU Small, after which the port drops to 100 mbit, versus 6 TB on our 1 TB and 2 TB GPU plans. If you seed anything at all, that allowance matters more than the GPU.

Take the QuickSync route on ElfHosted if your library is 1080p and you have Plex Pass. You will get hardware transcoding for the common cases and a hard stop at 4K, which for a lot of libraries is a reasonable trade.

One last thing on all of this: every number above came off a public plan page or a public docs page on 4 October 2026, and prices in this market move. Check them yourself before you pay anyone, including us. If you want to try ours, billing is monthly, you can cancel any time, and there is a pro-rata refund in the first 7 days.