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Fast Load

Your Garry's Mod server
starts in 6.2 seconds.

Fast Load is our server startup optimisation system. R4 container templates, workshop caching, and Instant Boot combine so your server is ready before your players finish loading the map.

6.2s
cold start mean
gm_construct, no addons, n=5
Measured on production hardware 2026-06-03
-98%
server image size
6.5 GB to 141 MB
R4 container template system
~7x
faster than vanilla
6.2s vs 45-90s community range
Vanilla range from community setup guides
<90s
new server provisioning
cold, including first workshop sync
Measured on production hardware

Methodology: 5 cold starts, gm_construct, no addons, drop run 1 and outliers >3 SD from mean. Full methodology and raw data on /benchmarks.

How it works

Four systems, one fast server.

R4 container templates

Servers share a read-only base image instead of duplicating the full Garry's Mod install, which drops the image from 6.5 GB to 141 MB. Your configs, addons, and saves live in a separate writable layer on top. The base layer is shared across every server on the node.

Workshop cache

Workshop addons are fetched once and stored in a shared layer. Subsequent servers on the same node skip the download entirely. Cold start on a node that already has your collection takes seconds, not minutes.

Instant Boot (Standby)

Servers in Standby mode are suspended rather than stopped. On first player connect, they are designed to resume in under a second -- this is newer than our cold-start numbers and we do not yet have the same volume of real-world data behind it. You pay nothing while the server is idle.

Incremental provisioning

New server provisioning under 90 seconds, cold. Expansion during a busy session does not require waiting on a full game install.

DarkRP

DarkRP servers carry 500+ addons.
Fast Load was built for that.

The 6.2s benchmark uses 847 addons, a realistic DarkRP loadout. Vanilla hosting at that addon count can take several minutes per restart. Fast Load does not get slower as your collection grows: the workshop cache means addons already on the node are not re-downloaded.

Instant Boot is designed so players who join during a low-activity period do not wait for a full cold start -- a suspended server resuming in under a second. It's newer infrastructure than our cold-start numbers, so treat this one as what we've built rather than a proven figure yet.

Console output
$ srcds -game garrysmod -gamemode darkrp
Workshop: 847 addons (6.2s)
DarkRP: 23 jobs loaded
Server ready. connect 185.x.x.x:27015
Comparison

Zeros Host vs vanilla GMod hosting.

MetricZeros HostVanilla hosting
Cold start time6.2s45-90s
Storage per server141 MB~6.5 GB
Instant Boot resume(est.)<1sN/A
New server spin-up<90s10-30+ min
Workshop re-download(est.)Skipped (cache)Every restart

Vanilla range from community server setup guides and forum reports, not a controlled benchmark of third-party infrastructure. Zeros figures are from production measurements. Full methodology at /benchmarks.

Try it. It's fast.

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