Expanse

Cloud

Locations and regions

How to think about data center locations, latency, and availability when you order a game server or a VPS in Expanse Panel.

Locations and regions

When you place an order, you are often asked to pick a location (sometimes called a region or a data center). This is where the physical hardware that runs your service lives. The right choice is usually “close to your main players or users” and “a site that is in stock and supported for the plan you want.”

What location affects

  • Network latency — shorter paths between players and the server can mean snappier gameplay for real-time games. A location near your community is a good first guess.
  • Regulatory and legal context — some teams care where data is processed. If you have strict requirements, pick a region in the area you need and, if in doubt, ask us before you order.
  • Product availability — not every plan is offered in every site. The order screen only shows valid combinations.

What does not change

  • Your account’s currency and billing are still team-level. Location is not a tax instruction by itself. See Taxes and VAT for billing.
  • A location label is not a performance guarantee for every use case, but it is the main lever you have for network distance in most setups.

Tips for choosing

  1. List your audience — if most people play from one country or time zone, start with a data center in or near that area.
  2. Try the order screen — if a location is dimmed or missing, the plan is not available there. Pick the next best geographic fit.
  3. Keep teams consistent — if you run a game server and a VPS for the same community, you might want them in the same region to simplify how data moves (your application design still matters more than a single number).

Moving to another location

Moving an existing service to a different data center is usually a new order or migration problem, not a one-click “teleport” in every product. If you outgrow a region, open a support ticket and describe the service; we can explain the best path (which might include a new order, backup, and restore, depending on the product).