Can I trust render farms?

When I first discovered render farms and wanted to find one for my studio, I thought, “Can I trust render farms to do my jobs?” I explored any possible risks, read their terms and conditions to find out how they treat my data, and from my own experience, I came up with some things you should do and pay attention to when using render farms. This article is dedicated to sharing this knowledge.

Are there any risks when using a cloud render farm?

When using a cloud render farm, it means that your data is not only in your control anymore, but you share it with a third party, which is the render farm. This leads to a situation where your data could be at risk, and you will need to be careful. The risks could be losing your data, data being stolen, or data corruption. The reasons for the risks vary, from software bugs, hardware breakdown, or the farm’s unstable infrastructure, etc.

Whatever the reason, it raises a question: “Can I trust render farms?” I wonder are render farms are safe and how they can ensure that they can keep my data safe? I believe this is what many render farm users like me are concerned.

Security methods of cloud render farms

Render farms could always mitigate the risks by many methods, such as data encryption, constant monitoring, etc., to make sure data is protected and checked to prevent suspicious activities or cyber threats. Those methods are what they often say, and it’s not like we can really check it. But we can check their declaration on Data protection/privacy policy and/or security certification. You should read their declaration carefully: what rights you and they have with your data, how they manage and process your data, etc.

The security certification is also very important. Check if they possess ISO27001 certification for Information security, cybersecurity, and privacy protection — Information security management systems, NDA Non-disclosure Agreement.

How you can protect your data and some recommended trusted render farms

Above are some methods from the render farms. How about from your end? Can you do anything to protect your data? The answer is yes.

First of all, you should choose a trusted render farms who have a long history in the industry and has established its credibility. I always recommend 5 render farms: Fox, Garage, iRender, Ranch, and Rebus on my blog, because I have tried and observed them for a long time, you can check this article of mine. Let’s see how they can provide for you.

Fox possesses ISO27001 certification, a TPN-accredited vendor, and a non-disclosure agreement.

Garage’s sister company, and their infrastructure provider, Copernicus Computing is certified as ISO 27001 compliant and provides an NDA to offer a safe and confidential user experience.

iRender is certified ISO27001, provides NDA, and their Data center has a Tier III Certificate – Data Center 99.99% Uptime SLA.

Ranch is a TPN Gold Shield vendor, provides an NDA.

Rebus, as I researched on their website, only has a declaration on the Data protection/privacy policy.

Read more: A look back at the 3D Rendering Market in 2024 and my picks for the Best Render Farms in 2025.

Secondly, choose a render farm that offers encryption service to your data, so that it protects you when you upload, transfer files.  

Next, you should have a backup of your data locally. Render farms could have many ways to protect and store your data safely, but it’s still recommended to have a backup on your own PC. We don’t know what would happen, and I think it’s always better to have two copies of data to react in any worst scenario. Remember to back up your data regularly.

Some data loss or corruption could come from a software bug or a hardware breakdown. You should keep an eye on the software on the farm, if they are up-to-date or not. And a render farm, which has the hardware and devices’ health checked often, will minimize the risks of your losing your data.

Don’t forget to check and track your account. When I use render farms, they often send me numerous emails, not just promotional ones (which is really annoying, I know), but some emails about activities I made on the farm as well. I think it helps you somehow to monitor your account, avoiding any suspicious activities.

There are some of my recommendations, from my experience when choosing and using render farms.

Final thoughts: Can I trust render farms?

Knowing every risk you might encounter when using render farms and proactively protecting your data by ensuring methods from render farms and from yourself are what I want to advise you in this post of “Can I trust render farms?”. In today’s cyber world, we don’t work alone, we have online services that help us and, in the worst scene, harm us. Keep in mind what we need to do and assess before using any render farm so that you have the best experience. See you in the next blog post!