Hosting
Hetzner
European cloud and dedicated servers.
What it is
Hetzner sells cloud instances and dedicated servers from European data centres at prices well below the large clouds. The economics are the reason to use it, especially for bandwidth-heavy or always-on workloads where hyperscaler egress dominates the bill. What you give up is breadth: far fewer managed services and regions, so anything beyond compute, storage and networking you build yourself.
Hetzner pricing
Hetzner does not publish a plan ladder we could verify. Usage-based pricing.
Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-09. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget.
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Key features
Cloud and dedicated servers
Offers virtual instances and bare-metal machines from the same account.
European data centres
Hosts in German and Finnish sites, with a US region added later.
Generous included traffic
Bundles substantial outbound traffic instead of billing every gigabyte.
Strengths and trade-offs
What works well
- Price per unit of compute is hard to beat
- European data residency
- Dedicated hardware available
Where it falls short
- Fewer managed services than AWS or GCP
- Support is documentation-first
- Account verification can be strict
Who it is for
Teams comfortable managing their own infrastructure who care about cost.
Pick it or skip it
Pick Hetzner if
- Teams that can run their own stack and want European data centres with GDPR-compliant hosting
- Bandwidth-heavy or always-on workloads: firewalls, private networks and the REST API are included at no extra charge
- Projects that outgrow shared vCPUs — the Dedicated (General Purpose) line assigns unshared vCPUs for sustained high CPU load
Skip it if
- You want managed databases, queues or serverless — Hetzner Cloud covers compute, storage and networking, you assemble the rest
- You need many regions or an edge footprint; the location list is short compared with the hyperscalers
- You need a published USD figure before deciding — the site prices per location and currency, and the plan table renders client-side
Our verdict
Excellent value if you can run your own stack. If you need managed everything, you will assemble it yourself here.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between Hetzner's shared and dedicated cloud plans?
- Shared plans (Cost-Optimized and Regular Performance) run on hardware whose CPU resources are shared with other tenants. Hetzner recommends them for test and development environments, personal sites, small databases and web servers with low to moderate traffic — variable usage rather than sustained load. Dedicated plans (General Purpose) assign unshared vCPUs, which Hetzner positions for constantly high CPU usage: high-traffic sites, large databases, game servers, machine learning and bulk data processing.
- Does Hetzner Cloud charge extra for firewalls, private networks or the API?
- No. Hetzner lists stateful firewalls as available without additional costs, and once configured a firewall can be assigned to as many cloud servers as you like. Private networks, the developer REST API, the CLI tool and integrations for Python, Go, Ansible, Terraform and Kubernetes are all listed as included functions rather than paid add-ons.
- Does Hetzner have a free plan?
- No free plan is listed on the vendor's pricing page. Hetzner is sold on usage-based pricing.
- Who is Hetzner best for?
- Teams comfortable managing their own infrastructure who care about cost.
- What are the main drawbacks of Hetzner?
- The trade-offs we noted: Fewer managed services than AWS or GCP; Support is documentation-first; Account verification can be strict.
- When should you not use Hetzner?
- Skip Hetzner if: You want managed databases, queues or serverless — Hetzner Cloud covers compute, storage and networking, you assemble the rest; You need many regions or an edge footprint; the location list is short compared with the hyperscalers; You need a published USD figure before deciding — the site prices per location and currency, and the plan table renders client-side.
What we checked
- Public APIOffers a documented API you can build against.Yes
- Mobile appHas a native app for iOS or Android, not just a mobile website.No
- Open source / self-hostableSource is open and the tool can be run on your own infrastructure.No
- SSO (SAML)Supports SAML single sign-on on at least one plan.No
“Not checked” means exactly that — we have not verified it, and we do not guess.
Evidence and freshness
Status: Source listed, figures not recordedReviewed: 2026-09-09
- Hetzner — Cloud ↗
Checked 2026-09-09 · Supports: Plan families: Shared (Cost-Optimized, Regular Performance) and Dedicated (General Purpose), Shared plans recommended for test/dev, personal sites, small databases, low-to-moderate traffic web servers, Dedicated vCPUs for constantly high CPU usage: high-traffic sites, large databases, game servers, machine learning, Stateful firewalls without additional costs, assignable to unlimited cloud servers, REST API and CLI; integrations for Python, Go, Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, Private networks for server-to-server communication; GDPR-compliant, made in Germany
Limit: Vendor product page was reviewed by an editor on this date; this record is not a ToolCompare benchmark. Plans and limits change. No price is quoted: the plan table and price calculator render client-side and the page prices per location and currency.
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