Hetzner
PaidLow-cost servers and web hosting.
Published 29 May 2026 · Last updated 27 September 2026
Scores
Popularity3/5
Popular among European developers and cost-conscious teams; strong reputation for value.
Learning Curve2/5
Standard VPS setup; any developer comfortable with Linux can deploy in an afternoon.
Flexibility3/5
Standard VPS; configure anything on Linux; no managed abstraction layer constraining choices.
Performance4/5
Competitive hardware at low cost; dedicated and VPS servers deliver strong baseline performance.
Portability4/5
Standard Linux VPS; highly portable with no managed-service abstraction to escape.
About Hetzner
Hetzner is a German hosting and data center company founded in 1997 and one of the best-known low-cost infrastructure providers in Europe. It sells cloud servers, dedicated servers, and storage from data centers in Falkenstein and Nuremberg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Ashburn and Hillsboro (USA), and Singapore, with GDPR-compliant hosting in its EU regions and all data centers running on renewable energy.
Hetzner Cloud offers four VPS lines: CX (cost-optimized Intel), CAX (Arm64), CPX (AMD EPYC), and CCX (dedicated vCPU), billed hourly with a monthly cap and generous included traffic, plus Load Balancers, Volumes, Snapshots, Object Storage, private networks, and firewalls. Servers are managed through the Cloud Console, a REST API, the hcloud CLI, and a widely used Terraform provider.
Dedicated servers come in standardized lines (AX with AMD Ryzen, EX with Intel, RX with Arm64, SX for storage, GEX with GPUs, and DX with Dell hardware), each in -1, -2, and -3 tiers plus a lower-cost -1-Ltd option, and the Server Auction sells pre-owned hardware at a discount. Storage Box adds 1 to 20 TB of backup storage reachable over FTP, SFTP, rsync, Samba, and WebDAV.
Hetzner raised cloud prices in 2026, most sharply on dedicated-vCPU and AMD instances, but it remains far cheaper than AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure for raw compute. The trade-off is scope: there are no managed databases, no serverless platform, and no managed ML services, so it suits teams comfortable running their own software on infrastructure they control.
Key Features
- Cloud VPS lines: CX (Intel), CAX (Arm64), CPX (AMD), and CCX (dedicated vCPU)
- Hourly billing with a monthly cap and large included traffic
- Dedicated servers in AX, EX, RX, SX, GEX, and DX lines with -1/-2/-3 tiers
- Server Auction for discounted pre-owned dedicated hardware
- Storage Box backup storage from 1 to 20 TB
- Load Balancers, Volumes, Object Storage, private networks, and firewalls
- Data centers in Germany, Finland, the US, and Singapore
- REST API, hcloud CLI, and Terraform provider
Pros
- Far cheaper than AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure for raw compute and storage
- Transparent pricing with hourly billing and a monthly cap
- Strong price-to-performance on NVMe-backed servers
- EU data residency in Germany and Finland
- Arm64 (CAX) servers cut costs further for compatible workloads
- Well supported by Terraform and self-hosting platforms such as Coolify and Dokploy
Cons
- Few regions compared with the major clouds
- No managed databases, serverless platform, or ML services
- 2026 price rises narrowed the gap with other providers, especially on dedicated-vCPU instances
- Support is slower and less hands-on than the big clouds' paid support plans
- Less documentation and fewer tutorials than the big clouds
- Migrating away involves manual work
Hetzner Pricing
Paid- · 1 TB (BX11) to 20 TB (BX41), with FTP, SFTP, rsync, Samba, and WebDAV access
- · Price shown is for BX11, in EUR per month
- · 2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe, 20 TB traffic
- · Price in EUR per month
- · 2 shared Arm64 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe
- · Price in EUR per month
- · 2 AMD EPYC vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe, 20 TB traffic
- · Price in EUR per month
- · 2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM
- · Price in EUR per month
- · AX, EX, RX, SX, GEX, and DX lines in -1/-2/-3 tiers, plus -1-Ltd
- · Reduced one-time setup fees
- · Prices vary by model; see Hetzner's Server Finder
- · Bid-based marketplace for discounted pre-owned dedicated servers
Tech Stacks with Hetzner
MERN Stack
ProjectMongoDB, Express, React, Node.js: the classic JavaScript full-stack. A well-trodden path with massive community support and job-market demand.
Frontend
Programming
Databases
Hosting
Authentication
Python Web (FastAPI + React)
ProjectA clean separation of concerns: React on the frontend, FastAPI serving a typed REST API, and PostgreSQL for persistent storage (MySQL, MariaDB, and serverless Postgres hosts are also available). Docker keeps environments consistent.
Python Dashboard Starter
ProjectEverything a beginner data scientist needs: Python + pandas for analysis, Streamlit (or Panel or Dash) for interactive apps, and PostgreSQL for structured data storage.
Tools Related to Hetzner
Works well with Hetzner(7)
MySQL is commonly self-hosted on Hetzner VPS instances as part of LAMP stacks or containerised application deployments; Hetzner's cost-efficient dedicated and cloud servers make it a popular European hosting target for MySQL.
MariaDB is commonly self-hosted on Hetzner VPS instances, particularly in European deployments where it ships as the default MySQL replacement in Debian and Ubuntu packages.
Hetzner's affordable VPS instances are one of the most common targets for running Coolify, a self-hosted PaaS installed on top of a server rather than a hosting provider itself — the same pattern already used for Docker/PostgreSQL/Kubernetes self-hosted on Hetzner.
Hetzner is a natural fit for installing Dokploy on: a raw VPS that Dokploy then turns into a managed-feeling PaaS deploy target.
Hetzner is a popular VPS provider for self-hosting NGINX as the reverse proxy in front of Dockerized applications.
Hetzner is a popular VPS provider for self-hosting Traefik as the reverse proxy that auto-discovers routes for Dockerized applications.
Alternatives to Hetzner(11)
Hetzner and DigitalOcean are the closest alternatives for budget-conscious cloud deployments; Hetzner offers lower per-CPU cost while DigitalOcean brings a richer managed services ecosystem.
Hetzner and Hostinger both offer affordable European VPS hosting; Hetzner provides higher specs per euro for technical users while Hostinger adds beginner-friendly tools like hPanel and one-click WordPress.
A Hetzner VPS gives a datacenter connection, a public IP, and room to grow for a few euros a month; a Raspberry Pi is a one-time purchase that runs at home on a few watts. Choose Hetzner when uptime matters, the Pi when you want no monthly bill and data on your own hardware.
Hetzner is affordable EU VPS and bare-metal compute; Render is a higher-abstraction PaaS — Hetzner is cheaper raw compute but requires managing infrastructure, Render handles everything above the container with flat-rate pricing.
Different tiers — AWS is a full managed cloud platform, Hetzner provides affordable EU-based VPS/dedicated servers with no managed services.
Different tiers — Azure is a full managed cloud platform, Hetzner provides affordable EU-based bare-metal and VPS hosting.
Vendor
Hetzner
Website →Tags
Details
- Maintained
- Yes
- Type
- VPS
- Regions
- Germany (Falkenstein, Nuremberg), Finland (Helsinki)
- CDN
- No
- SSL
- Yes
- Scaling
- Manual
- Free tier
- No