How it works
Hetzner runs its own data centres in Germany and Finland and has cloud locations in the US (Virginia and Oregon) and Singapore. Hetzner Cloud sells virtual servers billed by the hour with a monthly cap, plus load balancers, firewalls, volumes and S3-compatible object storage. Separately it rents whole dedicated servers, including older hardware through a server auction.
It has long been known for low prices on plenty of CPU and memory, with 20 TB of traffic included on EU cloud servers. In 2026 it raised prices, sharply for dedicated-CPU plans, and stock of its cheapest cloud tier is limited. Support and extras are leaner than at AWS or DigitalOcean, and new customers may be asked to verify their identity.
Hetzner pros and cons
Pros
- Plenty of CPU, memory and traffic for the money
- Hourly billing with a monthly cap
- EU data centres, useful when data should stay in the EU
- Dedicated servers for heavy, steady workloads
Cons
- Prices rose sharply in 2026, and the cheapest tier has limited stock
- Few managed services beyond servers, storage and networking
- Few locations outside Europe, and none in India
When to use Hetzner
Pick it when
- Self-hosting apps, databases or tools on a budget
- European audiences, or data that should stay in the EU
- Heavy steady workloads that suit a dedicated server
Skip it when
- Your users are mainly in India and latency matters
- You want managed services rather than servers to look after
Hetzner pricing
Paid
Billed hourly with a monthly cap and 20 TB of EU traffic. The smallest shared server (CX23) lists at about €5.49 a month before VAT and IPv4, when in stock; dedicated-CPU plans cost far more.
Hetzner pricing page (opens in a new tab)Approximate, checked September 2026.What the other tools cost
Related terms
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