Vultr
More global locations. Better choice outside Europe.
Provider profile · Observed 2026-03-10
Hetzner 💰 Best EU value
Germany's most respected cloud provider and the undisputed value champion in Europe. For EU-focused deployments, Hetzner offers performance and price that other providers in this tier simply can't match.
Who should consider Hetzner?
One-line verdict: Hetzner is the obvious choice for any project where the primary or sole deployment region is Europe — you'll pay 40–70% less than comparable providers.
Typical users
- European startups and indie developers building for EU users
- Cost-conscious teams who need reliable cloud without enterprise pricing
- Chinese companies expanding to European markets (good EU data residency, GDPR-friendly)
- Developers who want dedicated AMD or ARM CPUs for less money
- Teams running CPU- or I/O-intensive workloads on a budget
Why people choose Hetzner
Hetzner's cloud platform is no longer just a German bargain host — it's a genuinely well-engineered product that happens to be priced dramatically lower than its competitors. The control panel (Hetzner Cloud Console) is clean and functional. The API is solid. Provisioning is fast.
The price gap is real and persistent. Hetzner's CX32 (4 GB, 4 vCPU) runs around €7.52/mo. A comparable Linode 4 GB plan is $20/mo. A Vultr 4 GB instance is $24/mo. For the same workload, the savings compound significantly at scale.
Hetzner also offers dedicated servers (their core historical product) at prices that make cloud providers blush. If you've maxed out VPS efficiency, their root servers are worth exploring.
Key strengths
- Best price-to-performance ratio in Europe, by a large margin
- Consistent, reliable performance — no shared-CPU lottery games
- Clean UI, solid API, good Terraform and CLI support
- AMD and ARM server options for specialized workloads
- Private networking and firewalls included at no extra cost
- Excellent reputation in the European developer community
Representative pricing
Hetzner Cloud CX series (shared vCPU, Intel/AMD) — observed 2026-03-10. Prices in EUR ex-VAT. Recheck before purchase.
| Plan | RAM | vCPU | Storage | Traffic | Price/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CX22 | 2 GB | 2 | 40 GB SSD | 20 TB | €4.35 |
| CX32 | 4 GB | 4 | 80 GB SSD | 20 TB | €7.52 |
| CX42 | 8 GB | 8 | 160 GB SSD | 20 TB | €14.34 |
| CX52 | 16 GB | 16 | 320 GB SSD | 20 TB | €28.50 |
All plans include 20 TB outbound traffic — exceptionally generous. ARM64 (CAX series) plans are available at similar or lower prices. Dedicated CPU (CCX series) plans are available for CPU-intensive workloads. IPv4 now costs €0.60/mo extra per address.
Datacenter locations
Hetzner's strength is depth in Europe, not global breadth. Non-EU locations are newer and fewer.
Europe Excellent
Nuremberg, DEFalkenstein, DE
Helsinki, FI
North America Limited
Ashburn, VA (US East)Hillsboro, OR (US West)
Asia-Pacific Limited
Singapore
Europe: Three well-distributed European locations with redundant routing. Ideal for GDPR compliance and EU user latency. US: East Coast (Ashburn) and West Coast (Hillsboro) coverage is serviceable but limited — no US mid-tier city options. Asia: Singapore is the only Asia-Pacific location — adequate for SEA, less ideal for Tokyo/Seoul latency. No Japanese node yet.
What the headline price doesn't include
- IPv4 address: Hetzner now charges €0.60/mo per IPv4 address — a recent change that surprised many users. IPv6 is still free. For most deployments, this is minor, but worth knowing.
- Snapshots: €0.012/GB/month. A 160 GB snapshot costs ~€1.92/mo. Very cheap compared to competitors, but not free.
- Backups: Automatic backups cost 20% of the server price. On a €7.52/mo server, that's ~€1.50/mo.
- Traffic overages: 20 TB included traffic is more than most users will ever consume. Overages are €1.19/TB — well priced even if you do exceed the limit.
- No Windows option: Hetzner does not offer licensed Windows images for cloud servers. If you need Windows, look elsewhere.
- VAT for EU customers: Published prices are ex-VAT. EU businesses add their local VAT rate. For German customers, that's +19%.
- Support: No phone support. Ticket-based only. Response times are generally reasonable but this is not a 24/7 hands-on support provider.
Practical note: Even with IPv4 and backups added, Hetzner typically costs 40–60% less than US-based competitors for European deployments.
When Hetzner makes sense
- Primary deployment region is Europe (Germany, Finland, or nearby)
- EU data residency is a compliance requirement (GDPR, data localization)
- Cost-sensitive workloads where spec-per-euro matters significantly
- High-traffic applications where 20 TB of included traffic is actually useful
- CPU-intensive processing that benefits from AMD Epyc or ARM options
- Expanding from Asia to Europe — Hetzner makes EU infrastructure cheap to test
- Any project where you'd be comparing to Vultr or Linode for EU nodes
When Hetzner is not the right call
- Primary users are in Asia — Singapore is the only AP node, and Tokyo/Seoul are missing
- You need Windows Server — not available on Hetzner Cloud
- US West Coast or mid-tier US regions are required (only Ashburn and Hillsboro)
- You need 24/7 phone support or enterprise SLAs — Hetzner is a self-service provider
- You need 10+ global regions under one account — Vultr or Linode handle this better
Hetzner vs. the competition
Hetzner vs. Vultr
For European deployments, Hetzner wins decisively on price. CX32 at €7.52/mo vs. Vultr's $24/mo for 4 GB — nearly 3× cheaper. Vultr's advantage is global node coverage: Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, Miami, and other locations Hetzner doesn't offer.
Bottom line: EU-only or EU-primary? Hetzner. Need Asia or multi-continent? Vultr.
Hetzner vs. Contabo
Contabo offers even larger specs for less money on paper — their VPS S gives 4 GB RAM for €4.99/mo. But the comparison isn't just spec sheets. Hetzner's performance is consistent and well-documented. Contabo's performance benchmarks vary considerably and user experiences with support are mixed.
Bottom line: Hetzner for reliable production workloads. Contabo for non-critical workloads where you've tested and verified the actual performance yourself.
One-line conclusion
For European deployments where cost efficiency matters, Hetzner is very hard to beat — it delivers reliable performance at prices that undercut every major competitor by a wide margin.
Ready to check current pricing and availability?
Check Hetzner plans ↗Opens Hetzner's official site. Pricing may have changed since our snapshot.