OVH vs Hetzner: Complete 2026 Comparison

Europe’s two biggest VPS providers go head-to-head. OVH (now OVHcloud) is the French hosting giant with global reach, while Hetzner is the German value king. Both offer excellent infrastructure — but which one deserves your money?

Quick Verdict

Category	Winner
Pricing	🏆 Hetzner (cheaper across the board)
Performance	🏆 Hetzner (newer AMD CPUs)
Global Reach	🏆 OVH (more data centers worldwide)
Control Panel	🏆 Hetzner (cleaner, simpler)
Dedicated Servers	🏆 OVH (massive catalog)
DDoS Protection	🏆 OVH (included on all plans)
Best Value	🏆 Hetzner

TL;DR: Hetzner wins on VPS pricing and performance. OVH wins on global infrastructure and dedicated server variety. For cloud VPS, Hetzner is the better pick.

Pricing Comparison

Both are considered budget-friendly, but Hetzner pulls ahead:

Specs	OVH (Starter)	Hetzner	Savings with Hetzner
1 vCPU, 2GB RAM	€3.50/mo	€3.29/mo	6%
2 vCPU, 4GB RAM	€9.50/mo	€6.49/mo	32%
4 vCPU, 8GB RAM	€18.50/mo	€14.99/mo	19%
8 vCPU, 16GB RAM	€36.50/mo	€29.99/mo	18%

At entry-level the prices are close, but Hetzner gets significantly cheaper as you scale up. The gap widens on higher-tier plans.

Bandwidth

• OVH: Unmetered bandwidth on most plans (fair use)
• Hetzner: 20TB included, €1/TB overage

OVH’s unmetered bandwidth is a genuine advantage for bandwidth-heavy workloads.

Storage

• OVH: NVMe SSD on all VPS plans
• Hetzner: NVMe SSD on all cloud plans

Both include generous SSD storage. OVH tends to include more disk per plan.

Performance Benchmarks

Testing on comparable plans (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM):

Metric	OVH	Hetzner
Geekbench 6 (single)	~1,050	~1,250
Geekbench 6 (multi)	~3,500	~4,200
Disk Read (MB/s)	~350	~450
Disk Write (MB/s)	~300	~400
Network (public)	500 Mbps – 2 Gbps	1 Gbps

Hetzner’s AMD EPYC processors consistently outperform OVH’s mixed Intel/AMD fleet. Hetzner also uses newer generation NVMe drives with better IOPS.

Data Center Locations

OVH (30+ locations):

• Europe: France (Gravelines, Strasbourg, Roubaix), UK, Germany, Poland, Spain
• North America: US (Hillsboro, Vint Hill), Canada (Beauharnois)
• Asia Pacific: Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai
• Other: Brazil, Warsaw

Hetzner (5 regions):

• Europe: Nuremberg, Falkenstein, Helsinki
• US: Ashburn (Virginia), Hillsboro (Oregon)

Winner: OVH by a mile. If you need servers in Asia, South America, or across many European countries, OVH has the footprint. Hetzner is limited to Germany, Finland, and the US.

Features Comparison

OVH Advantages

1. Global Network — Own backbone, 30+ data centers
2. DDoS Protection — Included free on all servers (VAC mitigation)
3. Dedicated Servers — Massive catalog from budget to enterprise
4. Unmetered Bandwidth — No transfer limits on most plans
5. Private Cloud — OpenStack-based hosted private cloud
6. Bare Metal Cloud — On-demand dedicated servers
7. Object Storage — S3-compatible storage

Hetzner Advantages

1. Pricing — Cheaper VPS across all tiers
2. Modern Hardware — Latest AMD EPYC CPUs
3. Clean API & UI — Simple, developer-friendly
4. Volumes — Cheap block storage (€0.044/GB)
5. Load Balancers — €5.39/mo
6. Floating IPs — Free failover IPs
7. Terraform Provider — Excellent infrastructure-as-code support

Feature Matrix

Feature	OVH	Hetzner
DDoS Protection	✅ (excellent)	✅ (basic)
Object Storage	✅	❌
Block Storage	✅	✅ (cheaper)
Load Balancers	✅	✅ (cheaper)
Managed Kubernetes	✅	❌
Managed Databases	✅	❌
Firewalls	✅	✅
Snapshots	✅	✅ (cheaper)
Backups	✅	✅
Private Network	✅ vRack	✅ vSwitch
API	✅	✅
Terraform	✅	✅
Dedicated Servers	✅ (huge range)	✅ (limited)

Developer Experience

OVH

OVH’s control panel has improved but remains complex. The sheer number of products can be overwhelming:

# OVH CLI (ovh-cli)
ovh cloud project instance create \
  --name my-server \
  --flavor b2-7 \
  --image "Ubuntu 22.04" \
  --region GRA11

The API is comprehensive but the documentation is scattered across multiple portals. Billing can be confusing with different currencies and commitment discounts.

Hetzner

Clean, minimal interface. Everything is where you’d expect:

# hcloud CLI
hcloud server create \
  --name my-server \
  --type cx31 \
  --image ubuntu-22.04 \
  --location nbg1

Hetzner’s API documentation is clear and concise. The Cloud Console is fast and intuitive.

Reliability & Incidents

OVH: Had a major data center fire in Strasbourg (March 2021) that destroyed SBG2 and damaged SBG1. Millions of websites went offline. They’ve since improved fire safety and redundancy, but the incident shook trust.

Hetzner: No comparable major incidents. Steady, reliable track record over decades.

Both maintain 99.9%+ uptime SLAs on cloud products.

Support

OVH:

• Ticket support included
• Premium support plans (€29.99/mo+)
• Large knowledge base
• Community forum

Hetzner:

• Ticket support (business hours CET)
• Direct, efficient responses (German style)
• Good documentation
• Smaller but helpful community

OVH offers more support tiers, but Hetzner’s free support is arguably more responsive for basic issues.

When to Choose OVH

✅ You need servers in Asia, South America, or many European countries ✅ DDoS protection is critical for your workload ✅ You want dedicated servers with huge configuration options ✅ Unmetered bandwidth matters (streaming, CDN origin, etc.) ✅ You need managed Kubernetes or databases ✅ You’re running a private cloud (OpenStack)

When to Choose Hetzner

✅ Best price-to-performance ratio is your priority ✅ You’re serving Europe or the US ✅ You want a clean, modern developer experience ✅ You prefer straightforward billing ✅ You manage your own stack ✅ You value infrastructure-as-code (Terraform)

Our Recommendation

For most VPS users: Hetzner.

Hetzner offers better performance at lower prices with a cleaner experience. Unless you specifically need OVH’s global reach or DDoS protection, Hetzner is the smarter choice.

But consider Hostinger if you want the easiest onboarding with great value — plans start at $4.99/mo with managed features that neither OVH nor Hetzner offer at that price. Our best VPS in Europe guide covers all the top European providers.

Use Case	Recommended
Budget VPS	Hetzner or Hostinger
Global presence needed	OVH
DDoS-sensitive workloads	OVH
Developer/DevOps	Hetzner
Dedicated servers	OVH
Docker/self-hosted apps	Hetzner
Bandwidth-heavy apps	OVH

FAQ

Is OVH reliable after the fire incident?

Yes. OVH has invested heavily in safety improvements since 2021. Their non-Strasbourg data centers were unaffected and maintain excellent uptime.

Can I migrate from OVH to Hetzner?

Yes. Use snapshots or rsync to transfer data. Both support standard Linux images, so migration is straightforward.

Which has better peering in Europe?

Both have excellent European connectivity. OVH owns their backbone network, which gives them an edge for cross-region traffic. Hetzner has top-tier peering in Germany.

Does OVH charge for incoming traffic?

No. Like Hetzner, incoming traffic is free. Outgoing traffic is unmetered on most OVH plans.

Which is better for GDPR compliance?

Both are EU-based and GDPR compliant. Hetzner is German, OVH is French. Either is a strong choice for EU data residency.

Can I get GPU servers from either?

OVH offers GPU instances (NVIDIA). Hetzner does not currently offer GPU cloud servers, though they have some dedicated GPU options.