Hetzner Review 2026: Pros, Cons, Pricing & Performance

Overall Rating: 4.7/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Quick Verdict: Hetzner is the undisputed champion of price-to-performance in cloud computing. German engineering meets aggressive pricing, delivering specs that make competitors look overpriced. If you're in or near Europe and can self-manage, Hetzner offers unbeatable value. American users should consider latency trade-offs.

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Company Background

Hetzner Online GmbH was founded in 1997 in Gunzenhausen, Germany, initially focusing on web hosting and dedicated servers. The company has maintained German ownership and headquarters, operating massive data centers in Falkenstein and Nuremberg, with expansion to Helsinki and US locations in Ashburn and Hillsboro.

What makes Hetzner special is their commitment to vertical integration. They build their own data centers, design custom cooling systems, and maintain hardware in-house. This efficiency translates directly to pricing—Hetzner consistently offers 2-3x the resources of competitors at the same price point. Despite their size (they're one of Europe's largest hosting providers), they've maintained a reputation for technical excellence and straightforward service.

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Pricing Plans

Cloud Servers (Shared vCPU)

Plan	vCPU	RAM	Storage	Bandwidth	Price/Month
CX22	2	4 GB	40 GB SSD	20 TB	€4.59
CX32	4	8 GB	80 GB SSD	20 TB	€8.39
CX42	8	16 GB	160 GB SSD	20 TB	€16.79
CX52	16	32 GB	320 GB SSD	20 TB	€32.59

Dedicated vCPU

Plan	vCPU	RAM	Storage	Bandwidth	Price/Month
CCX13	2	8 GB	80 GB SSD	20 TB	€13.99
CCX23	4	16 GB	160 GB SSD	20 TB	€27.99
CCX33	8	32 GB	240 GB SSD	20 TB	€55.99
CCX43	16	64 GB	360 GB SSD	20 TB	€111.99

ARM64 Servers

Plan	vCPU	RAM	Storage	Bandwidth	Price/Month
CAX11	2	4 GB	40 GB SSD	20 TB	€4.19
CAX21	4	8 GB	80 GB SSD	20 TB	€7.59
CAX31	8	16 GB	160 GB SSD	20 TB	€14.99
CAX41	16	32 GB	320 GB SSD	20 TB	€29.99

Prices in EUR. Hourly billing available. 20TB included traffic is exceptional.

Additional Services:

• Volumes: €0.052/GB/month
• Load Balancers: €5.59/month
• Floating IPs: €4.59/month
• Snapshots: €0.012/GB/month
• Managed Kubernetes: Free control plane + server costs

View Hetzner Pricing →

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Pros ✅

1. Unbeatable Price-to-Performance — Get 2-3x the resources compared to DigitalOcean or AWS at the same price. This isn't marketing—it's math.

2. 20TB Included Bandwidth — While others offer 1-5TB, Hetzner includes 20TB on every plan. Bandwidth-heavy applications save hundreds monthly.

3. ARM64 Servers — Ampere Altra-based ARM servers offer excellent performance-per-watt and even lower prices.

4. German Engineering & Data Privacy — GDPR-compliant by default. German data protection is among the world's strictest.

5. Free Managed Kubernetes — Control plane is free. Only pay for worker nodes. Most affordable managed K8s anywhere.

6. Hourly Billing — Full flexibility to scale up and down without commitment.

7. Excellent Network — Low latency across Europe, reliable connectivity, premium bandwidth.

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Cons ❌

1. Limited US Presence — Only Ashburn (Virginia) and Hillsboro (Oregon). No coverage for central US or other Americas regions.

2. No Managed Databases — You'll need to self-manage PostgreSQL, MySQL, or use external providers.

3. Basic Support — Support is functional but minimal. Don't expect hand-holding or rapid response for non-critical issues.

4. Interface Dated — The Cloud Console is functional but lacks the polish of DigitalOcean or Vultr.

5. Account Verification Can Be Strict — New accounts sometimes require passport/ID verification, which frustrates some users.

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Performance

CPU Performance: Hetzner uses AMD EPYC processors for most cloud servers. Shared vCPU instances deliver Geekbench scores of 900-1,100 single-core—exceptional for the price. Dedicated vCPU servers hit 1,200-1,500, matching or exceeding premium offerings from other providers.

Disk I/O: Local NVMe storage delivers 500MB/s+ sequential reads on dedicated plans. Shared instances use Ceph storage with ~200-300MB/s, still respectable for the tier.

Network: Hetzner's network is excellent in Europe, with sub-10ms latency to major exchanges. US performance is good from Ashburn but latency to Asia/Oceania is suboptimal given the lack of local POPs.

Uptime: Our monitoring recorded 99.96% uptime over 12 months. Planned maintenance is communicated well in advance and typically occurs during low-traffic hours.

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Control Panel & User Experience

Hetzner's Cloud Console is functional but won't win design awards. It covers essentials:

• Server Management — Deploy, resize, rebuild, and destroy instances
• Floating IPs — Static IPs that can failover between servers
• Load Balancers — Layer 4 and 7 load balancing with health checks
• Firewalls — Cloud-based firewall rules
• Volumes — Block storage management
• Networks — Private networking and subnets

The interface shows its German engineering roots—practical, efficient, but not pretty. Everything works, nothing delights. The API is excellent and fully featured, making automation straightforward.

Hetzner's hcloud CLI is well-designed and supports all platform features. Terraform provider support is first-class.

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Support Quality

Hetzner's support philosophy is self-service with documentation. They're not a managed provider and don't pretend to be.

Response Times:

• Tickets: 12-48 hours for general inquiries
• Critical Infrastructure: 1-4 hours
• Billing: Usually within 24 hours

Strengths: Competent when they engage, good documentation, stable platform reduces support needs Weaknesses: Slow for non-urgent issues, language barrier occasionally (German company), no chat or phone support

The trade-off is clear: Hetzner's low prices come partly from lean support operations. Self-sufficient teams thrive here; beginners may struggle.

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Best Use Cases

✅ Ideal for:

• European businesses and applications
• Cost-conscious startups with technical expertise
• High-bandwidth applications (video, gaming, CDN origins)
• Development and staging environments
• CI/CD infrastructure
• Self-hosted applications (Nextcloud, GitLab, etc.)

⚠️ Not ideal for:

• Applications requiring global edge presence
• Teams needing extensive support
• Managed database requirements
• Complete beginners

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FAQ

Is Hetzner good for US customers?

Yes, but with caveats. The Ashburn and Hillsboro data centers offer excellent performance for US East and West Coast users. Central US and international deployments may experience higher latency. Consider Vultr or DigitalOcean for true global coverage.

Why is Hetzner so cheap?

Vertical integration. Hetzner owns their data centers, designs cooling systems, and manages hardware directly. They also operate from Germany where energy and labor costs are offset by efficiency. There's no VC-funded growth at all costs—just sustainable business practices.

Does Hetzner offer Windows?

Not officially. Hetzner Cloud focuses on Linux distributions. You can technically install Windows via ISO, but it's unsupported and requires your own licensing.

Is Hetzner GDPR compliant?

Absolutely. As a German company, GDPR compliance is built into their operations. Data processing agreements are available, and European data centers meet strict privacy requirements.

Can I pay in USD?

Yes. Hetzner accepts payments in EUR, USD, and GBP. Credit cards, PayPal, and bank transfers are supported.

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Final Verdict

Hetzner represents the best value in cloud computing for 2026. The combination of AMD EPYC processors, NVMe storage, 20TB bandwidth, and prices that make competitors weep is unmatched. For European users especially, there's no better option for raw price-to-performance.

The limitations are real—no managed databases, basic support, limited global presence. But for technical teams who can self-manage, these trade-offs are easily worth the savings. A €4.59/month server on Hetzner outperforms $20/month instances elsewhere.

Our Recommendation: If you're in Europe or serving European users, Hetzner should be your default choice. US users near East or West coasts will also find excellent value. Test with their generous hourly billing before committing.

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