Hetzner

What is Hetzner?

Hetzner Online is a German-based hosting company offering dedicated servers, virtual private servers (VPS), cloud services, and colocation.
Founded in 1997, Hetzner has built a strong reputation for providing powerful hardware at very competitive prices, making it a preferred choice for developers, startups, and enterprises across Europe and beyond.

Known for its no-nonsense approach, Hetzner combines high-quality infrastructure with affordable pricing, and is especially strong in bare-metal servers and cost-efficient cloud platforms.

Key Features

• Dedicated servers: Wide range of configurations, from affordable entry-level machines to enterprise-grade hardware.

• Hetzner Cloud: Scalable, simple cloud instances (CPX, CX, CCX types) with hourly billing.

• Block storage and volumes: Attach additional storage dynamically to cloud instances.

• Load balancers: Managed load balancers for distributing traffic across multiple instances.

• Networking: Private networking (vSwitch), floating IPs, and primary IP assignment.

• Data centers: Located in Germany (Nuremberg, Falkenstein) and Finland (Helsinki), with eco-friendly operations.

• Backup services: Snapshots, daily backups, and FTP backup spaces.

• Rescue system: Boot servers into a recovery environment for troubleshooting.

• Storage boxes: Affordable, secure online storage with FTP, SFTP, WebDAV access.

• Failover IPs: For high availability and server migrations.

• Powerful API: Full control over cloud servers and resources via RESTful API.

Technical Foundation

• Hardware: Enterprise-grade CPUs (Intel Xeon, AMD EPYC), ECC memory, and fast SSD or NVMe storage.

• Virtualization: KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for VPS; container support with Docker, Kubernetes on custom setups.

• Storage: Local NVMe SSDs or network block storage with high redundancy.

• Compliance: GDPR compliant, ISO 27001 certified data centers.

• Energy efficiency: High focus on green energy usage and efficient cooling systems.

Use Cases

• Developers and tech startups: Cost-effective, high-performance hosting for applications, SaaS platforms, and APIs.

• Hosting providers and resellers: Renting and reselling dedicated servers or cloud instances.

• Media streaming: Hosting video streaming platforms, download servers, or file storage services.

• E-commerce: Running scalable and reliable online shops.

• Internal business applications: Hosting ERPs, CRMs, or other internal tools.

• High-traffic websites: Deploying performance-optimized web servers for blogs, forums, news sites.

Pricing

Hetzner is known for offering some of the best price-to-performance ratios in the industry:

• Dedicated servers: Starting from around €40/month for entry-level models; high-end models cost €100–€200+ depending on specs.

• Hetzner Cloud: VPS instances start at €3.49/month (1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB disk).

• Block storage: Around €0.048/GB/month.

• Load balancers: Start at €5.83/month.

• Snapshots and backups: Snapshots cost €0.01/GB/month; automatic backups are about 20% of instance cost.

• Traffic allowance: Generous free limits (20 TB/month for Cloud instances); very affordable extra bandwidth fees.

Billing details:

• Hourly or monthly for cloud services.

• Fixed monthly rates for dedicated servers.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Very affordable compared to AWS, Azure, or even DigitalOcean for similar specs

• High-performance hardware (bare-metal power available at low cost)

• GDPR-compliant with German and Finnish jurisdiction

• Straightforward, simple-to-use control panels

• Good API support for automation

• Eco-friendly data center operations

• Flexible upgrades (e.g., adding extra IPs, storage volumes)

Cons:

• Limited global presence (only Europe-based data centers)

• No managed database, Kubernetes, or serverless offerings (raw infrastructure only)

• Customer support is efficient but not deeply personalized unless you pay for additional management

• No English-speaking telephone support (email/ticket system only)

• Additional services (like backups) must be configured manually

How It Differs From Alternatives

• Versus DigitalOcean: Hetzner is often cheaper for similar CPU and memory configurations; DigitalOcean offers a broader managed services ecosystem.

• Versus AWS: AWS offers an extensive range of services (databases, AI/ML, analytics), whereas Hetzner focuses on affordable compute, storage, and networking.

• Versus Vultr: Hetzner Cloud provides better specs for the price, but Vultr has more global locations.

• Versus UpCloud: UpCloud offers slightly better disk I/O (MaxIOPS), but Hetzner is unbeatable on pure cost for raw CPU and RAM power.

• Versus OVHcloud: Both offer affordable servers; Hetzner is more popular for simplicity, OVHcloud has wider geographical spread.

Typical Metrics and Data You Can Track

• CPU and RAM usage

• Disk throughput and IOPS

• Network traffic per server or cloud instance

• Number and status of snapshots and backups

• Billing reports (per hour, day, month)

• Server health and rescue system usage

• Load balancer statistics (if used)

Best Practices for Using Hetzner

• Use snapshots before major updates: Manual or automated snapshots help in quick rollbacks.

• Set up private networking: Use vSwitch for secure internal communications between instances.

• Monitor resource usage: Especially bandwidth if running high-traffic apps.

• Automate deployments: Use the Hetzner Cloud API with Terraform, Ansible, or custom scripts.

• Secure your servers: Use strong SSH keys, configure firewalls (Hetzner offers basic firewall services).

• Implement backup strategies: Offload critical data to Hetzner’s Storage Boxes or external backup systems.

• Plan for location: Choose Nuremberg, Falkenstein, or Helsinki based on your user base (Helsinki can offer better latency for Asia-Pacific than Germany).