Hetzner is the host with a cult following. Famously cheap, German-precision-built, and absolutely beloved by anyone who's discovered that you can rent a 16-thread bare-metal server for €40/month. Compared to American hosts, Hetzner's pricing seems too good to be true. It mostly isn't — but there are real trade-offs that don't show up on the pricing page. This is the comparison you actually need before signing up.
What we compare
TL;DR — the short answer
Hetzner has the best price-per-spec in the industry. Their CCX dedicated-CPU cloud line and bare-metal servers are essentially impossible to match on price. If you're a European user with a workload that fits in their European data centers, Hetzner is hard to argue against on cost.
OliveVPS wins for global reach (20 regions including Asia, Middle East, South America), customer support style (phone/chat at all tiers, English-first), and DDoS protection (included on every plan vs. Hetzner's add-on model). For non-European users, latency makes Hetzner difficult to justify.
Pricing
Hetzner Cloud (CX shared CPU and CCX dedicated CPU lines) pricing in EUR. Approximate USD conversions for comparison:
| Specs | OliveVPS | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU shared, 2GB RAM, 40GB SSD | — | €3.79/mo (~$4) — CX22 |
| 2 vCPU dedicated, 4GB RAM, 80GB SSD | $15.99/mo | €11.90/mo (~$13) — CCX13 |
| 4 vCPU dedicated, 8GB RAM, 160GB SSD | $29.99/mo | €21.30/mo (~$23) — CCX23 |
| 8 vCPU dedicated, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD | $59.99/mo | €42.30/mo (~$46) — CCX33 |
Hetzner is meaningfully cheaper at every tier — typically 20-40% off our prices for matching dedicated-CPU specs. There's no honest way to spin this differently. If pure base price is your only criterion, Hetzner wins.
Why Hetzner is so cheap
Three structural reasons. First, they own their data centers in Germany and Finland — no third-party colo costs. Second, they buy hardware at colossal volume. Third, they operate with much lower per-customer overhead — minimal phone support, no salespeople, lean ops.
The cheapness isn't a trick. The hardware is real. The trade-offs are about everything around the hardware.
Hardware
CPU
Hetzner CX (shared) and CCX (dedicated) lines run on AMD EPYC, Intel Xeon, and Ampere ARM (CAX line) processors depending on tier and region. Their dedicated-CPU lines have genuinely good single-thread performance.
OliveVPS uses AMD EPYC dedicated cores across all plans. Single-thread performance is comparable to Hetzner CCX.
Storage
Hetzner uses NVMe SSDs across their cloud line. Equivalent to ours.
RAM
ECC server-grade memory on both. Equivalent.
The hardware verdict. Hetzner runs equivalent or sometimes better hardware than American hosts at lower prices. The hardware is not the trade-off. The trade-off is everywhere else.
Regions and the Europe factor
Hetzner's data centers: Falkenstein (Germany), Nuremberg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Ashburn (USA), Hillsboro (USA), Singapore. That's it. Six locations.
OliveVPS has 20 regions covering all major population centers globally. All locations →
For European users, Hetzner's German DCs are excellent (low-latency to most of Europe, best-in-class network peering). For US users, the two American DCs are decent. For everyone else — India, Middle East, South America, Australia, most of Asia — Hetzner is far away. A user in Mumbai pinging Hetzner Falkenstein eats 130-180ms, which is unworkable for many real-time workloads.
Hetzner is excellent if your users are in Europe. Adequate if they're in the US. Poor if they're anywhere else. Why region matters →
Network
| Aspect | OliveVPS | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Port speed | 10 Gbps shared | 1 Gbps standard, 10 Gbps higher tiers |
| Transfer included | 4-10 TB/mo | 20 TB/mo (most cloud plans) |
| Overage | $0.01/GB | €1/TB (~$0.001/GB) — cheapest in industry |
| DDoS protection | 10 Gbps included | Included on all servers (very effective) |
| IPv6 | /64 included | /64 included |
Hetzner's bandwidth is genuinely best-in-class economy. 20TB included on most plans plus pennies-per-GB overage means you can run heavy bandwidth workloads (media servers, mirrors, public file hosts) at absurdly low cost. Their DDoS protection is also legitimately strong — Hetzner has decades of experience absorbing attacks.
If your workload is bandwidth-heavy and your users are in Europe, Hetzner is hard to beat on this dimension alone.
Support and the language factor
Hetzner support is by ticket only. Response times are typically 4-12 hours, sometimes longer. The support staff is professional and competent — but it's German-business-style: precise, formal, sometimes terse, occasionally requiring you to phrase your question in their preferred way to get a useful answer. Support staff speak English fluently, but the cultural style is European, not American.
For experienced sysadmins, Hetzner support is fine — you usually don't need it, and when you do, the answers are accurate. For people who want a friendly hand-holding experience, Hetzner can feel cold.
OliveVPS offers phone, live chat, and tickets. Median response under 15 minutes during business hours. We staff Linux engineers who can SSH in (with permission) to debug. The style is American/conversational.
Hetzner-specific gotchas to know about
Things that don't show up on the pricing page but matter in practice.
Account verification can be aggressive
Hetzner sometimes requires identity verification (passport scan or government ID) before activating accounts, especially for non-EU customers or users from regions they consider higher-risk. This catches a lot of new signups by surprise. Some users report verification taking days; others sail through. It's a real thing to know about.
Strict AUP enforcement
Hetzner has strict and actively-enforced acceptable use policies. Tor exits, certain VPN use cases, anything that triggers abuse complaints — they'll suspend you fast. They're not unfair, but they're not flexible. Other hosts are more lax.
EU privacy law applies to your account
Hetzner is German. Your account, your billing, your support tickets are all under German/EU jurisdiction. Generally a benefit (GDPR protections), but worth knowing if you have specific data-residency or jurisdiction requirements.
No managed services
Hetzner is a pure infrastructure provider. No managed databases, no Kubernetes service, no app platform. They sell servers, not abstractions. If you want managed everything, look elsewhere.
Bare-metal pricing is genuinely amazing
This isn't a gotcha — it's worth knowing. Hetzner's dedicated server pricing (their bare-metal line, separate from cloud) is genuinely cheaper than anyone else's. A 16-thread Ryzen server with 64GB RAM and 1TB NVMe runs around €40/mo. If you can use a single server, the economics are unbeatable. VPS vs dedicated comparison →
Try OliveVPS for seven days
Hetzner-style honest hardware, plus 20 regions worldwide, real-time support, and a hosting company that actually picks up the phone. Starting at $3.99/mo.
See VPS Plans →Who wins for which use case
Pick Hetzner if
- Your users are in Europe (low-latency wins everything).
- Pure base price is your top priority.
- Bandwidth-heavy workload (20TB included, pennies overage).
- You're an experienced sysadmin who doesn't need hand-holding.
- You want bare-metal at the cheapest possible rate.
Pick OliveVPS if
- Your users are in India, Middle East, South America, East Asia, or anywhere outside Europe/US.
- You want phone or live chat support.
- You want included DDoS, included backups, and no surprise add-on fees.
- You prefer a friendlier, conversational support style.
- You appreciate a smaller host that responds faster to specific requests.
FAQ
Is Hetzner really that much cheaper, or am I missing something?
Genuinely cheaper. Their economics are unique — owned data centers in low-cost European regions, vertical integration, lean ops, no marketing budget. The savings are real. The trade-offs are in geography (Europe-centric) and support model (ticket only, sometimes slow), not in the hardware.
Can I run a server in Hetzner if I'm in India?
Technically yes; latency-wise, painfully. Mumbai → Hetzner Falkenstein is 130-180ms. Mumbai → OliveVPS Mumbai is sub-10ms. For interactive apps, real-time games, or any latency-sensitive workload, the difference is brutal.
Is Hetzner's identity verification a privacy concern?
They request government ID for some accounts as fraud prevention. Standard for most European hosts; less common in the US market. They store the documents under EU privacy law. If you're not comfortable with that, it's a friction point.
Can I migrate from Hetzner to OliveVPS?
Yes. Both run KVM-based Linux. Standard migration process: snapshot, deploy on the other side, restore data, update DNS. No special compatibility issues.
What about Hetzner's bare-metal vs OliveVPS dedicated?
Hetzner bare-metal is cheaper than our dedicated servers, full stop. If you need bare-metal in Europe and don't need our regions or support style, their bare-metal is the better economic choice.