Hetzner vs AWS

Why Switch from AWS to Hetzner?

AWS is the world’s largest cloud provider, but it comes with significant drawbacks: bewilderingly complex pricing, unexpected bills, US jurisdiction over your data, and far more services than most businesses actually need. For European companies, running workloads on AWS also raises serious GDPR compliance questions.

Hetzner, a German cloud and hosting company with over 25 years of experience, offers a refreshing alternative: simple pricing, excellent performance, European data centers, and costs that are a fraction of what AWS charges.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Hetzner	AWS
Cheapest cloud server	€3.79/mo (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM)	~€8-15/mo (t3.micro)
Data location	Germany 🇩🇪, Finland 🇫🇮	Global (US primary) 🇺🇸
GDPR compliant	✅ By default	⚠️ Requires specific configuration
Pricing model	Simple, predictable	Complex, usage-based
Surprise bills	❌ Never	⚠️ Common
Dedicated servers	✅ From €39/mo	✅ Significantly more expensive
Block storage	€0.052/GB/mo	~€0.10/GB/mo (EBS)
Bandwidth	20 TB included	Paid per GB (expensive)
Managed Kubernetes	✅ Free control plane	✅ $0.10/hour (~€73/mo)
Number of services	~10 core services	200+ services

Pricing

Hetzner’s pricing is where the difference is most dramatic. For comparable workloads, Hetzner can cost 60-80% less than AWS:

• Hetzner CX22: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD — €3.79/month
• Hetzner CX32: 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD — €7.59/month
• Hetzner CX42: 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 160 GB SSD — €14.99/month
• Hetzner Dedicated: From €39/month for powerful bare-metal servers
• AWS t3.medium: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM — ~€35/month (on-demand)
• AWS t3.large: 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM — ~€70/month (on-demand)

Hetzner includes 20 TB of bandwidth with every cloud server. On AWS, bandwidth alone can cost hundreds of euros per month. There are no hidden fees, no surprise bills, and no complex pricing calculators needed.

Privacy & Data Sovereignty

For European businesses, Hetzner’s data sovereignty story is straightforward:

• All data centers are located in Germany (Nuremberg, Falkenstein) and Finland (Helsinki)
• Hetzner is a German company, fully subject to EU and German privacy law
• GDPR compliance is the default, not an add-on configuration
• No data is transferred to or accessible from the United States
• Hetzner operates its own data centers (not leased from third parties)
• Data centers are carbon-neutral, powered by renewable energy
• No involvement with US intelligence frameworks or the CLOUD Act

Migration Guide

Migrating from AWS to Hetzner requires some planning but can save you thousands annually:

1. Audit your AWS services — List which AWS services you actually use. Most teams use fewer than 10 of the 200+ available
2. Provision Hetzner infrastructure — Create cloud servers matching your EC2 instances. Use Terraform with the Hetzner provider for infrastructure-as-code
3. Migrate data — Transfer databases using pg_dump/mysqldump, and files using rsync or rclone. Hetzner’s 20 TB included bandwidth makes large transfers painless
4. Set up networking — Configure Hetzner’s private networks, firewalls, and load balancers to match your VPC setup
5. Test thoroughly — Run parallel environments for 2-4 weeks, routing a percentage of traffic to Hetzner
6. DNS cutover — Update DNS records to point to Hetzner IPs. Use low TTLs during transition for fast rollback if needed

Estimated time: 1-4 weeks depending on complexity Difficulty: Intermediate — requires DevOps/sysadmin knowledge

Real-World Use Cases

SaaS startup: A Berlin-based B2B SaaS company migrated from AWS to Hetzner Cloud, reducing their monthly infrastructure bill from €4,200 to €890. They run 15 cloud servers with managed Kubernetes and use Hetzner’s Object Storage for user file uploads.

E-commerce platform: A Dutch online retailer hosts their PrestaShop store on a Hetzner dedicated server (€39/month) that previously required a €350/month AWS setup. Peak traffic during sales events is handled by auto-scaling Hetzner Cloud servers.

Freelance developer: A solo developer runs 6 side projects on a single Hetzner CX22 (€3.79/month) using Docker containers. The same workload on AWS would cost over €50/month with equivalent compute and bandwidth.

Company Background

Hetzner Online GmbH was founded in 1997 by Martin Hetzner in Gunzenhausen, Bavaria, Germany. What started as a small web hosting business has grown into one of Europe’s largest data center operators and cloud providers. The company remains privately held and family-influenced, deliberately avoiding venture capital funding to maintain independence and a long-term focus on infrastructure investment rather than short-term growth metrics.

Hetzner operates its own data centers in Nuremberg, Falkenstein (Saxony), and Helsinki (Finland), with a combined capacity of over 300,000 dedicated servers. The company employs approximately 400 people and serves hundreds of thousands of customers across Europe. Hetzner’s data centers are carbon-neutral, powered by renewable energy, and the company has invested heavily in energy efficiency — including custom cooling systems that reduce power consumption significantly.

A key part of Hetzner’s identity is its commitment to transparent, affordable pricing. While US hyperscalers compete on service breadth and AI capabilities, Hetzner competes on value: delivering raw computing power at prices that are often 60-80% lower than AWS. This approach has made Hetzner the infrastructure backbone for thousands of European startups, SaaS companies, and open-source projects. The company’s Robot and Cloud Console interfaces prioritize functionality over marketing gloss, reflecting a German engineering culture of substance over style.

Security & Compliance

Hetzner maintains rigorous security standards appropriate for a major European infrastructure provider:

• ISO 27001 certified — all data centers operate under a certified information security management system
• DIN EN 50600 certified — German/European standard for data center design, build, and operations including physical security, power, and cooling
• BSI compliance — aligned with German Federal Office for Information Security guidelines for critical infrastructure
• 24/7 on-site security with biometric access controls, video surveillance, and multi-factor entry at all data center facilities
• DDoS protection included free on all servers, with automatic attack detection and mitigation at the network level
• Data encryption with full-disk encryption available on dedicated servers and encrypted block storage volumes in Hetzner Cloud
• GDPR compliant by default — all data stays within German and Finnish data centers, with data processing agreements available for all customers

Integration Ecosystem

Hetzner provides a developer-friendly infrastructure platform with strong ecosystem connectivity:

• Hetzner Cloud API — a well-documented RESTful API for managing servers, networks, firewalls, load balancers, volumes, and DNS records programmatically
• Official Terraform provider for infrastructure-as-code, enabling reproducible deployments and integration with existing DevOps workflows
• Ansible, Puppet, and Chef support through community-maintained modules for configuration management across Hetzner infrastructure
• S3-compatible Object Storage — works with existing AWS S3 SDKs, CLI tools, and applications without code changes
• Managed Kubernetes (k3s-based) with Helm chart support and integration with standard Kubernetes tooling like kubectl, Lens, and ArgoCD
• Cloud-init support for automated server provisioning, enabling custom setup scripts to run on first boot
• Packer and cloud-native image building for creating custom server images that deploy consistently across Hetzner Cloud
• Community integrations with Nextcloud, GitLab, Prometheus, and other open-source tools through one-click apps and detailed deployment guides

Who Should Switch?

Hetzner is ideal for:

• Startups that need reliable cloud infrastructure without burning cash
• Small and medium businesses that want predictable, affordable hosting
• Developers who want powerful servers for side projects and SaaS products
• EU companies that need guaranteed GDPR-compliant hosting
• Anyone tired of deciphering AWS bills and getting unexpected charges

The Bottom Line

AWS offers an unmatched breadth of services for enterprises that need global scale, AI/ML tools, and hundreds of managed services. But for the vast majority of businesses and developers, it is overkill — and dramatically overpriced.

Hetzner delivers excellent performance, simple pricing, European data sovereignty, and savings of up to 80%. If you do not need AWS’s massive service catalog, Hetzner is the smarter choice for your wallet and your data.

---

Looking for more European alternatives in this category? See also: OVHcloud and Scaleway.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Hetzner offer managed Kubernetes?

Yes. Hetzner Cloud offers a managed Kubernetes service with a free control plane. You only pay for the worker nodes, making it dramatically cheaper than AWS EKS which charges $0.10/hour for the control plane alone.

Can I migrate my AWS EC2 instances to Hetzner?

Yes. You can export your EC2 AMIs, convert them to raw/qcow2 format, and import them into Hetzner Cloud. For simpler setups, re-provisioning with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform (which supports Hetzner) is often faster.

Does Hetzner have an equivalent to AWS S3?

Hetzner offers Object Storage with an S3-compatible API. It works with existing S3 tools and SDKs. Pricing is significantly lower than AWS S3 at €0.0065/GB/month for storage.

Is Hetzner suitable for production workloads?

Absolutely. Hetzner hosts millions of servers and has 25+ years of experience. Many European startups and SaaS companies run production workloads on Hetzner, including some with millions of users.

What about DDoS protection on Hetzner?

Hetzner includes free DDoS protection on all servers. For advanced protection, you can pair Hetzner with a European CDN like Bunny.net or Myra Security.