The best Hetzner alternatives are DigitalOcean for the easiest developer experience, Vultr for the widest region choice at a low price, and Akamai Cloud (Linode) for generous included transfer. OVHcloud and Netcup are the closest European price matches, UpCloud suits buyers who want cheap EU plans with hourly billing, and AWS Lightsail suits teams already on AWS.
Hetzner raised prices twice in 2026. Hetzner announced a price adjustment effective April 1, 2026 that covered existing products as well as new orders. A second increase took effect on June 15, 2026 for new orders and rescales.
The jumps are large on some plans. Hetzner’s own price table shows the CX23 moving from €3.99 to €5.49 per month and the CPX22 moving from €7.99 to €19.49 per month, before VAT and IPv4. The US CPX11 moved from €5.99 to €17.49. Hetzner’s cloud page also marks its Cost-Optimized line as “Currently not available.”
Europe still has few large local clouds. Synergy Research Group reported that European providers hold about 15% of their home cloud market, while Amazon, Microsoft, and Google hold 70%. That makes the shortlist of true Hetzner substitutes short.
This guide compares 7 Hetzner alternatives on entry price, specs, regions, and billing terms. It is part of our best cloud hosting guide. Every price comes from the provider’s own pricing or documentation page as checked in October 2026.
Quick Comparison: Best Hetzner Alternatives
| Provider | Best for | Entry price (with IPv4) | Entry specs | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | Developer experience | $4/mo | 1 vCPU, 512 MiB RAM, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer | Per second, monthly cap |
| Vultr | Region choice | $3.50/mo | 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 10 GB, 0.5 TB transfer | Hourly, monthly cap |
| Akamai Cloud (Linode) | Included transfer | $5/mo | 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB, 1 TB transfer | Hourly, monthly cap |
| OVHcloud VPS | Unmetered EU traffic | From €3.81/mo ex VAT (12-month upfront) | 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe | Monthly or committed term |
| Netcup | Lowest EU price per GB of RAM | €8.26/mo ex VAT (12-month term) | 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB | 1, 12, or 24 months |
| UpCloud | Cheap EU hourly plans | €3/mo | 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB | Hourly, up to 28 days/mo |
| AWS Lightsail | Teams already on AWS | $5/mo | 2 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 20 GB, 1 TB transfer | Hourly, monthly cap |
What Makes a Good Hetzner Alternative?
A good Hetzner alternative matches Hetzner’s low monthly price, offers data centers near your users, and bills by the hour without a long contract. It should include a public IPv4 address in the quoted price, publish clear transfer limits, and support snapshots, firewalls, and API or Terraform automation so you can move workloads without rebuilding them.
Hetzner set a high bar on value. Its regular-performance page states that EU servers include at least 20 TB of traffic, while US servers include at least 1 TB and Singapore servers 0.5 TB. Hourly billing is capped at the monthly price, and there is no minimum contract.
Sign-up friction is the other reason buyers look elsewhere. Hetzner’s fraud-prevention FAQ says it may request a government ID or a credit card prepayment before it processes an order. It also says incomplete details can lead to a rejected account.
The 7 Best Hetzner Alternatives
1 DigitalOcean: Best for developer experience
DigitalOcean is the simplest Hetzner alternative for developers who want clean docs, managed add-ons, and predictable bills.
What it does well. DigitalOcean pairs basic Droplets with managed databases, Kubernetes, object storage, and an app platform. DigitalOcean moved Droplets to per-second billing on January 1, 2026, with a 60-second minimum and a 672-hour monthly cap.
Key features:
- 16 data centers in 13 regions, per DigitalOcean’s regional availability page
- Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Kubernetes in the same control panel
- Strong tutorial library and a mature Terraform provider
Pricing. The cheapest Basic Droplet costs $4 per month for 1 vCPU, 512 MiB of RAM, 10 GiB of SSD, and 500 GiB of transfer, with IPv4 included.
Best for: Startups and developers who value tooling and managed services over the lowest price per GB of RAM.
Limitations. Entry RAM is small, and DigitalOcean costs more than Hetzner’s pre-2026 EU prices for the same memory. Compare more options in our DigitalOcean alternatives guide.
2 Vultr: Best for region choice
Vultr is the best Hetzner alternative for teams that need servers in many countries at a low entry price.
What it does well. Vultr offers 33 regions across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. That reach covers locations Hetzner does not serve.
Key features:
- Cloud Compute, High Frequency, and bare metal on one account
- GPU instances for AI workloads
- Hourly billing capped at a monthly price
Pricing. Vultr’s cheapest plan with a public IPv4 costs $3.50 per month for 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB of RAM, 10 GB of storage, and 0.5 TB of bandwidth. A $2.50 plan exists, but it is IPv6-only.
Best for: Global apps, game servers, and edge workloads that need servers close to users.
Limitations. The cheapest plans have very little RAM. Read our Vultr alternatives comparison before you commit.
3 Akamai Cloud (Linode): Best for included transfer
Akamai Cloud, formerly Linode, is the best Hetzner alternative for workloads that move a lot of data on small servers.
What it does well. The entry Nanode includes 1 TB of transfer, which is double DigitalOcean’s entry allowance. Akamai runs Linode compute next to its global CDN and security network.
Key features:
- More than 25 core compute regions, per Akamai’s compute page
- Shared, dedicated, and GPU instances
- Managed Kubernetes and managed databases
Pricing. The Nanode 1 GB costs $5 per month for 1 CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 25 GB of storage, and 1 TB of transfer.
Best for: Small APIs, VPN endpoints, and media workloads with steady outbound traffic.
Limitations. Some regions cost more than the base price. See our Linode alternatives guide for a deeper comparison.
4 OVHcloud VPS: Best for unmetered European traffic
OVHcloud is the closest European match to Hetzner on price, specs, and data sovereignty.
What it does well. OVHcloud launched its new VPS range on June 17, 2026, with more RAM and NVMe storage on every tier. Most locations include unmetered traffic, and IPv4 plus IPv6 come with every VPS.
Key features:
- French-owned provider with data centers in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific
- Anti-DDoS protection included
- Upgrade path to bare metal and public cloud
Pricing. VPS-1 starts at €3.81 per month excluding VAT for 2 vCores, 4 GB of RAM, and 40 GB of NVMe. That headline price links to a 12-month upfront configuration. OVHcloud also raised prices by 9% to 11% in April 2026, citing RAM costs.
Best for: EU businesses that want a large European provider and high traffic allowances.
Limitations. The lowest prices assume a 12-month commitment. In Asia-Pacific, VPS-1 traffic is capped at 500 GB per month before speed drops to 10 Mbps.
5 Netcup: Best price per GB of RAM in Europe
Netcup is a German host that matches Hetzner’s old value on RAM and storage, in exchange for longer terms.
What it does well. Netcup gives 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage on its standard entry VPS. It runs servers in Vienna, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Manassas in the US, and Singapore, per its VPS page.
Key features:
- Contract terms of 1, 12, or 24 months
- No setup fee on the entry pico plan
- Root servers with dedicated cores for heavier loads
Pricing. The VPS 500 G12.5 costs €8.26 per month excluding VAT on a 12-month term, for 2 vCores, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage. The VPS pico costs €2.21 per month including VAT, but it runs only in Nuremberg, needs a 12-month term, and is limited to one per customer.
Best for: Long-running EU workloads where you know the server will stay up for a year.
Limitations. Netcup has no hourly billing and a smaller API ecosystem than DigitalOcean or Vultr.
6 UpCloud: Best for cheap EU hourly plans
UpCloud is a Finnish cloud that keeps hourly billing and low entry prices, which is the Hetzner model many buyers want.
What it does well. UpCloud’s Starter plans start lower than most US clouds, and its Fair Transfer Policy advertises zero-cost egress. Billing runs by the starting hour, up to 28 days per month.
Key features:
- Headquartered in Helsinki, with a European focus
- Managed databases, Kubernetes, and object storage
- Terraform provider and full API
Pricing. UpCloud’s Starter plan costs €3 per month for 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 10 GB of storage. Starter plans are limited to 5 per customer.
Best for: EU developers who want hourly billing and a European provider without Hetzner’s sign-up checks.
Limitations. The Starter cap of 5 servers means production fleets move to higher-priced plans. Confirm IPv4 terms on the plan page before you buy.
7 AWS Lightsail: Best for teams already on AWS
AWS Lightsail is Amazon’s fixed-price VPS, and it is the easiest Hetzner alternative for teams that already run on AWS.
What it does well. Lightsail bundles compute, storage, and transfer into one monthly price. It connects to the wider AWS network through VPC peering, so a small server can talk to RDS, S3, or other AWS services.
Key features:
- Bundled pricing with hourly billing up to a monthly cap
- Managed databases, load balancers, and containers
- One-click apps such as WordPress and LAMP
Pricing. The Nano bundle with a public IPv4 costs $5 per month for 2 vCPUs, 0.5 GB of RAM, 20 GB of storage, and 1 TB of transfer. The IPv6-only version costs $3.50.
Best for: Side projects and small apps inside an existing AWS account.
Limitations. Entry RAM is low, and moving from Lightsail to full EC2 adds AWS’s complex pricing. Teams that want managed deploys can also compare our best PaaS platforms.
How Should You Choose the Right Hetzner Alternative?
Choose a Hetzner alternative by matching data center location, real monthly cost with IPv4, and contract terms to your workload. EU-only workloads fit OVHcloud, Netcup, or UpCloud. Global apps fit Vultr, DigitalOcean, or Akamai. Teams inside AWS fit Lightsail.
- Price the plan with IPv4 included. Hetzner, Vultr, and AWS all quote cheaper IPv6-only or IPv4-extra prices. Compare like for like.
- Check the commitment. OVHcloud and Netcup show their lowest prices on 12-month terms. DigitalOcean, Vultr, Akamai, UpCloud, and Lightsail bill hourly or per second.
- Map regions to users. Hetzner’s EU servers include far more traffic than its US servers. A US-heavy audience often costs less on a US-first cloud.
- Size transfer, not only RAM. Entry transfer ranges from 0.5 TB on Vultr to 1 TB on Akamai and Lightsail. Overages change the real bill.
- Plan the exit. Keep infrastructure in Terraform or Ansible so you can move again if prices change.
For a broader shortlist, see our best VPS hosting guide.
How We Evaluated These Hetzner Alternatives
We compared each provider on public pricing and documentation, not on paid placement. We did not run benchmark tests for this guide. We read each provider’s pricing and documentation pages in October 2026 and scored them on the same criteria.
- Entry price with a public IPv4, taken from the provider’s own page
- Entry specs: vCPU, RAM, storage, and included transfer
- Billing terms: hourly, per second, or committed contracts
- Region coverage compared with Hetzner’s EU, US, and Singapore locations
- Ecosystem: managed databases, Kubernetes, API, and Terraform support
We left out providers whose current prices we could not confirm on their own pages. Cloud prices changed often in 2026, so confirm current terms before you buy.
The Bottom Line
DigitalOcean is the best overall Hetzner alternative for developers, Vultr is best for global reach, and OVHcloud is the best European match on price and traffic. Netcup and UpCloud fit cost-focused EU workloads, Akamai fits transfer-heavy apps, and Lightsail fits AWS users.
Move one non-critical server first, measure performance and support, then migrate the rest. For the wider market, return to our best cloud hosting guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best alternative to Hetzner?
DigitalOcean is the best overall alternative to Hetzner for developers, with a $4 per month Droplet and per-second billing since January 2026. OVHcloud is the closest European match on price, and Vultr is best for region coverage.
Did Hetzner raise its cloud prices?
Yes. Hetzner raised prices on April 1, 2026 for existing and new products, then again on June 15, 2026 for new orders and rescales. Its price table shows the CX23 moving from €3.99 to €5.49 per month before VAT and IPv4.
Is there a cheaper European alternative to Hetzner?
OVHcloud VPS-1 starts at €3.81 per month excluding VAT on a 12-month upfront term, with 4 GB of RAM. UpCloud’s Starter plan costs €3 per month with hourly billing. Netcup’s pico plan costs €2.21 including VAT, limited to one per customer.
Does Hetzner require ID verification?
Sometimes. Hetzner’s fraud-prevention FAQ says it may ask for a government ID or a credit card prepayment before processing an order. Accounts with incomplete details can be rejected, and Hetzner discourages VPNs and free email addresses at sign-up.
Which Hetzner alternative has the most data center regions?
Vultr has the widest footprint among these alternatives, with 33 regions. Akamai Cloud lists more than 25 core compute regions, and DigitalOcean lists 16 data centers in 13 regions.
David Austin is a technology writer and software analyst at DeployHyre, where he covers AI tools, SaaS platforms, cloud hosting, and business automation. He focuses on hands-on comparisons of pricing, features, and real-world performance so teams can pick the right software with confidence.