8 of 52 providers reward us when you sign up through our links. It never changes a ranking. Which ones
Cloudways vs Hetzner
This is not a like-for-like contest.
Cloudways
$14/mo entry
Cloudways pricingFreelancers and small agencies hosting several client sites on one managed server.
Hetzner
$8.09/mo entry$7.49 plus $0.60 for an IPv4 address
Hetzner pricingWorkloads with European users that move a lot of traffic each month.
Hetzner sells raw compute and hands you the operating system; Cloudways sells a managed service and charges for the work you no longer do. Compare them only if you genuinely have not decided whether to run the server yourself.
Specification differences
Entry plans compared line by line. Rows marked with a dash are preferences rather than measurable wins, so we do not pick a side on them.
| Attribute | Cloudways | Hetzner | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month, with IPv4 where billed extra | $14 | $8.09 | Hetzner |
| Entry plan vCPU | 1 | 1 | |
| Entry plan RAM | 1 GB | 1 GB | |
| Entry plan storage | 25 GB | 20 GB | Cloudways |
| Included transfer | 1 TB | 20 TB | Hetzner |
| Listed regions | 25 | 6 | Cloudways |
| Management model | Managed | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and tickets; premium support tiers cost extra. | Ticket support; no phone support on cloud plans. | |
| Billing | Hourly metering billed monthly, pay-as-you-go. | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price. | |
| Free tier | Free trial available for new accounts; no permanent free tier. | No free tier. |
Same size, side by side
The cheapest plan from each provider that meets each size, so the comparison is between equal servers rather than two entry plans. Prices include a separately-billed IPv4 address where the provider charges for one.
| Size | Cloudways | Hetzner | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU / 1 GB | no plan this size | $8.09CPX02 · 1 vCPU · 1 GB · 20 GBSmallest Regular Performance type. Price excludes VAT and the IPv4 address ($0.60 a month extra). | — |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB | no plan this size | $23.59CPX22 · 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GBRegular-performance AMD line. Price excludes VAT and IPv4. Was $9.49 before 15 June 2026. | — |
| 4 vCPU / 8 GB | no plan this size | $42.59CPX32 · 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 160 GBRegular-performance AMD line. Price excludes VAT and IPv4. Was $15.99 before 15 June 2026. | — |
| 8 vCPU / 16 GB | no plan this size | $82.59CPX42 · 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 320 GBRegular-performance AMD line. Price excludes VAT and IPv4. Was $29.99 before 15 June 2026. | — |
Not in the table because they are sold out on the provider's own site today: Hetzner CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, $7.09/mo), Hetzner CX33 (4 vCPU, 8 GB, $10.59/mo), Hetzner CX43 (8 vCPU, 16 GB, $19.09/mo). We check stock every day, and a plan returns to the table once it can be ordered again.
Every provider at these sizes, ranked: 1 GB RAM · 4 GB RAM · 8 GB RAM · 16 GB RAM
Where each one wins and loses
Cloudways
Cloudways does not own data centers. It provisions servers on underlying clouds such as DigitalOcean and Vultr and adds the managed layer on top: stack configuration, caching, staging, automated backups and one-click server maintenance. You pay a premium over the raw instance for not having to be a sysadmin, while keeping the ability to move up in size.
Strengths
- Managed stack, caching and staging without full agency pricing
- Choice of underlying cloud provider and region
- Unlimited sites per server within the resources you buy
- Vertical scaling without rebuilding the server
Weaknesses
- Clear markup over provisioning the same instance yourself
- You are dependent on two vendors rather than one
- Email hosting is a paid add-on, not included
Support: 24/7 live chat and tickets; premium support tiers cost extra.
Billing: Hourly metering billed monthly, pay-as-you-go.
Free tier: Free trial available for new accounts; no permanent free tier.
Hetzner
Hetzner made its name as the price floor for European cloud servers, with included traffic far larger than the US budget clouds. Two things have changed that: prices rose on 15 June 2026, by 25% to 204% depending on the server type, and Hetzner’s cheapest shared-vCPU lines (CX, and the Arm-based CAX) are sold out, which leaves the dearer CPX line as what you can buy today. Prices exclude VAT, the region map is Europe-heavy, and a public IPv4 address is billed separately.
Strengths
- Very large included traffic allowance
- Hourly billing, capped at the monthly price
- An official API, command-line tool and Terraform provider
Weaknesses
- Europe-weighted region map; thin coverage outside the EU and two US sites
- Prices rose by 25% to 204% on 15 June 2026, and the cheapest lines (CX, CAX) are sold out
- IPv4 addresses carry a separate monthly charge
- New-account identity verification can delay first provisioning
Support: Ticket support; no phone support on cloud plans.
Billing: Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price.
Free tier: No free tier.
The full cost stack
What a server costs beyond its sticker price. Only figures read from each provider's own documentation appear; a gap says “not captured yet”.
| Item | Cloudways | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | n/a | n/a |
| Automatic backups | not captured yet | Backups are a flat 20% of the server price. |
| Outbound traffic beyond the allowance | not captured yet | Traffic beyond the included allowance is billed in 100 MB blocks; the per-TB price is not stated on the billing FAQ. |
| Smallest managed load balancer | not captured yet | not captured yet |
Sources: docs.hetzner.com
Price changes we have logged
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CX23 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $4.99 → $6.49 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CX33 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $7.99 → $9.99 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CPX22 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $9.49 → $22.99 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CPX32 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $15.99 → $41.99 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CX43 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $13.99 → $18.49 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CX53 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $26.49 → $34.99 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CPX42 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $29.99 → $81.99 notice
- 15 Jun 2026 · Hetzner CPX62 (before the $0.60 IPv4 address): $59.49 → $152.99 notice
Full record at the change log.
Every plan
The complete plan ladders, with the date and source of every price, are on each provider's page: Cloudways and Hetzner.
These are the providers' own list prices, shown in US dollars and last updated 23 Oct 2026. Where a provider bills a public IPv4 address on top, it is added to the monthly price, the ranking and every cost per vCPU or per GB, and the row shows the parts: the server, any disk priced apart, and the IPv4 charge. Each row says when we read its price, and whether it excludes VAT or needs a term. Check the provider's page before you buy.
Related comparisons
Cloudways vs Hetzner — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- How many data center locations do Cloudways and Hetzner have?
- Cloudways lists 25 and Hetzner lists 6.
- What do backups add at Cloudways and Hetzner?
- Cloudways: not captured yet; Hetzner: 20% of the plan price.