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Hetzner vs IONOS
IONOS starts $2.09 per month cheaper at the entry tier, counting the IPv4 address billed on top. IONOS's entry price needs a 12-month commitment; Hetzner's does not. Hetzner lists more regions, which matters if latency to a specific city is your constraint. Hetzner is the better pick for workloads with European users that move a lot of traffic each month.
Hetzner
$8.09/mo entry$7.49 plus $0.60 for an IPv4 address
Workloads with European users that move a lot of traffic each month.
IONOS
$6.00/mo entry
Buyers happy to commit to a year in exchange for a big disk and unlimited traffic.
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 | Hetzner | IONOS | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month, with IPv4 where billed extra | $8.09 | $6.00 | IONOS |
| Entry plan vCPU | 1 | 1 | |
| Entry plan RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB | IONOS |
| Entry plan storage | 20 GB | 60 GB | IONOS |
| Listed regions | 6 | 4 | Hetzner |
| Management model | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | |
| Support | Ticket support; no phone support on cloud plans. | See IONOS for its support terms. | |
| Billing | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price. | One-year term. Introductory price for the first three months, then the regular monthly price shown here. | |
| Free tier | No 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 | Hetzner | IONOS | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU / 1 GB | $8.09CPX02 · 1 vCPU · 1 GB · 20 GBSmallest Regular Performance type. Price excludes VAT and the IPv4 address ($0.60 a month extra). | $6.00VPS S+ · 1 vCPU · 2 GB · 60 GBRegular monthly price on a 1-year term; any introductory offer shows next to the price. Unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps; one IPv4 address included (extra IPv4 $5/mo). Sales tax may apply. | IONOS cheaper by $2.09 |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB | $23.59CPX22 · 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GBRegular-performance AMD line. Price excludes VAT and IPv4. Was $9.49 before 15 June 2026. | $14.00VPS M+ · 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 120 GBRegular monthly price on a 1-year term; any introductory offer shows next to the price. Unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps; one IPv4 address included (extra IPv4 $5/mo). Sales tax may apply. | IONOS cheaper by $9.59 |
| 4 vCPU / 8 GB | $42.59CPX32 · 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 160 GBRegular-performance AMD line. Price excludes VAT and IPv4. Was $15.99 before 15 June 2026. | $25.00VPS L+ · 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 240 GBRegular monthly price on a 1-year term; any introductory offer shows next to the price. Unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps; one IPv4 address included (extra IPv4 $5/mo). Sales tax may apply. | IONOS cheaper by $17.59 |
| 8 vCPU / 16 GB | $82.59CPX42 · 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 320 GBRegular-performance AMD line. Price excludes VAT and IPv4. Was $29.99 before 15 June 2026. | $47.00VPS XL+ · 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 480 GBRegular monthly price on a 1-year term; any introductory offer shows next to the price. Unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps; one IPv4 address included (extra IPv4 $5/mo). Sales tax may apply. | IONOS cheaper by $35.59 |
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
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.
IONOS
IONOS sells its VPS range on a one-year term, with a lower price for the first three months. Every plan listed here has NVMe storage, unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps and one IPv4 address. This index lists the regular monthly price; the introductory rate is in each plan note.
Strengths
- Large NVMe disks for the price (60 GB on the smallest plan here)
- Unlimited traffic at 1 Gbps
- One IPv4 address included
Weaknesses
- The listed prices need a one-year term
- The introductory price lasts three months
- Locations are given by country, not city
Support: See IONOS for its support terms.
Billing: One-year term. Introductory price for the first three months, then the regular monthly price shown here.
Free tier: No free tier.
The full cost stack
What a server costs beyond its sticker price, shown for 2 vCPU / 4 GB. Only figures read from each provider's own documentation appear; a gap says “not captured yet”.
| Item | Hetzner | IONOS |
|---|---|---|
| Plan (2 vCPU / 4 GB) | $23.59 | $14.00 |
| Automatic backups | 20% = +$4.72 ($28.31 total) | not captured yet |
| Outbound traffic beyond the allowance | Traffic beyond the included allowance is billed in 100 MB blocks; the per-TB price is not stated on the billing FAQ. | not captured yet |
| Smallest managed load balancer | not captured yet | not captured yet |
Sources: docs.hetzner.com
Price changes we have logged
- 2026-06-15 · Hetzner CX23: $4.99 → $6.49 notice
- 2026-06-15 · Hetzner CX33: $7.99 → $9.99 notice
- 2026-06-15 · Hetzner CPX22: $9.49 → $22.99 notice
- 2026-06-15 · Hetzner CPX32: $15.99 → $41.99 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: Hetzner and IONOS.
All figures are the providers' own published list prices in USD, on-demand monthly. The index was last refreshed 2026-10-14, and every row shows the date its own price was read. Nothing here is live or negotiated pricing. 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. Some prices exclude VAT or need a commitment; the plan notes say which. Check the provider's pricing page before you commit.
Related comparisons
Where both sell
Hetzner and IONOS both have data centres in these places. Each page ranks every provider there at the price charged in that location.
Hetzner vs IONOS — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- Which is cheaper for 1 vCPU / 1 GB, Hetzner or IONOS?
- IONOS VPS S+ at $6.00/mo, which is $2.09 (26%) less than Hetzner CPX02 at $8.09/mo.
- How many datacentre locations do Hetzner and IONOS have?
- Hetzner lists 6 and IONOS lists 4.
- What do backups add at Hetzner and IONOS?
- Hetzner: 20% of the plan price; IONOS: not captured yet.