8 of 52 providers reward us when you sign up through our links. It never changes a ranking. Which ones
Hetzner vs Kinsta
This is not a like-for-like contest.
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.
Kinsta
$35/mo entry
Kinsta pricingRevenue-generating WordPress sites where an hour of downtime costs more than the hosting bill.
Hetzner sells raw compute and hands you the operating system; Kinsta 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 | Hetzner | Kinsta | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month, with IPv4 where billed extra | $8.09 | $35 | Hetzner |
| Entry plan storage | 20 GB | 10 GB | Hetzner |
| Listed regions | 6 | 37 | Kinsta |
| Management model | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | Managed | |
| Support | Ticket support; no phone support on cloud plans. | 24/7 chat support from WordPress engineers, included on all plans. | |
| Billing | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price. | Fixed monthly or annual plan; overage charges apply above visit limits. | |
| Free tier | No free tier. | No free tier. Migrations are included instead. |
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 | Kinsta | 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). | no plan this size | — |
| 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. | no plan this size | — |
| 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. | no plan this size | — |
| 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. | no plan this size | — |
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.
Kinsta
Kinsta sits at the top of the managed WordPress market and prices on monthly visits and storage rather than on vCPU. The offer is that performance tuning, caching, staging, backups and support are handled for you, and that when something breaks the person answering knows WordPress specifically. It is straightforwardly expensive next to a self-managed instance, and that is the point.
Strengths
- Fully managed WordPress: caching, staging, backups and updates included
- Support staffed by WordPress specialists rather than generalists
- Free CDN and edge caching bundled into the plan
- Large region list for a managed host
Weaknesses
- Highest cost per unit of compute in this comparison, by a wide margin
- Visit and storage caps mean traffic spikes can force a plan upgrade
- WordPress-focused: not a general-purpose host for arbitrary stacks
Support: 24/7 chat support from WordPress engineers, included on all plans.
Billing: Fixed monthly or annual plan; overage charges apply above visit limits.
Free tier: No free tier. Migrations are included instead.
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 | Hetzner | Kinsta |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | n/a | n/a |
| Automatic backups | Backups are a flat 20% of the server price. | 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
- 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: Hetzner and Kinsta.
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
Hetzner vs Kinsta — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- How many data center locations do Hetzner and Kinsta have?
- Hetzner lists 6 and Kinsta lists 37.
- What do backups add at Hetzner and Kinsta?
- Hetzner: 20% of the plan price; Kinsta: not captured yet.