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Hetzner vs Vultr
Vultr starts $4.59 per month cheaper at the entry tier, counting the IPv4 address billed on top.
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.
Vultr
$3.50/mo entry
Get $300 free Vultr creditLatency-sensitive projects that need a specific city, and price-driven builders comfortable alone.
New Vultr accounts opened through our link get $300 of credit to use within 30 days. A card or PayPal is required; duplicate accounts are not eligible. Vultr pays us a referral fee if you stay a paying customer.
Vultr 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.
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 | Vultr | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month, with IPv4 where billed extra | $8.09 | $3.50 | Vultr |
| Entry plan vCPU | 1 | 1 | |
| Entry plan RAM | 1 GB | 0.5 GB | Hetzner |
| Entry plan storage | 20 GB | 10 GB | Hetzner |
| Included transfer | 20 TB | 0.5 TB | Hetzner |
| Listed regions | 6 | 32 | Vultr |
| Management model | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | |
| Support | Ticket support; no phone support on cloud plans. | Ticket support; documentation is sparse relative to competitors. | |
| Billing | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price. | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price. | |
| 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 | Vultr | 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). | $5Regular 1GB · 1 vCPU · 1 GB · 25 GBEntry plan with a public IPv4 address and 1GB of RAM. | Vultr cheaper by $3.09 |
| 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. | $20Regular 4GB · 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GBDirect competitor to the DigitalOcean 4GB Droplet, priced below it. | Vultr cheaper by $3.59 |
| 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. | $40Regular 8GB · 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 160 GBFour cores at a lower list price than most rivals here. | Vultr cheaper by $2.59 |
| 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. | $160Regular 32GB · 8 vCPU · 32 GB · 640 GBEight shared cores and 32GB on the Regular Performance line. | Hetzner cheaper by $77.41 |
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.
Vultr
Vultr competes on footprint and price rather than on hand-holding. It lists more data center locations than any other cloud server provider we track, which matters if latency to a specific city is your binding constraint. The trade-off is a thinner documentation library and a support experience aimed at people who already know what a kernel panic is.
Strengths
- Largest region list here, including several markets rivals do not cover
- High Frequency instances put NVMe and faster clocks at a low price point
- Hourly billing with no minimum commitment
Weaknesses
- Unmanaged, with noticeably less tutorial content than DigitalOcean
- Support is functional rather than educational
- Cheapest plans are IPv6-only in some regions - check before you commit
Support: Ticket support; documentation is sparse relative to competitors.
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, shown for 2 vCPU / 4 GB. Only figures read from each provider's own documentation appear; a gap says “not captured yet”.
| Item | Hetzner | Vultr |
|---|---|---|
| Plan (2 vCPU / 4 GB) | $23.59 | $20 |
| Automatic backups | 20% = +$4.72 ($28.31 total) | 20% = +$4 ($24 total) |
| 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. | $0.01/GB over allowance |
| Smallest managed load balancer | not captured yet | $10/mo |
Sources: docs.hetzner.com · docs.vultr.com · docs.vultr.com · www.vultr.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 Vultr.
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
Where both sell
Hetzner and Vultr both have data centers in these places. Each page ranks every provider there at the price charged in that location.
Hetzner vs Vultr — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- Which is cheaper for 1 vCPU / 1 GB, Hetzner or Vultr?
- Vultr Regular 1GB at $5/mo, which is $3.09 (38%) less than Hetzner CPX02 at $8.09/mo.
- How many data center locations do Hetzner and Vultr have?
- Hetzner lists 6 and Vultr lists 32.
- What do backups add at Hetzner and Vultr?
- Hetzner: 20% of the plan price; Vultr: 20% of the plan price.