For a EU-based app or SaaS, Hetzner in 2026 is close to a no-brainer. The reason it is not universal is that its strongest infrastructure is in Germany and Finland, with a smaller US footprint.
Why developers choose it
- NVMe storage with high, consistent IOPS, verified in independent benchmarks
- AMD EPYC processors on the higher tiers
- Prices that undercut DigitalOcean, Linode and the hyperscalers for equivalent specs
- Generous included traffic (often 20 TB), no shock egress bill
- A clean control panel, snapshots, private networking, an official API and Terraform provider
An entry VPS around €4.59 a month gives you 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe. That is a lot of real performance for the money.
The catch
Hetzner's US locations (Ashburn and Hillsboro) exist but the network is optimised around Europe. For a US-only audience, latency and routing are better on a US-first provider. For a global app fronted by a CDN, or a EU audience, it is not an issue.
Mahdi Hassan · Web Developer & Site Speed
Hetzner is unmanaged, so you run the OS, the firewall and the updates. If that sentence worries you, use a managed layer like Cloudways or Ploi on top, or start on a managed host and move to Hetzner once you are comfortable with a terminal.
Who it fits
Developers and technical teams who want the best price for real performance and are comfortable managing a server, especially for EU workloads. Not the pick for a non-technical owner or a US-only site that will not use a CDN.
Prices checked September 2026. Hosting prices change often and vary by region and term. Confirm the current number on the provider's own site before you buy. Where we could not verify a figure we left it out.