Hetzner vs AWS — 2026 Cost Showdown
Hetzner Cloud (€4.15/month) vs AWS EC2 ($30+/month). Real benchmarks for solo developers.
✅ Hetzner (€4.15/mo)
- 2 vCPU / 4GB RAM for €4.15
- No bandwidth cost surprises
- Simple, predictable pricing
- EU data centers (GDPR friendly)
- 40-second server provisioning
Downsides
- Smaller ecosystem
- No managed AI/ML services
- Limited global regions
AWS ($30+/mo)
- Largest cloud ecosystem
- 300+ managed services
- Global CDN & edge network
- Free tier available
Downsides
- 5x more expensive
- Pricing is deliberately complex
- Bandwidth costs add up fast
- Deep vendor lock-in
🏆 Verdict
For solo devs: Hetzner wins (5x cheaper, simpler). For enterprise: AWS ecosystem. Save €300+/year switching from AWS to Hetzner.