VPS and app hosting · head to head

Hetzner Cloud vs Vultr

What each costs, whether there's a free plan, and what each is best for, from prices checked on their own sites.

Hetzner Cloud and Vultr at a glance
FactHetzner CloudVultr
From$6.49/mo$2.50/mo
Free planNo · No free tier or trial creditYes · Up to $300 free credit for new customers, with a code from Vultr's coupons page
Best forLots of traffic for users in EuropeCheap servers in many regions
CheckedOct 18, 2026Oct 18, 2026
WebsiteVisitVisit

The difference in short

  • Vultr costs less to start: $2.50/mo against $6.49/mo for Hetzner Cloud.
  • Only Vultr has a free plan, trial or credit.
  • Hetzner Cloud is best for lots of traffic for users in Europe; Vultr for cheap servers in many regions.
All about Hetzner Cloud
Hetzner Cloud plans and prices
PlanPriceSpecs / includesNotes
CX23 (Cost-Optimized, Intel/AMD)$6.49/mo2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 40 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at the monthly price. USD $6.49 = excl. VAT and excl. IPv4 (docs page). EUR 5.99 = incl. IPv4 (product page; EUR 5.49 excl. IPv4). Hourly: $0.0104 (docs) / EUR 0.0096 incl. IPv4 (product page). Available in Germany (FSN/NBG) and Finland (HEL).
CX33$9.99/mo4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 80 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at monthly price. USD excl. VAT and IPv4; EUR incl. IPv4 (EUR 8.49 excl. IPv4). Hourly: $0.0160 (docs).
CX43$18.49/mo8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 160 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at monthly price. USD excl. VAT and IPv4; EUR incl. IPv4 (EUR 15.99 excl. IPv4). Hourly: $0.0296 (docs).
CAX11 (Cost-Optimized, Arm Ampere)$6.99/mo2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 40 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at monthly price. USD excl. VAT and IPv4; EUR incl. IPv4 (EUR 5.99 excl. IPv4). Arm64. Hourly: $0.0112 (docs).
CPX22 (Regular Performance, AMD)$22.99/mo2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at monthly price. USD excl. VAT and IPv4; EUR incl. IPv4 (EUR 19.49 excl. IPv4). Hourly: $0.0368 (docs). Singapore location: $30.99 (docs) / EUR 26.99 (product page).
CPX32$41.99/mo4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 160 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at monthly price. USD excl. VAT and IPv4; EUR incl. IPv4 (EUR 35.49 excl. IPv4). Hourly: $0.0673 (docs).
All about Vultr
Vultr plans and prices
PlanPriceSpecs / includesNotes
Cloud Compute Regular Performance, IPv6-only 0.5 GB$2.50/mo1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 10 GB SSDhourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.004/hr). IPv6 only. The same size with IPv4 is $3.50/mo ($0.005/hr).
Cloud Compute Regular Performance 1 GB$5/mo1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 25 GB SSDhourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.007/hr). Regular = previous-generation Intel CPUs and regular SSD.
Cloud Compute Regular Performance 2 GB$10/mo1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 55 GB SSDhourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.015/hr). A 2 vCPU / 2 GB plan is $15/mo (65 GB, 3 TB).
Cloud Compute Regular Performance 4 GB$20/mo2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GB SSDhourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.03/hr, truncated in my read)
Cloud Compute High Frequency 1 GB$6/mo1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 32 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.009/hr). 3 GHz+ Intel Xeon, NVMe.
Cloud Compute High Frequency 4 GB$24/mo2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 128 GB NVMehourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.036/hr). High Frequency 2 GB (1 vCPU, 64 GB NVMe, 2 TB) is $12/mo; 2 vCPU / 2 GB is $18/mo.

What's good, and what to watch for

Hetzner Cloud

  • 20 TB of traffic included in EU locations; extra traffic is $1.20 per TB
  • Hourly billing, never above the monthly cap
  • IPv6 is free, and listed prices already include an IPv4 address
  • Every Cost-Optimized plan (CX and CAX) showed as not available on October 18, 2026
  • US servers start at $21.09/month with 1 TB of traffic; servers bill until deleted

Vultr

  • Hourly billing, with no long-term contracts
  • Bandwidth over your quota is $0.01/GB
  • 33 data center regions, and a free Kubernetes control plane
  • Some locations have different hourly and monthly prices
  • The $2.50 plan is IPv6-only, and automatic backups add 20%

Other VPS and app hosting options

Cheapest first where the prices compare.

Compare all

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Hetzner Cloud or Vultr?

Vultr costs less to start: $2.50/mo against $6.49/mo for Hetzner Cloud. Prices checked Oct 18, 2026 on each company's own site.

Do Hetzner Cloud and Vultr have a free plan?

Hetzner Cloud: No, we found no free plan or trial for Hetzner Cloud. Vultr: Yes: Up to $300 free credit for new customers, with a code from Vultr's coupons page.

What else should I compare with Hetzner Cloud and Vultr?

Other VPS and app hosting options we've checked: Fly.io ($2.19/mo), Hostinger ($2.99/mo), UpCloud ($3.50/mo), DigitalOcean ($4/mo).

Keep comparing

Built from the prices and facts we checked on each company's own site. We haven't tested either hands-on.How we work