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.
| Fact | ||
|---|---|---|
| From | $6.49/mo | $2.50/mo |
| Free plan | No · No free tier or trial credit | Yes · Up to $300 free credit for new customers, with a code from Vultr's coupons page |
| Best for | Lots of traffic for users in Europe | Cheap servers in many regions |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
| Website | Visit | Visit |
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.
Hetzner Cloud pricing
All about Hetzner Cloud| Plan | Price | Specs / includes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| CX23 (Cost-Optimized, Intel/AMD) | $6.49/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 40 GB NVMe | hourly 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/mo | 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 80 GB NVMe | hourly 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/mo | 8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 160 GB NVMe | hourly 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/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 40 GB NVMe | hourly 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/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GB NVMe | hourly 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/mo | 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 160 GB NVMe | hourly billing, capped at monthly price. USD excl. VAT and IPv4; EUR incl. IPv4 (EUR 35.49 excl. IPv4). Hourly: $0.0673 (docs). |
Vultr pricing
All about Vultr| Plan | Price | Specs / includes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Compute Regular Performance, IPv6-only 0.5 GB | $2.50/mo | 1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 10 GB SSD | hourly 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/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 25 GB SSD | hourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.007/hr). Regular = previous-generation Intel CPUs and regular SSD. |
| Cloud Compute Regular Performance 2 GB | $10/mo | 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 55 GB SSD | hourly 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/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GB SSD | hourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.03/hr, truncated in my read) |
| Cloud Compute High Frequency 1 GB | $6/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 32 GB NVMe | hourly billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.009/hr). 3 GHz+ Intel Xeon, NVMe. |
| Cloud Compute High Frequency 4 GB | $24/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 128 GB NVMe | hourly 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.
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