Hetzner has been around for over 25 years now, and a big contributor to its longevity is its fantastic rates. Based in Germany, Hetzner offers a variety of computing services at some of the lowest prices among other cloud service providers.
[lwptoc]In addition to its bargain pricing, Hetzner also provides plenty of features with its services, such as unlimited traffic, daily backups, a free domain name, SSL certificates, and DDoS protection. However, this low pricing is a double-edged sword.
Sure, Hetzner’s low prices attract many users, and it makes a lot of money from the high number of users and sales; however, these prices also attract unwanted attention from suspicious customers. So, what does Hetzner do to combat this? It prioritizes safety and bans accounts that may or may not be entirely innocent all the same.
Additionally, Hetzner hasn’t been able to keep up with the times. Its limited service is among several reasons why many users have opted for alternatives to Hetzner. With so many Hetzner alternatives available today, you might get lost among the options.
To save you from the hassle, I’ve come up with a list of the best alternatives to Hetzner and what unique features make them a safe and reliable option for your cloud service needs. That said, first, let’s look at what’s gone wrong with Hetzner and why you should even consider alternatives to Hetzner in the first place.
Why You Should Opt For Hetzner Alternatives
While Hetzner’s fantastic prices and free add-ons make it an attractive option, Hetzner has issues that you just can’t ignore, no matter how sweet its deals look.
Account Banning and Server Abuse
As previously mentioned, Hetzner’s fantastically low rates attract plenty of suspicious customers, and since Hetzner can’t really differentiate between genuine customers and those who are purchasing its services for malicious purposes, it just bans accounts.
These bans are typically done to be on the safe side, and this overly cautious method has led to numerous cases of people claiming they lost their Hetzner accounts without doing anything wrong.
This senseless banning isn’t limited to new accounts either, as many users with over a year of patronage have had their accounts banned without any kind of heads-up or notice. Such reckless banning may save the company a penny or two but could mean the end of a business as such a rug pull could very possibly lead to a complete loss of information.
The banning aside, Hetzner has a major issue with its servers being used for illegal activities like piracy, which has led to Hetzner servers being blocked from various sites. One such instance is Hetzner servers being blocked from Plex, a media streaming service, for piracy, leading to legitimate users also losing access to the site and its services.
Only Five Locations In Three Countries
One reason why Hetzner has fallen so far behind is its lack of cloud coverage. While Hetzner only offers five locations worldwide, most Hetzner alternatives provide over twice that amount with much more variety, ensuring little to no latency.
In a somewhat pathetic manner, Hetzner says they offer servers in three zones even though two of those “zones” are just east and west US. To give you an idea of how little that is, a versatile Hetzner alternative like Cloudzy offers over 15 locations in three continents and six countries.
Additionally, the shared and managed hosting accounts are only located in Germany, and the cloud and dedicated servers are only available in Germany and Finland, meaning if you’re outside of the EU, Hetzner is pretty much useless to you.
Outdated Design
Further highlighting how far behind Hetzner is from other cloud server providers is its complicated website. Users have complained about the complicated signup process all over the web.
With most Hetzner alternatives, signing up for a plan includes filling out a form, choosing a plan, and paying for it. With Hetzner, you’ll be filling out several forms on several tabs, uploading a picture, and waiting over two days to get access to your service.
All of these issues come back to Hetzner’s incompetency in managing suspicious customers, instead forcing you to jump through several hoops just because their rates are low.
No Uptime Guarantee
Hetzner has good infrastructure and robust hardware; however, nowhere on its site or any other place does it ever mention its uptime. This lack of information on uptime is pretty unusual since cloud providers either give a number like 99.5% uptime guarantee or blatantly lie by saying %100 uptime guarantee, which is impossible as anything from a power outage to natural disasters could cause a shut-off in server availability.
Either way, Hetzner can’t confidently guarantee even the standard %99.5 uptime, for whatever reason, making this a concerning issue for those who necessarily need a guarantee on the reliability of their cloud service provider.
Best Hetzner Alternative: Cloudzy vs. Hetzner
Unlike Hetzner, Cloudzy has always strived to make the process of accessing its cloud services as simple as possible. With a focus on providing high-performance and reliable cloud services at affordable prices, Cloudzy has quickly become a favorite among those in need of VPS services. Before going further, please review our cloud pricing and specifications for an overview.
That said, ease of use and an intuitive website and panel design aren’t the only things that make Cloudzy arguably the best Hetzner alternative.
Location Diversity
A critical issue with Hetzner’s services is its limited cloud coverage and low location diversity. While Hetzner only offers five locations, Cloudzy offers 15 locations in three continents and six countries.
Cloudzy is an especially attractive option for American users as we provide 10 data centers across America, covering East, West, and Middle America rather than Hetzner’s two servers located in East and West America.
As for European users, Cloudzy offers servers in Luxembourg, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Lastly, Cloudzy also covers users in Asia with its Singapore data server, a continent that Hetzner doesn’t even cover.
Simple & Intuitive Design
With Cloudzy, signing up and deploying your VPS server is as simple as one, two, three, four. Simply sign up with your Gmail account, choose one of our various plans with your preferred specs, add credit through one of several payment methods, and deploy your VPS. It’s that simple and doesn’t require you to fill out pages and pages of forms through several tabs like Hetzner forces you to do.
Further emphasizing Cloudzy’s user-friendliness is its handy, intuitive control panel where you can manage and resize your servers, keep up-to-date with upcoming changes, check alerts and warnings, and manage your credits. You can even increase or decrease your bandwidth without having to change plans.
On the topic of resizing, you’ll never have to worry about losing data when downsizing, as our snapshot system will save a backup of your server.
Service Variety
No matter the purpose, Cloudzy has the right VPS for you. It offers a host of various VPS services with a wide range of prices and specs so that you only pay for what you need. Starting with the basics, Cloudzy offers affordable, high-performance servers with dedicated internet connections reaching up to 10 Gbps, enterprise NVMe SSD storage, powerful 3.23 GHz turbo-speed AMD EPYC processors, and 99.95% uptime.
Cloudzy provides both Linux VPS and Windows VPS and any other operating system you prefer, as its servers are equipped with a custom ISO feature that allows you to upload your own ISO OS file.
Are you in need of remote desktop services (RDP)? We also offer RDP with full admin access in over 15 locations on any Windows version you’re comfortable with. Cloudzy also provides affordable and reliable MT4 VPS solutions for your Forex trading needs.
You can also use our MikroTik VPS hosting services to set up network distribution, a VPN server, and even use it as a load balancer. Lastly, If you want to use Android apps on desktop, Cloudzy provides an Android emulator VPS. This service allows you to install emulator software like BlueStacks and run any Android application on Cloudzy’s Android emulator VPS, which is located in Chicago.
Offering such a variety of high-quality services at some of the most affordable prices you can find is one of the many reasons why Cloudzy is the best Hetzner alternative.
Flexible Payment Options
Cloudzy’s ease of use also extends to its payment and billing system. Prioritizing transparency, Cloudzy employs a PAYG (pay-as-you-go) billing system so that you’re always fully aware of what you’re paying for. Even if you’re not satisfied with our services, it offers a 14-day refund on your unused credits.
Additionally, we understand that not everyone might have access to typical payment methods. To address this issue, Cloudzy offers a plethora of payment options, including credit card, PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies.
24/7 Customer Support
As opposed to Hetzner alternatives like AWS, which require you to pay for premium customer support just to get competent and responsive support, we provide a team of 24/7 support agents, where you can access the support directly from its handy panel.
You’ll also be promptly notified of any changes you make to your servers from the Cloudzy panel so that you’re never unpleasantly surprised with random changes to your account, something that Hetzner apparently loves to do.
| Feature | Cloudzy | Hetzner |
| Customer Support | 24/7 | 24/7 |
| Uptime | 99.95% | No Guarantee |
| Data Center Locations | 15 | 5 |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card Mastercard Visa Paypal American Express Bitcoin Crypto Currencies |
Credit Card Paypal |
| Price Plans | 2 GB: $9.95/m 4 GB: $19.95/m 8 GB: $36.95/m 16 GB: $69.95/m 32GB: $149.95/m |
2GB: € 5.18/m 4GB: € 8.98/m 8GB: € 16.18/m 16GB: € 29.99/m 32GB: € 65.33/m |
Honorable Hetzner Alternatives
While Cloudzy covers all your VPS and cloud service needs, Hetzner’s issue has opened the door to many other Hetzner Cloud alternatives. These cloud service providers each best Hetzner in their own unique area, whether that’s even cheaper pricing or service variety.
GreenGeeks – Best Eco-Friendly Hetzner Alternative
If you’re considering Hetzner due to its eco-friendly efforts, GreenGeeks is an excellent alternative to Hetzner in that regard. GreenGeeks is a leading eco-friendly web hosting provider that utilizes 300% renewable energy to power its operations.
It offers high-performance hosting with SSD RAID-10 storage arrays, HTTP/2 enabled server and free CDN Integration. However, keep in mind that GreenGeeks’ rates are on the pricier side in comparison to other Hetzner alternatives.
GreenGeeks Pros
- Eco-friendly, green hosting option
- Custom security rules, daily backups, and free CDN
GreenGeeks Cons
- Expensive dedicated hosting plans and renewal rates
- Limited data center locations with only four locations
- Lack of staging features requiring the use of third-party tools
Amazon AWS – Best for Comprehensive Services
Amazon’s AWS is one of, if not the biggest, cloud service providers, with over 240 products and 245 data centers around the world. However, with so many products and services, you’ll need a competent IT and accounting team to make sure you don’t pay extra for anything you don’t need, making it a more suitable option for enterprises.
AWS Pros
- Extensive service variety
- A multitude of data centers
- High scalability and flexibility
AWS Cons
- Ambiguous pricing and hidden fees
- Poor customer support
- Questionable security background
Vultr – Cheapest Hetzner Alternative
Vultr is an alright alternative to Hetzner as it offers reliable cloud services at bargain rates. It offers high-performance SSD and dedicated and bare metal servers in over 32 locations. However, keep in mind that Vultr’s services are pretty limited and also require technical expertise. For more detailed insights, you can check out our in-depth Vultr review.
Vultr Pros
- Flexible PAYG (Pay-as-you-go) billing
- User-friendly interface
- Multiple global data centers
Vultr Cons
- No domain registration services
- Complex for beginners
- Resource limitations
Also, Contabo is a must-mention when discussing cheap VPS options. If you’re looking to get the best value from your VPS investment, take a look at our latest blog for an in-depth breakdown of the best Contabo alternatives and how they compare in terms of price.
NameCheap – Best Hetzner Alternative for Domain Registration
While Hetzner offers some of the cheapest rates in the market, some cloud service providers offer even better deals. One of them is NameCheap, where you can get domain registration and shared hosting from one affordable and reasonably-priced provider. While most domain name registrars charge extra for WHOIS protection, NameCheap provides it for free for all domains you register through it.
NameCheap Pros
- Even cheaper than Hetzner
- Comprehensive security features
- Responsive customer support
NameCheap Cons
- High renewal rates
- Slow loading speed
- Limited resources
Liquid Web – Best for Heavy-Traffic Uses
Liquid Web may not be cheaper than Hetzner; however, you get plenty for what you pay for. Liquid Web offers robust servers, various features and add-ons, and responsive customer support. That said, beginners may struggle with the service provider as Liquid Web uses its own custom backend instead of the standard cPanel.
Liquid Web Pros
- Quick and competent customer support
- Comprehensive hosting solutions
- Advanced security features
Liquid Web Cons
- Complex for beginners
- Unfamiliar control panel
- High pricing
Cloudzy – A Secure and Reliable Alternative to Hetzner
Hetzner’s greed continuously turns away potential customers. Its ironic mindset that low rates equal more customers and revenue has led to server abuse and baseless bans. Cloudzy, on the other hand, offers quality services at a reasonable price and prioritizes your experience.
With Cloudzy, there are no surprise account closings or bans. If we discover an issue with your account, we’ll notify you immediately. On the off chance that the issue requires the banning of an account, we’ll provide full details on why this has happened, and you’ll most certainly be given notice so that you don’t lose your data.
Lastly, Cloudzy’s long list of locations in various countries and continents, 99.95% uptime guarantee, and intuitive design, while not as low as Hetzner, are provided at a bargain price in comparison to most Hetzner alternatives.
Now is a perfect time to try out Clouzy’s services for yourself, as you can save up to 20% on your cloud VPS plan.
[rh-cta-cloud type=”2″ ]FAQs
Why should I consider alternatives to Hetzner?
Hetzner’s low pricing has led to various cases of server abuse and security issues, leading to Hetzner senselessly banning accounts in a lazy attempt to clear the problem. Furthermore, Hetzner requires you to fill out several arduous forms and perform a bunch of security checks, including uploading a picture of your ID, which could, for any reason, leak to the wrong people. All of that just to have your account for nothing. Lastly, Hetzner only provides five data centers worldwide in only three countries and offers no uptime guarantee.
What makes Cloudzy the best Hetzner alternative?
Cloudzy provides over 15 data centers in six countries in three continents, a 99.95% uptime guarantee, and an intuitive website and control panel design. Furthermore, to access our services, all you need to do is a simple email signup, choose one of our various services with the specs of your choice, and add credit to your account. No need to jump through any hoops.
What’s the best Hetzner competitor for domain registration?
NameCheap is an excellent alternative to Hetzner for those looking to register a domain name and host their website using only one service provider. NameCheap offers even lower rates for web hosting and includes free WHOIS protection on every domain you purchase through NameCheap.