Ceph vs Hetzner Storage Box
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Ceph and Hetzner Storage Box.
Quick Verdict
4.1/5
Ceph
0 reviews
4.1/5
Hetzner Storage Box
0 reviews
Both Ceph and Hetzner Storage Box are equally rated at 4.1/5. Open-source distributed storage system providing object, block, and file storage through a single cluster. Designed for organizations building cloud infrastructure or managing petabyte-scale data. Hetzner Storage Box is a managed online storage service offering 1 TB to 20 TB capacity with access via SFTP, SCP, rsync, Samba/CIFS, WebDAV and HTTPS, plus native BorgBackup, Restic and Rclone support. Built for developers, small businesses and content creators needing cost-effective backup and file hosting.
Ceph Unified, scalable storage platform for objects, blocks, and files | Hetzner Storage Box Affordable managed online storage with SFTP, rsync, WebDAV and Samba access | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.1 (0 reviews) | 4.1 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | free | paid |
| Starting price | Free✓ | From $3.2/mo |
| Best for | Enterprises and service providers building self-managed, large-scale storage with object, block, and file requirements on commodity hardware | European teams and developers who need cheap, predictable backup storage or file hosting over standard file protocols, especially as a Borg/Restic target for Hetzner workloads. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | — |
| RAM | — | — |
| Storage | — | 1,024 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | — |
| SLA uptime | — | — |
| Data-center count | — | 2 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | Falkenstein (DE)Helsinki (FI) |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceself hostables3 compatible | eu datacentergdpr compliant |
| Visit Ceph → | Visit Hetzner Storage Box → | |
Ceph
Pros
- + Unified object, block, and file storage from one self-healing cluster with no single point of failure
- + Free and open source (LGPL 2.1/3.0) under Linux Foundation governance
- + Proven at very large scale — CERN, OVH, DigitalOcean run production deployments
- + S3-compatible object API (RGW), erasure coding, replication, snapshots and clones built in
- + Strong Kubernetes story (Rook, Ceph CSI) and modern ops tooling (cephadm, dashboard, Prometheus)
Cons
- - Steep learning curve; incident response and tuning require real storage expertise
- - Practical minimum is a multi-node cluster (3+ monitors, ~4 GiB RAM per OSD, 10 Gb/s networking)
- - Total cost of ownership dominated by hardware and operations, not licenses
- - Vendor ecosystem in flux (SUSE exited Ceph-based products from 2021)
Hetzner Storage Box
Pros
- + Predictable flat pricing: 1 TB from €3.20/month up to 20 TB for €40.60/month, with hourly billing and no retrieval or request fees
- + Unlimited traffic and free transfers to Hetzner Cloud and dedicated products at the same location
- + Protocol breadth: SFTP/SCP/rsync/WebDAV/Samba plus first-class BorgBackup, Restic and Rclone support
- + 10–40 snapshots included per tier with a scheduler, 100 sub-accounts, no minimum contract, cancel immediately
- + German/Finnish storage (GDPR-friendly) on Hetzner's own ISO 27001:2022 certified infrastructure
Cons
- - No S3 API and no NFS on Hetzner's published protocol list — cloud-native tooling needs workarounds
- - Data is not mirrored to other servers: RAID plus checksums only, so snapshots are the sole built-in recovery
- - 10 concurrent connections per box and a 20 TB ceiling per box; no per-user quotas or documented encryption at rest
- - No published throughput figures and no product-level SLA or credits
- - Email support only for this product line
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new hosting and infrastructure providers, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.