Google Cloud Storage vs Hetzner Storage Box
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Google Cloud Storage and Hetzner Storage Box.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Google Cloud Storage
0 reviews
4.1/5
Hetzner Storage Box
0 reviews
Hetzner Storage Box is rated higher (4.1 vs 4.0). Cloud object storage service for storing and retrieving unstructured data at scale. For developers, data engineers, and enterprises managing backups, archives, and analytics workloads. 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.
Google Cloud Storage Scalable object storage for any data type, integrated with Google Cloud | Hetzner Storage Box Affordable managed online storage with SFTP, rsync, WebDAV and Samba access | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews) | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | pay-as-you-go | paid |
| Starting price | Free tier available✓ | From $3.2/mo |
| Best for | Teams already building on Google Cloud — BigQuery, Dataflow, Vertex AI — and cold backup/archive workloads that value the cheap Nearline, Coldline, and Archive classes. | 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 | 99.95% | — |
| Data-center count | 43✓ | 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 tiers3 compatibleapi accesseu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterterraform provider | eu datacentergdpr compliant |
| Visit Google Cloud Storage → | Visit Hetzner Storage Box → | |
Google Cloud Storage
Pros
- + Per-GiB-hour pricing published per class and location, prorated per second — no commitment required
- + Four storage classes put cold bytes as low as about $0.0012/GB-month (Archive)
- + Credit-backed SLA: 99.95% multi/dual-region Standard with 10–50% credits on miss
- + Real S3 interoperability (XML API, HMAC keys, V4 signing) plus a documented migration path
- + Always Free tier (5 GB-months, 50k Class B ops, 100 GB egress in US regions) can host a small real workload
Cons
- - Egress at $0.12/GiB (Premium) makes read-heavy serving expensive without a CDN in front
- - Cold classes carry minimum storage durations and retrieval fees — wrong class choices cost more than Standard
- - Many pricing dimensions (classes, placement, network tiers, operation classes) make forecasting hard
- - IAM and lifecycle configuration is a real learning curve and a common source of misconfiguration
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
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