Hetzner Cloud vs UpCloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Hetzner Cloud and UpCloud.
Quick Verdict
4.4/5
Hetzner Cloud
0 reviews
4.2/5
UpCloud
0 reviews
Hetzner Cloud is rated higher (4.4 vs 4.2). German cloud provider offering the best price-to-performance ratio in the market. CX22 (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, 40GB NVMe) costs €4.35/month. Loved by European developers for fast NVMe, generous bandwidth, a Finnish cloud provider with fast MaxIOPS storage and 15 data centers. Starter cloud servers from EUR 3/month, with free outbound traffic.
Hetzner Cloud Affordable VPS hosting with fast deployment and transparent pricing | UpCloud MaxIOPS storage tops disk benchmarks consistently | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.4 (0 reviews)✓ | 4.2 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $5.99/mo | From $3/mo✓ |
| Best for | Developers and small teams who want unmanaged Linux infrastructure at the lowest cost per unit of compute, especially for European workloads with data-residency requirements, dev/test environments, CI runners, and price-sensitive production web apps. | Database-heavy European production workloads where disk I/O and a five-nines SLA matter more than raw compute price |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 2 vCPU✓ | 1 vCPU |
| RAM | 4 GB✓ | 1 GB |
| Storage | 40 GB✓ | 10 GB |
| Bandwidth | 20 TB/mo✓ | 1 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | 99.9% | 99.999%✓ |
| Data-center count | 6 | 15✓ |
| €/vCPU/mo | €3.00✓ | €3.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €1.50✓ | €3.00 |
| Performance | ||
| CPU score (sysbench) | 4,820✓ | 4,600 |
| Disk read (fio) | 2,100 MB/s | 2,800 MB/s✓ |
| Disk IOPS (4K random) | 42,000 | 62,000✓ |
| Network out | 1 Gbps | 1 Gbps |
| Latency (TTFB) | 18 ms✓ | 22 ms |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | GermanyFinlandUnited StatesSingapore | — |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | hourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotseu datacenterus datacentergdpr compliantterraform providerapi access | hourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotseu datacenterus datacenterapac datacentergdpr compliantapi accessprivate networking |
| Visit Hetzner Cloud → | Visit UpCloud → | |
Hetzner Cloud
Pros
- + Best CPU-per-euro in our 2026-04-01 benchmark run: the CX22 outperformed plans costing up to six times as much
- + Strong NVMe throughput: 2,100-2,400 MB/s sequential reads and 42,000-48,000 random 4K IOPS in our tests
- + Transparent hourly billing with a monthly price cap and no setup fees or contracts
- + Six cloud locations with owned, ISO 27001-certified EU data centers and GDPR-compliant processing
- + At least 20 TB included transfer at EU locations, plus free DDoS mitigation for all customers
- + Mature automation: REST API, Terraform provider, official Go/Python libraries, cloud firewalls and private networks
Cons
- - Backups and snapshots are paid add-ons rather than plan inclusions, which erodes the headline price advantage
- - Email-only support with no phone option and no managed tier for cloud customers
- - Entry plans use shared vCPUs and Hetzner offers no bandwidth guarantee (typical 300-500 Mbit/s stated by Hetzner)
- - No supported Windows installs and a smaller managed-ecosystem than larger providers
- - Default resource limits on new accounts require a support ticket to raise; cost-optimized stock is periodically unavailable
- - Object storage only available in the three European locations
UpCloud
Pros
- + Best disk performance in our benchmark set: 62,000 IOPS / 2,800 MB/s on a Helsinki Simple 2-2GB (2026-04-01)
- + 99.999% uptime SLA with 50x credit payback on Premium and managed products
- + Legible pricing: hourly billing capped at 28 days, zero-cost transfer, identical prices in all 15 DCs
- + Broad platform: managed databases, Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage, GPU and Private Cloud options
- + European-first footprint (2x Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Frankfurt and more) with 24/7 in-house support
Cons
- - CPU value lags the budget clouds — our test showed 4,600 CPU score against Hetzner's 9,400 at lower cost
- - Backups are a paid add-on (10-40% of server price) and extra MaxIOPS disk costs €0.22/GB/mo
- - Plan-line reorganization (Simple to Starter/Premium/Cloud Native) plus announced price changes create continuity risk
- - Starter tier caps (5 deployments, 250 Mbit/s port, previous-gen CPUs) despite carrying an SLA
- - APAC coverage is Singapore and Sydney only; GPU and Private Cloud lines are too new for long-run track records
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