Oracle Cloud Free Tier vs Hetzner ARM (Ampere)
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Oracle Cloud Free Tier and Hetzner ARM (Ampere).
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Oracle Cloud Free Tier
0 reviews
4.3/5
Hetzner ARM (Ampere)
0 reviews
Hetzner ARM (Ampere) is rated higher (4.3 vs 4.0). Oracle's perpetual Always Free tier offers 2 AMD micro VMs plus a 2 OCPU/12 GB Ampere A1 allocation (halved from 4/24 in July 2026), 200 GB block storage, two 20 GB Autonomous Databases, 10 GB object storage and 10 TB egress/month; a card is required for identity verification at signup. CAX plans start at 2 vCPU / 4GB RAM / 40GB NVMe; launch pricing was €3.79/month incl. IPv4 (April 2023), currently listed from €6.49/month incl. IPv4
Oracle Cloud Free Tier Always-free compute, database, and storage for development and testing | Hetzner ARM (Ampere) Arm64 cloud servers on Ampere Altra cores in Hetzner Cloud's cost-optimized line | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews) | 4.3 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | free | paid |
| Starting price | Free✓ | From $6.49/mo |
| Best for | Developers, students, and side projects that want always-on cloud infrastructure — including real Arm compute and managed databases — at zero cost, without a time limit | Containerised, open-source, scale-out workloads in Europe — web farms, CI runners, build machines, dev environments — where price per core beats single-thread speed |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 2 vCPU | 2 vCPU |
| RAM | 12 GB✓ | 4 GB |
| Storage | 200 GB✓ | 40 GB |
| Bandwidth | 10 TB/mo | 20 TB/mo✓ |
| SLA uptime | — | 99.9% |
| Data-center count | 50✓ | 3 |
| €/vCPU/mo | €0.00✓ | €3.25 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €0.00✓ | €1.62 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | 50+ regions across 28 countries (NA, SA, EU, MEA, APAC) | NurembergFalkensteinHelsinki |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi accessus datacentereu datacenterapac datacenterarm processors | hourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotseu datacentergdpr compliantapi accessarm processors |
| Visit Oracle Cloud Free Tier → | Visit Hetzner ARM (Ampere) → | |
Oracle Cloud Free Tier
Pros
- + Unmatched perpetual free resources: A1 Arm compute, 200 GB block storage, two managed Autonomous Databases, 10 TB egress/month
- + Real hyperscaler underneath: 50+ regions, full VCN networking, S3-compatible object storage, Terraform-based provisioning
- + 30-day $300 trial to exercise paid services (including GPUs) with no automatic charges afterwards
- + No expiry on Always Free resources — unlike competitors' 12-month credit-style free tiers
Cons
- - Free-tier terms are changeable without notice — Oracle halved the A1 allowance in July 2026 with no announcement
- - No SLA and no Oracle Support for Always Free accounts; community forums only
- - Credit/debit card required for identity verification at signup for most users
- - Free-shape capacity in popular regions is often out of stock; OCI console/IAM complexity applies in full
Hetzner ARM (Ampere)
Pros
- + Cheapest way to buy Hetzner compute per core
- + Real server silicon — Ampere Altra (Neoverse-N1), ECC RAM, NVMe
- + Hourly billing with monthly cap, 20TB included traffic, free IPv6
- + Free automated DDoS protection and the full Hetzner Cloud API/platform
- + Mature arm64 software ecosystem covers most open-source stacks
Cons
- - x86 and Arm are separate worlds — no rescale, backup or snapshot crossover
- - Cost-Optimized placement means limited stock and EU-only locations for CAX
- - Launch-era pricing is gone; entry cost has risen
- - Shared vCPUs and modest single-core speed
- - Backups and snapshots cost extra; unmanaged servers
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