Oracle Cloud Free Tier vs Hetzner Cloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Oracle Cloud Free Tier and Hetzner Cloud.
Quick Verdict
3.9/5
Oracle Cloud Free Tier
219 reviews
4.4/5
Hetzner Cloud
468 reviews
Hetzner Cloud is rated higher (4.4 vs 3.9). Oracle's perpetual free tier offers 2 AMD or ARM-based VMs, 20GB database storage, and 10GB object storage. Designed for developers and small projects without time limits or performance throttles. 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
Oracle Cloud Free Tier Always-free compute, database, and storage for development and testing | Hetzner Cloud Affordable VPS hosting with fast deployment and transparent pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.9 (219 reviews) | 4.4 (468 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | free | paid |
| Starting price | Free✓ | From €4/mo |
| Best for | Developers building side projects, small businesses testing applications, and teams needing always-free managed database with compute in a single platform. | Developers and small teams seeking cost-effective, predictable VPS infrastructure in Europe with straightforward management and no long-term contracts. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | 2 vCPU |
| RAM | — | 4 GB |
| Storage | — | 40 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | 20 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | — | 99.9% |
| Data-center count | — | 5 |
| €/vCPU/mo | — | €2.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | — | €1.00 |
| Performance | ||
| CPU score (sysbench) | — | 4,820 |
| Disk read (fio) | — | 2,100 MB/s |
| Disk IOPS (4K random) | — | 42,000 |
| Network out | — | 1 Gbps |
| Latency (TTFB) | — | 18 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 States |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierapi accessus datacentereu datacenterapac datacenterarm processors | hourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotseu datacenterus datacentergdpr compliantterraform providerapi access |
| Visit Oracle Cloud Free Tier → | Visit Hetzner Cloud → | |
Oracle Cloud Free Tier
Pros
- + Access perpetual free resources indefinitely with no expiration
- + Run two always-free VM instances simultaneously with flexible specs
- + Includes managed databases and object storage in free tier
- + No credit card required to begin
Cons
- - Free tier compute is limited to low-power instance types
- - Network bandwidth and data transfer incur charges beyond free allowance
- - Interface complexity steeper than specialized VPS providers like Linode or DigitalOcean
Hetzner Cloud
Pros
- + Deploy servers in minutes with per-minute billing
- + Access competitive pricing with no hidden fees or setup costs
- + Manage resources via API and web console with detailed documentation
- + Choose from multiple European and US data center locations
Cons
- - Limited OS templates compared to some competitors
- - Smaller community and fewer third-party integrations than larger providers
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