RackNerd vs Hetzner Cloud
A detailed comparison to help you choose between RackNerd and Hetzner Cloud.
Quick Verdict
3.7/5
RackNerd
0 reviews
4.4/5
Hetzner Cloud
0 reviews
Hetzner Cloud is rated higher (4.4 vs 3.7). US-based budget VPS provider popular in the LowEndBox community. Multiple US datacenter locations (LA, NYC, Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta). Annual plans offer significant discounts. KVM-based virtualization. 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
RackNerd Budget US VPS popular on LowEndBox community | Hetzner Cloud Affordable VPS hosting with fast deployment and transparent pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.7 (0 reviews) | 4.4 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | From $2.24/mo✓ | From $5.99/mo |
| Best for | Budget-conscious users running US- or EU-facing side projects, self-hosted apps, staging and VPN endpoints who are comfortable managing their own server and keeping their own backups. | 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. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | 1 vCPU | 2 vCPU✓ |
| RAM | 1 GB | 4 GB✓ |
| Storage | 30 GB | 40 GB✓ |
| Bandwidth | 1 TB/mo | 20 TB/mo✓ |
| SLA uptime | 99.999%✓ | 99.9% |
| Data-center count | 20✓ | 6 |
| €/vCPU/mo | €2.24✓ | €3.00 |
| €/GB RAM/mo | €2.24 | €1.50✓ |
| 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 | Los AngelesSan JoseSeattleDallasAtlantaChicago+6 | GermanyFinlandUnited StatesSingapore |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | nvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedus datacenterwindows available | hourly billingnvme storageipv6ddos protectionbackups includedsnapshotseu datacenterus datacentergdpr compliantterraform providerapi access |
| Visit RackNerd → | Visit Hetzner Cloud → | |
RackNerd
Pros
- + Cheapest KVM specials we track from a provider with a published SLA — 1 GB at $21.99 a year
- + Concrete SLA wording with per-hour credit math rather than vague uptime marketing
- + 12 deployable cities across the US and Europe, plus dedicated and GPU hardware in the US
- + Fast human ticket support by community account, with instant provisioning after payment
- + Full root access, custom ISOs on request, and a growing one-click app catalog in ctrl
Cons
- - No managed backups or snapshots on VPS — the ToS places data integrity on the customer
- - IPv6 only on request, and only in Los Angeles and France locations
- - Budget IPv4 ranges carry blocklist reputation baggage for email and VPN workloads
- - Real pricing requires annual prepay; monthly billing costs several times more
- - Unmanaged by default — no nested virtualization guarantee, and you own the OS
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
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new hosting and infrastructure providers, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.