Hetzner is dirt cheap, and especially known for dirt cheap bandwidth.

They had a bit of a reputation for unreliability but that was decades ago, I expect them to have improved and it's definitely more than good enough for a hobby project.

My main concern with them would be the abuse policies - unless that changed in the past couple of years, they have a "shoot first ask questions later" approach (shutting down or firewalling your server, then asking you to explain/fix the issue before maybe turning it back on - e.g. if their automated systems detect what they think to be a port scan).

Pricing:

$6 on DigitalOcean gets you 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 1 TB traffic, 25 GB SSD. Additional traffic is $10/TB.

€4.51 ($5) on Hetzner gets you 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 20 TB traffic, 40 GB SSD. Additional traffic is likely around €1/TB.

$48 on DigitalOcean gets you a VM with 8 GB RAM, 4 vCPUs, 5 TB traffic, 160 GB SSD.

$48 (€43) on Hetzner gets you a physical machine with e.g. (the specs are a bit random since you're picking from a list of customized systems) an Intel XEON E-2176G (6 cores/12 threads), 64 GB of ECC RAM, 2 x 960 GB SSD, and a Gigabit link with "unlimited" traffic (there are reports https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/180504/hetzner-traffic-use... that they don't like it if you actually max out the line rate all the time, but you should consider the 20 TB/month they offer by default the minimum that they will have absolutely no issue with).

If you want even cheaper then go with netcup.{com,eu} - astounding what you get for the $, and they are actually quite reliable and stable.

Been using netcup for 2 months now, their dashboard/webapp is ultra garbage, but I have no problems around hardware I am getting and boy, it's worth the price.

They're great if you need raw processing power but they have a very backwards, German view of the internet where even a port scan is considered abuse. It's very easy to get your machine nullrouted or account closed.

I use them a lot for backend data processing but anything public facing I host at AWS or Digital Ocean who have a more reasonable approach to the internet.

I've just switched from DigitalOcean to Hetzner purely for cost. I'm getting more resources for less money. Features seem pretty comparable to me but I don't need anything more than a standard VPS. The only thing I've found weird is SELinux being set to permissive by default.

I'm not sure why anyone would be patriotic about a private company.

> SELinux being set to permissive by default.

My bet is to reduce support calls. "Why can't I do X and Y on this server?"

I am a hetzner customer for around 5 years, and DO customer for 12. Hetzner is always on point. Botched your vm? they mount a live cd and let you rescue the system. Got provisioned hardware? they provide hardware reset services in case software reset doesn't work. They continuously check if your ip is blacklisted and warn you. They check for vulnerable ports and EU security mandates. UI and prices are competitive. Overall great experience.

I’ve never used DO, but I’m a happy Hetzner customer of over a decade. The cloud offering is solid, and I’ve had several VMs running for years.

I had one project which was part AWS, part Hetzner, for cost reasons. Both driven from terraform.

If you can do it with simple VMs, I’d go for Hetzner. Of late they’ve added more features like private networks.

The original offering is real servers, and the “server bidding” feature is brilliant for getting a bargain.

I have both DO and Hetzner VMs and I find them comparable, with Hetzner being a bit cheaper. If I look at the logs and fail2ban, it looks like DO does a bit more abusive traffic filtering, but that is basically the only difference.

However, the DO docs are on a different level and high quality. But those are also accessible if you are not a customer.

> I don't know if those comments are just patriotic Europeans or...

This is nitpicky, but just want to mention that Europe is a continent made up of 44 diverse and distinct nations, and Hetzner originates from one of them.

Patriotism doesn't really work in that situation (nor in the context of a private company).

I’m not sure if there’s another word besides “patriotism”, but there certainly is a sense of continental pride amongst many (especially western) Europeans that mimics what American’s have for their nation (and not, e.g., their state [Texans aside])

Lets be real, there's no other country that has the same amount of patriotism than the US (for better or worse). You have kids in school "pledge allegiance" to a flag each morning. The only other countries comparable on that level are China, Russia, and North Korea - and they're not exactly doing it out of free will.

A more apt comparison would be how Americans feel towards their president. Most like them, others dislike them, but overall they're proud to have them. They're there in tough times and easy to blame when something doesn't go their way.

DO is crazy expensive compared to all big EU hosters; we run servers at ovh and hetzner for decades; no issues, but, and this does make a difference even though people keep saying it does not on reddit, I speak german and french and I call them when I need something.

I've been using their services for over a decade (first physical servers, now their cloud) and have little to complain. It just works, and if something breaks, they help you real fast.

I personally like the UI much better (less bloat + CTAs), and the prices seem cheaper.

If you have only heard great things, you've not been paying very much attention. Hetzner is known for deleting nodes and accounts without warning or explanation if your CPU usage stays persistently high. They even had the audacity to send a bill thereafter.

We're using tons of Hetzner nodes that are under constant heavy load (~100% CPU usage for ~12 hrs/day), never had problems. I know this is anecdotal, just logging it here.

I’ve been on the “very negative experience” side with Hetzner. It’s great when it works but terrible when they decide to null route your account and take a week to respond to support inquiry.

We use it professionally. Just to give an anecdote to counter an anecdote.

> We use it professionally.

That doesn't really say anything in the parent context of persistent 100% CPU usage.

So…. What’s your anecdote?

Did you have a particularly positive experience?

I often hear people complain about Hetzner for two reasons: (1) their attitude towards crypto, (2) ID verification.