Overview

Hetzner, founded in 1997, is a German hosting provider offering cloud servers, dedicated servers, and storage solutions. It operates data centers in Germany, Finland, the United States, and Singapore, serving developers, SMBs, and enterprises. Known for cost-effective pricing, Hetzner provides scalable infrastructure for web hosting, applications, and storage-heavy workloads. While it does not market a traditional CDN, its cloud and object storage services support content delivery use cases, particularly for European customers. Hetzner’s customer base includes startups, developers, and businesses prioritizing affordability and performance.

Network & Architecture

Hetzner operates data centers in Nuremberg and Falkenstein (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Ashburn (Virginia, USA), Hillsboro (Oregon, USA), and Singapore. Specific POP counts are not publicly detailed, but its infrastructure leverages high-speed connectivity within Europe, with extensions to North America and Asia-Pacific. The network is optimized for low-latency delivery in EMEA, with growing presence in APAC and NA. Limitations include less coverage in LATAM, Africa, and the Middle East compared to global CDNs like Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront. Object Storage supports S3-compatible APIs, enabling content delivery for static assets.

Features

Hetzner’s Cloud and Object Storage services include DDoS protection (ddos) to mitigate network attacks. TLS 1.3 (tls1-3) is supported for secure connections. The platform offers an API-first (api-first) approach for automation and integration, alongside Terraform (terraform) support for infrastructure-as-code. Notable products include Hetzner Cloud for virtual servers and Object Storage for scalable, S3-compatible storage. No specific features for WAF, bot mitigation, image optimization, or video streaming are documented.

Pricing Snapshot (2025-08-15)

Hetzner uses a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model with no long-term commitments, appealing to SMBs and developers. Cloud server pricing starts at €3.79/month for shared vCPU plans, and Object Storage begins at €4.29/month. No free tier is available, but pricing is transparent with per-GB rates for storage and traffic. For example, Object Storage costs €0.00429/GB/month. Full details at https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/pricing.

Integrations & DevEx

Hetzner supports Terraform for infrastructure provisioning and offers a RESTful API for managing servers, storage, and DNS. SDKs are available for languages like Python and Go, facilitating automation. CI/CD integration is possible via APIs, though no specific plugins for tools like GitHub Actions are documented. The Hetzner Console provides a user-friendly interface for managing resources, with detailed documentation at https://docs.hetzner.com.

When it fits / When it doesn’t

When it fits:

  • Developers and SMBs need cost-effective cloud hosting or storage in EMEA with S3-compatible APIs.
  • Projects require flexible, API-driven infrastructure with Terraform support.
  • Workloads prioritize affordability and performance over extensive global CDN coverage.

When it doesn’t:

  • Applications need extensive global POP coverage, especially in LATAM, Africa, or the Middle East.
  • Advanced CDN features like WAF, image optimization, or video streaming are critical.
  • Enterprises require dedicated support or complex traffic steering, better served by providers like Akamai or Fastly.