DigitalOcean and Linode have a great offering: a minimal, intuitive and easy user interface and competitive pricing. But few know about Hetzner , which not only has a cheaper base level and the same minimal and intuitive user interface, but also more powerful servers for the same price. The only real downside: they only offer servers located in Germany and Finland.
A comparison of their base levels
| Metric | Hetzner | DigitalOcean |
| CPU cores | 1 | 1 |
| RAM | 2GB | 1 GB |
| Disk space | 20 GB | 25 GB |
| Bandwidth | 20 TB | 1 TB |
| Company location (GDPR and data privacy) | UE | NOS |
| Available server locations | Europa | Alrededor del mundo |
| Backups | + 20% of the price | + 20% of the price |
| One-click applications | No | Yes |
| Storage expansion option | Yes | Yes |
| Price | 2,9 € / m | 5 $ / m |
I want to point out a few things here:
- Hetzner server has better specs although it costs about half as much as DigitalOcean/Linode.
- Hetzner includes 20 times more bandwidth than DigitalOcean/Linode.
About one-click applications, which DigitalOcean offers but not Hetzner I would say:
If you can't install software on your server, you probably can't maintain it (applies this on any server,
- If you can't install software on your server, you probably can't maintain it (applies this on any server, DigitalOcean and Linode included).
- There are plenty of resources online for installing almost anything on a server. Search for yourself and look for tutorials on St. Google.
So I think it's no big deal that they don't offer them. At least for me, they have no use, as I configure all my servers myself.
Conclusions after use
As far as I can tell, the ping is a bit higher from Hetzner's servers in Germany vs. DigitalOcean's European servers.
And I emphasize "a little", just a little more ping, which means that the web will be a few milliseconds slower. It's not a big deal, but I'm telling you this so that you are aware of it.
If the users visiting your site are European, then Hetzner is a very good and cheap solution. On the other hand, if your users are outside Europe … it would be better to hire a server close to your users (the USA for example), in this case, I can not recommend Hetzner because you will have a lot of pings. It is better to use DigitalOcean or Linode in a country physically close to the location of your users.
Recommendation
I think it is obvious that I recommend using Hetzner whenever you can. Use my link to get 20 € free credit to start setting up your own server.
I leave you also the affiliate links of DigitalOcean (you get 100€ credit for 2 months) or Linode (you don't get anything, but you help me)
Note: I have been using Hetzner for a while, and before that, it had been recommended to me by friends, and I am very happy with them. I do not recommend Hetzner based on their affiliate payment (10€). DigitalOcean (25€) and Linode (20€) actually pay more for their affiliates.