Hetzner is a German operator that runs its own data centres in Falkenstein, Nuremberg and Helsinki, with locations in the US and Singapore, and it sells compute by the hour with no minimum term. Its cloud range was repriced on 15 June 2026: the cost-optimized CX line rose about 31-38%, so CX23 went from EUR 3.99 to EUR 5.49 a month before VAT and the EUR 0.50 IPv4 charge. Even after that rise, the included 20 TB of traffic is the part hyperscalers cannot match.
TL;DR
Hetzner sells infrastructure: cloud servers, dedicated machines, storage, with EU data centres and 20 TB of traffic included. Hostinger sells finished websites: shared hosting, a site builder, mailboxes and a support line, plus a VPS range for when you outgrow shared. Prices are closer than the reputations suggest - Hetzner raised its cloud rates in June 2026, and Hostinger's headline rates are promotional prices on a two to four year term.
Hostinger takes the opposite approach. The front page is a hosting package: a domain free for the first year, weekly backups, a CDN, mailboxes, a 30-day money-back guarantee and 24/7 support, sold with long-term discounts. Premium shared hosting is advertised at $2.99 a month on a 48-month term, billed as $143.52 against a regular $575.52, and renews at $10.99 a month.
Underneath the marketing both sell virtual machines. Hostinger's KVM VPS line starts at $6.49 a month on a two-year term - one vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe and 4 TB of bandwidth - renewing at $11.99. Hetzner's CX23 gives two vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe and 20 TB of traffic for EUR 5.49 plus IPv4. The specs are not identical, and neither is the contract: one price is a long prepayment, the other is hourly billing you stop whenever.
| Feature | Hetzner | Hostinger |
|---|---|---|
| Entry cloud server | CX23: EUR 5.49/mo excl. VAT, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe | KVM 1: $6.49/mo promo on a 2-year term, 1 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe |
| Renewal or standard rate | Hourly billing at list price, no term; IPv4 adds EUR 0.50/mo | KVM 1 renews at $11.99/mo; shared Premium renews at $10.99/mo |
| Mid-range option | CX33 EUR 8.49/mo (4 vCPU, 8 GB, 80 GB); CAX11 Arm EUR 5.99/mo | KVM 2 $8.99/mo promo (2 vCPU, 8 GB, 100 GB), renews $14.99/mo |
| Traffic included | 20 TB at EU locations, then EUR 0.0572 per GB | 4 TB on KVM 1, 8 TB on KVM 2, 16 TB on KVM 4, 32 TB on KVM 8 |
| Shared website hosting | Web hosting packages S to XL; EUR 1.09 per GB overage and EUR 0.64/mo for external domains | Premium $2.99/mo promo (48-month term), 3 sites, 20 GB SSD, free domain for 1 year |
| Contract | Pay as you go by the hour, cancel any time | 12, 24 or 48 months prepaid for the advertised rate |
| Location and compliance | Own data centres in Germany and Finland, EU-focused, GDPR positioning | Global data centres with a support-first, beginner-oriented setup |
| Support | Documentation, ticket support, community | 24/7 live support and a 30-day money-back guarantee |
Pick Hetzner if
You are comfortable with a terminal, you want 20 TB of traffic instead of 4, and you would rather pay a documented list price that can be cancelled by deleting a server than prepay for four years. The June 2026 increase took some of the sting out of Hetzner's price advantage, but hardware per euro is still the reason people move there.
Pick Hostinger if
You want a domain, mailboxes, backups, a CDN and a person to talk to at 3am, wrapped around a plan you can buy in five minutes. Just do the renewal arithmetic first: the advertised $2.99 becomes $10.99 when the term ends, and a four-year commitment is what buys that price.
No independent review data was collected for this pair, so no ratings or user quotes appear here. Prices come from Hetzner's published price-adjustment table, hetzner.com, hostinger.com and Hostinger's VPS page, all read in October 2026.
For an equivalent VPS, yes on hardware: Hetzner's CX23 lists at EUR 5.49 a month for 2 vCPU and 4 GB with 20 TB traffic, while Hostinger's KVM 1 is $6.49 promotional with 1 vCPU, 4 GB and 4 TB, renewing at $11.99. For a simple website, Hostinger's $2.99 promotional shared plan is cheaper than running any cloud server.
Hetzner published a portfolio-wide price adjustment effective 15 June 2026, following an earlier one in April. Its own table shows CX23 moving from EUR 3.99 to EUR 5.49 and CAX11 from EUR 4.49 to EUR 5.99 a month, with specs and the 20 TB traffic allowance unchanged.
On the plans listed, the promotional rate is tied to a long term: KVM 1 is $6.49 a month and renews at $11.99, KVM 4 is $12.99 and renews at $28.99, shared Premium is $2.99 and renews at $10.99. Budget on the renewal figure from year one.
Hostinger. Its shared plans include a domain for the first year, backups, CDN, mailboxes and managed WordPress tooling, and support is available around the clock. Hetzner can host WordPress too, but you assemble and maintain the stack yourself.
If the decision is purely hardware per euro and traffic included, Hetzner. If it is about having one vendor for domain, mail, backups and support with a low entry price, Hostinger. Check both renewal and cancellation terms before committing: one wants your prepayment, the other wants your server management comfort.
Hostinger includes a domain free for one year with yearly plans. Hetzner sells domains separately and charges EUR 0.64 a month, excluding VAT, for domains registered elsewhere that you point at its hosting.
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