Hetzner alternatives, compared honestly.
We sell Hetzner Cloud and rate its price to performance highly. But our Hetzner line covers 5 locations, Linux only, and no GPUs. When that is the blocker, here are 7 alternatives you can deploy from the same account, payable by PayPal or crypto.
The three reasons people look elsewhere
When Hetzner is not the fit: regions, Windows, GPU.
Region coverage
Our Hetzner line spans Helsinki, Nuremberg, Oregon, Virginia and Singapore. If your users are in Tokyo, Mumbai, Sao Paulo or the Middle East, another platform will sit closer to them.
Windows workloads
Hetzner Cloud through us is Linux only. For Windows Server with RDP, Vultr and Amazon Lightsail both offer it, from $19 per month with IPv4 on Lightsail.
GPU compute
There is no GPU line on Hetzner Cloud in our catalog. NVIDIA GPU VPS plans run on Vultr infrastructure in 7 cities, from $90 per month.
Hetzner vs 7 alternatives we sell
Side by side: entry price, locations we sell, Windows and GPU.
Vultr Cloud VPS
Widest location choice, every server type
Amazon Lightsail
Simple flat bundles on AWS hardware
Initech Linux VPS
Our own hardware in Baltimore, built to spec
Prices are our retail pricing in USD, the cheapest monthly plan on each line. Location counts are regions currently orderable from our catalog. Windows and GPU columns describe our catalog for that platform, not everything the provider offers directly.
Which alternative fits which problem
Picking a lane.
Vultr: the closest all-rounder
Similar simplicity, plans from $10, 32 locations on our line, plus Windows and GPU options Hetzner lacks. The most common answer to "Hetzner, but global".
Vultr vs Hetzner →Amazon EC2: widest reach
60 locations on our line and the deepest instance selection, from $7 per month. More knobs than Hetzner, which cuts both ways: ultimate flexibility, more to configure.
EC2 plans →Amazon Lightsail: fixed bundles, Windows included
Hetzner-style predictable bundles on AWS hardware, from $10 with IPv4 ($7.50 IPv6 only), with a Windows line from $19. See how it differs from full EC2 before choosing.
Lightsail vs EC2 →DigitalOcean: developer comfort
Clean droplet lineup from $12 across 9 locations on our line. If your team already thinks in droplets, this is the low-friction move.
Hetzner vs DigitalOcean →Google Cloud and Alibaba: specific footprints
Google Cloud brings 38 locations and its network backbone from $21. Alibaba covers Asia strongly from $10, including a separate mainland China line. Both deploy from the same balance.
GCP plans →Initech custom: the exact-spec pick
Our own hardware in Baltimore, priced per resource: choose vCPU, RAM and disk independently instead of the nearest fixed plan.
Deploy Initech →Sometimes the alternative to Hetzner is Hetzner. If your users are in Europe or the eastern US and your stack runs on Linux, Hetzner price to performance is genuinely hard to beat, which is exactly why we carry it. Do not switch for the sake of switching: check the pricing breakdown first, and remember you can run Hetzner for the EU footprint and any alternative for the rest, on one balance, in one dashboard, paid by PayPal or crypto.
Hetzner alternative questions
Straight answers. Anything else, ask before you order.
01/What is the closest alternative to Hetzner Cloud?
For most people, Vultr: similar simple plan structure at a similar price point, from $10 per month on our line, with 32 locations plus Windows and GPU options that Hetzner Cloud lacks.
02/Is anything actually cheaper than Hetzner?
On our catalog, entry plans on Amazon EC2 start at $7 per month and our own Initech line at $4.50, below the $10 Hetzner floor. Like for like at higher specs, Hetzner usually stays the price to performance leader, which is why we still recommend it where its regions fit.
03/Which Hetzner alternatives offer Windows?
Vultr, with Windows Server from $52 per month across 31 locations, and Amazon Lightsail, with Windows bundles from $19 per month ($14.25 IPv6 only) across 14 regions. Both deliver RDP credentials automatically and can be paid in crypto.
04/Can I keep Hetzner and add another provider alongside it?
Yes, and it is the setup we would suggest most often: one prepaid balance funds servers on Hetzner and on any alternative at the same time, managed from one dashboard with one invoice trail.
05/Do I need a new account or card to try an alternative?
No. Registration asks for an email address and a country, payment works by PayPal or 18 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Monero, and no card is required.
Deploy the alternative that fits
126 locations across 8 platforms, one balance, no card required.
