Guides · 2026-08-28
Hetzner raised cloud prices in 2026: the new math
For years, “just get a Hetzner box” was the reflex answer to any hosting-cost question — €3.99 for 2 vCPU and 4GB of RAM was a price nobody else matched. That era just ended: as of 2026-08-28, Hetzner’s shared x86 CX plans list 30–50% higher than the prices most people still quote, and several CX sizes are intermittently out of stock in EU locations. The reflex needs an update.
What actually changed
| Plan | Old list | Now (incl. IPv4) | Old $/mo | Now $/mo | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CX23 (2 vCPU / 4GB) | €3.99 + IPv4 | €5.99 | $4.30 | $7.09 | +65% |
| CX33 (4 vCPU / 8GB) | €6.49 + IPv4 | €8.99 | $7.00 | $10.59 | +51% |
| CX43 (8 vCPU / 16GB) | €11.99 + IPv4 | €16.49 | $13.00 | $19.09 | +47% |
Two honest caveats before you grab a pitchfork. First, the new list prices bundle the IPv4 addressthat used to cost ~€0.60/mo extra, so the like-for-like increase is smaller than the sticker suggests — closer to +30% than +50% on the CX23. Second, specs are unchanged: same vCPU, RAM, SSD and the same generous 20TB of included traffic, which still embarrasses every hyperscaler’s egress pricing. This is a price increase, not a stealth downgrade.
The escape hatch: Hetzner’s own Arm line
The quiet winner is Hetzner’s CAX line on Ampere Arm chips. A CAX11 (2 vCPU / 4GB / 40GB / 20TB) lists at €6.49 (~$7.59) — roughly the CX23’s price with none of the stock problems, and Arm is a non-issue for most web workloads in 2026: Node, Next.js, PHP, Postgres, Docker images all run natively. If your stack has no x86-only binary dependency, the CAX line is the closest thing to the old Hetzner deal still on the menu.
Who’s cheap now — live ranking
Cheapest current plan per VPS provider, from list prices as of 2026-08-28 (refreshed weekly):
| Provider | Entry plan | $/month | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean Droplets | Basic 512MB | $4 | 10GB SSD |
| OVHcloud VPS | VPS-1 | $4.54 | Unlimited @500Mbps; 40GB NVMe; 12-mo upfront |
| Vultr | Cloud Compute 1GB | $5 | 25GB SSD |
| Linode (Akamai) | Nanode 1GB | $5 | 25GB SSD |
| AWS Lightsail | $5 bundle | $5 | 20GB SSD; burstable vCPU |
| Netcup | VPS 500 G12 | $6.4 | €5.91 incl VAT; 128GB NVMe; fair-use unlimited |
| Hostinger VPS | KVM 1 | $6.49 | PROMO 24-mo; renews $11.99; 50GB NVMe |
| Hetzner Cloud | CX23 | $7.09 | €5.99 incl IPv4; 40GB SSD, 20TB traffic; x86 CX line often out of stock |
| Scaleway | DEV1-S | $7.1 | €6.55; 200Mbps unmetered; storage+IPv4 extra |
Entry price isn’t the whole story — plans differ wildly in what the dollar buys. OVHcloud’s $4.54 needs a 12-month upfront commitment. DigitalOcean and Vultr’s cheapest droplets are 1GB machines, half the RAM of Hetzner’s entry plan. And Hetzner’s 20TB of included traffic still beats everyone at scale: at DigitalOcean’s $0.01/GB overage, 20TB of egress costs ~$200. If you push serious bandwidth, Hetzner post-increase is still the cheapest game in town.
What to do about it
- Already on a CX plan: existing servers keep running; the new prices hit new deployments. No panic migration required — but re-run the numbers before you scale out.
- Deploying new EU boxes: price the CAX Arm line first. Same money, fewer stock lotteries.
- Bandwidth-light workloads: the field is competitive again — compare Hetzner alternatives or run your stack through the hosting cost calculator.
- Bandwidth-heavy workloads: stay put. 20TB included traffic at these prices has no real rival.
Run your own numbers
Plan-by-plan breakdowns: Next.js on Hetzner, WordPress on Hetzner, or the full provider ranking for your stack.
Methodology: all prices are official list prices read from provider pricing pages on 2026-08-28, date-stamped and refreshed weekly. Old Hetzner prices are the list prices in effect until mid-2026. Some providers in the ranking have affiliate links (disclosed in the footer); they never change the ordering — Hetzner, which pays us nothing, has topped our tables since launch.