Hetzner Cloud vs IONOS Cloud Comparison
Compare Hetzner Cloud vs IONOS Cloud features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Hetzner Cloud
6.2/10
Hourly-billed virtual cloud servers, object storage, networking and load balancers from German host Hetzner, aimed at developers and cost-conscious technical teams.
IONOS Cloud
6.4/10
European public cloud from IONOS offering pay-as-you-go VMs, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, databases and S3-compatible storage for businesses needing GDPR-aligned hosting.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | H Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.2/10 | 6.4/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 4/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 4/10 | 5/10 |
| Scalability | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | €6/mo Cost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | €6/mo Cost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Uptime SLA | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
Hetzner Cloud vs IONOS Cloud cost by team size
| Team size | Hetzner Cloud | IONOS Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | €6/moCost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | €6/moCost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | €6/moCost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | €6/moCost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | €6/moCost-Optimized CX23 | Contact for pricing |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
HWhy choose Hetzner Cloud
- Higher Integration score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Cost score (8/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for startups (8/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose IONOS Cloud
- Higher Support score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Security score (7/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
HHetzner Cloud
Pros
- EU servers include 20 TB of traffic, and extra traffic costs only €1 per TB.
- Hourly billing capped at a monthly price, with no contracts.
- A full API and CLI plus Terraform and Ansible integrations make automation straightforward.
- Stateful firewalls and private networks come at no extra cost.
- Still cheaper per spec than DigitalOcean in independent 2026 comparisons.
Cons
- Prices rose twice in 2026, with CPX and CCX new orders up by as much as about 176%.
- Cost-Optimized types are listed as unavailable, and provisioning was limited for new customers from June 2026.
- Many users report account verification failures and suspensions with little explanation.
- No managed database, serverless or managed Kubernetes products.
- US and Singapore servers include far less traffic than EU servers.
IONOS Cloud
Pros
- The Kubernetes control plane is free, so you pay only for node cores, RAM and storage.
- Hourly per-resource pricing is transparent, and Savings Plans can cut dedicated core rates by roughly half over three years.
- EU-based provider with GDPR alignment and reported ISO 27001 and BSI C5 attestations.
- Strong automation options, including a Terraform provider, Cloud API, CLI and visual Data Center Designer.
- Broad catalog covering managed databases, Kafka, CDN, DDoS protection and GPU servers.
Cons
- No Asia-Pacific or Latin American regions, and multi-zone resiliency is thinner than at the hyperscalers.
- Reviewers report billing friction, renewal price increases and difficult cancellation.
- GPU capacity is reported to be limited to Frankfurt, with small default quotas.
- IAM granularity and observability depth lag behind AWS-class providers.
- Very few independent user reviews of the cloud product specifically.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
IONOS Cloud scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 6.4/10 against 6.2/10 for Hetzner Cloud. The largest gap is in Support: 4/10 for Hetzner Cloud and 6/10 for IONOS Cloud.
No, neither Hetzner Cloud nor IONOS Cloud lists a free plan.
Hetzner Cloud is the better fit for developers: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 7/10 for IONOS Cloud.
