Hosting Comparison: Hetzner vs AWS¶
Summary¶
| Factor | Hetzner | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Internal tools, staging, small production | Client production, global scale, compliance |
| Cost | ~€5-20/month | ~$50-500+/month |
| Complexity | Simple VPS | Complex ecosystem |
| Location | EU only | Global (30+ regions) |
Use Hetzner For¶
- Internal tools (analytics, monitoring, dashboards)
- Development/staging environments
- Small EU-focused client production (<10k users)
- Background workers and cron jobs
- Cost-sensitive projects
Use AWS For¶
- Client production (>10k users or global traffic)
- Compliance-heavy applications (HIPAA, SOC2, PCI-DSS)
- Serverless workloads
- When client mandates AWS
- Need for managed services (RDS, Lambda, etc.)
Migration¶
Hetzner → AWS¶
When: Traffic grows beyond EU, client demands AWS, need managed databases
Strategy: Keep Hetzner for dev/staging, deploy production to AWS
Timeline: 1-2 weeks
AWS → Hetzner¶
When: High AWS bills, workload is EU-only, don't need managed services
Strategy: Migrate non-critical first, then production
Timeline: 2-4 weeks
Savings: 60-80% cost reduction
Limitations¶
Hetzner¶
- No managed databases (self-manage PostgreSQL/MySQL)
- EU only (higher latency for US/APAC)
- No serverless
- Manual scaling
AWS¶
- Cost surprises (data transfer, NAT gateways)
- Steep learning curve
- Easy to over-engineer
- Vendor lock-in with managed services