Hetzner vs AWS: Cost, Performance & When to Use Each (2026)

I run ERPNext and Frappe implementations at Mith Tech in Bengaluru, and hosting is one of the first questions every client asks once the software is chosen. I have deployed production workloads on both Hetzner and AWS, so this comparison comes from bills I have actually paid and incidents I have actually debugged, not a spec sheet. My honest take: most Indian SMBs over-buy cloud, reaching for AWS because it feels safe when a well-managed Hetzner box would have done the job for a fraction of the cost.

What is the real difference between Hetzner and AWS?

Hetzner is a German infrastructure provider that sells cost-efficient virtual and dedicated servers with a generous bandwidth allowance. AWS is a hyperscaler that sells 200+ integrated services spanning compute, managed databases, serverless functions, networking and machine learning. Hetzner gives you raw building blocks; AWS gives you a managed platform you assemble from.

That single distinction drives almost every trade-off below. With Hetzner, you rent a powerful machine and your team installs, secures and maintains everything on it. With AWS, you rent capabilities — a managed Postgres, an object store, a load balancer — and Amazon operates the plumbing underneath. One model minimises your bill; the other minimises your operational surface. Neither is free of cost, they just move the cost between your wallet and your team's time.

Skimmable summary: Hetzner sells cost-efficient raw infrastructure you operate yourself; AWS sells a broad catalogue of managed services you assemble.

Which is cheaper for raw compute?

Hetzner is substantially cheaper for equivalent CPU, RAM and disk, and the gap is not small — for the same virtual specs you typically get far more machine for your money. AWS charges a premium for on-demand compute plus the surrounding ecosystem. For a fixed, predictable workload, Hetzner almost always produces the lower monthly infrastructure bill.

The reason is structural. AWS prices in global availability, deep redundancy, per-second billing and a huge managed catalogue, and you pay for that whether or not you use it. Hetzner runs a lean, self-owned data-centre operation in Germany and Finland and passes the efficiency on. That said, "cheaper compute" is not the same as "cheaper total cost" — if you would need to rebuild managed services yourself on Hetzner, your engineering time is a real cost. Check the current live pricing on each vendor's official page before you model your bill.

Skimmable summary: For raw, predictable compute Hetzner wins clearly on price; factor in your own operational time before calling it the cheaper total.

How do bandwidth and egress costs compare?

Hetzner includes a large monthly outbound-traffic allowance with every cloud server, meters only outgoing data, and applies a low flat rate above the allowance. AWS bundles no meaningful egress allowance and bills outbound internet transfer from the first gigabyte. For bandwidth-heavy workloads this is one of the widest cost gaps between the two.

Egress is the line item that quietly wrecks AWS budgets. A file-heavy ERPNext instance, a media library, a public API or a busy customer portal can generate steady outbound traffic, and on AWS every byte is metered. On Hetzner the same traffic usually sits inside the included allowance. If your application pushes a lot of data to users, this difference alone can outweigh every other cost consideration. Always confirm current data-transfer pricing on each provider's official page before you model your bill.

Skimmable summary: Hetzner includes generous outbound traffic and meters only egress at a low flat rate; AWS bills egress from the first byte, which dominates bandwidth-heavy bills.

What managed services does AWS offer that Hetzner doesn't?

AWS provides a deep catalogue of fully managed services — RDS for databases, S3 for object storage, Lambda for serverless functions, plus queues, caches, monitoring, identity and much more — with automated backups, failover and patching built in. Hetzner offers infrastructure and an S3-compatible object store, but no managed relational database or broad PaaS layer.

For a lean team, managed services are the whole point of a hyperscaler. AWS RDS handles replication, point-in-time recovery and version upgrades so your engineers do not have to. On Hetzner you run the database yourself: you set up backups, monitoring, failover and security, or you use a managed platform layer on top. That operational work is real and recurring. If you would rather buy that reliability than build it, AWS earns its premium here.

Skimmable summary: AWS bundles managed databases, serverless and a 200+ service catalogue; Hetzner gives infrastructure and object storage, leaving management to your team.

How do global regions and reliability compare?

AWS operates 30+ regions and 117+ availability zones worldwide, including two in India — Mumbai and Hyderabad — with multiple isolated zones per region for high availability. Hetzner runs six cloud regions across Germany, Finland, the United States and Singapore, owning its European data centres and using colocation elsewhere. For India-based low latency, AWS has the clear geographic advantage.

Geography matters for Indian SMBs. If your users, GST filings and integrations sit in India, AWS Mumbai or Hyderabad keeps latency low and data resident in-country. Hetzner's nearest region to India is Singapore, which adds round-trip time for latency-sensitive apps. On reliability, AWS's multi-AZ architecture and mature SLAs are built for global enterprise workloads; Hetzner is dependable for its class but expects you to design your own redundancy across servers or regions.

Skimmable summary: AWS spans 30+ global regions with two in India and multi-zone redundancy; Hetzner covers six regions with none in India, so design your own resilience.

When should you choose Hetzner?

Choose Hetzner when your priority is the lowest infrastructure bill for a predictable workload and your team can manage servers. Hetzner fits self-hosted ERPNext, internal tools, staging environments, bandwidth-heavy apps and any project where you value cost efficiency over a managed catalogue. Comfort with Linux administration and backups is the prerequisite.

I recommend Hetzner most often to Bengaluru SMBs running a single-company ERPNext instance with a known user count. The workload is steady, the data lives internally, and a well-configured Hetzner box handles it comfortably at a fraction of hyperscaler cost. The catch is ownership: you or a partner must patch, back up and monitor it. Pair Hetzner with a disciplined operations process — or a managed layer — and it is hard to beat on value. If you want that operations layer handled for you, a managed PaaS approach sits neatly on top of Hetzner-class infrastructure.

Skimmable summary: Pick Hetzner for predictable, cost-sensitive, self-managed workloads like internal ERPNext — provided your team owns patching, backups and monitoring.

When should you choose AWS?

Choose AWS when you need managed services, global reach, in-country India regions, strict compliance, or elastic scale that grows and shrinks unpredictably. AWS suits customer-facing products, multi-region deployments, workloads leaning on RDS or Lambda, and teams that would rather buy reliability than operate it. The premium buys reduced operational burden.

AWS earns its place when the cost of downtime or engineering time exceeds the cost of the cloud bill. A funded startup scaling a public product, an enterprise with audit requirements, or a team without dedicated infrastructure staff often comes out ahead on AWS despite the higher sticker price — because the managed services replace headcount. The mistake is defaulting to AWS for a small, steady internal workload that never needed hyperscaler machinery. Match the tool to the actual requirement.

Skimmable summary: Pick AWS for managed services, global and India-region reach, compliance and unpredictable scale, where reduced operational burden justifies the premium.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hetzner cheaper than AWS?

Yes, for comparable raw compute and bandwidth, Hetzner is substantially cheaper. It offers more CPU, RAM and included outbound traffic per rupee, and meters only egress at a low flat rate. AWS costs more because you also pay for its managed services, global footprint and redundancy. Total cost depends on how much of that you actually use — check live pricing on each vendor's official page.

Can I run ERPNext on both Hetzner and AWS?

Yes. ERPNext runs well on either. Hetzner is a popular, cost-efficient home for self-hosted ERPNext where your team owns operations, while AWS suits deployments needing managed databases, India-region latency or enterprise redundancy. We cover the ERPNext-specific trade-offs in our guide on AWS vs Hetzner for ERPNext hosting.

Does Hetzner have a data centre in India?

No. Hetzner's six cloud regions span Germany, Finland, the United States and Singapore, with Singapore being the nearest to India. AWS operates two Indian regions — Mumbai and Hyderabad — which give lower latency to Indian users and keep data resident in-country, an advantage for India-facing applications.

Why is AWS egress so expensive compared to Hetzner?

AWS bills outbound internet traffic from the first gigabyte with no meaningful included allowance, so bandwidth-heavy apps accumulate large egress charges. Hetzner includes a generous monthly outbound allowance with each server and meters only egress above it at a low flat rate. For data-heavy workloads this gap often dominates the total cost comparison.

Is Hetzner reliable enough for production?

Yes, for its class. Hetzner is dependable for production self-hosting, but it expects you to design redundancy — backups, failover and, if needed, multi-server or multi-region setups. AWS provides built-in multi-availability-zone architecture and mature SLAs for enterprise-grade resilience. The right choice depends on how much reliability engineering you want to own versus buy.

Which should a small Indian business pick?

For a predictable internal workload with a Linux-capable team or partner, Hetzner usually delivers the best value. For customer-facing products, strict compliance, India-region latency or unpredictable scale, AWS is often worth the premium. Many teams run a hybrid — cost-efficient infrastructure for steady workloads, hyperscaler services where managed scale genuinely matters.

For a deeper cost-and-management breakdown specific to ERP workloads, see our guide on ERPNext hosting cost across AWS, Hetzner and managed options, or explore the Frappe and ERPNext platform we build on.