Hetzner and AWS are fundamentally different cloud providers. Hetzner is a German GmbH with data centers in Falkenstein, Nuremberg and Helsinki, entirely under EU law. AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., Seattle, which puts it under the US CLOUD Act even at its Frankfurt location. For DACH companies with GDPR obligations, customer data and regulatory pressure, that difference is material to the business. But sovereignty is only one factor. This comparison is an honest one: cost, performance, services and compliance, with hard numbers.
Cost comparison: the numbers tell a clear story
The biggest difference between Hetzner and AWS is price, and not by a few percent but by a multiple.
Compute (compared by RAM tier)
Hetzner shared-vCPU instances (CX series) offer more vCPUs per RAM tier than AWS, but those cores share physical CPUs. AWS m6i instances provide dedicated, consistent CPU performance. The comparison shows both vCPU counts transparently: Hetzner Cloud: Current Price List AWS EC2 On-Demand Pricing (eu-central-1)
| RAM tier | Hetzner (Shared vCPU) | AWS (On-Demand) | Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 GB | CX23: 2 vCPU – €5.49/month | t3.medium: 2 vCPU – ~€31/month | 5.6x |
| 8 GB | CX33: 4 vCPU – €8.49/month | m6i.large: 2 vCPU – ~€74/month | 8.7x |
| 16 GB | CX43: 8 vCPU – €15.99/month | m6i.xlarge: 4 vCPU – ~€148/month | 9.2x |
| 32 GB | CX53: 16 vCPU – €29.49/month | m6i.2xlarge: 8 vCPU – ~€296/month | 10.0x |
| 32 GB (dedicated) | CCX33: 8 vCPU – €138.49/month | m6i.2xlarge: 8 vCPU – ~€296/month | 2.1x |
The fairest comparison is the last row: Hetzner CCX33 with dedicated vCPUs against AWS m6i.2xlarge, same core count, same amount of RAM. Factor 2.1x.
Storage and traffic
| Resource | Hetzner | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Block Storage (SSD) | €0.057/GB/month | EBS gp3: ~€0.084/GB/month |
| Included traffic | 20 TB/month (EU locations) | 0 GB (ingress free, egress charged) |
| Egress traffic | €1/TB (above the included volume) |
Worked example: a typical SaaS workload
A mid-sized SaaS product with 2 app servers, 1 database server, 500 GB of storage and 5 TB of monthly egress traffic:
| Line item | Hetzner | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| 2x app server (16 GB RAM) | 2x CX43: €31.98 | 2x m6i.xlarge: €296.00 |
| 1x database server (16 GB RAM) | 1x CCX23 (self-hosted PostgreSQL): €85.99 | RDS db.m6g.xlarge (Managed): ~€243.00 |
| 500 GB Block Storage | €28.60 | €42.00 |
| 5 TB egress traffic | €0.00 (within the included volume) | ~€396.00 |
| Total monthly cost | ~€147 | ~€977 |
| Annual cost | ~€1,759 | ~€11,724 |
That works out to a factor of ~7x, driven by AWS egress charges and pricier instances.
Performance benchmarks
For the price, Hetzner servers deliver excellent performance. AWS pulls ahead on dedicated high-end instances, but the price gap rarely justifies it for typical workloads. VPSBenchmarks: Performance Comparison
| Metric | Hetzner | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Network latency (intra-DC) | Very good (~0.3 ms) | Very good (~0.2 ms) |
| Disk I/O (SSD) | Good (Hetzner local NVMe) | Variable (EBS network-based) |
| CPU consistency | High (dedicated CCX series) | High (m6i series) |
| Network throughput | Up to 10 Gbit/s | Up to 25 Gbit/s (expensive instances) |
Sovereignty and compliance
This is where the structural difference lies, and it cannot be solved through configuration. For a detailed analysis of the legal implications, see our article on the CLOUD Act and data risk:
| Kriterium | Hetzner | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Hetzner Online GmbH, Gunzenhausen (DE) | Amazon.com Inc., Seattle (US) |
| CLOUD Act exposure | None – not under US jurisdiction | Full – US parent company |
| GDPR conformity | Native – EU law only | Legal conflicts with US law |
| BSI C5 attestation | Yes – Type 2 (since March 2026) | Yes |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| EU data centers | Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki | Frankfurt, Ireland, Stockholm and others |
| Data centers worldwide | 6 locations, 3 continents | 33+ regions, global |
| Data processing | EU law only applies | US law can override GDPR |
Where AWS is the better choice
A fair comparison has to acknowledge where AWS holds genuine advantages:
- Breadth of managed services: Lambda, SQS, SNS, DynamoDB, Cognito, Step Functions, EventBridge. Hetzner offers nothing comparable. If you need serverless architectures or 50+ managed services, AWS is hard to avoid.
- Global edge network: CloudFront has 750+ points of presence worldwide. Hetzner has no CDN of its own.
- AI/ML services: SageMaker, Bedrock, GPU instances (P5, Inf2). Hetzner offers no GPU servers or ML platforms.
- Enterprise support: AWS provides 24/7 support with 15-minute response times (Business/Enterprise plan). Hetzner support is solid, but not at enterprise level.
- Managed databases: RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, fully managed databases with automatic failover and patching. Hetzner has no managed database offerings.
- Ecosystem: Terraform, CDK, CloudFormation, thousands of integrations. The AWS ecosystem is unmatched. AWS: Full Overview of Products and Services
Where Hetzner is the better choice
- Price/performance: roughly 2 to 10x cheaper depending on configuration. No other factor is this clear-cut.
- Predictable costs: No egress pricing shock. 20 TB of traffic included, then €1/TB instead of ~€79/TB.
- EU data sovereignty: No CLOUD Act, no FISA 702, no US parent company. Structurally GDPR-compliant.
- Simplicity: Fewer services, but the essential ones (compute, storage, load balancer, DNS, firewall) work reliably and are configured in minutes.
- Transparent billing: Fixed monthly prices instead of usage-based billing across dozens of cost dimensions. Hetzner Cloud: Pricing and Features
When to choose which provider
Choose Hetzner if:
- GDPR compliance and data sovereignty are business-critical
- the budget is limited and predictable costs matter more than a broad range of managed services
- the tech stack is built on proven open-source tools (PostgreSQL, Redis, Node.js, Go)
- the target audience is primarily in the DACH region / EU
Choose AWS if:
- you need global scale with edge locations in 30+ countries
- serverless architectures (Lambda, Step Functions) are a core component
- ML/AI workloads require GPU instances and SageMaker
- managed databases (RDS, Aurora) are indispensable
- US law poses no compliance problem (e.g. US customers, no EU personal data)
The reality for most DACH SMEs: You need compute, a database, storage and good support, not 200 managed services. For 95% of mid-sized SaaS workloads, Hetzner is the better choice both economically and from a regulatory standpoint. Compare the alternatives too in the Hetzner vs. Azure comparison and the Hetzner vs. GCP comparison.
In a free initial consultation, we analyze your current AWS infrastructure and calculate your savings potential. We deliver the complete migration and hardening to EU-sovereign Hetzner infrastructure at a fixed price of €36,000, with a working app as the result, not just a migration plan.
Frequently asked questions
How much cheaper is Hetzner than AWS?
Is AWS Frankfurt subject to the CLOUD Act?
Does Hetzner hold a BSI C5 attestation?
What can AWS do that Hetzner cannot?
Does Hetzner offer managed databases?
Can AnvilStack help with the migration?
Sources
- Hetzner Cloud: Current Price List (following the price adjustment of 15 June 2026)
- AWS EC2 On-Demand Pricing – eu-central-1 (Frankfurt)
- AWS Data Transfer Pricing
- Hetzner: Included Traffic Volume and Overage Costs
- Hetzner: Block Storage / Cloud Volumes
- Hetzner: Data Privacy FAQ – GDPR and Data Processing
- Wire: What the CLOUD Act Really Means for EU Data Sovereignty
- Hetzner: BSI C5 Type 2 Attestation (March 2026)
- AWS: Full Overview of All Products and Services
- VPSBenchmarks: Hetzner vs. AWS – Price and Performance Comparison
- AWS ISO 27001 Compliance
- BSI C5: Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria Catalogue