Hostinger VPS vs Hetzner Cloud
Updated 2026-10-27
Hostinger gives you more RAM per dollar, but only if you pay two years upfront: KVM 1 has 4 GB of RAM for $6.49/month ($155.76 today), and it renews at $11.99/month. Hetzner's 4 GB server in the EU is €19.99/month excl. VAT, but you pay by the hour, can delete it any time, and get 20 TB of traffic instead of 4 TB. If you want the cheapest 4 GB box and you're sure you'll keep it, Hostinger. If you want to try things and walk away, Hetzner.
The plans side by side
| RAM | Hostinger VPS (24-month term, USD) | Hetzner EU Regular Performance (EUR excl. VAT) | Hetzner US (Ashburn, Hillsboro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | n/a (smallest plan has 4 GB) | CPX02, 1 vCPU / 20 GB: €6.49 | n/a |
| 2 GB | n/a | CPX12, 1 vCPU / 40 GB: €11.99 | CPX11, 2 vCPU / 40 GB: €17.99 |
| 4 GB | KVM 1, 1 vCPU / 50 GB: $6.49 promo, renews $11.99 | CPX22, 2 vCPU / 80 GB: €19.99 | CPX21, 3 vCPU / 80 GB: €32.49 |
| 8 GB | KVM 2, 2 vCPU / 100 GB: $8.79 promo, renews $14.99 | not compared here | |
| Included traffic | 4 TB (KVM 1), 8 TB (KVM 2) | at least 20 TB | at least 1 TB |
| How you pay | Whole term upfront ($155.76 for KVM 1, $210.96 for KVM 2) | Hourly, capped at the monthly price. Delete the server and billing stops. | |
| Backups | Weekly backups included | Extra, from €1.198/month (tied to the server price) | |
What you pay at 100k and 1M visits
Assumptions: one small web app plus its database on one server, about 1.5 MB transferred per visit. That's about 150 GB a month at 100k visits and about 1.5 TB at 1M visits.
| Setup | 100k visits | 1M visits |
|---|---|---|
| Hostinger KVM 1, 4 GB, first 24 months | $6.49 | $6.49 (1.5 TB fits in 4 TB) |
| Hostinger KVM 1, 4 GB, after renewal | $11.99 | $11.99 |
| Hetzner EU CPX12, 2 GB | €11.99 | €11.99 |
| Hetzner EU CPX22, 4 GB | €19.99 | €19.99 |
| Hetzner US CPX11, 2 GB | €17.99 | €17.99 + about 0.5 TB over the 1 TB allowance (see the note below) |
| For comparison: Vercel Pro, 1 seat | $26.50 | $120.00 |
The Vercel figure comes from our standard model and leaves out function CPU and memory beyond the included credit.
What actually decides it
Commitment. Hostinger's low price is the monthly rate of a prepaid 24-month term. Hetzner bills per hour with a monthly cap, so a server you run for a weekend costs cents. If you're not sure the project lives past a month, that matters more than the sticker price.
RAM per dollar. Hostinger's cheapest plan already has 4 GB, which is double what Coolify and Dokploy ask for (see Coolify vs Dokploy), and Hostinger has one-click templates for both. On Hetzner, 2 GB is €11.99 and 4 GB is €19.99.
CPU. Hostinger KVM 1 has 1 vCPU for its 4 GB. Hetzner's 4 GB CPX22 has 2 vCPU. If your app is CPU-bound rather than memory-bound, compare KVM 2 (2 vCPU, 8 GB, $8.79 promo, renews $14.99) against CPX22.
Traffic. Both cover a small app easily. Hostinger includes 4 TB on KVM 1. Hetzner EU includes at least 20 TB, Hetzner US only 1 TB.
Gotchas
- Hostinger's prices on the check date were a Black Friday promotion. The page only showed 24-month pricing, so we couldn't confirm what a shorter term costs.
- Hostinger's page doesn't say what happens past the included bandwidth, or whether prices include tax. Hetzner's list prices exclude VAT.
- Hetzner shows extra traffic at €1.00 per additional TB in the EU and US, but also labels it "per hour", so the overage billing unit is unclear.
- Several Hetzner rows showed "currently unavailable" when we checked, so a given size may be out of stock in a given location.
- Either way you run the server yourself. Compare with Hetzner vs DigitalOcean if you want USD pricing and no upfront term.
Verdict
For a project you know you'll keep, Hostinger KVM 1 is the cheapest 4 GB server here: $6.49/month for two years, then $11.99. For anything experimental, or if you want lots of included EU traffic, Hetzner is safer: €11.99 for 2 GB, hourly billing, no prepayment. Both cost a fraction of Vercel Pro at 1M visits.
Estimates only, checked 2026-10-27 against the official pricing pages listed below.
Sources
- https://www.hostinger.com/vps-hosting (checked 2026-10-27)
- https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/ (checked 2026-10-27)
- https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance (checked 2026-10-27)
- https://vercel.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-27)
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