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Hetzner vs Hostinger VPS

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Hetzner and Hostinger VPS built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 30 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Hetzner if…

Self-managed Linux servers in European and US locations, billed hourly with a monthly cap so a deleted server is only charged for the hours it ran.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Hostinger VPS if…

Running Docker applications on a cheap KVM server with root access, where 4 GB of RAM at the entry plan matters more than a managed control plane. The one-click catalog covers the usual self-hosted stack.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Hetzner: You want managed deployment from Git, or a managed database service — Hetzner Cloud documents neither.
  • Hostinger VPS: The advertised price is introductory. Compare the two-year renewal rate, and note that Hostinger publishes continents rather than data centre locations, so you cannot pick a specific region before buying.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Hostinger VPS alternatives

18 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Hetzner documentationVisit Hostinger VPS documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionHetznerHostinger VPS
Pricing
Entry paid plan
€5.99/month for the CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe), including a primary IPv4 address, or €0.0096/hour. The ARM CAX11 with identical specs is €6.49. Converted for comparison at the ECB reference rate of 1 EUR = 1.1622 USD (2026-09-04, api.frankfurter.dev), which puts the CX23 at about $6.96/month. Hetzner publishes no USD price; the conversion is ours and moves with the rate.
$11.99/month on renewal for KVM 1, on a two-year term. The advertised $6.49 is an introductory rate for the first term only.
Pricing modelYour server's bill will never exceed its monthly price cap. If you delete your cloud server before the end of the billing month, we will only bill you for the hourly rate.Prepaid multi-year terms at a discounted first term, renewing at roughly 1.85x. KVM 1 is $6.49/month on a two-year prepay and $11.99/month on renewal. Milder than the shared-hosting line, where the same structure renews at 3.7x.
Egress over allowance€1.00 per TB over the included traffic in Europe and the US; €7.40 per TB in Singapore. Billed in blocks of 100 MB, rounded up.No per-GB overage price; at the plan monthly bandwidth limit the VPS connection is throttled to 10 Mbps for the rest of the month, resetting at the start of the next month.
Limits
Storage (entry plan)
40 GB NVMe on CX23 and CAX11, the smallest plans in Hetzner's cost-optimized line
50 GB NVMe on KVM 1, the cheapest plan
Memory (entry plan)
4 GB on CX23 and CAX11, the smallest plans in Hetzner's cost-optimized line
4 GB RAM on KVM 1, the cheapest plan
Included bandwidth
At least 20 TB on servers in the EU, on every plan in the cost-optimized line. US and Singapore locations include less — the pricing data lists 1 TB for Singapore.
4 TB on KVM 1, rising to 8 TB on KVM 2, 16 TB on KVM 4 and 32 TB on KVM 8
Deployment
Docker deployment
Limited
Supported
Containers
Limited
Supported
Infrastructure
Persistent processesSupportedSupported
Persistent storageSupportedSupported
RegionsDE Falkenstein (fsn1); DE Nuremberg (nbg1); FI Helsinki (hel1); US Ashburn, VA (ash); US Hillsboro, OR (hil); SG Singapore (sin)Data centers in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. Hostinger names the continents on the VPS page rather than listing the locations.
Data
Backup retentionDaily automatic backups with seven slots per server; the oldest is deleted when a new one is taken. Billed at 20% of the server's monthly price.Automatic weekly backups included, plus manual snapshots. Hostinger does not state how many weekly backups are kept.
Compliance
SOC 2
No SOC 2; Hetzner states it focuses on ISO/IEC 27001:2022 instead, describing SOC 2 as a standard most well-known in the USA.
Not SOC 2 certified; the Trust Center states Hostinger holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 instead.
ISO 27001Certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022; scope covers all hosting services and data centers, at the Nuremberg, Falkenstein/Vogtland and Helsinki sites.ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified; certificate viewable in the Hostinger Trust Center.
GDPR / data residency
Cloud data is stored at the product location you choose; non-cloud products stay in the EU, as does Hetzner's own customer master, contract and billing data.
GDPR Data Processing Addendum published; EU Standard Contractual Clauses apply to Customer Data transferred outside the EEA.
PCI DSS
Hetzner stores no credit card data; processing is done by payment provider Computop and the customer account complies with PCI DSS 4.0 Revision 1.0. Scope is Hetzner's own payment handling, not customer workloads.
Hostinger hosting plans are not designed to meet PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance standards.
Encryption at restUnder Hetzner's Data Processing Agreement the customer is responsible for the data stored on the server and for its encryption.DPA security standards include encrypting Personal Data and sensitive data at rest in databases and shared directories. Hostinger-side processing measure; not a statement about customer-managed VPS disks.
Customer-managed keys
Object Storage (S3) supports SSE-C: you supply the encryption key on upload and must supply the same key to read the data; the S3 service does not store it. Object Storage only; documented for the MinIO client and AWS CLI. Not documented for Cloud servers or Volumes.
Not supported: Hostinger states it does not currently support customer-managed KMS or BYOK and manages key management internally.
Role-based access controlProject members hold one of four roles - Owner, Admin, Member or Restricted - determining what they may do; Admins manage members, API tokens and S3 credentials.Account Sharing grants a Collaborator or Admin role, scoped to selected services; each role has a different set of permissions.
Dedicated infrastructureCCX cloud plans have dedicated CPU resources, one vCPU equalling one thread of a physical CPU core; all Hetzner Cloud features are available on them.Each KVM VPS is a dedicated, isolated environment on a physical server, with CPU and RAM not shared with other users.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Entry paid plan

Hetzner
€5.99/month for the CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe), including a primary IPv4 address, or €0.0096/hour. The ARM CAX11 with identical specs is €6.49. Converted for comparison at the ECB reference rate of 1 EUR = 1.1622 USD (2026-09-04, api.frankfurter.dev), which puts the CX23 at about $6.96/month. Hetzner publishes no USD price; the conversion is ours and moves with the rate.
Hostinger VPS
$11.99/month on renewal for KVM 1, on a two-year term. The advertised $6.49 is an introductory rate for the first term only.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Hetzner
Your server's bill will never exceed its monthly price cap. If you delete your cloud server before the end of the billing month, we will only bill you for the hourly rate.
Hostinger VPS
Prepaid multi-year terms at a discounted first term, renewing at roughly 1.85x. KVM 1 is $6.49/month on a two-year prepay and $11.99/month on renewal. Milder than the shared-hosting line, where the same structure renews at 3.7x.
Sources (2) →
  • FAQ - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “Your server's bill will never exceed its monthly price cap. If you delete your cloud server before the end of the billing month, we will only bill you for the hourly rate.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

  • VPS Hosting — Hostinger ↗

    “KVM 1 $19.49 $6.49/mo Choose plan Renews at $11.99/mo for 2 years. Cancel anytime. [...] KVM 2 $24.49 $8.99/mo Choose plan Renews at $14.99/mo for 2 years.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Egress over allowance

Hetzner
€1.00 per TB over the included traffic in Europe and the US; €7.40 per TB in Singapore. Billed in blocks of 100 MB, rounded up.
Hostinger VPS
No per-GB overage price; at the plan monthly bandwidth limit the VPS connection is throttled to 10 Mbps for the rest of the month, resetting at the start of the next month.
Sources (2) →
  • Cloud pricing data — hetzner.com ↗

    “"HEL1": { "EUR": { "price": "42.99", "hourPrice": "0.068900", "setupPrice": 0, "traffic": { "0": 0, "20": "1.000000" } } }, "SIN": { "EUR": { "price": "53.99", "traffic": { "0": 0, "1": "7.400000" } } }”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • What happens if your VPS bandwidth resource limits are exceeded ↗

    “This means that while your websites and services will remain operational, the connection speed will be reduced to 10 Mbps for the rest of the month. [...] At the beginning of the next month, your monthly bandwidth allocation will be reset to its original value, and your connection speed will return to its normal level.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Storage (entry plan)

Hetzner

40 GB NVMe on CX23 and CAX11, the smallest plans in Hetzner's cost-optimized line

Hostinger VPS

50 GB NVMe on KVM 1, the cheapest plan

Sources (2) →

Memory (entry plan)

Hetzner

4 GB on CX23 and CAX11, the smallest plans in Hetzner's cost-optimized line

Hostinger VPS

4 GB RAM on KVM 1, the cheapest plan

Sources (2) →

Included bandwidth

Hetzner

At least 20 TB on servers in the EU, on every plan in the cost-optimized line. US and Singapore locations include less — the pricing data lists 1 TB for Singapore.

Hostinger VPS

4 TB on KVM 1, rising to 8 TB on KVM 2, 16 TB on KVM 4 and 32 TB on KVM 8

Sources (2) →

Docker deployment

Hetzner
Limited
Hostinger VPS
Supported
Sources (2) →

Containers

Hetzner
Limited
Hostinger VPS
Supported
Sources (2) →
  • Docker CE - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “This app contains a ready to use Docker installation. You can install it via the Hetzner Console or the Hetzner Cloud API. Docker is an open source project that uses OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers.”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

  • VPS Hosting — Hostinger ↗

    “The application catalog puts the most in-demand Docker apps one click away on your VPS.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official site · Report a correction

Regions

Hetzner
DE Falkenstein (fsn1); DE Nuremberg (nbg1); FI Helsinki (hel1); US Ashburn, VA (ash); US Hillsboro, OR (hil); SG Singapore (sin)
Hostinger VPS
Data centers in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. Hostinger names the continents on the VPS page rather than listing the locations.
Sources (2) →
  • Locations - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “There are currently four network zones and six locations: eu-central us-east us-west ap-southeast DE Falkenstein fsn1 US Ashburn, VA ash US Hillsboro, OR hil SG Singapore sin DE Nuremberg nbg1 FI Helsinki hel1”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

  • VPS Hosting — Hostinger ↗

    “Choose a server location close to your audience to boost loading speeds. We have data centers across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official site · Report a correction

Backup retention

Hetzner
Daily automatic backups with seven slots per server; the oldest is deleted when a new one is taken. Billed at 20% of the server's monthly price.
Hostinger VPS
Automatic weekly backups included, plus manual snapshots. Hostinger does not state how many weekly backups are kept.
Sources (2) →
  • Backups/Snapshots — Hetzner Docs ↗

    “Backups are copies of a server's disk that are created automatically on a daily basis. Each server has a total of seven Backup slots. You can therefore have up to seven Backups at the same time. Once this limit is reached, the oldest Backup will automatically be deleted as soon as a new Backup is created. [...] Note: Backups and Snapshots do not include any Volumes which are attached to your server.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

  • VPS Hosting — Hostinger ↗

    “Keep your VPS hosting data safe with automatic weekly backups, plus manual snapshots you can use to revert your server if something goes wrong.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official site · Report a correction

SOC 2

Hetzner
No SOC 2; Hetzner states it focuses on ISO/IEC 27001:2022 instead, describing SOC 2 as a standard most well-known in the USA.
Hostinger VPS
Not SOC 2 certified; the Trust Center states Hostinger holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 instead.
Sources (2) →
  • Information security at Hetzner - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “The SOC 2 is an information security standard that is most well-known in the USA, and plays a big role there. As an international web hosting company, we at Hetzner place our focus on the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification because it is more applicable to an international market.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Hostinger Trust Center - Knowledge Base (FAQ) ↗

    “Is your organization compliant with SOC 2? [...] Hostinger is not SOC 2 certified. However, we are certified under ISO/IEC 27001:2022, an internationally recognized information security management standard.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

ISO 27001

Hetzner
Certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022; scope covers all hosting services and data centers, at the Nuremberg, Falkenstein/Vogtland and Helsinki sites.
Hostinger VPS
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified; certificate viewable in the Hostinger Trust Center.
Sources (2) →
  • Data Protection Certificates ↗

    “Hetzner Online GmbH operates an information security management system (ISMS) certified in accordance with ISO/IEC 27001:2022. The certified scope covers all hosting services and data centers of Hetzner Online GmbH. The certification applies to the sites in Nuremberg, Falkenstein/Vogtland, and Helsinki, Finland.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

  • What security measures Hostinger uses ↗

    “Hostinger is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified. You can view the certificate in our Trust Center.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

GDPR / data residency

Hetzner
Cloud data is stored at the product location you choose; non-cloud products stay in the EU, as does Hetzner's own customer master, contract and billing data.
Hostinger VPS
GDPR Data Processing Addendum published; EU Standard Contractual Clauses apply to Customer Data transferred outside the EEA.
Sources (2) →
  • Data Protection at Hetzner - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “The data is processed and stored exclusively within the EU. [...] For our cloud products, the storage location depends on the product location you have chosen. [...] Hetzner processes its own data (e.g. customer master data, contract data, and billing data) exclusively within the EU.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Hostinger Data Processing Addendum ↗

    “Module Two (Controller to Processor) EU Standard Contractual Clauses or Module Three (Processor to Processor) EU Standard Contractual Clauses will apply to Customer Data that is transferred outside the EEA, either directly or via onward transfer, to any country not recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for Customer Data.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSS

Hetzner
Hetzner stores no credit card data; processing is done by payment provider Computop and the customer account complies with PCI DSS 4.0 Revision 1.0. Scope is Hetzner's own payment handling, not customer workloads.
Hostinger VPS
Hostinger hosting plans are not designed to meet PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance standards.
Sources (2) →
  • Information security at Hetzner - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “Hetzner itself does not store any credit card information. Processing is carried out exclusively by our certified German payment service provider Computop. Credit card details are entered directly into your customer account, which fully complies with the requirements of PCI DSS in its current version 4.0, Revision 1.0.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • PCI and HIPAA compliance on Hostinger hosting plans ↗

    “Review this before storing payment card data or protected health information, since Hostinger hosting plans are not designed to meet PCI (Payment Card Industry) or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance standards.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Encryption at rest

Hetzner
Under Hetzner's Data Processing Agreement the customer is responsible for the data stored on the server and for its encryption.
Hostinger VPS
DPA security standards include encrypting Personal Data and sensitive data at rest in databases and shared directories. Hostinger-side processing measure; not a statement about customer-managed VPS disks.
Sources (2) →

Customer-managed keys

Hetzner
Object Storage (S3) supports SSE-C: you supply the encryption key on upload and must supply the same key to read the data; the S3 service does not store it. Object Storage only; documented for the MinIO client and AWS CLI. Not documented for Cloud servers or Volumes.
Hostinger VPS
Not supported: Hostinger states it does not currently support customer-managed KMS or BYOK and manages key management internally.
Sources (2) →
  • Encrypting data with SSE-C - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “when you upload new data, and tell the S3 service to encrypt the data with a key that you provide. To decrypt and view the file after it was uploaded, you have to provide the same key again. [...] Note that the S3 service does not save the key. After the data was encrypted, the S3 service discards the key.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Hostinger Trust Center - Knowledge Base (FAQ) ↗

    “Is a customer-managed KMS or BYOK supported? [...] Hostinger does not currently support customer-managed key management systems (KMS) or BYOK. [...] Hostinger manages its own encryption and key management internally; specific third-party KMS providers are not disclosed.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

Role-based access control

Hetzner
Project members hold one of four roles - Owner, Admin, Member or Restricted - determining what they may do; Admins manage members, API tokens and S3 credentials.
Hostinger VPS
Account Sharing grants a Collaborator or Admin role, scoped to selected services; each role has a different set of permissions.
Sources (2) →
  • Cloud General FAQ - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “Each member's role in a project determines what they are allowed to do [...] Highest access level. Can do everything an admin can do. [...] Can also manage project members (add/remove/change role), API tokens and S3 credentials.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • How to share access to your account at Hostinger ↗

    “When you grant access, you choose a role for the shared user: Collaborator or Admin. Each role has a different set of permissions. [...] Here, you can determine an access level, select the services you wish to share, and determine if the user can set up pending orders by filling out the form.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Dedicated infrastructure

Hetzner
CCX cloud plans have dedicated CPU resources, one vCPU equalling one thread of a physical CPU core; all Hetzner Cloud features are available on them.
Hostinger VPS
Each KVM VPS is a dedicated, isolated environment on a physical server, with CPU and RAM not shared with other users.
Sources (2) →
  • Cloud Servers FAQ - Hetzner Docs ↗

    “Plans (CCX) with dedicated resources have their CPU resources exclusively. Here one vCPU equals one thread of a physical CPU core. [...] All Hetzner Cloud features are available for dedicated resource instances.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • What is Hostinger VPS hosting? ↗

    “A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a professional hosting solution that provides a dedicated, isolated environment on a physical server. [...] Dedicated resources. CPU and RAM that are not shared with other users, ensuring stable performance.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Free tierHostinger VPS: No — KVM VPS plans appear only under the 30-day money-back guarantee, not among the free-trial offerings.
Kind of free offerHostinger VPS: No free offer
When you exceed a capHetzner: Billed automatically — traffic beyond the amount included with the server is billed in blocks of 100MB, rounded up; Hetzner emails at 75% and 100% of the included traffic but explicitly does not cap or stop usage
Sites or apps includedHetzner: By default, up to 5 servers (and by default up to 8 dedicated resource servers); Hetzner states default limits can be increased on request
File, inode or volume limitHetzner: Up to 16 Volumes per server
Scales to zeroHetzner: Not supported
Uptime SLAHetzner: 99.9% guaranteed uptime with defined credits for a malfunction, stated on the Cloud product page with no tier attached.
Support on entry paid planHetzner: 24/7 support by email, with no tier to buy.
HIPAAHostinger VPS: Hostinger states its hosting services are not intended to provide a HIPAA-compliant environment.
Private networking / VPCHetzner: Cloud Networks give each server a private IP not on the internet with private layer 3 links between servers; Networks are not charged for.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Hetzner or Hostinger VPS?

Hetzner: €5.99/month for the CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe), including a primary IPv4 address, or €0.0096/hour. The ARM CAX11 with identical specs is €6.49. Converted for comparison at the ECB reference rate of 1 EUR = 1.1622 USD (2026-09-04, api.frankfurter.dev), which puts the CX23 at about $6.96/month. Hetzner publishes no USD price; the conversion is ours and moves with the rate.

Hostinger VPS: $11.99/month on renewal for KVM 1, on a two-year term. The advertised $6.49 is an introductory rate for the first term only.

Egress over allowance: Hetzner or Hostinger VPS?

Hetzner: €1.00 per TB over the included traffic in Europe and the US; €7.40 per TB in Singapore. Billed in blocks of 100 MB, rounded up.

Hostinger VPS: No per-GB overage price; at the plan monthly bandwidth limit the VPS connection is throttled to 10 Mbps for the rest of the month, resetting at the start of the next month.

Included bandwidth: Hetzner or Hostinger VPS?

Hetzner: At least 20 TB on servers in the EU, on every plan in the cost-optimized line. US and Singapore locations include less — the pricing data lists 1 TB for Singapore.

Hostinger VPS: 4 TB on KVM 1, rising to 8 TB on KVM 2, 16 TB on KVM 4 and 32 TB on KVM 8

Should I choose Hetzner or Hostinger VPS?

Pick Hetzner if Self-managed Linux servers in European and US locations, billed hourly with a monthly cap so a deleted server is only charged for the hours it ran.

Pick Hostinger VPS if Running Docker applications on a cheap KVM server with root access, where 4 GB of RAM at the entry plan matters more than a managed control plane. The one-click catalog covers the usual self-hosted stack.

Provider pages

HetznerGerman hosting company providing cloud virtual machines and dedicated servers from datacenter locations in Europe, the US and Singapore.Hostinger VPSKVM virtual servers with full root access, sold on prepaid multi-year terms, with a one-click catalog of Docker applications and weekly backups included.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.