Hetzner vs OVHcloud
Hetzner Online GmbH (Gunzenhausen) and OVH SAS (France) both sell cheap European servers, but they are built differently. Hetzner's cloud page stresses hourly billing under a monthly cap, ISO/IEC 27001 and BSI C5. OVHcloud lists a far wider catalogue, SecNumCloud-qualified lines and unlimited-traffic VPS. Hetzner is simpler to read; OVHcloud covers more ground.
Choose Hetzner if
you want plain virtual servers billed by the hour with a monthly cap, a REST API, CLI and Terraform, one-click apps such as Nextcloud or GitLab, and data centres in Germany and Finland.
Read the Hetzner reviewChoose OVHcloud if
you need a vendor with a SecNumCloud-qualified range, VMware or SAP HANA hosting, managed databases and AI services, or web hosting and domains next to your servers.
Read the OVHcloud reviewHetzner and OVHcloud side by side
| Hetzner | OVHcloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Hetzner Online GmbH | OVHcloud SAS |
| Headquarters | Gunzenhausen, Germany | Roubaix, France |
| Founded | 1997 | 1999 |
| Jurisdiction | EU (Germany) | EU (France) |
| Where the data sits | Germany (Falkenstein, Nuremberg) and Finland (Helsinki), plus Oregon, Virginia and Singapore | 46 data centres on 4 continents, majority in Europe |
| Pricing | From about €4.51/month (Cloud VPS) | From about €3.50/month (VPS) |
| Entry-level list price (vendor site, checked 20 October 2026) | Hetzner Cloud: hourly price with a monthly cap; euro prices did not render on the cloud page we fetched (EP tool page: from about EUR 4.51 a month) | OVHcloud VPS-1: from $4.54 a month (2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe, unlimited traffic), dollars shown on our fetch |
| Free tier or trial | No trial; pay by the hour | Pay as you go |
| Certifications and checks | ISO 27001 | SecNumCloud (ANSSI), GAIA-X founding member |
| Source code | Closed source | Closed source |
| Usually replaces | AWS, DigitalOcean | AWS, Azure |
| Position in our Cloud Computing guide | #1 of 16 | #8 of 16 |
Both are listed in our European Cloud Computing guide. The table is built from the same directory data as those entries, except the list price, which is quoted from each vendor's own pricing page (see Sources below); how we check it is described in the editorial process.
Where Hetzner and OVHcloud differ
Across the five points below, Hetzner has the edge on 1 point, OVHcloud on 2 points and 2 are a tie. A count like that is a summary, not a verdict: the point that matters to you may be the one the other product wins.
Entry price
Hetzner's cloud page prints 'starting from max/mo' where the euro figures should be, so we could not read its prices. OVHcloud's VPS page shows VPS-1 from $4.54 a month (2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe, unlimited traffic), in dollars for our fetch. EP's Hetzner tool page lists about EUR 4.51; the two cannot be matched on specs here.
No clear winner on this point.
Billing model
Hetzner's docs say each cloud server has an hourly price and a monthly cap, and that the bill never exceeds the cap; delete a server mid-month and you pay only the hourly rate. OVHcloud's VPS page quotes monthly prices and lists its extras (Premium backup from $1.40 a month, snapshots from $0.40) as options.
Edge: Hetzner
Certifications and jurisdiction
Hetzner says its German and Finnish data centre parks are ISO/IEC 27001 certified and that it holds BSI C5. OVHcloud's product menu goes further with SecNumCloud-qualified lines (Bare Metal Pod, SecNumCloud Private Cloud, SNC Cloud Platform), and its VPS page says data is protected from extraterritorial laws such as the CLOUD Act.
Edge: OVHcloud
Catalogue breadth
OVHcloud lists public and hosted private cloud (VMware, Nutanix, SAP HANA), managed Kubernetes, databases, AI, web hosting, domains and Exchange. Hetzner lists cloud servers, dedicated servers, Object Storage (S3-compatible), Storage Box, load balancers, DNS, web hosting and managed servers. Hetzner stays closer to servers and storage.
Edge: OVHcloud
Locations
Hetzner's cloud runs in Falkenstein, Nuremberg and Helsinki, plus Hillsboro (Oregon), Ashburn (Virginia) and, since 2024, Singapore. OVHcloud's About page counts 46 data centres on 4 continents; its VPS page says only 'many global locations'. OVHcloud reaches further, Hetzner names its sites more precisely.
No clear winner on this point.
When neither Hetzner nor OVHcloud fits
If neither fits, the EP cloud computing category also lists Scaleway for GPU and managed services inside the EU, and UpCloud for Finnish-run virtual servers.
Hetzner vs OVHcloud: questions
We could not confirm it. Hetzner's cloud page did not show prices to our fetch, and OVHcloud's VPS-1 is listed from $4.54 a month with 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM and unlimited traffic. Compare the euro price of the exact server size in each console before deciding.
Hetzner states that its data centre parks in Germany and Finland are ISO/IEC 27001 certified and that it holds BSI C5. OVHcloud's pages we read name SecNumCloud-qualified products; we did not check an ISO 27001 statement on them.
OVHcloud's Public Cloud price tables show hourly prices next to monthly ones, for example the Discovery d2-2 at $0.0123 an hour or $6.74 a month. Its VPS range is quoted monthly. Hetzner combines an hourly rate with a monthly cap.
Hetzner Online GmbH is registered in Gunzenhausen, Germany (Ansbach register, HRB 6089). OVHcloud describes itself as a French company founded in 1999, and its pages carry the notice OVH SAS.
Sources
Facts, prices and plan details on this page were checked on the vendors' own websites on . Prices and plans change; the vendor's current page is authoritative.
- Hetzner cloud page: plan families, locations, ISO/IEC 27001, BSI C5, REST API, CLI, Terraform, one-click apps, price figures not rendered (checked 20 October 2026)
- Hetzner legal notice: Hetzner Online GmbH, Gunzenhausen, Ansbach register HRB 6089 (checked 20 October 2026)
- Hetzner Cloud billing FAQ: hourly price with a monthly price cap (checked 20 October 2026)
- OVHcloud VPS page: VPS-1 price and specs, unlimited traffic, backup options, 99.9% SLA, CLOUD Act statement (checked 20 October 2026)
- OVHcloud About page: French company founded in 1999, 46 data centres on 4 continents (checked 20 October 2026)
- OVHcloud Public Cloud prices: Discovery instance prices, hourly and monthly (checked 20 October 2026)