Compared 2026-09-05 using published specs and documentation.

Hetzner is famous for unbeatable raw VPS prices in Germany/Finland/US. Cloudways adds a full managed layer — 24/7 support, backups, security patching, staging and scaling tools — on top of raw cloud servers. The comparison below uses published pricing from both providers' official pages.

TL;DR: Hetzner wins the raw price war (€3.29/mo). Cloudways wins where it matters for businesses: management, global locations, backups, support — and you can never lose an evening to a server outage you're not qualified to fix.

Spec-by-spec

FeatureCloudwaysHetzner
Starting price$11/mo managed€3.29/mo unmanaged ✔
Locations65+ worldwide ✔Germany, Finland, US, Singapore
ManagementFully managed ✔None
BackupsIncluded ✔Paid snapshots
Support24/7 hosting engineers ✔Limited (self-service first)
WordPress toolingBreeze, staging, Object Cache ✔DIY
EUR billingUSDEUR (cheapest in class) ✔

Why Hetzner is beloved

Nothing beats Hetzner's price-to-hardware ratio, and hobby projects or developer side-servers live there happily. It's the standard recommendation for technically skilled users who want Europe-based raw compute.

Why businesses choose Cloudways instead

Hetzner gives you a server and silence. Outages, patches, migrations and tuning are your job. Cloudways' global footprint (65+ locations vs 4 regions) also matters if your audience isn't in central Europe.

Our verdict

Winner: Cloudways for business workloads — management, support and global reach. Hetzner remains the best raw-value pick for developers who manage everything themselves.

Cloudways — Managed cloud hosting on your choice of 5 providers — 3-day free trial, no credit card
★★★★½ 4.7/5
Visit Cloudways →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hetzner managed hosting?

No, Hetzner Cloud is unmanaged; managed options are third-party.

Is Hetzner cheaper than Cloudways?

Yes — from €3.29/mo vs $11/mo, but with no management, backups or support included.

Does Cloudways support European locations?

Yes — via DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud regions across Europe.

Disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. This does not affect our rankings — every comparison is based on published specs and pricing.