Hetzner vs Netcup 2021

• June 27, 2021
• 7-minute read
• Last updated: August 28, 2026

Hetzner and Netcup^* are two hosting providers from Germany. Both have been renting out virtual servers for many years. In this article we compare their current offerings in terms of cost and performance, using a whole range of benchmarks.

What is a virtual server?

A physical (dedicated) server can be rented from Hetzner from roughly €40.00 per month — the AX41 is one example. When renting dedicated servers you usually also have to pay a one-off setup fee; in the case of the AX41 that fee is €46.41. It can also take several days after placing the order before the dedicated server is available.

For many use cases a dedicated server is oversized, and therefore too expensive in the end. Hosting one or more WordPress sites is one example. Renting a so-called virtual server can be an alternative.

With a virtual server, several customers share one and the same physical (dedicated) machine. Virtual servers are therefore usually far cheaper than physical ones, and can normally also be ordered or cancelled much more flexibly.

Technically a virtual server is a virtual machine that the hosting provider makes available to the customer on a physical server. These days the KVM virtualisation solution is often used for this.

In German-speaking countries these virtual machines are usually called “vServer”, short for “virtueller Server”. There is, however, a whole set of identical or related terms in this area, and sorting them out helps in understanding the subject.

The equivalent term used mainly in the English-speaking world is VPS, short for “virtual private server”.

Recently many hosting providers — Hetzner among them — have been advertising so-called cloud servers. Those are virtual servers too. The difference is that these servers and the associated infrastructure (IP addresses, network storage and so on) can usually be rented, configured and cancelled again in a fully automated way through APIs. Billing for cloud servers is also a good deal more flexible: they can normally be rented by the hour, sometimes even by the minute. The flip side of that flexibility is that providers generally charge more for cloud servers than for virtual servers, because a provider billing by the minute has almost no predictable revenue to plan with.

One thing up front: Hetzner’s products fall into the cloud server category, whereas Netcup^*’s belong more to the virtual server category. Bear in mind that there is often no clear dividing line here — this rough classification is only meant as orientation. Netcup^*, for instance, also offers products billed by the hour with its VPS tariffs^*. Provisioning and billing of those VPS tariffs^* is not automated to the same extent as at Hetzner, however.

There is one more term worth knowing in connection with Netcup^*. Some hosting providers call their higher-end virtual server products root servers^*. Originally “root server” simply meant a server — dedicated, virtual, cloud, whatever — on which the customer holds full administrative rights.

Netcup RS 1000 G9 vs Hetzner CCX11

Both providers offer a product line in which you do not have to share the server’s resources (CPU cores and so on) with other customers. At Netcup that is the root server line^* (for example the RS 1000 G9). Hetzner offers the products of its CCX line for this (for example the CCX11). Here we compare the smallest products of each line, assuming we want to rent the server continuously for at least one month — that is, a minimum contract term of one month is acceptable to us. The monthly costs are then as follows:

Netcup offers the RS 1000 G9 in several tariffs. The longer the minimum contract term, the cheaper the monthly rent. Here we first compare the tariff with the shortest minimum term (1 month). It is worth noting that Netcup advertises a satisfaction guarantee for the virtual servers of its root server line^*. If you are not happy with your server you can return it within 30 days of ordering and get the full base fee (monthly price times billing period) refunded. There is no such guarantee for the products of the VPS line^* — but you do not really need one there, since those can be cancelled at any time anyway and are billed monthly.

There is only one tariff for the Hetzner CCX11. It has no minimum contract term and is billed hourly.

Looking at the benchmark results independently of cost gives the following picture:

The result is unambiguous. Under the given conditions Netcup offers by far the better price/performance ratio.

If you can live with a longer minimum contract term, the picture becomes clearer still. With a voucher you paid nothing for the first three months of the Netcup RS 1000 G9. After that €10.00 per month (incl. 19% VAT) was due. The minimum contract term was then 12 months rather than one, which is why we extend the calculation period to 12 months here:

And this is how things look when the benchmark results are weighted by the total price for the first 12 months:

What about other products and tariffs?

Netcup and Hetzner offer plenty of further products and tariffs in the root server (Netcup)^* and CCX (Hetzner) lines. The results of comparing the two smallest products of each line carry over to the larger products, however. An overview of all Netcup and Hetzner virtual server tariffs can be found in our server matrix, where you can also study the benchmark results of the other products.

Beyond that, both providers also offer a product line in which you do have to share the server’s resources (CPU cores and so on) with other customers. A blog article comparing those two product lines is already in the works and will follow shortly.

Conclusion

So which virtual server offering is the cheapest? As so often in life, the essential thing is to be clear beforehand about the use case you want to rent a server for. If the server is to be online for a longer period (more than a month), Netcup offers a far better price/performance ratio than Hetzner.

If you only ever want to rent computing power briefly — for an hour or a week, say — you are better off with Hetzner’s products. Renting a cloud server for longer periods (more than a month) makes no sense cost-wise in any case.

If your use case requires being able to absorb short load spikes (as part of a CI pipeline, for example), Hetzner is of course the provider of choice thanks to its automation capabilities. The important thing there is that you absolutely must automate both the provisioning and the deletion of a server. So-called hybrid solutions can also be a good choice for such scenarios: you cover the base load with an inexpensive system and only rent additional computing resources by the minute or hour for the spikes. Do not underestimate the administrative and implementation effort such systems require, though.

As mentioned, an overview of all Netcup and Hetzner virtual server tariffs can be found in our server matrix. This web app helps you work out the optimal tariff for your needs: you enter the desired calculation period and see at a glance which tariff offers the best price/performance ratio for you.

About Netcup (advertisement)

The German host Netcup offers, among other things, affordable and powerful web hosting packages, KVM-based root servers and dedicated servers. With our voucher codes you can save even more (6€ off your first order, 30% off all KVM-based root servers, ...).

* Affiliate link. If you order through it we receive a commission. The price is the same for you. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩