Should I move off Hetzner after the 2026 price increases?
It depends entirely on which line you are on. CX and CAX still cost $1.24–1.74 per GB of RAM against $5–6 at DigitalOcean and Vultr — stay. CPX and CCX now cost $5.67–6.26 per GB, the same as the US providers, so the reason you chose Hetzner over them no longer exists.
Key finding The June increase split Hetzner’s own lineup in two. Before it, every line sat between $0.94 and $2.33 per GB.
Prices verified 29 August 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing page, linked in full below.
Every “Hetzner alternatives” article written after June says the same thing: prices went up, here are some other providers. None of them put Hetzner’s new rate card next to what DigitalOcean, Vultr and Hostinger actually charge today.
When you do that, the answer is not “Hetzner got expensive.” It is stranger and more useful than that:
Hetzner’s June increase split its own lineup in two. The shared Intel and Arm lines are still roughly four times cheaper per GB of RAM than the US providers. The AMD and dedicated-vCPU lines are now priced at parity with them — which means the reason you chose Hetzner over DigitalOcean no longer exists on those plans.
Which side of that split you are on decides everything. Here is the arithmetic.
All prices verified 29 August 2026. Hetzner figures are the post-15-June rate card for Germany/Finland, excluding VAT, converted at €1 = $1.1642.
Price per GB of RAM, right now
This is the comparison nobody publishes, and it is the one that answers the question.
| Plan | vCPU | RAM | Monthly | $/GB of RAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner CX33 (shared Intel) | 4 | 8 GB | €8.49 (~$9.88) | $1.24 |
| Hostinger KVM 2 (promo) | 2 | 8 GB | $8.99 | $1.12 |
| Hostinger KVM 2 (at renewal) | 2 | 8 GB | $14.99 | $1.87 |
| Hetzner CX23 (shared Intel) | 2 | 4 GB | €5.49 (~$6.39) | $1.60 |
| Hostinger KVM 1 (promo) | 1 | 4 GB | $6.49 | $1.62 |
| Hetzner CAX11 (Arm) | 2 | 4 GB | €5.99 (~$6.97) | $1.74 |
| Hostinger KVM 1 (at renewal) | 1 | 4 GB | $11.99 | $3.00 |
| Vultr Regular | 1 | 2 GB | $10 | $5.00 |
| Vultr Regular | 2 | 4 GB | $20 | $5.00 |
| Hetzner CPX22 (shared AMD) | 3 | 4 GB | €19.49 (~$22.69) | $5.67 |
| DigitalOcean Basic | 1 | 2 GB | $12 | $6.00 |
| DigitalOcean Basic | 2 | 4 GB | $24 | $6.00 |
| Hetzner CCX13 (dedicated vCPU) | 2 | 8 GB | €42.99 (~$50.05) | $6.26 |
Sources: Hetzner price adjustment notice, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Hostinger.
A necessary caveat before anyone quotes that table at me. Dollars per GB of RAM is the right first cut for memory-bound workloads — databases, n8n, Ghost, most self-hosted apps. It is the wrong cut for CPU-bound work. Hetzner’s CCX line is dedicated vCPU and DigitalOcean’s Basic droplets are shared; comparing them on RAM alone flatters the shared plan. Read the table as “what does memory cost,” not “which server is faster.”
With that said, look at where the lines fall.
What the increase actually did
Same table, before and after 15 June:
| Plan | Was | Now | $/GB before | $/GB now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CX23 | €3.99 | €5.49 | $1.16 | $1.60 |
| CX33 | €6.49 | €8.49 | $0.94 | $1.24 |
| CPX22 | €7.99 | €19.49 | $2.33 | $5.67 |
| CCX13 | €15.99 | €42.99 | $2.33 | $6.26 |
Before June, every Hetzner line sat between $0.94 and $2.33 per GB. The whole lineup was cheap and you barely had to think about which one you picked.
After June, the lineup runs from $1.24 to $6.26. That is not a price increase; that is a repositioning. CPX and CCX left the budget tier.
And $5.67–$6.26 is the interesting number, because DigitalOcean is $6.00 and Vultr is $5.00. If you are on CPX or CCX, Hetzner is no longer undercutting the providers you passed over — it is priced alongside them, from Germany, with thinner support.
The trap that costs more than the increase
Hetzner’s notice states the new pricing applies to “new orders and cloud instance rescales.”
That means your existing servers are still on old pricing — a CPX22 provisioned in 2025 is still €7.99 — and resizing it moves it onto the current card at €19.49. Up or down; the notice does not distinguish direction.
So the single most expensive action available in your Hetzner console right now is the Rescale button. If you are sitting on old CPX or CCX rates, treat resizing as a pricing decision, not a capacity decision. Sometimes the correct move is to leave an oversized server exactly where it is.
This is also why “should I migrate?” has a different answer than “what should I buy next?” Your old servers are an asset. Your next server is a fresh decision.
What to do, by which line you are on
You run CX or CAX. Stay. Even after a 38% increase, CX33 at $1.24/GB is the cheapest memory on this page, and CX23 at $1.60/GB is beaten only by a Hostinger promo that reverts. Nothing here justifies a migration.
You run CPX or CCX on old pricing. Do not rescale. You are holding rates that no longer exist. When you genuinely outgrow the box, that is the moment to re-run this comparison — because at $5.67–$6.26/GB you are paying US-provider prices for an EU-only footprint.
You are buying new and you want the cheapest memory. Hetzner CX33 ($1.24/GB) if it is available in a region you can use. Hostinger KVM 2 is $1.12/GB on promo — cheaper on paper — but that is a two-year prepay at $215.76 up front, and it advertises renewal at $14.99/mo ($1.87/GB). Both numbers are real; which one applies depends on how long you keep it.
You need a US or Asia region, or real support. DigitalOcean at $6.00/GB or Vultr at $5.00/GB. That premium used to be hard to justify against Hetzner. Against post-June CPX and CCX pricing, it is no longer a premium at all.
You need dedicated CPU specifically. This is the case where the table above misleads you. Compare CCX against DigitalOcean’s Premium/Dedicated droplets and Vultr’s High Frequency line, not against Basic — and expect the gap to be much narrower than the RAM math suggests.
The thing nobody can tell you from a table
When I checked Hetzner’s cost-optimized page on 28 August 2026, every CX and CAX plan rendered as “currently unavailable” with no price shown. The rate card is real and official; whether you can provision the server you want, in the region you want, this week, is a separate question that changes constantly.
That is the honest reason to have a second choice ready even if Hetzner is your first. Not because the price is wrong — because the capacity might not be there when you need it. Our full VPS price comparison has the alternatives with current numbers.
Why two increases in one year, and will there be a third
Hetzner raised prices on 1 April and again on 15 June 2026. It has not published a detailed rationale, and I will not invent one.
What is observable from the table: the increases are steepest on the compute-dense products (CPX, CCX) and mildest on the small shared instances. That pattern is consistent with capacity and energy costs — but that is inference from a price list, not a statement from Hetzner.
The practical takeaway is about planning, not prediction. Two increases in five months means Hetzner pricing is no longer the fixed point you can size a three-year project around. Whatever you budget, budget for movement.
FAQ
Is Hetzner still the cheapest VPS?
On the shared CX and CAX lines, yes, clearly — $1.24–$1.74 per GB of RAM against $5.00–$6.00 at the US providers. On CPX and CCX, no longer.
Did my existing server get more expensive?
No. The increase applies to new orders and rescales. An untouched running instance keeps its old rate.
Does downgrading also reprice me?
Hetzner’s notice says “rescales” without specifying direction. Treat any resize as repricing until you have confirmed otherwise in your own console.
Is Hostinger actually cheaper than Hetzner now?
On promotional pricing, KVM 2 is $1.12/GB against Hetzner CX33’s $1.24/GB — marginally. That promo requires paying two years up front, and the advertised renewal is $14.99/mo, which is $1.87/GB. Over four years the two land close together, and Hetzner wins on flexibility.
What about the US and Singapore Hetzner regions?
Priced on separate rate cards, higher than Germany/Finland. If you need those regions, run the comparison against DigitalOcean and Vultr in the same region — the gap narrows considerably.
Should I move off Hetzner entirely?
Only if you are on CPX or CCX and buying new capacity, or if you need a region or a support relationship Hetzner does not offer. A working CX server on old pricing is one of the better deals available and moving it costs you money.
Hetzner prices are the post-15-June-2026 rate card for Germany/Finland excluding VAT, taken from Hetzner’s own price adjustment notice and converted at €1 = $1.1642 on 29 August 2026. Competitor prices are from each vendor’s own pricing page on the same date, all linked above. Currency conversion moves; the euro figures are the authoritative ones. This page is re-checked quarterly. Some links on this site are affiliate links — they do not change your price, and no provider paid for placement or wording here.