Hetzner vs OVHcloud

At a glance

Account structure and identity

Hetzner splits its products across two consoles under one customer account. Hetzner Cloud uses projects, each with its own members, API tokens, SSH keys, and resources, so a project works as a permission boundary between clients or environments. Dedicated servers, Storage Boxes, and colocation are ordered and managed in Robot, which has its own API. The account login supports two-factor authentication and covers both consoles.

OVHcloud has one customer account and one control panel that spans every product line. For the Public Cloud, resources live in projects, and each project has users created for OpenStack access (Horizon, the OpenStack CLI, and Terraform) together with quotas that OVHcloud raises on request. The account itself supports additional users with role-based permissions, API application keys for the OVHcloud API, and two-factor authentication. Bare metal servers, VPS, domains, and hosted private cloud are managed from the same panel rather than a separate system.

The difference for a buyer is that OVHcloud's public cloud exposes standard OpenStack identity and tooling, which suits teams already using OpenStack elsewhere, while Hetzner's API is its own and is generally considered simpler. Both providers also require a verified customer identity for new accounts under their own terms.

Compute and storage

Hetzner Cloud servers come in shared vCPU lines on x86 and Arm and in dedicated vCPU lines. The dedicated server catalog and the server auction, where returned hardware is resold at reduced prices, are the distinctive part of Hetzner: many teams put a database or a build server on dedicated hardware and keep stateless services on cloud servers, joined by a private network. Cloud volumes provide block storage, Object Storage provides S3-compatible buckets, and Storage Boxes provide bulk storage over SMB, NFS, and rsync. Hetzner does not run managed databases or managed Kubernetes; teams bring their own operators.

OVHcloud's Public Cloud runs on OpenStack and offers instance ranges for general purpose, compute, memory, and GPU workloads, plus block storage, Object Storage with S3 and Swift APIs, and cold archive classes. Managed Kubernetes, managed databases, managed private registry, and the AI product family (notebooks, training, deployment, and model endpoints) sit on top. Separately, OVHcloud VPS covers small fixed-price servers, bare metal spans several tiers from entry-level to high-grade machines, and Hosted Private Cloud provides VMware-based environments for organisations moving from on-premises virtualisation.

In short, Hetzner offers fewer product lines and expects you to operate the stack; OVHcloud offers most of the managed services a small enterprise expects, at the cost of a larger and more varied control surface.

Networking and regions

Hetzner Cloud networks are private networks that span locations within a network zone, with subnets, routes, and vSwitch integration for dedicated servers. Cloud Firewalls, Load Balancers, Floating IPs, and reassignable Primary IPs complete the set. Each server includes a monthly traffic allowance with overage billed per terabyte. OVHcloud provides vRack, a private network that can join Public Cloud instances, bare metal, and hosted private cloud across data centres, plus private networks and floating IPs inside Public Cloud projects, a managed load balancer, and DDoS mitigation included on its network. Bare metal servers include unmetered public bandwidth on many ranges, subject to the terms of each offer.

Hetzner's data centres are in Germany and Finland, with cloud-only locations in the United States and Singapore. OVHcloud operates many sites across France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, and other European countries, plus Canada, Asia Pacific, and India, and serves the United States through a separate corporate entity with its own accounts. For organisations that need several European locations or a specific European jurisdiction, OVHcloud has more choice; for organisations happy with German or Finnish hosting, Hetzner is sufficient.

Both providers restrict outbound mail on new accounts. Follow each provider's documented process, keep sending compliant with anti-spam law, and consider a transactional email service for application mail.

Pricing model

Hetzner bills cloud servers hourly with a monthly cap in euros and publishes fixed list prices, and its dedicated servers are billed monthly with a possible one-time setup fee depending on the model. Its cost per vCPU and per gigabyte of memory is widely regarded as among the lowest available, which is the reason most customers arrive.

OVHcloud's Public Cloud instances can be billed hourly or on a monthly rate that works out cheaper for servers that run continuously. VPS and bare metal are monthly products, and longer commitments reduce the monthly rate on many bare metal ranges. Public Cloud egress is priced separately by region, while many bare metal offers include public bandwidth. OVHcloud also sells savings plans for Public Cloud compute in some regions. The result is that OVHcloud pricing has more knobs and rewards planning, while Hetzner pricing is flat and easy to forecast. Both provide billing alerts and prepayment.

Best fit for developers, startups and businesses

Developers who want a cheap server, a clean API, and the freedom to run everything themselves are Hetzner's core audience. Developers who already work with OpenStack tooling, or who want a managed Kubernetes cluster and a managed database in Europe without moving to a hyperscaler, are better served by OVHcloud.

Startups optimising burn often build on Hetzner and add managed services elsewhere only when needed. Startups selling to European enterprises or public bodies, where a French or EU-headquartered provider with certifications and hosted private cloud options matters, tend to choose OVHcloud.

Businesses with VMware estates, regulated data, or a need for many European locations will find OVHcloud's catalog closer to what they expect. Businesses running large, steady workloads on dedicated hardware, such as storage, backup, or game servers, can use either, and many run both with Hetzner for cost-sensitive capacity and OVHcloud for managed services.

Listings on CloudAccountHub

The Buy Hetzner Accounts page lists server limit options labeled Hetzner 5 Server Account ($50) and Hetzner 10 Server Account ($90), and an Open 25 Port option labeled Hetzner Open 25 Port Account ($250). The number in each label refers to the server limit stated on the listing, and the Open 25 Port label states only that outbound port 25 is open as labeled.

The Buy OVHcloud Accounts page lists two options: 34 vCPUs ($30) and Open 25 Port ($200). The first label states a vCPU quota level and nothing more; the second states that outbound port 25 is open as labeled. Use of any account on either provider remains subject to that provider's terms and acceptable use policy, and mail sending must comply with anti-spam law.

Both providers publish their own documentation on servers and networking, and the overview of Hetzner Cloud servers, projects, and networking is a useful companion to this page. Other pairs are on the Compare hub. CloudAccountHub is an independent marketplace and uses provider names for identification only.