Short answer: Vultr is the safer default for most developers in late 2026. Hetzner still wins on traffic allowance and EU price — if you can actually get a CX23 in stock, which has been unreliable since October 2026. After Hetzner's June 2026 price hike, the CPX22 most people buy costs about $23 a month, roughly the same as Vultr's $20 Regular 2 vCPU / 4 GB box, so the old story that Hetzner costs half as much no longer holds.
Both are unmanaged, hourly-billed clouds aimed at developers who run their own box. The real differences are regions, traffic, managed services, and whether you can even buy the cheap plan. Compare them on the dimensions that decide your actual monthly bill.
| Hetzner | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | CPX02 from €5.99/mo (~$7.49); CX23 €5.49/mo when in stock (often unavailable) | $2.50/mo (IPv6-only) or $3.50/mo with IPv4 |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB | CPX22 €19.49/mo (~$22.99 incl. IPv4), 80 GB NVMe; CX23 €5.49/mo if available | $20/mo Regular (80 GB SSD, 3 TB); $24/mo High Performance NVMe (100 GB, 5 TB) |
| Traffic included | 20 TB/mo on EU plans; 1 TB in US regions | 3 TB (Regular 4 GB); 5 TB (High Performance); overage $0.01/GB |
| Regions | Germany, Finland, US (Ashburn, Hillsboro), Singapore | 30+ locations across 6 continents |
| Trial / free credit | None — you pay from day one | $100 new-user credit (validity varies, typically 14-30 days — check current offer) |
| Managed services | Thin menu — mostly raw compute | Managed databases, Kubernetes, load balancers, object storage, bare metal |
| Billing | Hourly with monthly cap; billed until deleted, even powered off | Hourly with monthly cap (672-hour cap) |
| Best for | EU-based devs who run their own box and can catch CX stock | Global projects that need many regions and a $100 trial to test |
Europe's budget cloud after the June 2026 price hike: the cheap CX line survives, the CPX line no longer is.
CX23 from €5.49/mo (2 vCPU / 4 GB, EU — often out of stock since Oct 2
Try Hetzner →Global VPS fleet with high-frequency and GPU options.
Cloud Compute from $2.50/mo (IPv6-only) or $3.50/mo; High Performance
Try Vultr →Late 2026 verdict: Vultr is the default pick for most developers. Hetzner's June 2026 hike erased its headline advantage on the CPX line — a CPX22 now costs about the same as Vultr's Regular 2 vCPU / 4 GB — and CX stock is unreliable. Hetzner still wins if you are EU-based, traffic-heavy (20 TB vs 3 TB), and can land a CX23; everyone else should take Vultr's regions, managed services, and trial credit.
Only on the Cost-Optimized CX/CAX lines, and only when they are in stock: a CX23 at €5.49/mo undercuts Vultr's $20 Regular plan by nearly 4x. On the CPX line most people actually buy, the two are effectively tied — CPX22 €19.49/mo (~$22.99 incl. IPv4) versus Vultr Regular $20/mo.
Vultr by a wide margin: 30+ locations across six continents, including South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Hetzner has four locations — Germany, Finland, two in the US, and Singapore — so it is a poor pick if your users are outside Europe and the US.
Hetzner offers no trial and no free credit — you pay from the first hour. Vultr gives new accounts a $100 trial credit (validity varies by offer, typically 14-30 days), which is enough to benchmark a few instance sizes before committing.