Hetzner vs AWS: What Moving Actually Saves in 2026

Moving from AWS to Hetzner saves about 40% on the server itself at today’s list prices, and about 70% once traffic is counted: a 4 vCPU, 16 GB server with 2 TB of traffic out costs $338.94 a month on AWS EC2 in us-east-1 and €86.49 (about $97) on Hetzner Cloud in Germany or Finland. Most of that gap is not the server. It’s AWS’s $0.09 per GB for data going out to the internet, which Hetzner includes up to 20 TB on its EU servers.

Prices are from Hetzner’s cloud pricing and the AWS price list files behind the EC2 on-demand pricing page, both checked October 22, 2026. Hetzner raised its cloud prices in June 2026, so comparisons written before then make Hetzner look cheaper than it is today.

How much can I save by moving from AWS to Hetzner?

It depends almost entirely on how much data your app sends out. Here is the same comparison at four sizes, with dedicated vCPUs on both sides (AWS m7i, Hetzner CCX), 730 hours a month, a gp3 disk on AWS the same size as Hetzner’s included one, and one public IPv4 on each. EUR is converted at the ECB reference rate of October 21, 2026 (1.1234), before VAT.

Size	AWS EC2 (us-east-1)	Hetzner (EU)	Server only	With 2 TB out
2 vCPU, 8 GB	m7i.large, $83.63	CCX13, €43.49 ($48.86)	42% less	81% less
4 vCPU, 16 GB	m7i.xlarge, $163.62	CCX23, €86.49 ($97.16)	41% less	71% less
8 vCPU, 32 GB	m7i.2xlarge, $317.19	CCX33, €138.99 ($156.14)	51% less	68% less
16 vCPU, 64 GB	m7i.4xlarge, $621.12	CCX43, €276.49 ($310.61)	50% less	61% less

The AWS column is the instance ($0.1008 to $0.8064 an hour), plus the disk at $0.08 per GB-month (EBS pricing), plus $0.005 an hour for the public IPv4 address (VPC pricing). Hetzner’s monthly price already includes the disk, the IPv4 address and the traffic.

So for a quiet internal tool, moving saves you roughly half. For an app that serves files, images, video or a busy API, it can save two thirds or more, and that part grows with your traffic while Hetzner’s stays flat.

Traffic is the line that decides it

AWS gives every account 100 GB of data out to the internet free each month, then charges $0.09 per GB for the next 10 TB, $0.085 for the next 40 TB, and less after that (the AWS data transfer price list, published September 16, 2026). 2 TB out is about $175. 10 TB is about $913.

Hetzner Cloud servers in its EU locations include at least 20 TB of traffic, and each extra TB is €1. The bigger CCX plans include 30 to 60 TB. One thing to know before you assume the US is the same: Hetzner’s US locations (Ashburn and Hillsboro) include much less, 1 to 8 TB depending on the plan, and their prices are a little higher.

If your AWS bill shows “Data Transfer” as a big line, that’s the strongest sign a move pays off. If it’s mostly EC2 instance hours and nothing goes out, you’ll still save, but the honest number is closer to 40 to 50%, and you should compare it with simpler fixes first: a smaller instance, Graviton (an m8g.xlarge is $0.1795 an hour against $0.2016 for m7i), or a Savings Plan.

Shared vCPUs are cheaper, but compare like with like

Hetzner’s “Regular Performance” CPX plans use shared vCPUs. A CPX22 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 80 GB disk) is €19.99, about $22.46. The closest AWS instance is a burstable t3.medium at $0.0416 an hour, which comes to about $37 with a 40 GB disk and an IPv4 address. That’s 40% less, not the 80% some old posts promise.

The cheapest Hetzner line, the “Cost-Optimized” CX plans from €5.99, showed as not available to order when we checked. Don’t plan a migration around a plan you can’t buy today.

What AWS gives you that Hetzner Cloud doesn’t

The server price is the easy part. The cost of moving is everything around it:

• Managed databases. Hetzner Cloud’s products are servers, volumes, object storage, load balancers, firewalls and networks. There is no managed Postgres in that list, so you either run the database yourself (backups, upgrades, failover) or keep it with a managed provider. Compare against your real RDS bill, not just EC2.
• Everything else in the AWS bill. SES, SQS, Lambda, CloudFront and IAM don’t have one-to-one replacements. Some are cheap to keep on AWS while the servers move; some are worth replacing.
• Your time. On AWS, a lot of failures are someone else’s problem. On a plain server, they’re yours unless someone is paid to watch it.

That’s why we move products part by part instead of all at once: the servers and the traffic-heavy parts first, where the saving is largest, and the harder services later or never.

What a move looked like for one client

We did this for one client who didn’t want to depend on US providers. Their bill was about $3,000 a month on AWS. Code changes alone brought it to about $2,000 while still on AWS. Moving the infrastructure to European providers took it to about $1,200, and moving the harder services to self-hosted open-source software on a standalone server brought it to $600 to $800. These are approximate numbers, and a good part of the saving came before anything moved.

That move is a job we do at fixed prices: moving an app from AWS to a European cloud costs $1,500, $3,500 or from $6,000 depending on how much there is to move, with the product running throughout. If you are not sure the move is worth it yet, the free cloud cost audit ($0) reads your current bill first and tells you how much of the saving the code side alone would get.

Run your own numbers

The Hetzner vs AWS cost calculator takes your instance size, disk and monthly traffic and shows both bills line by line with the prices above. If the gap looks real, our move to EU page explains how we do the migration with the product running the whole time.