Hetzner Review: The $0 Commission Recommendation

I make $0 recommending Hetzner. They don’t have an affiliate program.

So why the hell do I rank Hetzner #1 for VPS hosting?

Because it’s the best value for money in cloud hosting.

This is my Hetzner review after years of recommending overpriced managed hosts.

⚡ 30-Second Verdict

• Founded: 1997 (Germany, family-owned, not some private equity vampire)
• Pricing: €3.79/mo - €151.89/mo (ARM to dedicated CPUs)
• Renewal Price: Same as intro price (no 157% increases like SiteGround)
• Infrastructure: German engineering, own data centers (Germany, Finland, USA, Singapore)
• Hardware: AMD EPYC (Milan/Genoa), Intel Xeon Gold, ARM Ampere Altra, NVMe SSDs
• Traffic: 20 TB included on entry plans
• Storage: Local NVMe or network storage, S3-compatible object storage, block storage
• Target Audience: Developers, self-hosters, tech-savvy users
• NOT For: WordPress beginners who need managed hosting
• Commission: $0/sale (I make nothing, which is exactly why you should trust this review)

Bottom line: If you’re comfortable managing your own server, Hetzner offers the best price-to-performance in the industry. If you need hand-holding, use Scala Hosting or ChemiCloud instead.

What Hetzner Actually Is

Hetzner is NOT managed WordPress hosting. Get that out of your head right now.

There’s no:

• One-click WordPress installer
• 24/7 live chat for “my site is down” emergencies
• cPanel (you can install it yourself for ~€15/month extra)
• Hand-holding for basic server tasks
• “Expert support” to troubleshoot your plugins

Hetzner IS:

• A German cloud infrastructure provider (founded 1997, family-owned)
• Unmanaged VPS/cloud hosting (you get a server, you manage it)
• Best price-to-performance in the industry
• For developers, self-hosters, and tech-savvy users
• Modern hardware in their own data centers
• Transparent, flat pricing with no renewal scams

Who started Hetzner:

• Founded by Martin Hetzner in Germany (1997)
• Family-owned, not private equity owned
• Owns their own data centers (Falkenstein, Helsinki, Ashburn, Singapore)
• ~500 employees
• Hosting 4.3+ million domains

Their focus: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), not holding your hand through WordPress migrations.

The Business Model

This is genuinely refreshing:

What Hetzner DOESN’T do:

• Hidden renewal price increases (your €3.79/mo stays €3.79/mo forever)
• Forced upsells when you hit arbitrary “CPU limits”
• Fake “unlimited” hosting with buried ToS restrictions
• Affiliate programs that incentivize dishonest reviews
• Charge $14.99/mo for CDN that should be included
• Make you pay $30 per site for migrations

What they DO:

• Charge fair prices for modern hardware
• Give you dedicated CPU cores (not “shared vCPUs” that slow to a crawl)
• Include 20 TB traffic on entry-level plans
• Offer monthly billing (cancel anytime, no long-term contracts)
• Provide robust API for automation
• Run eco-friendly data centers (100% renewable energy in Germany/Finland)

Why no affiliate program?

In my opinion, they don’t need to bribe bloggers to recommend them. Their pricing speaks for itself. Compare:

• Hetzner CPX31: €13.60/mo (4 AMD EPYC cores, 8GB RAM, 160GB NVMe, 20TB traffic)
• DigitalOcean equivalent: $48/mo (4 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, 160GB SSD, 5TB traffic)
• SiteGround Cloud: $100/mo (4 CPUs, 8GB RAM, 80GB SSD, unmetered traffic with fair use)

Hetzner is 72% cheaper than DigitalOcean and 86% cheaper than SiteGround for better or equivalent specs.

They don’t need affiliates. Word of mouth from developers does the job.

Pricing Transparency: No Renewal Scams

This is what honest pricing looks like:

What you see is what you pay. Forever.

No fine print saying “introductory pricing for 12 months, then full price.”

Compare to the scams I used to recommend:

Hetzner’s “scam”: There isn’t one. You pay the same price every month until you cancel.

Monthly billing: No 1-year or 3-year contracts required. Pay monthly, cancel anytime.

Hidden fees: None. No “domain privacy” upsells ($11.88/year), no “SSL certificate” charges ($89.99/year for what Let’s Encrypt gives you free), no “SiteLock malware scans” ($300-$1,200/year scam).

Refund policy: Pay-as-you-go billing. You’re charged by the hour (monthly maximum capped). Delete the server, billing stops.

This is what the hosting industry should look like, but doesn’t, because renewal scams and forced upgrades are more profitable.

Infrastructure & Hardware: German Engineering

Data Centers (owned, not rented):

• Falkenstein, Germany (FSN1) - Primary data center
• Helsinki, Finland (HEL1) - EU location
• Nuremberg, Germany (NBG1) - Additional German location
• Ashburn, USA (ASH) - US East Coast
• Hillsboro, USA (HIL) - US West Coast
• Singapore (SIN) - Asia-Pacific (launched 2024)

Power: 100% renewable energy in Germany and Finland. Not greenwashing, actual renewable power.

Hardware:

Hetzner uses current-generation enterprise hardware:

CPUs:

• AMD EPYC 7002 Series (Rome) - 2nd generation, 7nm
• AMD EPYC 9004 Series (Genoa) - 4th generation, 5nm, up to 96 cores
• ARM Ampere Altra - ARM-based, energy efficient
• Intel Xeon Gold 6000 Series - Cascade Lake/Ice Lake

Storage:

• NVMe SSDs (local or network-attached)
• 10x faster than SATA SSDs (what SiteGround/Bluehost use)
• Storage Boxes: Up to 20 TB for backups (€3.81/TB/month)
• Object Storage: S3-compatible (€5.04/TB/month)

Network:

• 20 TB traffic included on entry plans
• Additional traffic: €1.19/TB
• 40 Gbit/s connectivity on dedicated servers
• DDoS protection included

Instance Types:

What “shared” means: Shared vCPUs, but less oversubscribed than typical shared hosting. You get consistent performance, not the “500 sites on one server” bullshit from Bluehost.

What “dedicated” means: Dedicated CPU cores, zero noisy neighbors. Your cores, your performance.

Quick Specs Comparison

*“Unmetered” with fair use policy (read: they’ll throttle you)

Bottom line: Hetzner offers 3-7x better value than competitors.

Performance: Benchmarks Don’t Lie

I’m not going to bullshit you with marketing claims. Here’s actual data:

CPU Performance:

According to VPSBenchmarks, Hetzner’s AMD EPYC instances deliver:

• Consistent single-core performance: 3,200-3,600 GeekBench score
• Multi-core performance: 12,000-14,000 GeekBench score (4-core instances)
• No CPU throttling during sustained load (unlike SiteGround’s “limits”)

Network Performance:

• Provisioning time: ~25 seconds (create a server in under 30 seconds)
• Bandwidth: 20 TB included, 40 Gbit/s on dedicated servers
• Latency: Low within Europe (~5-15ms), higher for US/Asia

Storage Performance:

• NVMe read speeds: 1,000+ MB/s
• NVMe write speeds: 800+ MB/s
• IOPS: 10,000+ (sufficient for most database workloads)

Uptime:

Hetzner doesn’t advertise a formal “99.99% uptime SLA” because they’re not in the managed hosting game.

Real-world uptime (per user reports and monitoring sites):

• Typical uptime: 99.9%+ (similar to DigitalOcean)
• Planned maintenance: Rare, announced in advance
• Network issues: Occasional (like all providers), resolved quickly

When Hetzner had problems:

• 2023: Brief network outage in FSN1 (resolved in 2 hours)
• 2022: DDoS attack on ASH datacenter (mitigated within hours)

Compare to SiteGround:

• 2021: Google blocked 2 million SiteGround domains (massive security failure)
• Frequent CPU limit throttling causing sites to slow/crash

The honest take:

Hetzner won’t promise 99.99% uptime with managed support. What you get:

• Excellent hardware at unbeatable prices
• Reliable infrastructure (rare issues, quick fixes)
• Tools to monitor and manage your servers
• Status page for transparency: https://status.hetzner.com/

If you need a formal SLA with 24/7 phone support, use Scala or DigitalOcean. If you want best value and can handle your own monitoring, Hetzner is the clear winner.

The Catch: Unmanaged Hosting

This is not WordPress hosting for beginners.

Let me be very clear about what “unmanaged” means:

What Hetzner gives you:

• A virtual server (VPS) with root access
• Choice of OS (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, etc.)
• Networking, storage, and compute resources
• API for automation
• Basic DDoS protection

What Hetzner does NOT give you:

• Pre-installed WordPress
• cPanel or Plesk (you can install it yourself for extra €€)
• “Expert support” to fix your broken plugins
• Automatic backups (you set them up)
• Managed updates and security patches
• Migration assistance from your old host
• 24/7 live chat for emergencies

What this means in practice:

You need to know (or be willing to learn):

• How to SSH into a server
• Basic Linux command line (apt install, systemctl, etc.)
• How to install a web server (Nginx/Apache)
• How to configure a firewall (ufw/iptables)
• How to set up SSL certificates (Let’s Encrypt)
• How to install and configure WordPress/databases
• How to troubleshoot server issues

If you don’t know these things:

1. Use managed hosting instead: Scala ($15-$36/mo) or ChemiCloud ($20/mo renewal)
2. Use a control panel: Install aaPanel (free), CyberPanel (free), or Plesk (€15/mo) on Hetzner
3. Learn: DigitalOcean has excellent tutorials, and the selfhosted community is helpful

Support:

Hetzner’s support is for infrastructure issues, not “how do I install WordPress?”

• Email/ticket support: Available, responsive for server/network issues
• Response time: Usually within hours for urgent issues
• What they’ll help with: Network problems, hardware failures, billing questions
• What they WON’T help with: “My WordPress site is slow,” “How do I install SSL?”

This is the trade-off for €3.79/mo pricing. You’re paying for infrastructure, not consultants.

When to Use Hetzner vs Alternatives

Use Hetzner if:

• You’re comfortable with Linux/command line
• You want best price-to-performance
• You can handle your own server management
• You’re hosting multiple sites/apps (cost efficiency)
• You value transparent pricing over hand-holding

Use Managed Hosting (Scala/ChemiCloud) if:

• You need one-click WordPress installer
• You want 24/7 support for basic issues
• You prefer cPanel/familiar interfaces
• You need free migrations from current host
• You’re not interested in learning server admin
• I have reviewed ScalaHosting here

Use DigitalOcean if:

• You want similar pricing but more global locations
• You need managed Kubernetes/databases
• You want extensive documentation/tutorials
• You prefer slightly more polished UI/UX

NEVER use SiteGround/Bluehost/HostGator if:

• You have any self-respect or basic math skills

Features: What You Actually Get

Server Management:

• Web interface: Hetzner Cloud Console (clean, functional)
• API: Full-featured REST API for automation
• CLI tools: Official hcloud CLI
• Terraform support: Infrastructure as Code
• Monitoring: CPU, disk, network graphs included

Networking:

• IPv4: 1 per server
• IPv6: /64 subnet per server (18 quintillion addresses)
• Private networks: Connect servers securely
• Load balancers: €5.66/mo (very affordable)
• Floating IPs: Move IPs between servers instantly

Storage:

• Local NVMe: Fastest, tied to server
• Network volumes: Attach/detach, up to 10TB per volume
• Snapshots: Point-in-time backups of servers/volumes
• Storage Boxes: SMB/SFTP/SSH backup storage (€3.81/TB/month)
• Object Storage: S3-compatible (€5.04/TB/month)

Backups:

• Automated snapshots: Schedule daily/weekly backups
• Manual snapshots: One-click server backup
• Retention: Keep as many as you want (pay per snapshot)
• Restores: Instant restore from snapshot

Add-ons:

• Firewalls: Free (configure in Cloud Console)
• DDoS protection: Included
• cPanel license: ~€15/mo (if you want it)
• Plesk license: ~€10/mo (if you want it)

Extras:

• Dedicated servers: €39.00/mo+ (bare metal, not virtualized)
• GPU instances: For AI/ML workloads
• Kubernetes: Managed k8s clusters (€30/mo+ control plane)

Hetzner vs Competitors: The Honest Comparison

Hetzner vs DigitalOcean

Pricing:

• Hetzner: €3.79/mo - €151.89/mo
• DigitalOcean: $4/mo - $504/mo

Winner: Hetzner (30-70% cheaper)

Performance:

• Hetzner: AMD EPYC/Intel Xeon, NVMe, 20TB traffic
• DigitalOcean: Intel/AMD, NVMe, 1-5TB traffic

Winner: Hetzner (better traffic allowances)

Features:

• Hetzner: Basic IaaS, fewer managed services
• DigitalOcean: Managed databases, Kubernetes, App Platform, extensive tutorials

Winner: DigitalOcean (more services, better docs)

Global Reach:

• Hetzner: 6 locations (Europe-focused)
• DigitalOcean: 15+ locations (global)

Winner: DigitalOcean

Support:

• Hetzner: Ticket/email for infrastructure
• DigitalOcean: 24/7 ticket, community Q&A, extensive tutorials

Winner: DigitalOcean

Bottom line: If you’re in Europe and want best price-to-performance, Hetzner wins. If you need global reach and managed services, DigitalOcean is worth the premium.

Hetzner vs Scala Hosting

Target Audience:

• Hetzner: Developers, self-hosters, unmanaged VPS
• Scala: WordPress users, managed VPS/shared hosting

Pricing:

• Hetzner CPX31: €13.60/mo (4 cores, 8GB, unmanaged)
• Scala Build #2 VPS: $35.95/mo (4 cores, 8GB, managed, SPanel included)

Winner: Hetzner (62% cheaper)

Management:

• Hetzner: Unmanaged, you do everything
• Scala: Managed, SPanel (cPanel alternative), free migrations, 24/7 support

Winner: Scala (if you need management)

Performance:

• Hetzner: AMD EPYC, NVMe, excellent
• Scala: AMD EPYC 9474F (4.1 GHz), NVMe, OpenLiteSpeed, excellent

Winner: Tie (both modern hardware)

Bottom line: Hetzner for developers who want cheapest VPS. Scala for WordPress users who need management and support.

Hetzner vs SiteGround

Renewal Pricing:

• Hetzner: €13.60/mo intro = €13.60/mo renewal (0% increase)
• SiteGround: $14.99/mo intro → $39.99/mo renewal (167% increase)

Winner: Hetzner (no scam pricing)

CPU Limits:

• Hetzner: Dedicated or shared vCPUs, no artificial throttling
• SiteGround: CPU limits force expensive upgrades ($100+/mo cloud plans)

Winner: Hetzner

Features Removed:

• Hetzner: Nothing removed, pricing stable since forever
• SiteGround: Removed free Cloudflare, free migrations, free malware scans

Winner: Hetzner

Support:

• Hetzner: Email/ticket for infrastructure (unmanaged)
• SiteGround: 24/7 live chat/phone/ticket for managed issues

Winner: SiteGround (if you pay for premium support tiers)

Bottom line: SiteGround is a predatory business model wrapped in managed hosting. Hetzner is honest infrastructure at fair prices. Not even a close contest.

The Reddit Reality

Let me show you what actual users say (not paid reviewers):

From r/selfhosted and r/webhosting:

“Hetzner is the best value for money in Europe. I pay €3.79/mo for an ARM instance that runs my entire homelab.”

“Switched from DigitalOcean to Hetzner, cut my costs by 60% for the same performance. Only downside is fewer US locations.”

“If you’re comfortable with Linux, Hetzner is unbeatable. If you need hand-holding, stick with managed hosting.”

“Been using Hetzner for 5 years. Never had a price increase. Never had unexpected downtime. Just solid infrastructure.”

“The interface is less polished than DigitalOcean, but at 1/3 the price, I’ll learn to deal with it.”

Common complaints:

• Learning curve for beginners (true, it’s unmanaged)
• Fewer global locations than DigitalOcean (true, but expanding)
• No formal SLA (true, they don’t promise 99.99% managed uptime)
• Limited managed services (true, it’s IaaS not PaaS)

Common praise:

• Best pricing in the industry
• Modern hardware (AMD EPYC, NVMe)
• Transparent billing (no surprise charges)
• Good performance for the price
• Renewable energy data centers

The pattern: People who know what they’re doing love Hetzner. People expecting WordPress one-click installs get frustrated.

My take: The Reddit consensus is accurate. If you’re the target audience (developers, self-hosters), Hetzner is objectively the best value.

🔍 Verify This Yourself

Don’t trust me. Here’s how to fact-check everything I’ve said:

1. Pricing:

• Visit https://www.hetzner.com/cloud
• Check current prices (I cited €3.79/mo for CAX11, €4.51/mo for CX11)
• Compare to DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode

2. Hardware Specs:

• Check VPSBenchmarks Hetzner page
• Review CPU types: AMD EPYC, Intel Xeon Gold
• Verify performance scores

3. Reddit Sentiment:

• Search r/selfhosted: “Hetzner review”
• Search r/webhosting: “Hetzner vs DigitalOcean”
• Read unfiltered user experiences

4. Uptime/Reliability:

• Visit https://status.hetzner.com/
• Check incident history
• Compare to competitors’ status pages

5. My Commission Claims:

• Try to find Hetzner affiliate program (hint: doesn’t exist)
• Check Scala/ChemiCloud affiliate programs (they exist, pay ~$100/sale)

6. No Renewal Scams:

• Sign up for a Hetzner server
• Check your invoice monthly
• Confirm pricing stays the same

I’m not asking you to trust me blindly. Verify the facts, make your own decision.

Final Verdict: 8.5/10

What Hetzner does right:

• Best price-to-performance in the industry (€3.79/mo to €151.89/mo)
• Transparent, flat pricing (no renewal scams, no hidden fees)
• Modern hardware (AMD EPYC, NVMe SSDs, 20TB traffic)
• Honest business model (no affiliate bribes, no forced upsells)
• Eco-friendly infrastructure (100% renewable energy in EU)
• Robust API and automation (Terraform, CLI tools)

What Hetzner doesn’t do:

• Not beginner-friendly (unmanaged hosting, requires technical skills)
• Limited managed services (no managed databases, Kubernetes extra)
• Fewer global locations (6 vs DigitalOcean’s 15+)
• No formal SLA (excellent uptime, but no 99.99% guarantee)
• Sparse documentation (improving, but not as extensive as DigitalOcean)

Points deducted:

• -1.0 for being unmanaged (not everyone can or wants to manage servers)
• -0.5 for limited locations (great in EU, expanding elsewhere)

Why this score matters:

If you’re the target audience (developers, self-hosters, tech-savvy users), Hetzner is closer to 9.5/10. Best value in the industry, hands down.

If you’re a WordPress beginner needing managed hosting, Hetzner is 4/10 for you. Use Scala or ChemiCloud instead.

Rating: 8.5/10 - Best price-to-performance for developers, not suitable for beginners.

Who Should Use Hetzner

Use Hetzner if:

• You’re comfortable with Linux command line
• You want best value for VPS/cloud hosting
• You’re hosting multiple sites/apps (cost efficiency at scale)
• You hate renewal price scams (Hetzner’s pricing is flat)
• You value privacy (German/EU data protection laws)
• You can handle your own backups/security
• You want modern hardware (AMD EPYC, NVMe)

Examples of good Hetzner use cases:

• Self-hosted apps (Nextcloud, Bitwarden, Mastodon)
• Development/staging servers
• Docker/Kubernetes clusters
• Multiple WordPress sites (set up your own management)
• Game servers (Minecraft, etc.)
• VPN endpoints (WireGuard, OpenVPN)

Use Managed Hosting (Scala/ChemiCloud) if:

• You’re new to WordPress or web hosting
• You need one-click installers and automation
• You want 24/7 support for basic issues
• You prefer cPanel or familiar control panels
• You need free migrations from current host
• You value managed backups/security
• You want someone else to handle server updates
• I have reviewed ChemiCloud here

Examples of bad Hetzner use cases:

• “I want WordPress set up for me”
• “I need 24/7 phone support”
• “I don’t know what SSH is”
• “Can someone migrate my site for me?”

Bottom line: Hetzner is for people who can manage their own infrastructure. If you need hand-holding, pay for managed hosting. If you want best value and have the skills, Hetzner is unbeatable.

The Alternatives (What I Actually Recommend)

For Unmanaged VPS (Like Hetzner)

1. Hetzner - €3.79/mo - €151.89/mo

What you get:

• Best price-to-performance in the industry
• German infrastructure (GDPR compliance, renewable energy)
• AMD EPYC/Intel Xeon processors, NVMe SSDs
• 20 TB traffic included on entry plans
• Flat pricing (no renewal scams)
• Monthly billing, cancel anytime

Why Hetzner:

• Cheapest option for modern VPS
• Excellent hardware for the price
• Transparent, honest pricing
• For developers comfortable with unmanaged hosting

2. DigitalOcean - $4/mo - $504/mo

What you get:

• More global locations (15+ data centers)
• Managed services (databases, Kubernetes, App Platform)
• Excellent documentation and tutorials
• 24/7 support with ticket system
• Robust API and developer tools

Visit the DigitalOcean website

Why DigitalOcean over Hetzner:

• Need US/Asia locations
• Want managed Kubernetes/databases
• Prefer extensive docs and community
• 30-70% more expensive but more services

For Managed VPS/Shared Hosting

3. Scala Hosting - $5.95/mo intro, $14.95/mo renewal (Start plan)

What you get:

• AMD EPYC 9474F (4.1 GHz), NVMe, OpenLiteSpeed
• SPanel (cPanel alternative, no license fees)
• Managed hosting (24/7 support, free migrations)
• No CPU limits like SiteGround
• Transparent pricing (151% renewal increase, not 340%)

Why Scala over Hetzner:

• You need managed WordPress hosting
• You want cPanel-like interface (SPanel)
• You need 24/7 support and free migrations
• You’re not comfortable managing servers
• ~2.3x more expensive than Hetzner but managed

4. ChemiCloud - $4.49/mo intro, $19.95/mo renewal (Turbo plan)

What you get:

• AMD EPYC 9354 (3.8 GHz), LiteSpeed, cPanel
• 100ms global TTFB (lightning fast)
• 500k inode limit (vs SiteGround’s lower limits)
• Free migrations (10-200 sites depending on plan)
• No CPU throttling forcing expensive upgrades

Why ChemiCloud over Hetzner:

• You need managed WordPress hosting
• You want cPanel included
• You need fast performance globally
• You’re migrating from SiteGround (direct alternative)
• ~3.3x more expensive than Hetzner but managed

Quick Comparison Table

Bottom line: I rank Hetzner #1 for unmanaged VPS despite making $0. If you need managed hosting, I’m taking +$100 commissions from Scala and ChemiCloud, but they’re objectively better value than SiteGround/Bluehost.

Migration Guide: Leaving Your Shitty Host

Migrating to Hetzner from managed hosting (SiteGround, Bluehost, etc.):

Step 1: Acknowledge the learning curve

You’re moving from managed to unmanaged. You’ll need to:

• Set up your own web server (Nginx/Apache)
• Install and configure WordPress
• Set up SSL certificates (Let’s Encrypt)
• Configure backups
• Handle security updates

Options:

1. DIY: Follow DigitalOcean tutorials (excellent guides even for Hetzner)
2. Use control panel: Install aaPanel (free), CyberPanel (free), or Plesk (~€10/mo)
3. Hire help: Pay someone $50-$200 for one-time migration
4. Use managed hosting instead: Scala or ChemiCloud (they handle migrations)

Step 2: Create Hetzner account

1. Go to Hetzner Cloud Console
2. Create account (verify payment method)
3. Choose data center (Europe: FSN1/NBG1/HEL1, USA: ASH/HIL, Asia: SIN)
4. Select server size (start with CPX11 or CPX21, €5.46-€8.21/mo)
5. Choose OS (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS recommended)
6. Add SSH key (or set root password)
7. Launch server

Step 3: Set up web server

Option A: Use a control panel (easier)

Install aaPanel or CyberPanel:

# aaPanel (free, supports Nginx/Apache, WordPress one-click)
wget -O install.sh http://www.aapanel.com/script/install-ubuntu_6.0_en.sh && bash install.sh

# CyberPanel (free, includes OpenLiteSpeed, WordPress manager)
sh <(curl https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh || wget -O - https://cyberpanel.net/install.sh)

Then use web UI to:

• Create website
• Install WordPress
• Set up SSL (Let’s Encrypt one-click)
• Configure backups

Option B: Manual setup (more control)

Follow tutorials:

• How To Install WordPress on Ubuntu 22.04
• How To Secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt

Step 4: Migrate your site

Option A: Manual migration

1. Export database from old host (phpMyAdmin)
2. Download wp-content folder (FTP/SFTP)
3. Import database to new server
4. Upload wp-content to new server
5. Update wp-config.php with new database credentials
6. Update site URL in database

Option B: Use plugin

• All-in-One WP Migration (free for sites less than 512MB)
• Duplicator (free, works for larger sites)
• UpdraftPlus (premium migration features)

Step 5: Update DNS

1. Log into your domain registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.)
2. Update A record to point to new Hetzner IP
3. Wait for DNS propagation (up to 48 hours)
4. Test site at new IP before DNS fully propagates

Step 6: Cancel old host

Don’t cancel immediately! Keep old host for 1-2 weeks to ensure migration went smoothly.

When you’re ready:

• Download final backups from old host
• Cancel subscription (expect retention attempts from SiteGround/Bluehost)
• Request refund if within money-back period (good luck with that)

Migration cost comparison:

My recommendation:

• If you’re technical: DIY or use free control panel (aaPanel/CyberPanel)
• If you’re learning: Use control panel, follow tutorials
• If you’re not technical: Don’t use Hetzner, use Scala or ChemiCloud instead

Conclusion: Why I Rank Hetzner #1 Despite $0 Commission

Let me spell this out one last time:

I used to recommend Bluehost, HostGator SiteGround and the likes and make $50-$100/sale.

I watched people:

• Get trapped in CPU limit upgrades ($100+/mo)
• Pay 167% renewal increases ($14.99 → $39.99/mo)
• Get charged for features that used to be free (Cloudflare, migrations, malware scans)

I was part of the problem.

Now I recommend:

• Hetzner (best value for VPS)
• Scala Hosting (managed VPS, transparent pricing)
• ChemiCloud (managed shared, no CPU limits)

This Hetzner hosting review is based on:

• Years of watching managed hosts scam customers with renewal tricks
• Direct comparison with DigitalOcean, SiteGround, Scala, ChemiCloud
• Actual pricing and hardware specs (all verifiable)
• Understanding my own bias (I make $0 from Hetzner)

Bottom line for this Hetzner review: If you’re comfortable managing your own server, Hetzner offers unbeatable price-to-performance with flat, honest pricing. If you need managed hosting, use Scala or ChemiCloud instead.

Rating: 8.5/10 - Best VPS value in the industry, points off for being unmanaged (not for everyone).

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Legal Note: This review contains both documented facts (linked to sources) and my personal opinions based on those facts. All opinions are clearly marked as such.

Affiliate disclosure: I make money from affiliate links to Scala Hosting and ChemiCloud, and nothing from Hetzner because they don’t have an affiliate program.