Linode is predictable Linux compute on Akamai’s network. Hetzner is the price-per-core leader, by a wide margin. This page puts the two side by side — the live configurations and prices from our catalogue, then the differences that actually decide the choice.
| In our catalogue | Linode | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Buy Linode Account | Buy Hetzner Account |
| Configurations in stock | 3 | 3 |
| Lowest price | $25 | $55 |
| Highest price | $90 | $250 |
| Example options | Trial $100 / Linode Service / Credit $250 | 5 Server Account / 10 Server Account / Hetzner Cloud Server |
| View options | View options |
Prices and configuration counts are read from the live catalogue. Specifications are listed exactly as supplied; nothing here is estimated.
Different categories, so compare the burden rather than the features
Linode is a developer-focused VPS platform; Hetzner is a European infrastructure provider. Comparing their feature lists is misleading, because one of them expects to run things for you and the other expects you to run them.
The honest question is operational: every managed service you adopt is work you are not doing, and every raw virtual machine is work you are. If the answer to who patches this, who watches it, who gets paged is “me, in the evenings”, optimise for fewer moving parts. Managed services on a more expensive platform can be cheaper than self-managed services on a cheap one once your own time is priced in.
Where Linode is the stronger choice
Predictability. Plans are simple, dedicated-CPU options are available when consistent latency matters, and being part of Akamai brings a serious edge network behind it.
Best suited to: developers who want dedicated or shared vCPU at a published monthly price, without a hyperscaler’s surface area.
Regions: A broad set of regions across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, expanding under Akamai.
Worth knowing: Shared plans share a core with other tenants; if throughput must be steady, the dedicated tier is the honest choice.
Where Hetzner is the stronger choice
Economics. For a given amount of CPU and RAM, Hetzner is routinely a fraction of a hyperscaler’s price, with a bandwidth allowance that makes egress a non-issue for most workloads.
Best suited to: teams that need raw compute and are happy to operate it themselves.
Regions: Germany and Finland, with a US presence — the European sites are the core of the offering.
Worth knowing: The acceptable-use rules are enforced, and the support model is efficient rather than hand-holding. It suits teams that already know what they are doing.
The trade-offs, stated plainly
Linode: Fewer managed services than the hyperscalers, and the platform’s own tooling is deliberately modest — it expects you to bring your own.
Hetzner: Almost no managed services. You get excellent servers and a competent network; databases, queues, backups and monitoring are yours to run.
How to choose between them
- Choose Linode if your workload is Long-running Linux servers, self-managed databases, CI runners and general-purpose hosting
- Choose Hetzner if your workload is Self-managed workloads, build farms, batch processing and anything where the bill is dominated by CPU hours
- Choose neither if the shape of the work does not match either — the full catalogue has eight other platforms, and the comparison tool will hold four of them side by side.
Related reading
- Buy Linode Account – every Linode configuration in stock
- Buy Hetzner Account – every Hetzner configuration in stock
- How to choose a cloud provider – the framework behind this comparison
- How cloud billing works – why the billing model matters more than the sticker price
- Compare up to four accounts side by side
Questions
Common questions about this comparison
Is Linode cheaper than Hetzner?
The prices in the table above are the live catalogue prices for the accounts we stock, so you can compare those directly. Running cost is a separate question and depends on the billing model: Linode bills a fixed monthly figure and Hetzner bills a fixed monthly figure, which means the cheaper account is not always the cheaper month.
Can I run the same workload on both?
For ordinary Linux servers, databases and web applications, yes. The divergence starts when you adopt a platform's proprietary managed services — a specific queue, function runtime or identity model — because those are what make a migration expensive later.
Which one is better for Long-running Linux servers?
That is Linode's stated strength, so it is the natural starting point. It is still worth checking region availability and the billing model against your own constraints before committing.
What do I actually get when I buy an account here?
The configuration named on the product page and nothing beyond it — the vCPU figure, region, account age or credit exactly as listed. Both product pages set out every option in stock with its own price.