Cloudflare vs Hetzner Comparison
Compare Cloudflare vs Hetzner features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Cloudflare
7.6/10
Cloudflare is a global edge network. It offers CDN, DNS, DDoS protection and a WAF, plus serverless compute and storage (Workers, R2, D1) for developers and businesses.
Hetzner
6.4/10
German hosting provider offering cloud servers, dedicated servers, S3-compatible object storage and shared web hosting at low prices for developers and businesses.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.6/10 | 6.4/10 |
| Integration | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 4/10 | 4/10 |
| Cost | 9/10 | 9/10 |
| Customization | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Scalability | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $5/mo Workers Paid | €2/mo Webhosting S |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free | €2/mo Webhosting S |
| Features | ||
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Shared Hosting | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| Cloud Compute | Not listed | |
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudflare vs Hetzner cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudflare | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 5 users | FreeFree | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 10 users | FreeFree | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 25 users | FreeFree | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 50 users | FreeFree | €2/moWebhosting S |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Cloudflare
- Has a free plan (Hetzner does not)
- Higher Security score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (8/10 vs 4/10)
Why choose Hetzner
- Includes Dedicated Servers, which Cloudflare lacks
- Includes Shared Hosting, which Cloudflare lacks
Pros & Cons
Cloudflare
Pros
- The free plan includes unmetered DDoS protection, a CDN, a WAF and universal SSL.
- R2 object storage charges no egress fees.
- Workers has very low entry pricing: a $5 monthly minimum and $0.30 per additional million requests.
- The Business plan adds a 100 percent uptime SLA and PCI DSS compliance for $200 a month billed annually.
Cons
- Reviewers report slow support on Free and Pro, which have no chat or phone support.
- Global outages in November and December 2025 disrupted many sites at the same time.
- Reviewers report billing problems, such as charges after cancelling add-ons.
- It offers no traditional shared hosting, VPS or dedicated servers, so you still need an origin host for conventional workloads.
Hetzner
Pros
- Compute is still cheaper than DigitalOcean, Linode or Vultr and several times cheaper than the hyperscalers, even after the 2026 price rises.
- Cloud servers are billed hourly with a monthly cap, and firewalls and private networks are included at no extra cost.
- Infrastructure can be automated through a REST API, a CLI, and integrations for Terraform, Ansible and Kubernetes.
- Hetzner owns its data centers in Germany and Finland, which suits teams that need EU data residency.
- Object storage includes 1 TB of storage and 1 TB of egress for a flat base price.
Cons
- Prices rose by about 30 to 37 percent in April 2026, the second increase in about 18 months.
- US cloud bandwidth allowances were cut sharply in December 2024.
- Reviewers often report strict identity checks that block or close new accounts.
- There is no 24/7 chat support, and some reviewers say support is slow to respond.
- Managed services are limited compared with the hyperscalers, so most of the stack is self-managed.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudflare scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.6/10 against 6.4/10 for Hetzner. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Cloudflare and 4/10 for Hetzner.
Cloudflare has a free plan; Hetzner does not list one.
Cloudflare is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 8/10 for them, against 4/10 for Hetzner.
Hetzner has Dedicated Servers and Shared Hosting, which Cloudflare lacks.
