5 Best European Microsoft Azure Alternatives in 2026

Hetzner Cloud is the cloud computing arm of Hetzner Online, one of Europe's largest data center operators, delivering high-performance infrastructure at a fraction of hyperscaler pricing since 1997. Founded in Gunzenhausen, Germany, Hetzner owns and operates every rack in its facilities — giving it full control over hardware, networking, and costs that translates directly into savings for customers.

The platform offers four server families to cover every workload profile: CX (cost-optimized Intel/AMD shared vCPU), CPX (regular-performance AMD EPYC shared), CAX (Arm64 Ampere Altra at the lowest price point), and CCX (dedicated AMD EPYC vCPU with zero noisy-neighbor risk). Alongside compute, the product catalog includes S3-compatible object storage, attachable block volumes on NVMe RAID10, managed Kubernetes (HKE) with a free control plane, load balancers, floating IPs, private networks, stateful firewalls, snapshots, DNS management, and one-click app deployments for Docker, Nextcloud, GitLab, and more.

Key benefits:

• 20 TB monthly traffic included in EU regions — 4–5x more than competitors, with no surprise egress bills
• Four server families (CX, CPX, CAX, CCX) from shared ARM instances at €3.99/mo to dedicated vCPU machines
• Managed Kubernetes (HKE) with free control plane, auto-scaling node groups, and integrated load balancers
• S3-compatible object storage built on Ceph with flat, predictable pricing and no per-operation fees
• Own-operated data centers in Nuremberg, Falkenstein, Helsinki, Ashburn, Hillsboro, and Singapore
• Full automation stack with REST API, CLI, Terraform provider, Ansible modules, and Kubernetes integrations
• NVMe local storage delivering 40k+ random IOPS and ~3 GB/s sequential throughput
• 100% renewable energy from hydropower since 2008, with PUE between 1.10–1.16 and zero water cooling

Hetzner's German and Finnish data centers hold ISO 27001 and BSI C5 certifications, and the company is EMAS-certified for environmental management. Infrastructure sits entirely outside the US CLOUD Act, making Hetzner a natural fit for teams that need GDPR-compliant hosting with genuine European data residency. Natural air cooling handles climate control for up to 98% of the year, waste heat warms office spaces, and servers average an 8-year lifecycle through refurbishment — reducing CO₂ emissions by 77,000 tonnes annually compared to standard grid power.

The go-to European cloud for developers, startups, and businesses that refuse to overpay — Hetzner proves that world-class infrastructure and transparent pricing are not mutually exclusive.