Cloudflare vs Hetzner

• Cloudflare R2 provides a $0.00/mo entry point for 10 GB of storage, while Hetzner’s storage box starts at $5.00/mo for 1000 GB of capacity.
• Storage overages on Cloudflare cost $0.01/GB, which is double the price of Hetzner’s $0.005/GB rate for exceeding the base allocation.
• Cloudflare eliminates egress fees entirely, whereas Hetzner charges $0.00119/GB for outbound data transfer beyond their included thresholds.
• API operation costs are excluded from the flat Hetzner pricing model, whereas Cloudflare applies specific fees for Class A and Class B operations once free tiers are exhausted.

Cloudflare R2 is built on an egress-free model that mimics the utility of S3 without the standard data transfer penalties often seen on AWS or GCP. It works well for developers distributing static assets or heavy media files where the total volume remains low but the frequency of access is high. Because R2 is essentially a globally distributed edge service, it lacks the raw storage density of traditional data center providers. If you are storing multi-terabyte datasets, the math shifts quickly toward Hetzner.

Hetzner operates traditional storage clusters that rely on robust hardware, often utilizing high-capacity drives in RAID configurations that cater to local backup or archival needs. While their entry price of $5.00/mo is higher than the free tier of Cloudflare, the cost per gigabyte at scale is significantly lower. Choosing between these depends on whether your architecture requires low-latency edge delivery of small files or high-volume, low-cost capacity for cold data storage. Cloudflare serves applications needing to avoid vendor lock-in regarding egress, while Hetzner serves workloads that prioritize raw storage volume and predictable monthly hardware costs.