Hetzner vs Linode

• Hetzner provides a fixed, generous egress allowance of 20000 GB across their tier, whereas Linode scales their network capacity from 1000 GB to 20000 GB depending on the instance size.
• Storage overages are cheaper on Hetzner at $0.06/GB, while Linode charges $0.10/GB for additional block volume attachments.
• Linode is significantly more forgiving regarding bandwidth overages, charging only $0.01/GB compared to the steep $1.19/GB penalty enforced by Hetzner if you exceed their bundled quota.
• The price floor on Linode starts at $1.50/mo for a 1 GB RAM machine, while Hetzner’s entry point is $7.09/mo for 2 GB of RAM.

Hetzner maintains a rigid, predictable pricing structure that favors high-bandwidth workloads. Their hardware usually sits on older but reliable Intel or AMD EPYC platforms in European data centers. Because they include 20000 GB of egress by default, you rarely worry about traffic costs unless you are running a high-volume CDN or video streaming node. However, their overage structure is punitive. If you breach that 20000 GB limit, the $1.19/GB cost will destroy your monthly budget instantly. This makes Hetzner a poor choice for unpredictable, bursty traffic patterns.

Linode offers a broader range of hardware configurations, scaling up to 512 GB of RAM and 5243 GB of storage for enterprise-grade database needs. While their base storage is more expensive per gigabyte when you exceed your allocation, their bandwidth overage rate of $0.01/GB provides a safety net that Hetzner lacks. If your application relies on high-memory instances or requires hardware parity with AWS-like configurations, Linode remains the more flexible choice for scaling infrastructure. Hetzner is better suited for static workloads where you can accurately forecast your bandwidth usage to stay within the provided limits.