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Hetzner vs ScaleGrid

Hetzner

Optimal Baseline Tier

CLOUD_132+CLOUD_21 plan (Optimal for baseline workload)

$7.69/ month
Included storage40 GB
Included bandwidth20000 GB
Included RAM2 GB
Base plan$7.09
Storage overage$0.60
Bandwidth overage$0.00
Compute overage$0.00

ScaleGrid

Optimal Baseline Tier

ScaleGrid PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean SMALL plan (Optimal for baseline workload)

$60.00/ month
Included storage60 GB
Included bandwidth1000 GB
Included RAM4 GB
Base plan$60.00
Storage overagePlan limit
Bandwidth overagePlan limit
Compute overage$0.00

Hetzner and Scalegrid occupy entirely different tiers of the infrastructure market. Hetzner functions as a high-value commodity provider, offering a lean price spectrum from $7.09/mo to $51.59/mo, with RAM caps peaking at 32 GB. In contrast, Scalegrid caters to enterprise-grade database requirements, scaling from $13.00/mo up to a massive $22400.00/mo for setups requiring 512 GB of RAM. While Hetzner provides a fixed, generous 20000 GB of egress across its instances, Scalegrid limits base egress to 1000 GB, reflecting its focus on database hosting rather than general-purpose compute.

  • Hetzner’s storage overage is priced at $0.06/GB, which is significantly more predictable for standard workloads than the varied enterprise storage costs found on Scalegrid.
  • Scalegrid offers massive storage scaling up to 15200 GB, a range that Hetzner’s 360 GB limit cannot accommodate for large-scale data persistence.
  • Exceeding bandwidth on Hetzner carries a steep penalty of $1.19/GB, a figure that demands careful monitoring despite the high initial allowance.
  • Entry-level memory allocations differ sharply, with Hetzner starting at 2 GB compared to the 1 GB floor available on Scalegrid's smaller database nodes.

Hetzner relies on cost-efficient hardware that competes closely with providers like OVH, making it ideal for self-managed application stacks where you handle your own backup and redundancy protocols. Scalegrid serves as a specialized layer for managed database engines, where the premium price covers automated maintenance and high-availability configurations that are absent from Hetzner’s raw instance offerings. Choosing between these providers depends on whether your infrastructure strategy prioritizes raw hardware value or the convenience of a managed database control plane.

Architectural Cost Simulation

Database Parameters

50 GB
100 GB
2 GB RAM
Lowest cost
Hetzner (CLOUD_132+CLOUD_21)Details →
$7.69 / mo
Base plan:$7.09
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.60
Egress overage:$0.00
Hetzner (CLOUD_122+CLOUD_21)Details →
$18.59 / mo
Base plan:$18.59
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
Hetzner (CLOUD_115+CLOUD_21)Details →
$51.59 / mo
Base plan:$51.59
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean NANO)Details →
Requires higher plan
Base plan:$13.00
RAM scaling:Plan limit
Storage overage:Plan limit
Egress overage:Plan limit
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) MICRO)Details →
Requires higher plan
Base plan:$25.00
RAM scaling:Plan limit
Storage overage:Plan limit
Egress overage:Plan limit
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean MICRO)Details →
Requires higher plan
Base plan:$30.00
RAM scaling:Plan limit
Storage overage:Plan limit
Egress overage:Plan limit
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) SMALL)Details →
Requires higher plan
Base plan:$44.00
RAM scaling:Plan limit
Storage overage:Plan limit
Egress overage:Plan limit
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean SMALL)Details →
$60.00 / mo
Base plan:$60.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) MEDIUM)Details →
$88.00 / mo
Base plan:$88.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean MEDIUM)Details →
$100.00 / mo
Base plan:$100.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) LARGE)Details →
$172.00 / mo
Base plan:$172.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean LARGE)Details →
$200.00 / mo
Base plan:$200.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) XLARGE)Details →
$258.00 / mo
Base plan:$258.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean XLARGE)Details →
$400.00 / mo
Base plan:$400.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) X2XLARGE)Details →
$516.00 / mo
Base plan:$516.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean X2XLARGE)Details →
$784.00 / mo
Base plan:$784.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean X4XLARGE)Details →
$1008.00 / mo
Base plan:$1008.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® AWS High Performance LARGE)Details →
$1148.00 / mo
Base plan:$1148.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) X4XLARGE)Details →
$1319.00 / mo
Base plan:$1319.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean X8XLARGE)Details →
$1355.00 / mo
Base plan:$1355.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® AWS High Performance XLARGE)Details →
$2014.00 / mo
Base plan:$2014.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® DigitalOcean X16XLARGE)Details →
$2016.00 / mo
Base plan:$2016.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) X8XLARGE)Details →
$2083.00 / mo
Base plan:$2083.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® AWS High Performance X2XLARGE)Details →
$3522.00 / mo
Base plan:$3522.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) X16XLARGE)Details →
$3920.00 / mo
Base plan:$3920.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® AWS High Performance X4XLARGE)Details →
$6371.00 / mo
Base plan:$6371.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® Amazon Web Services (AWS) X32XLARGE)Details →
$7371.00 / mo
Base plan:$7371.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® AWS High Performance X8XLARGE)Details →
$11200.00 / mo
Base plan:$11200.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00
ScaleGrid (PostgreSQL® AWS High Performance X16XLARGE)Details →
$22400.00 / mo
Base plan:$22400.00
RAM scaling:$0.00
Storage overage:$0.00
Egress overage:$0.00

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Frequently asked questions

Is Hetzner more cost-effective than ScaleGrid?

The starting price for Hetzner is $7.09 per month, whereas ScaleGrid starts at $60.00. The true cost-effectiveness depends heavily on your specific resource requirements beyond these base tiers.

How do resource limits and scaling fees compare between Hetzner and ScaleGrid?

When scaling, overages dictate the final bill. For Hetzner, extra storage is billed at $0.06 and network egress is billed at $1.19. In contrast, for ScaleGrid, expanding storage requires a plan upgrade and expanding egress requires a plan upgrade.

Should I choose Hetzner or ScaleGrid for my infrastructure?

Choose Hetzner if your workload strictly aligns with their base limits and penalty structure. Choose ScaleGrid if their starting footprint offers a more predictable financial trajectory for your specific application requirements.

Pricing metrics are updated automatically from official provider data. Last synced:
August 30, 2026