TODAY'S BEST DEALS Founded in 1997, Hetzner Online (or Hetzner for short) is a German web hosting provider and data center operator for individual users and businesses. The company is named after its founder, Martin Hetzner, whose vision was to make the perfect combination of strong and stable technology, flexible services, affordable prices, and knowledgeable customer support. For the most part, this vision seems to come true. Hetzner proposes tout, des simple solutions d'hébergement partagé aux serveurs gérés, en passant par l'hébergement cloud, les VPS, l'hébergement de serveurs dédiés, l'engistrement de domaine, les services de colocation, ainsi que des solutions personnalisées à the demand. They also offer a server auction site where you have the option to rent dedicated servers with slightly older hardware, which is a good solution from both an economical and ecological point of view. The price tags for Hetzner products are also very attractive, however we have yet to see how proficient their customer support is. The company is headquartered in Gunzenhausen, Germany, and its data centers are located in Nuremberg, Germany, Falkenstein, Germany, and Helsinki, Finland. You can find all the technical features of the data centers on their site, and even take a virtual tour (in 360°) of their center in Nuremberg. In his effort to lead by example in respecting the environment, Hetzner uses only energy from renewable sources, including hydroelectric power in Germany, a combination of wind and hydroelectric power in Finland, and invests in energy-efficient equipment. The official Hetzner site looks a bit dated (but in a good way), easy to use, and is available in English, German, and Russian. If you want to find Hetzner on social media sites, check out Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
Hetzner offers different tiers of plans to suit your website needs (Image credit: Hetzner Online)
Award
On the official Hetzner website, you will find a good variety of dedicated servers, VPS packages, shared hosting, custom solutions, as well as colocation, management, and other services. The smallest shared hosting solution called 'Tier 1' starts at €1,60 (£1,85) per month, but will have a one-time additional setup fee of €8,32 (£9,65), which increases the price fairly quickly. With more expensive plans, those setup costs are reduced, and with the biggest plan at $16.72 (£19.35) per month, there are no setup fees. The "Tier 1" package includes a free domain name (.de, .com, .net, .org, .at, .be, .info, .biz, .eu, .name and .nl are available), 10 GB of disk space (NVMe SSD), unlimited traffic, 50 subdomains, daily backups (for 14 days), SSL certificate, and daily detailed log file compilations. The “Level 1” package is the only one that does not allow any additional domains, while you can have between 5 and 20 with other packages. If you cancel Hetzner's plan within 14 days, you should receive a refund, though the company provides almost no information about its money-back guarantee. When it comes to payment methods, Hetzner accepts all major credit cards, PayPal, SEPA, and bank transfers.
Ease of use
Since Hetzner's hosting solutions are well presented with all their features and costs, opting for one shouldn't take too long. If you are new to Hetzner, you will be asked to create an account before you can purchase any of their products. To do this, you will need to fill out a fairly long form containing your full name, title, organization, postal address, phone / fax, email address, and find a password.
You can purchase additional products from the Hetzner konsoleH control panel (Image credit: Hetzner Online) After that, you will be given a customer number to use when you log in, both on the next page and in an email in case that you forget (and of course you will). Once you have logged in, you will be redirected to the Hetzner control panel called konsoleH where you can continue with your purchase or add other products (domain name, hosting packages, additional storage space, management services, SSL certificates, etc.). ). Before making a purchase, you will also need to select a billing cycle (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually) and a payment method. Although far from being a mere spectator, once you understand how konsoleH works, you'll be able to navigate it with no problem. It may not be as easy to use as the industry leading cPanel, but it's as simple as custom control panels can be. If you get stuck along the way, be sure to review the procedures available on konsoleH or contact support. KonsoleH also offers a WebFTP function with which you can upload your website (provided you have one), or you can do it using the normal FTP system. Hetzner provides easy installation for WordPress, BigBlueButton, Docker, GitLab, LAMP, and a handful of other useful applications. However, there is still no code-free website builder that is highly appreciated by all less-experienced users.
We use GTmetrix to measure the uptime and response time of the main Hetzner Online site (Image credit: GTmetrix)
Speed and experience
While Hetzner doesn't talk much about speed, in his "Data Centers" section he promises "fast load times and top performance," which we'll check out in a minute. After running a GTmetrix speed test on Hetzner's site, we were presented with top-notch performance. The site fully loaded in 1,7 seconds (average score is 8,1), requiring a total of 55 requests and resulting in an A (90%) final GTmetrix score. As for uptime, Hetzner guarantees a minimum of 99,9% with all of its plans, putting its data centers at least Tier III. To prove this, we ran a two-week test on the official Hetzner website and got somewhat disappointing results. There was a case of downtime that made the site inaccessible for 14 minutes straight, ultimately leading to a 99,93% uptime. Although these results are guaranteed, they do not inspire much confidence when you remember that the test was only run for two weeks.
Hetzner offers a wide variety of support options (Image credit: Hetzner Online)
Support
Hetzner's “Help Center” offers personal assistance by phone, live chat (customer only) and contact / ticket form. You can also email them for general inquiries. There are eleven phone numbers available for different types of support, from general questions to technical advice and expertise, with some of them available on weekdays during business hours, while others are available 24/7. week.
Hetzner Online also has an extensive FAQ section (Image credit: Hetzner Online) Those who prefer to fend for themselves will find everything they need in "Hetzner Docs", a collection of guides and documentation including a section Very complete FAQ. Most of the tutorials are well done, but some seem too short. "Hetzner Online Community" offers both a forum and a tutorial area, where users are encouraged to create their own tutorials for their peers (and for a reward, of course, up to €50 in credit). The community forum is only available to Hetzner customers and seems to be quite active.
Competition
OVHcloud and Hetzner are European hosting companies with a long history of providing robust, reliable and complete web hosting solutions for all types of paying customers. Although Hetzner is slightly cheaper and more freebie-rich than its competitor, OVHcloud scores points in terms of performance and wins in terms of data center uptime. Digital Ocean is an amazing alternative to Hetzner and with which you will find a worldwide network of data centers. That said, DigitalOcean has no refund policy and is more expensive than Hetzner, which makes it harder to recommend to users who are okay with servers located in Europe. Bluehost is more beginner-friendly than Hetzner, but Hetzner is cheaper, especially in the long run (when the one-time setup fees even out). On the other hand, Bluehost will not hesitate to drop a bomb with a significant price increase at the end of the promotional period. Just like Bluehost, HostGator is one of the most newbie-friendly hosts around, and one that will give you exceptional support and all the free features to get you started on the right foot. However, if you're looking for customizable cloud hosting packages that offer excellent value for money, Hetzner is more likely to do the trick.
Final verdict
Hetzner is a reputable and reliable web host with a variety of hosting products and a soft spot for environmental issues. If you're looking for a feature-rich solution for an online business with a customer base in Germany or Finland, Hetzner might be worth a look. If not, check out HostGator and Bluehost as they can give you just about anything Hetzner can do while communicating with less tech-savvy users. THE BEST DEALS OF THE DAY