Compare / AWS Lightsail vs Hetzner Cloud
AWS Lightsail vs Hetzner Cloud
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — AWS Lightsail checked 2026-08-06, Hetzner Cloud checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
AWS Lightsail wins more of our comparison points, but Hetzner Cloud still fits if european projects that need serious compute or move a lot of traffic describes you.
Price AWS Lightsail
AWS Lightsail is cheaper at most of the stages we model.
Ease AWS Lightsail
AWS Lightsail is easier to get running: pick a blueprint (WordPress, LAMP, Node.js, plain Linux), get SSH in the browser or your terminal, and manage it like any VPS.
Free tier AWS Lightsail
AWS Lightsail has a free tier; Hetzner Cloud doesn't.
Features AWS Lightsail
AWS Lightsail comes out ahead on 2 of the 15 features we track, versus 0.
What developers say about this matchup
We couldn't find a substantive first-person discussion comparing this exact pair. We leave the section empty instead of filling it with vendor marketing or generic SEO comparisons.
At a glance
| AWS Lightsail | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Projects that want predictable AWS — a fixed-price server with a clear upgrade path into the wider AWS ecosystem. | European projects that need serious compute or move a lot of traffic. |
| How deploys work | Pick a blueprint (WordPress, LAMP, Node.js, plain Linux), get SSH in the browser or your terminal, and manage it like any VPS. | You get root on a bare server: bring your own setup, or use one-click apps like Docker and WordPress. |
| The tradeoff | Costs more per spec than the European VPS crowd, and stopped instances keep billing. | Self-managed like any VPS, and the bandwidth advantage mostly applies to EU locations. |
| Free tier | 90-day free trial (750 hours/month) on the $5–$12 Linux bundles and the $15 database, plus $100–$200 in new-account AWS credits. | None |
What you'd realistically pay
AWS Lightsail Hetzner Cloud
| Project stage | AWS Lightsail | Hetzner Cloud | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$5/mo Nano — 2 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer. $3.50 as IPv6-only. Free for the first 90 days. | ≈€5.99/mo CX23 (EU) — €5.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. Germany and Finland only. | AWS Lightsail |
| Steady traffic | ≈$12/mo Small — 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB SSD, 3 TB transfer. | ≈€8.99/mo CX33 (EU) — €8.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. | Hetzner Cloud |
| Growing | ≈$39/mo Medium + managed database — $24 Medium (4 GB RAM, 4 TB transfer) plus the $15 managed MySQL/PostgreSQL bundle. | ≈€43.49/mo CCX13 (EU) — €42.99 + €0.50 IPv4. 2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe — move to dedicated CPUs when shared bursting stops being enough. | AWS Lightsail |
AWS Lightsail pricing notes
- Billed hourly up to the monthly cap — partial months cost less, but stopped instances still bill.
- IPv6-only bundles are 20–30% cheaper; an unattached static IPv4 costs ~$3.60/month.
- Bundles scale up to 64 vCPU / 256 GB RAM ($1,764/month), with compute- and memory-optimized variants.
Hetzner Cloud pricing notes
- Traffic overage costs €1/TB in the EU — most providers charge 10–100x that per GB.
- Billed hourly up to a monthly cap.
- The Arm-based CAX plans match CX specs at similar prices if the Intel CX line is out of stock.
Our ratings
Ease of use AWS Lightsail
Pricing clarity Hetzner Cloud
Free tier AWS Lightsail
Scaling AWS Lightsail
Control
Feature by feature
AWS Lightsail wins 2, Hetzner Cloud wins 0, with 13 even.
Deploy workflow
| AWS Lightsail | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. |
| Preview deploys | No Nothing built in. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes The AWS CLI covers Lightsail end to end. | Yes hcloud CLI manages servers, networks, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Partial Snapshots restore machines ($0.05/GB-month); no deploy-level rollback. | Partial Snapshots and paid backups restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| AWS Lightsail | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Lightsail DNS zones are included; TLS is yours via certbot or a Lightsail distribution. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | Yes Lightsail distributions add a CloudFront-backed CDN from $2.50/month (first year of 50 GB/month free). | No No CDN product — put Cloudflare in front if needed. |
| Serverless functions | No Not in Lightsail — that is the wider AWS (Lambda), with the à la carte billing this product avoids. | No Not a VPS feature. |
| Docker containers | Yes Install Docker on any instance, or use the Lightsail container service from $7/month. | Yes Docker CE one-click app or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | Yes Full root SSH, including a browser-based terminal. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Paris, Stockholm, and Spain. | Yes Germany and Finland are the home turf — this is where the value is. |
Runtime & operations
| AWS Lightsail | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | No No autoscaling — resize by restoring a snapshot to a bigger bundle. | No Manual resizing or manual fleet management. |
| Scale to zero | No Stopped instances bill at full rate; only deletion stops charges. | No Servers bill until deleted, even powered off. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Classic cron on the box. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | Yes Managed MySQL/PostgreSQL bundles from $15/month. | No No managed database product — self-host or go external. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Instance metrics and alarms in the console; deeper monitoring means CloudWatch or your own stack. | Partial Basic server graphs in the console; app-level monitoring is yours. |
Watch out for
AWS Lightsail
- Stopped instances bill at the full rate — only deleting an instance (snapshot first, $0.05/GB-month) stops charges.
- Transfer overage costs $0.09/GB in US/EU regions, and some regions (Mumbai, Sydney, São Paulo…) include only half the listed allowance.
- The new-account AWS Free plan expires after 6 months or when credits run out, then the account auto-closes with a 90-day grace period.
- Outgrowing Lightsail means migrating to EC2 — a real project, not a plan toggle.
Hetzner Cloud
- Hetzner raised prices on 15 June 2026: dedicated CCX and shared CPX plans roughly tripled, while the budget CX line rose about 35%.
- The cheap CX plans are sold in Germany and Finland only, in limited capacity — Hetzner sometimes pauses sales when stock runs out.
- US locations include only 1–2 TB of traffic versus 20 TB in the EU — the famous value is a European value.
- A public IPv4 address costs €0.50/month extra; only IPv6 is free.
- Servers bill until deleted, even while powered off.
Read the full reviews: AWS Lightsail and Hetzner Cloud. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.