Compare / Hetzner Cloud vs Scaleway Instances
Hetzner Cloud vs Scaleway Instances
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — Hetzner Cloud checked 2026-08-06, Scaleway checked 2026-08-06.
The short version
Scaleway Instances 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 Hetzner Cloud
Hetzner Cloud is cheaper at most of the stages we model.
Ease Scaleway Instances
Scaleway Instances is easier to get running: spin up an instance from the console or the scw CLI, then manage it like any VPS; Terraform and cloud-init are first-class.
Features Scaleway Instances
Scaleway Instances comes out ahead on 3 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
| Hetzner Cloud | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | European projects that need serious compute or move a lot of traffic. | EU projects that want real cloud ergonomics — hourly billing, CLI, Terraform, managed databases — without a US hyperscaler. |
| How deploys work | You get root on a bare server: bring your own setup, or use one-click apps like Docker and WordPress. | Spin up an instance from the console or the scw CLI, then manage it like any VPS; Terraform and cloud-init are first-class. |
| The tradeoff | Self-managed like any VPS, and the bandwidth advantage mostly applies to EU locations. | À la carte pricing makes the real cost higher than the sticker, and account verification can be painful. |
| Free tier | None | None |
What you'd realistically pay
Hetzner Cloud Scaleway Instances
| Project stage | Hetzner Cloud | Scaleway Instances | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈€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. | ≈€10.42/mo DEV1-S + IPv4 + 10 GB volume — ~€6.55 instance (2 shared vCPU, 2 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€0.95 block storage. Ex-VAT, ~730h/month. | Hetzner Cloud |
| Steady traffic | ≈€8.99/mo CX33 (EU) — €8.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. | ≈€24.92/mo PLAY2-NANO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€20.10 instance (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | Hetzner Cloud |
| Growing | ≈€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. | ≈€45/mo PLAY2-MICRO + IPv4 + 20 GB volume — ~€40.20 instance (4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM) + €2.92 IPv4 + ~€1.90 block storage. | ≈ Tie |
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.
Scaleway Instances pricing notes
- Hourly billing (~730 h/month), ex-VAT, with no egress fees — bandwidth is an unmetered per-instance speed.
- Flexible IPv4 €0.004/h (~€2.92/month); IPv6 is free. Block Storage 5K is €0.000130/GB/h (~€0.095/GB/month).
- Savings Plans (12/36-month commitment) take up to 25% off compute.
- New Professional accounts with a payment method get €100 in credit.
Our ratings
Ease of use Scaleway Instances
Pricing clarity Hetzner Cloud
Free tier
Scaling Scaleway Instances
Control
Feature by feature
Hetzner Cloud wins 0, Scaleway Instances wins 3, with 12 even.
Deploy workflow
| Hetzner Cloud | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. | No Not on Instances — bring your own CI, or use Scaleway’s separate serverless products. |
| Preview deploys | No Nothing built in. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes hcloud CLI manages servers, networks, and snapshots. | Yes The scw CLI covers instances, volumes, IPs, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Partial Snapshots and paid backups restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. | Partial Snapshots and images restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| Hetzner Cloud | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No No CDN product — put Cloudflare in front if needed. | Partial Edge Services adds a CDN in front of load balancers and object storage; nothing automatic on a bare instance. |
| Serverless functions | No Not a VPS feature. | No Not on Instances — Scaleway sells separate Serverless Containers and Functions products. |
| Docker containers | Yes Docker CE one-click app or install it yourself. | Yes Docker-ready images or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | Yes Full root SSH. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Germany and Finland are the home turf — this is where the value is. | Yes Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Milan — EU-only by design. |
Runtime & operations
| Hetzner Cloud | Scaleway Instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | No Manual resizing or manual fleet management. | No Manual resizing on Instances; autoscaling lives in the serverless products. |
| Scale to zero | No Servers bill until deleted, even powered off. | Partial A fully powered-off (archived) instance stops compute billing, but IPs and volumes keep billing. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Classic cron on the box. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | No No managed database product — self-host or go external. | Yes Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL from ~€11.40/month plus storage; Redis and MongoDB too. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Basic server graphs in the console; app-level monitoring is yours. | Partial Cockpit collects instance metrics and logs into managed Grafana; app-level instrumentation is yours. |
Watch out for
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.
Scaleway
- List prices exclude storage and public IPv4: add ~€2.92/month for a flexible IPv4 and ~€0.095/GB/month for block storage.
- Scaleway raised prices across Stardust, PLAY2, PRO2, BASIC3, and storage on 1 June 2026.
- "Standby" bills as a running instance; only a full power-off (archive) stops compute billing — and IPs and volumes keep billing regardless.
- Automated KYC can freeze accounts (sometimes with servers running) until you re-verify with ID and selfie.
- The famous €0.43/month Stardust instances are chronically out of stock.
Read the full reviews: Hetzner Cloud and Scaleway. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.