Hetzner Online GmbH, more commonly known simply as Hetzner, is one of the most respected and veteran infrastructure and cloud service providers in the European landscape. Founded in 1997 in Germany, Hetzner has established an offering centered around performance, complete control over hardware, and highly competitive pricing. Its recent expansion into the United States and Asia reaffirms its global ambition while maintaining its European roots.
Proprietary and Colocation Data Centers
Hetzner owns and operates its own data centers in Europe:
- Falkenstein (fsn1) – Germany
- Nuremberg (nbg1) – Germany
- Helsinki (hel1) – Finland
These three data center parks are fully owned by Hetzner, allowing them to offer optimal performance, reduced latency, direct support, and greater control over physical and logical security.
Outside of Europe, Hetzner has extended its presence through colocation (using third-party data centers) in:
- Ashburn, Virginia (ash-dc1) – United States
- Hillsboro, Oregon (hil-dc1) – United States
- Singapore (sin-dc1) – Asia-Pacific
Although they do not have their own facilities in these locations, Hetzner offers its cloud products there with the same management panel, technical services, and quality standards.
Network Zones and Availability
Hetzner divides its infrastructure into four network zones:
- eu-central (Europe)
- us-east (U.S. – East Coast)
- us-west (U.S. – West Coast)
- ap-southeast (Asia)
This segmented architecture allows for better organization of resources, limits, traffic routes, and differentiated pricing policies based on local operating costs.
Products Available by Region
Hetzner’s most important products and services include:
| Cloud Product | DE | FI | US (Ash/Hil) | SG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Shared AMD | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cloud Dedicated AMD | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Volumes, Snapshots, Backups | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Floating IPs, Load Balancers | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Firewalls, Private Networks | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Object Storage | ✓ | ✓ |
Additionally, classic dedicated server services (via Hetzner Robot) are only available in Europe and are not currently offered in Ashburn, Hillsboro, or Singapore.
Benefits of the Hetzner Ecosystem
🔧 Complete Control and Guaranteed Performance
Hetzner allows customers to choose between shared cloud instances and bare-metal dedicated servers with custom configurations. In its European facilities, customers have access to cutting-edge hardware from AMD, Intel, or Ampere, with quick provisioning times and no hidden costs.
🌍 International Presence and Flexible Billing
Services are available with billing in euros (€) or dollars ($) depending on the network zone. Hetzner maintains the same rate across Europe, while prices in the U.S. and Asia are slightly higher due to increased operating costs.
🔒 Security and Regulatory Compliance
Hetzner complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in all its European locations. In external data centers (U.S. and Singapore), it provides specific documentation on how data is managed, in accordance with local legislation and best privacy practices.
🛡️ Uniform Anti-DDoS Protection
Regardless of the location, Hetzner guarantees the same protection against DDoS attacks. This solution is directly managed by its technical team from Germany, at no additional cost to customers.
🧑💻 Centralized and Expanding Support
Technical support is provided entirely from Germany, even for customers in the United States or Asia. Although the current support hours are limited to the European time zone, Hetzner plans to expand its support hours soon.
Important Considerations
- To avoid unnecessary billing, cloud products must be deleted (simply turning them off is not enough).
- Floating IPs, private networks, and load balancers must belong to the same network zone as the resources they are associated with.
- Currently, it is not possible to interconnect resources between zones using private networks (for example, a server in Europe and another in the U.S.).
- Some functionalities such as VSwitch coupling are limited exclusively to the European zone (eu-central).
What Lies Ahead for Hetzner?
Hetzner continues to solidify its position as a strong, affordable, and European alternative to giants like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Its strategy combines simplicity, efficiency, and a very clear offer: powerful infrastructure without complications or hidden costs.
The international expansion demonstrates its adaptability without giving up its philosophy of engineering and German excellence. For startups, SaaS projects, hosting platforms, or development labs, Hetzner is an extremely attractive option.
Hetzner is synonymous with robust, transparent, and economical European infrastructure, with a clear vision for the future and a strong commitment to technical control and efficiency. A provider that has managed to stay relevant in an increasingly competitive cloud environment.