At 2 vCPU / 4 GB, Raff's current closest General Purpose plan is 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe at $9.99/mo with unmetered bandwidth. Hetzner's closest shared-AMD plan is CPX21 at $10.89/mo (€9.99 excl. VAT) for 3 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB with 20 TB included transfer and €1/TB (EU) / $1.20/TB (US) overage. Hetzner gives one extra vCPU at the same RAM/storage tier; Raff is about 8% cheaper and keeps bandwidth unmetered. Per-core CPU favors Raff in the benchmark data (Geekbench 6 single 2,266 vs 1,847 — 23% higher). Disk is split: at 4K random read aggregate, Raff measured 97,468 IOPS vs Hetzner 80,153; at 1M sequential aggregate, Hetzner edged Raff (4,013 vs 3,606 MB/s). Network upload peak favors Hetzner from EU endpoints (12,390 Mbps Amsterdam) while Raff measured 9,574 Mbps to NYC from Virginia. Raff runs 10,000+ production VMs and is rated 4.5/5 on Trustpilot (14 reviews); Hetzner is a 27-year-old German provider (founded 1997) widely deployed in the EU developer market.
Hetzner vs Raff: which is right for you?
- At 4 GB RAM shared, what's the price? Raff is $9.99/mo for 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe. Hetzner CPX21 is $10.89/mo for 3 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB. Raff is about 8% cheaper; Hetzner ships one extra vCPU.
- At the lowest comparable 2 GB tier? Raff is $5.99/mo for 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB. Hetzner CPX11 is $6.53/mo for 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB. Raff is about 8% cheaper.
- At larger RAM tiers? Hetzner is usually cheaper on pure monthly price at 8 GB and above, while Raff often includes more NVMe storage and keeps bandwidth unmetered.
- Per-core CPU? Raff measured 23% faster on Geekbench 6 single-core (2,266 vs 1,847).
- Bandwidth? Raff is unmetered at 3 Gbps standard port speed. Hetzner includes 20 TB then meters at €1/TB (EU) or $1.20/TB (US).
- Need EU placement or data residency? Pick Hetzner. Hetzner has European locations plus US and Singapore.
- Want US-focused VM workloads, unmetered bandwidth, included backups, and human support included at every tier? Pick Raff.
Hetzner overview
Hetzner Online GmbH is a German hosting provider founded in 1997 and headquartered in Gunzenhausen, Bavaria. Hetzner Cloud launched in 2018 and is the company's VPS product. Hetzner Cloud operates across three European data centers (Falkenstein DE, Nuremberg DE, Helsinki FI), two US data centers (Ashburn VA, Hillsboro OR), and one Asia-Pacific data center (Singapore).
Hetzner Cloud's Regular Performance line (CX, CPX, CAX) is built on shared resources and is intended for web applications, small databases, and dev/test environments. The CPX line uses AMD EPYC; the CX line uses Intel. Both run on NVMe storage with KVM virtualization and include 20 TB outbound traffic per VM with overage at €1/TB (EU) or $1.20/TB (US).
Hetzner is widely respected for aggressive shared-tier pricing and strong EU network performance. Trade-offs are documented openly: EU base prices exclude VAT, US plans have separate pricing, and the platform is intentionally lean — managed databases and managed Kubernetes are not part of Hetzner Cloud as of May 2026.
Raff overview
Raff Technologies is a cloud infrastructure provider on owned bare-metal hardware. Raff runs AMD EPYC processors with NVMe SSD storage in a US data center (Vint Hill, Virginia). The platform covers virtual machines, S3-compatible object storage, snapshots, automated backups, VPC private networking, DDoS mitigation, and a one-click app marketplace — in one integrated dashboard.
Raff General Purpose is built for flexible everyday workloads and now starts at $5.99/mo for 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB NVMe SSD. The closest current 4 GB shared-tier plan is 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe SSD at $9.99/mo. Raff also offers CPU-Optimized plans from $3.99/mo, but this comparison focuses on the shared VM tier where both Raff General Purpose and Hetzner CPX can be compared cleanly.
Raff is battle-tested at scale: 10,000+ production VMs run on the platform today, and Raff is rated 4.5/5 across 14 verified reviews on Trustpilot. The Raff dashboard, API, billing system, object storage, marketplace, and audit logs all run on the same infrastructure Raff sells — Raff runs on Raff. Similar comparisons against Vultr, Contabo, OVHcloud, AWS Lightsail, and DigitalOcean use the same methodology described below.
Hetzner pricing vs Raff pricing
Apples-to-apples shared CPU: Raff General Purpose vs Hetzner Regular Performance (CPX AMD).
All prices monthly USD, billed monthly, no commitment. Hetzner EUR amounts are shown in parentheses excluding VAT, using the same 1.09 USD conversion basis used in the original comparison. Hetzner pricing is capped monthly.
| Tier | Raff General Purpose | Hetzner CPX (AMD shared) | Read this as |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 GB tier | $5.99/mo — 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB NVMe | $6.53/mo (€5.99) — CPX11, 2 vCPU / 2 GB / 40 GB | Raff about 8% cheaper |
| 4 GB tier | $9.99/mo — 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe | $10.89/mo (€9.99) — CPX21, 3 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB | Raff about 8% cheaper; Hetzner has +1 vCPU |
| 8 GB lower-cost tier | $19.99/mo — 2 vCPU / 8 GB / 160 GB NVMe | $19.61/mo (€17.99) — CPX31, 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 160 GB | Hetzner slightly cheaper and has more vCPU |
| 8 GB matched-vCPU tier | $21.99/mo — 4 vCPU HiMem / 8 GB / 160 GB NVMe | $19.61/mo (€17.99) — CPX31, 4 vCPU / 8 GB / 160 GB | Hetzner cheaper on list price |
| 16 GB tier | $42.99/mo — 8 vCPU HiMem / 16 GB / 320 GB NVMe | $35.96/mo (€32.99) — CPX41, 8 vCPU / 16 GB / 240 GB | Hetzner cheaper; Raff includes more storage |
| 32 GB tier | $92.99/mo — 16 vCPU HiMem / 32 GB / 640 GB NVMe | $77.92/mo (€71.49) — CPX51, 16 vCPU / 32 GB / 360 GB | Hetzner cheaper; Raff includes much more storage |
At the lowest 2 GB and 4 GB shared tiers, Raff is slightly cheaper while keeping bandwidth unmetered. At 8 GB and above, Hetzner is usually cheaper on pure monthly list price. Raff's higher-tier advantage is not headline price; it is the combination of unmetered bandwidth, included backups, larger NVMe allocations on some tiers, US-centric placement, and support model.
If your bottleneck is lowest monthly cost at high RAM, Hetzner often wins. If your bottleneck is bandwidth predictability, backup inclusion, per-core CPU, or US-focused VM workloads, Raff remains the stronger fit.
Raff pricing is from the pricing page. Hetzner pricing is from Hetzner's public Cloud pricing page, with EUR amounts shown excluding VAT.
Bandwidth and transfer policy
Raff includes unmetered bandwidth on VM plans at 3 Gbps standard port speed. There is no per-GB egress bill and no surprise overage charge as traffic grows.
Hetzner Cloud includes 20 TB outbound traffic per VM per month. Beyond 20 TB, overage is €1/TB (EU) or $1.20/TB (US). For most workloads, 20 TB is plenty. For high-bandwidth workloads — video delivery, backup destinations, file hosting, large public downloads, or heavy API traffic — Raff removes the bandwidth math entirely.
Feature comparison: Hetzner vs Raff
Compute
Both providers run AMD EPYC on the AMD plans. Per-core CPU favors Raff: Geekbench 6 single-core measured 2,266 on Raff General Purpose vs 1,847 on Hetzner CPX21 — 23% higher. Multi-core scaling on 2 vCPU favors Raff as well: 4,057 vs 2,321 multi-core Geekbench 6.
The pricing context has changed: the current Raff 4 GB shared-tier plan is now $9.99/mo rather than the old $4.99/mo configuration. The benchmark still describes the measured 2 vCPU / 4 GB Raff environment, but the pricing comparison should use the current 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80 GB production plan.
Networking
Both include private networking, IPv4 + IPv6, floating IPs, and DDoS protection. The bandwidth model is the structural difference: Raff is unmetered at 3 Gbps standard port speed; Hetzner includes 20 TB then meters. Network peak throughput is location-dependent — Hetzner measured 12,390 Mbps upload from Amsterdam; Raff measured 9,574 Mbps to NYC from Virginia.
Storage
Both use NVMe storage. fio results split by block size: at 4K random read aggregate, Raff measured 97,468 IOPS vs Hetzner 80,153 (Raff +22%). At 1M sequential aggregate, Hetzner measured 4,013 MB/s vs Raff 3,606 MB/s (Hetzner +11%). Both support snapshots, block storage volumes, and automated backups. Raff includes 3 free automated backups per VM; Hetzner offers automated backups at 20% of plan cost with 7-day retention.
Platform
Raff covers VMs, S3-compatible object storage, VPC networking, snapshots, backups, REST API, CLI, one-click app marketplace, and a Terraform provider on the public registry — in one integrated dashboard. Managed Kubernetes is in development for 2026.
Hetzner Cloud covers VMs, snapshots, block storage volumes, load balancers, private networks, firewalls, floating IPs, primary IPs, REST API, CLI (hcloud), and a Terraform provider. Managed Kubernetes and managed databases are not part of Hetzner Cloud as of May 2026 — Hetzner customers typically self-host these or use Hetzner Dedicated Servers separately.
Support: Raff provides 24/7 human support with average response under 10 minutes, included at every plan tier. Hetzner Cloud support is included with the service and is generally well-regarded; response times vary by ticket type.
Performance benchmarks: Raff vs Hetzner
One chapter — pricing and operational fit usually decide the buy.
Methodology
Raff General Purpose — internal benchmark, May 2026, Vint Hill, Virginia. VM: 2 vCPU / 4 GB DDR5 / 50 GB NVMe benchmark instance. Current closest production plan: 2 vCPU HiMem / 4 GB / 80 GB NVMe at $9.99/mo. Tools: Geekbench 6, sysbench, fio (libaio async direct), iperf3 (8-thread).
Hetzner Cloud CPX21 (Regular Performance, AMD shared) — independent benchmark via VPSBenchmarks. 3 vCPU / 4 GB AMD EPYC, EU region. Current comparison price in this article: $10.89/mo (€9.99 excl. VAT). Tools: Geekbench 6, fio (libaio async direct), iperf3 (8-thread).
Results
| Metric | Raff General Purpose current 4 GB plan ($9.99/mo) | Hetzner CPX21 ($10.89/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 single-core | 2,266 | 1,847 |
| Geekbench 6 multi-core (2 vCPU) | 4,057 | 2,321 |
| fio 4K random read total IOPS | 97,468 | 80,153 |
| fio 64K mixed aggregate | 2,927 MB/s | 3,249 MB/s |
| fio 1M sequential aggregate | 3,606 MB/s | 4,013 MB/s |
| iperf3 peak | 9,574 Mbps up (NYC) | 12,390 Mbps up (Amsterdam) |
What this tells you
Per-core CPU favors Raff by 23% on Geekbench. At the 2-vCPU multi-core level, Raff scaled to 4,057 vs Hetzner's 2,321. Hetzner's CPX21 includes 3 vCPU at the 4 GB tier, so customers who need more parallel vCPU count may prefer Hetzner; customers who value stronger per-core performance may prefer Raff.
Disk is split: small-block random IOPS favor Raff; large-block throughput favors Hetzner. Most production workloads (databases, application servers) are 4K-IOPS-bound — Raff has the edge there. Workloads doing large sequential reads/writes (media transcoding, backups, log archive) — Hetzner has the edge.
Network upload peaks favor Hetzner from EU endpoints by a meaningful margin. For workloads served to EU users from EU placement, this matters. For US-centric workloads, Raff's 9,574 Mbps NYC peak is more than adequate.
When you should choose Hetzner over Raff
- You need EU data residency or low-latency EU placement.
- Your workload is in Asia and you need Singapore placement.
- Your workload is large-block sequential I/O heavy (Hetzner measured 4,013 MB/s 1M aggregate vs Raff's 3,606 MB/s).
- You need more vCPU count at the 4 GB tier (CPX21 ships 3 vCPU at €9.99 vs Raff's 2 vCPU HiMem at $9.99).
- You are scaling into higher RAM tiers where Hetzner's monthly list price is lower.
- You want a 27-year-old provider with deep European brand recognition.
When you should choose Raff over Hetzner
- You want slightly lower pricing at the 2 GB and 4 GB shared tiers — $5.99/mo vs $6.53/mo at 2 GB and $9.99/mo vs $10.89/mo at 4 GB.
- You want 23% faster per-core CPU on the shared tier (Geekbench 6 single 2,266 vs 1,847).
- You want 22% higher 4K random IOPS at typical OLTP load (97,468 vs 80,153 aggregate).
- You want unmetered bandwidth at 3 Gbps standard port speed — no 20 TB cap, no €1/TB or $1.20/TB overage.
- Your workload is in the US — Raff in Virginia gives you 7.5ms ping to NYC.
- You want three automated backups included per VM.
- You want 24/7 human support with under-10-minute response included at every tier.
- You want an integrated dashboard covering VMs, S3-compatible object storage, VPC, snapshots, backups, marketplace, and Terraform provider in one place.
- You want a Trustpilot trust signal — Raff is 4.5/5 (14 reviews) and runs 10,000+ production VMs.
Migrating from Hetzner to Raff
A typical migration takes 30–90 minutes:
- Snapshot the Hetzner VM in the Hetzner Cloud Console.
- Create a matching Raff plan. Match or exceed vCPU and disk; right-size RAM based on real usage.
- Install the same OS on Raff — Raff supports standard Linux distributions and custom images.
- Rsync application data over the public network, or use a temporary WireGuard tunnel for sensitive payloads.
- Export databases with
mysqldumporpg_dumpand restore on Raff. For stateful workloads, replicate briefly during cutover. - Update DNS — lower TTL to 60 seconds 24 hours before cutover.
- Switch traffic during a low-traffic window. Validate logs, monitoring, and application errors on Raff.
- Keep the Hetzner VM running 7 days as rollback, then delete it.
If your application uses Hetzner Object Storage or Hetzner DNS, Raff's S3-compatible object storage and any standard DNS provider (Cloudflare, Route 53) cover the same ground.
About Hetzner
Hetzner Online GmbH is a German hosting provider founded in 1997 and headquartered in Gunzenhausen, Bavaria. The company operates data centers in Germany, Finland, the US, and Singapore, serving customers across Europe and globally with cloud VPS (Hetzner Cloud), dedicated servers, storage boxes, and managed services. Hetzner has 27 years of operational history and is widely deployed in the European developer market. Read more on the official Hetzner website: hetzner.com{:rel="external noopener"}.
Conclusion: Hetzner or Raff?
With Raff's updated pricing, the comparison is more nuanced than before.
At the low shared tiers, Raff is still slightly cheaper: $5.99/mo vs $6.53/mo at 2 GB and $9.99/mo vs $10.89/mo at 4 GB. Raff also wins on per-core CPU, 4K random IOPS, unmetered bandwidth, included automated backups, and US-centric deployment from Virginia.
Hetzner wins on EU placement, broader geographic reach, one extra vCPU at the 4 GB tier, lower pure monthly list price at several higher-RAM tiers, and 27 years of operational history. If your priority is EU data residency, Singapore placement, or high-RAM list price, Hetzner is the right answer.
For US-focused shared-CPU workloads, bandwidth-heavy applications, or teams that value predictable costs and included backups, Raff is the wiser choice.