Hetzner switches to new billing model
Hetzner is moving its traditional “Robot” dedicated servers to the same hourly-based billing model used for its cloud VMs, while keeping the familiar monthly price cap and spreading customer invoice dates across the month. Many see this as a welcome change that enables shorter-term use of bare metal and easier scaling, though there is confusion around what counts as “usage” and how billing periods align with accounting needs. The conversation also surfaces broader views on Hetzner’s competitiveness versus AWS and DigitalOcean, as well as recurring complaints about strict fraud checks, account bans, and support style.
Scope of the Change
- New hourly billing model will apply to Robot (dedicated/bare metal) as well as Cloud (VMs), aligning the two.
- For most dedicated servers, “used” appears to mean “allocated to your account,” not CPU/traffic/power usage.
- Hourly billing starts when the product becomes available and stops when it’s returned/deleted.
- One-time costs like domain registrations are explicitly excluded; unclear whether all setup/installation fees will change.
Billing Cycle & Invoicing
- Invoices will be spread across the month; each customer gets a fixed “billing day,” but these days differ per customer.
- Some commenters are unsure whether the “billing month” is calendar-based or anchored to that invoice day; considered potentially confusing but likely clarified on invoices.
- Concern from some about accounting complexity if invoices span different months/years.
Pricing Impact & Economics
- Hetzner states that full-month usage will cost the same as before; hourly pricing can reduce cost if cancelling mid-month.
- Some see this as a genuine revenue loss for Hetzner, done to stay competitive and unify products.
- Others suspect it may be a step toward higher prices or nudging users to more lucrative cloud products; debate is unresolved.
Practical Benefits
- Hourly-billed bare metal is seen as enabling short-term experiments, horizontal scaling, and better integration testing.
- Still, setup/installation fees on some dedicated servers mean short-term rentals may remain uneconomical.
Service Quality, Support, and Verification
- Many report excellent reliability and strong value, especially vs AWS and some US VPS providers.
- Others describe very negative experiences: rude or inflexible support, sudden account closures, and lack of explanation or remediation.
- Several users report being asked for government ID or being rejected/banned even after providing documents; this is attributed by some to strict anti-fraud policies, by others to overzealous or opaque verification.
- There are concerns about data loss risk if accounts are closed unexpectedly, though some affected users were only in evaluation phases.
Comparisons & Positioning
- Hetzner is widely viewed as much cheaper than DigitalOcean, AWS, and others, especially on bandwidth and larger instances.
- Some prefer competitors (OVH, Leaseweb, others) for support quality or geographic fit.
- Mixed views on Hetzner’s “no hand-holding” style: appreciated by some as efficient and low-cost, perceived by others as hostile.
Other Suggestions & Requests
- Requests for:
- Prepaid, fixed-term contracts with auto-expiry to cap spend.
- Easier ways to add credit (e.g., cards/PayPal, not just bank transfers).
- Clearer docs around billing language and “in use” semantics.
- Interest in more regions (US dedicated, Canada, South America, Africa, Asia-Pacific) and potential new offerings (e.g., GPU and LLM hosting).