Hetzner Object Storage

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Product status & overall reception

  • New S3-compatible object storage from Hetzner, currently in beta; GA expected “in a month or two.”
  • Many welcome more competition and like integration with existing Hetzner infrastructure.
  • Some already migrated small workloads (logos, images) and report it “just works,” but several say they’ll wait for it to mature before trusting critical data.

Limits, performance & scalability

  • Beta limits are seen as restrictive: 1 Gbit/s and ~1000 requests/s per bucket, 10 buckets and 100 TB per bucket. At least some limits (bucket count, permissions) are explicitly stated as beta-only.
  • Debate on whether 1 Gbit/s per bucket is realistic; most providers rarely see sustained 1 Gbit/s per customer, but bursts and large-file workloads could hit that ceiling.
  • Benchmarks (JuiceFS objbench) show Hetzner outperforming OVH and Scaleway object storage in both throughput and small-object operations in the shared tests.
  • Underlying hardware for object storage is described as custom, disk-dense servers with very high aggregate network bandwidth.

Pricing & egress

  • Storage ~5–5.5 €/TB-month; close to Backblaze B2, not dramatically cheaper.
  • Very low egress (about 1 €/TB) is considered a standout versus most “budget” providers charging 10–20$+/TB.
  • Cloudflare R2’s free egress is mentioned, but some prefer predictable paid pricing over “free with hidden limits.”
  • Pricing model (hourly base fee with included TB-hours of storage and traffic) is widely viewed as confusing; users want a clear calculator and explicit monthly examples.

Reliability, durability & backup strategy

  • Strong caution about trusting a brand-new object store with irreplaceable data; references to OVH’s fire and data loss reinforce the need for multi-provider, multi-region backups.
  • Discussion of 3-2-1 backup practices and using Hetzner either as a secondary copy or as a cheaper cache in front of more durable services like S3.
  • Some skepticism about internal design quality and operational maturity, but also recognition that Ceph-based backends can be robust if well run.

Platform, ecosystem & policies

  • Implementation uses Ceph with an S3-compatible API; bucket policies mimic AWS semantics.
  • Feature set is intentionally minimal (immutability/WORM, basic S3), with mixed opinions on whether it should remain simple or mirror more of AWS’s complexity.
  • Reports of strict or opaque account policies: difficulties signing up (especially from some regions), aggressive anti-crypto stance (including suspicion around “bitcoin” usage), and at least one high-profile account termination with massive data and short migration window, raising concerns about business risk.
  • Hetzner’s broader appeal is reiterated: very strong price/performance for VPS and dedicated servers; this object storage is seen as a natural, if late, addition.