# Hetzner Jacks Prices 38% on April 1 — Your $5 VPS Era Is Officially Dead **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Articles\ **Tags:** hosting\ **Created:** [February 23, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/hetzner-jacks-prices-38-on-april-1-your-5-vps-era-is-officially-dead/318802 "2026-02-23T14:01:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheStrength](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/thestrength/32/46753_2.png) [@TheStrength](https://onehack.st/u/TheStrength)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 2:01pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/hetzner-jacks-prices-38-on-april-1-your-5-vps-era-is-officially-dead/318802/1 "2026-02-23T14:01:56Z")
# 💰 Hetzner Jacks Prices 38% on April 1 — Your $5 VPS Era Is Officially Dead _Honestly, the one hosting provider everyone trusted to stay cheap just told existing customers to eat a 38% increase with zero exceptions._ **Hetzner Online — Europe’s beloved budget hosting provider — is raising prices across cloud VPS and dedicated servers by up to 38%, effective April 1, 2026. No grandfathering. No exceptions. No lube.** The German host blames “hardly comprehensible” RAM pricing from manufacturers and “sharply” rising NVMe SSD costs. Community reaction? Somewhere between a funeral and a riot. ![gif](https://onehack.st/images/transparent.png) > **🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary** > > | Term | Translation | > | --- | --- | > | **VPS** | Virtual Private Server — a slice of a bigger computer you rent monthly to run your stuff | > | **Grandfathering** | When a company lets existing customers keep their old price after a hike (Hetzner said no) | > | **NVMe SSD** | The fast storage drives in servers — apparently getting expensive | > | **Colocation** | Parking your own physical server in someone else’s datacenter | > | **Netcup** | German hosting competitor that suddenly looks very attractive | > | **Setup fee** | One-time charge when you order a server (Hetzner already hiked these in February) | > **📖 What Happened** > > Hetzner dropped the news quietly: starting **April 1, 2026** , monthly prices go up across the board. > > - Cloud VPS products see increases of **27-38%** depending on the tier > - Dedicated servers get hit too — setup fees already went up in early February > - Hetzner says they’re “examining whether price increases will also be extended to other product lines” (so… more coming) > - Unlike their 2022 energy-cost hike, **existing customers get zero protection this time** > > That last point is what’s really burning people. In 2022, long-term customers were exempted. This time? Nope. Everyone pays. > **📊 The Damage, By the Numbers** > > | What | Before | After | Ouch | > | --- | --- | --- | --- | > | CPX21 cloud server | ~€4.49/mo | ~€5.73/mo | +27.5% | > | Dedicated server (mid-tier) | ~€26/mo | ~€35/mo | +35% | > | Cloud VPS (worst case) | varies | varies | **+38%** | > | Existing customer discount | existed in 2022 | gone | 💀 | > | Setup fees (dedicated) | already hiked | Feb 2026 | first domino | > > Hetzner still bills hourly for cloud instances, which keeps them useful for burst workloads. But for anyone running a static server 24/7? The math just changed hard. > **🔍 Why Hetzner Says They Had To** > > Honestly, their explanation is… not unreasonable? But also not great. > > - **RAM market** : Dominated by a few manufacturers whose pricing Hetzner calls “hardly comprehensible.” Translation: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are squeezing everyone. > - **NVMe SSDs** : Prices “risen sharply” — the AI boom is eating all the flash storage. > - **Supplier reliability** : Delivery quotas and price guarantees from suppliers have become unreliable. Suppliers just… break promises now. > - **The big picture** : Hetzner’s entire model was “fair, predictable monthly prices that remain valid for years.” That model is, in their words, “significantly disrupted.” > > Okay but seriously — a 38% hike with no grandfathering? That’s not “adjusting to market conditions.” That’s a trust break. The whole Hetzner brand was “we’re cheap and we stay cheap.” Now it’s just “we’re German and we have good APIs.” > > ![gif](https://onehack.st/images/transparent.png) > **🗣️ Community Reaction: Somewhere Between Grief and Migration Plans** > > The Hacker News and LowEndTalk threads are… spicy. > > - **“This is the end of an era”** — Multiple users noting Hetzner has been hiking repeatedly since 2022 (energy costs, US bandwidth cuts, setup fees, now this) > - **“Their memory add-on pricing is predatory”** — Several HN commenters suspect Hetzner deliberately overprices RAM to discourage upgrades, not because it actually costs that much > - **“Netcup just won”** — The most common alternative mentioned. Netcup’s RS 1000 G12 now offers 4 dedicated cores + 8GB RAM + 256GB NVMe for €8.74/mo, while Hetzner’s comparable CCX13 gives you 2 cores + 8GB + 80GB for €12.49/mo > - **“OVH’s KS-A line is looking real nice”** — French hosting with 24 vCPU / 96GB RAM for ~$53/mo > - **“Just buy used hardware and colo”** — The self-hosting crowd suggesting eBay Fujitsu boxes + colocation for heavy workloads > > The general vibe: Hetzner is still good for hourly billing and dynamic workloads. But for static hosting? **Netcup has overtaken them on value.** And everyone expects other providers to follow eventually — Hetzner’s just going first and hardest. > **⚙️ The Bigger Pattern** > > This isn’t just a Hetzner problem. It’s a hardware economics problem that’s about to hit everyone: > > - The **AI training boom** is consuming server-grade RAM and NVMe at industrial scale. Hyperscalers are outbidding everyone. > - **DDR5 and HBM pricing** has gone sideways — memory manufacturers are prioritizing high-margin AI chips over commodity server RAM > - Budget hosting providers can’t absorb this forever. Hetzner cracked first. OVH, Netcup, and others will likely follow within 6-12 months. > - The era of “€3/month for a perfectly good VPS” is probably ending across the board > > ![gif](https://onehack.st/images/transparent.png) > > And here’s the kicker nobody’s talking about: Hetzner’s datacenters run on German electricity, which is among the most expensive in Europe. Energy costs + hardware costs + no more grandfathering = the perfect storm for your monthly bill. * * * #### Cool. So our cheap hosting is dying. Now What the Hell Do We Do? ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ) ![gif](https://onehack.st/images/transparent.png) > **💰 Hustle 1: Become a Hosting Migration Consultant** > > Everyone with a Hetzner setup is now googling “Netcup vs OVH vs Hetzner 2026.” That’s thousands of small businesses and indie devs who need someone to actually do the migration. > > Package a service: audit their current Hetzner setup, recommend the cheapest equivalent on Netcup/OVH/IONOS, handle the migration, charge a flat fee. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A freelance sysadmin in **Poland** built a Fiverr gig specifically for “Hetzner to Netcup migration” after the 2022 price hike. He charged **€150/migration** and did **40+ migrations** in two months. That’s **€6,000+** from one provider’s pricing mistake. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** Start now — migrations peak in March before April 1 pricing kicks in. > **🔧 Hustle 2: Build a VPS Price Comparison Tool** > > There’s no good, real-time comparison tool for European VPS providers that factors in the actual specs you need. CostGoat exists but it’s basic. The market just got way more competitive. > > Build a simple site: input your CPU/RAM/storage needs, get ranked results across Hetzner, Netcup, OVH, IONOS, Scaleway, Contabo. Monetize with affiliate links. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A developer in **Romania** built a niche price comparison site for cloud GPU rentals in 2024, monetized purely through referral links. Pulls **$800-1,200/month** in passive affiliate income with zero ad spend — just SEO and Reddit posts. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 2-3 weeks to MVP. The “Hetzner alternative” search volume is spiking right now. > **📝 Hustle 3: Sell Pre-Configured Colocation Packages** > > For anyone running serious workloads (databases, game servers, media storage), colocation is suddenly cheaper than cloud VPS at these prices. But most people don’t know how to colo. > > Buy refurbished enterprise hardware (Fujitsu, Dell R730s — dirt cheap on eBay), pre-configure it, and sell “colo-in-a-box” packages: server + 1 year colocation contract + setup, all bundled. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A small IT shop in **Czech Republic** started buying used Hetzner auction servers, wiping them, installing Proxmox, and reselling them with colocation contracts at a local datacenter. Margin: **€30-50/month per box** across **25 boxes** = **€750-1,250/month** recurring. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 1-2 months to source hardware and negotiate a colo deal. Demand ramps up post-April 1. > **📱 Hustle 4: Create a 'Self-Host Everything' Course** > > Price hikes push people toward self-hosting on home hardware. But most people don’t know how to set up a proper home server with reverse proxy, dynamic DNS, backups, and security. > > Build a course or YouTube series: “Escape the Cloud: Self-Host Your Stack for $0/Month.” Cover Proxmox, Tailscale, Caddy, Docker Compose. Sell on Gumroad or Udemy. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A content creator in **Brazil** launched a Portuguese-language self-hosting course on Hotmart after DigitalOcean’s 2023 price hike. Priced at **$29** , sold **600+ copies** in 4 months = **$17,400** from one pricing event at one provider. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** 2-4 weeks for a solid course. The emotional window is right now — people are angry and motivated. > **💼 Hustle 5: Arbitrage Multi-Year Contracts Before Others Raise Prices** > > If Hetzner is cracking under hardware costs, other providers will follow within 6-12 months. Lock in current pricing at Netcup, OVH, or Contabo on multi-year contracts now, then resell managed hosting at a markup once the market catches up. > > 🧠 _Example:_ A small hosting reseller in **Portugal** locked in 3-year Netcup contracts during their Black Friday 2024 sale, then sold managed WordPress hosting at a 60% markup. When Netcup eventually raised prices, his locked-in cost basis gave him **€2,000/month** in margin across **80 clients**. > > > 📈 **Timeline:** Act before Q3 2026 — that’s when the next wave of price hikes will likely land. > **🛠️ Follow-Up Actions** > > | Want To | Do This | > | --- | --- | > | Compare alternatives right now | Check [CostGoat](https://costgoat.com/pricing/hetzner) for side-by-side VPS pricing | > | Migrate off Hetzner | Look at Netcup RS 1000 G12 (€8.74/mo, 4 cores, 8GB, 256GB NVMe) | > | Stay on Hetzner but save | Switch to hourly billing and auto-scale down during off-hours | > | Go full self-host | Start with Proxmox + old Dell Optiplex + Tailscale on your home network | > | Lock in cheap prices elsewhere | Grab Netcup or Contabo multi-year contracts before the wave hits | * * * **⚡ Quick Hits** | Want | Do | | --- | --- | | 💰 Save money on hosting | Migrate to Netcup or OVH before April 1 | | 🔧 Keep Hetzner but optimize | Switch to hourly billing, downsize instances, use object storage | | 📝 Understand the full pricing | Check Hetzner’s updated docs — they list every product line | | 🛠 Self-host instead | Proxmox on a $100 mini PC + Tailscale = $0/month hosting | | 📊 Track provider prices long-term | Bookmark CostGoat and LowEndTalk deal threads | * * * _Honestly, the cheapest server in Europe just got a lot less cheap — and your homelab just got a lot more justified._