Hetzner price hikes and the shift toward Akamai and OVHcloud

Hetzner destroyed its reputation as the go-to provider for cheap European VPS hosting this year. I see the fallout from two massive price adjustments that hit new orders and rescales. On April 1, 2026, prices for most cloud servers increased by about a third. Then, on June 15, the cost-optimized CX and CAX lines rose another third, while the shared-vCPU CPX line spiked even harder. For example, the CPX22 plan, which provides 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM, jumped from €5.99 in January to €19.99 including an IPv4 address in October. That represents a 144% increase in June alone. The CCX13 dedicated vCPU plan saw an even steeper rise of 169%, moving from €11.99 in January to €43.49 with an IPv4 address now. This massive change in procurement costs forced Hetzner to restrict availability for certain plans. I noticed that the CX and CAX plans are listed as "not available" in US and Singapore locations, leaving only Falkenstein, Nuremberg, and Helsinki as options. This change hits users who need low-latency access in North America or Asia. The CX23 plan, providing 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM, now costs €5.99 including IPv4, up from €2.99 before the April hike. I find that the sudden shift in Hetzner’s pricing strategy, which pushed the CPX22 plan from €5.99 in January to €19.99 with an IPv4 address in October, completely removes their once-dominant status in the low-end market. Hetzner blames the price hikes on a volatile hardware market and the massive increase in procurement costs. Demand for AI and data-intensive workloads increased the cost of RAM and NAND memory.

Akamai and the budget alternatives

Akamai (Linode) remains a stable alternative for those fleeing Hetzner. I view the Akamai price sheet as predictable compared to the volatility seen elsewhere. The provider holds an average user rating of 4.2/5 based on 24 verified reviews. Their Starter plan begins at $3.65 for 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM, while the Essential tier provides 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM for $6.57. These plans include NVMe storage and DDoS protection by default. You can compare Akamai’s tiers against other providers to see if the value holds.

Akamai (Linode) provides NVMe storage on every plan. You can expect 50,000-plus random read IOPS and one-digit-millisecond p99 latency on small-block writes when the host stays healthy. For most modern applications, the bottleneck involves disk I/O and database round-trips rather than raw CPU. I find the Akamai interface straightforward for deployment. If you need a cheaper alternative for a 2 vCPU/4 GB setup, CloudBlast VMA21 costs €4.80 per month. Time4VPS Linux 4 provides a similar shape for €4.38 per month on a 24-month term. OVHcloud offers the VPS-1 as a strong competitor to Hetzner’s former budget lines. The VPS-1 provides 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, and 40 GB NVMe for €4.49 per month. I like that OVHcloud includes a daily backup in this price. However, the 40 GB disk size is quite small, and the provider caps your bandwidth once you exceed the monthly quota of roughly 1 TB on the VPS-2 or 3 TB on the VPS-4. If you need more RAM for the money, Contabo’s Cloud VPS 4 provides 4 vCPU and 8 GB for €5.50 per month. I would skip Contabo if you require high-performance CPU or reliable support, as the platform often reports issues with oversubscription.

The hidden costs of the VPS market

Hardware costs drive these price wars. Demand for AI and data-intensive workloads increased the cost of RAM and NAND memory. I find that most users move to VPS to gain control and avoid the price of physical servers. This market now accounts for over 25% of all web hosting purchases. Most users rely on Linux, which runs 62.1% of websites with a known operating system. Migrating from one host to another requires more than changing a monthly bill. I see three specific areas where companies lose money during a transition. First, you must account for traffic allowances. Hetzner’s European servers include 20 TB of traffic, but OVHcloud caps bandwidth on certain plans. Second, consider included services. OVHcloud bundles daily backups, but Hetzner charges for snapshots and backups beyond a small free allotment. Third, always calculate the cost of an IPv4 address. Hetzner’s prices exclude this, and OVHcloud also lists pricing ex-VAT. I would tell you to check the local VAT rates before you commit to a new provider. You should also check if your workload requires NVMe storage, as it delivers 4x faster I/O speeds than standard drives. The global market for virtual private servers reached $5.1 billion in 2024 and will hit $14.1 billion by 2033. This represents an annual growth rate of 11.9%. About 27% of non-VPS users plan to upgrade to VPS within a year. Why do providers continue to hide these add-on fees in the fine print?