Hetzner vs OVHcloud: The European budget server race

Hetzner tripled prices for specific cloud plans on June 15, 2026. The CPX31 plan rose from €20.99 to €62.49 per month, and the CCX23 dedicated vCPU plan climbed from €31.49 to €85.99. These changes signal a significant shift in the budget hosting market. Hetzner delivers high compute density through its ARM-based CAX line using Ampere Altra processors. For workloads that require x86 instructions, the CPX series with AMD EPYC processors remains a versatile choice. The AX line uses Ryzen 9 7950X processors to provide high single-thread performance. Models like the AX102 include 128 GB of DDR5 ECC RAM and a pair of 1.92 TB NVMe drives.

OVHcloud has a catalog of 131 plans. It sells unmetered connections at stated speeds instead of the monthly traffic buckets Hetzner uses. Every Hetzner plan includes a 20 TB monthly traffic allowance. In a direct comparison of high-spec machines, OVHcloud sells 24 vCPU and 96GB RAM for $53.40 per month. Hetzner charges $54.90 for a 16 vCPU and 32GB RAM configuration. DigitalOcean charges $504 for a 16 vCPU and 64GB RAM machine.

Infrastructure and energy demands

OVHcloud operates 37 data centers worldwide. A major incident occurred on March 10 when a fire in the SBG2 building at the Strasbourg campus destroyed the structure and damaged the adjacent SBG1 building. This fire forced all four campus facilities offline and caused the complete loss of data for 6,000 customers. These customers lost data because the basic service does not include routine backups. Most data centers in the region used water sprinklers rather than gas-based suppression systems. The fire took 3.6 million websites offline.

The data center industry consumes about 1 percent of global electricity. As AI applications grow, the demand for processing power increases. This growth creates a trade-off between energy efficiency and water usage. About 40 percent of the power used by data centers goes to air-conditioning for cooling. Using evaporative cooling reduces electricity needs but increases water consumption and costs. Data center operators also face challenges with power stability, as voltage fluctuations of 30 milliseconds can damage equipment. Most data center UPSes are under-utilized by design, typically running at 20 percent capacity to ensure availability, while they are most efficient at 80 percent capacity.

OVHcloud includes anti-DDoS protection in its services. This makes it a strong choice for game servers or public sites. If you need to scale from a small VPS to a dedicated server, OVHcloud provides a path within one billing account.

The decision for European workloads

Hetzner fits autonomous DevOps teams that prefer English or German support. It works well for CI/CD runners or developers who want the best vCPU price. The server auction allows you to find older Intel Xeon or Ryzen hardware at low costs. You should prepare for strict identity verification during account setup. If you are already managing a production stack, you know that low-end pricing often hides instability.

OVHcloud works for French SMEs that want 24/7 French-language support. It provides a wide geographic reach across 15 countries. If your project requires specific French regions like Roubaix or Gravelines for GDPR reasons, OVHcloud is the better option. You should verify the stock of a specific bare metal model before you buy it. If you need a 48-core machine with 128 GB of RAM and 3.84 TB of NVMe, you can order an OVH machine for EUR 299.99 right now, though Hetzner’s CCX63 VPS provides 48 dedicated vCPUs and 192 GB of RAM for EUR 853.49.

I would skip the OVHcloud low-end bare metal if the site says it is in stock, because those prices often sell out immediately. If you need a reliable 4-core, 16 GB box, Cherry Servers provides a better option starting around EUR 49. Which provider provides the support you need when production fails?