Hetzner gives you a cheap European box and leaves the setup, the deploy, and the upkeep to you. On redu, you point your AI agent at a repo and it deploys to a real EU cloud with a live URL, provisions a managed database alongside it, and SSHes into the running machine to fix things when they break, so there is no 2am scramble. It is a force multiplier for infra engineers and a way for a non-expert to ship, with predictable hourly pricing and your data hosted in the EU.
Hetzner wins on raw compute cost. redu.cloud wins when you want your agent to deploy, run, and heal your app on a full managed cloud.
The right choice depends on how much operational work your team wants to own, whether you need a managed database layer, and how much you want your agent to deploy and heal your app for you.
Proof, not claims: watch an AI agent deploy real infrastructure on redu, then SSH in and fix a live deploy, at redu.cloud/deploys.
The price-performance Hetzner offers for raw EU servers is genuinely excellent. For teams that can manage their own infrastructure, the cost savings are real.
Even after the June 2026 price adjustment, Hetzner's shared plans from around €5.49/month remain among the best value raw compute in Europe. If budget is the primary constraint and you can manage your own infrastructure, Hetzner is hard to beat on cost.
Hetzner includes 20 TB of monthly traffic on its cloud plans in EU regions, which is several times what many competitors bundle at equivalent pricing. For high-bandwidth workloads, this is a significant cost advantage.
Hetzner offers its own S3-compatible object storage alongside cloud servers, volumes, and load balancers. For media, backups, or data-heavy pipelines where storage and egress cost dominate, its economics are hard to beat.
If your team is comfortable with full root access, manual server management, and writing its own automation, and does not need a managed database or a built-in deploy path, Hetzner's low cost makes it a sensible choice.
Cheap raw compute is only cheap until you factor in the engineering time to run databases, build a deploy pipeline, and manage backups and fixes. redu.cloud includes the managed layer and an agent that handles deploy and day-2 ops.
Community MCP servers can drive the Hetzner API to create and manage servers, but they stop at raw resources. redu.cloud's MCP provisions a VM and a managed database, deploys your app to a live URL, and lets your agent SSH into the running box to fix it in place. The whole loop, in one place.
Hetzner has no first-party managed database, so PostgreSQL or Redis is set up and maintained by hand on a VM. redu.cloud provisions managed PostgreSQL and Redis alongside your compute and wires the connection details into the app for you.
Hetzner gives you excellent raw servers, storage, and networking, but no managed database and no built-in deploy path. redu.cloud adds the managed layer and an integrated deploy flow that reduce the operational burden on your team.
On Hetzner you build the release pipeline and own every fix at 2am. On redu.cloud your agent ships the app and, when something breaks later, SSHes into the running machine, diagnoses it, and keeps the app up, then pushes the fix back to your repo.
The question is how much operational work your team wants to own. Cheap servers are only cheap if someone is not spending engineering time running everything on them.
Raw server cost is only part of the picture. Use the redu.cloud pricing calculator to estimate compute, managed databases, storage, bandwidth, and networking in one place.
Practical answers for startups comparing Hetzner with redu.cloud in 2026.
For raw compute, Hetzner's VMs are among the cheapest in Europe. The total picture changes once you factor in the managed databases, snapshots, load balancers, and app deployment that Hetzner leaves you to build and operate yourself. redu.cloud servers run £8.50 to £70/month, typically £20 to £35, billed hourly, with the managed layer and deploy included.
Yes. Hetzner applied a price adjustment effective 15 June 2026 that raised most plans. Shared x86 CX plans now start at €5.49/month and shared ARM CAX plans at €5.99/month, both with 20 TB of monthly transfer included in EU regions. Hetzner remains competitive on raw compute price.
Hetzner does not publish an official first-party MCP server, but several community MCP servers cover its cloud API and let an agent create and manage servers, volumes, firewalls, and load balancers. What they do not do is deploy your app, provision a managed database, or SSH into a running box to fix it. redu.cloud's native MCP does all of that end to end.
Hetzner has no first-party managed database. If you need PostgreSQL or Redis, you provision a VM and run and maintain it yourself. redu.cloud provisions managed PostgreSQL and Redis alongside compute and wires the connection details into your app.
Yes. redu.cloud is a UK company with production infrastructure in Germany, so EU data residency is the default and the platform is GDPR-compliant, matching Hetzner on where your data lives.
A startup may choose redu.cloud when it wants more than cheap raw servers: managed databases, an MCP that deploys the app and heals it in place, snapshot workflows, and a full platform that reduces the operational burden on the team. Both keep data in Europe and are GDPR-compliant.
Yes. Some teams use Hetzner for high-bandwidth batch workloads where the 20 TB transfer allowance is a real advantage, and redu.cloud for the managed layer and the agent-driven deploy and self-heal loop.
Create an account, point your agent at a repo, and watch it deploy to real cloud infrastructure with a managed database, then decide using your own workload.
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