Table of Contents
What Hetzner actually offers in the US
Hetzner sells two catalogs. In Germany and Finland: the CX line from about $6.49 (2 vCPU, 4 GB, 40 GB NVMe, 20 TB traffic) and the ARM CAX line from $6.99, both listed as not available when we read the pricing page in September 2026. In Ashburn and Hillsboro: the CPX line from $20.49 (CPX11: 2 vCPU, 2 GB, 40 GB NVMe, 1 TB traffic) and the dedicated-vCPU CCX line from $50.99. The tooling (API, CLI, Terraform, snapshots, hourly billing) is the same everywhere; the price and the traffic allowance are not. Our Hetzner review has both grids. What follows assumes you need a US location.
The alternatives at 2 GB and 4 GB
Same-day prices for the closest plans at 2 GB and 4 GB in a US datacenter (September 2026). Hetzner's US and EU rows are included for reference.
| Provider | 2 GB plan | 4 GB plan | Transfer | US locations | Billing | API and snapshots | Windows |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InterServer | $3 (1 core, 40 GB) | $6 (1 core, 80 GB) | 2 TB per slice | New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas | Monthly only | Not advertised | From $10 |
| Vultr | $10 (1 vCPU, 55 GB) | $20 (2 vCPU, 80 GB) | 2 TB / 3 TB | 9 regions | Hourly | Yes | Image plus license |
| DigitalOcean | $12 (1 vCPU, 50 GB) | $24 (2 vCPU, 80 GB) | 2 TB / 4 TB | New York, San Francisco and others | Per-second | Yes | No |
| Contabo | n/a | $6.60 buys 8 GB (4 vCPU, 100 GB) | Unlimited at 200 Mbit/s | Carlstadt NJ, St. Louis, Seattle | Monthly, 24-month intro price | Panel-based | At checkout |
| RackNerd | Windows 2 GB $27.59 | Windows 4 GB $30.59; Linux promos vary | 2 TB | Many US cities | Monthly or annual | Panel-based | From $27.59 |
| Hetzner, US (Ashburn, Hillsboro) | $20.49 CPX11 (2 vCPU, 40 GB) | $37.49 CPX21 (3 vCPU, 80 GB) | 1 TB | Ashburn, Hillsboro | Hourly | Yes | No |
| Hetzner, EU (for reference) | n/a | $6.49 CX23 (2 vCPU, 40 GB), listed not available | 20 TB | None | Hourly | Yes | No |
Reason 1: the price was the point
If you came to Hetzner for a $5 or $6 server and found the US catalog starts at $20.49, the closest US equivalent on price is InterServer: $3 a month for 1 core, 2 GB, 40 GB SSD and 2 TB, or $6 for 4 GB, in New York City, Los Angeles or Dallas, billed month to month with no introductory rate. It is cheaper than Hetzner's European plans, never mind its US ones. What it does not have is the part of Hetzner that developers like: there is no API or snapshot feature advertised, no hourly billing, no trial and no refund. If you were using Hetzner as a cheap box that runs all month, InterServer is the replacement; if you were using it as a programmable cloud, read the next section. The InterServer review has the setup guide.
Reason 2: the API and hourly billing were the point
Hetzner's console, API, CLI and Terraform provider are the reasons people stay even when the price stops being the argument. In the US the providers that match that feature set are Vultr and DigitalOcean. Vultr is closer on price ($10 for 2 GB, $20 for 4 GB), has nine US regions, and its API and Terraform provider are as complete as Hetzner's. DigitalOcean is $12 and $24 for the same sizes, with a larger managed-services catalog around the droplet. Both are half of Hetzner's US price at 2 GB, and both bill by the hour or second. Neither has anything near Hetzner's European prices; nothing in the US does.
Reason 3: hardware per dollar
If the attraction was Hetzner's specs per euro, Contabo is the US provider built on the same idea: Cloud VPS 4 is 4 vCPU, 8 GB and 100 GB SSD for $6.60, with regions in Carlstadt NJ, St. Louis and Seattle. The costs are a 200 Mbit/s port on the entry plans and a price that is introductory for the first 24 months; the Contabo review covers when the port matters. For a middle path, InterServer's 4-slice plan gives 2 cores and 8 GB for $12 on a shared 10 Gbps port with no introductory pricing.
Reason 4: Windows
Hetzner Cloud has no Windows images. The US alternatives that do: InterServer's Windows Cloud Compute from $10 (2 slices, 1 core, 4 GB, Hyper-V, RDP, license included); RackNerd's Windows VPS from $27.59 (2 GB) on NVMe with the license included; and Vultr, where any plan can run a Windows Server 2016 to 2025 image with the license added at checkout. The Windows VPS page compares them in full.
When to stay with Hetzner
Two cases. If a German or Finnish location is acceptable and the plan is in stock, nothing in the US matches CX23 or CAX11 on price with that tooling, and the round trip from the US East Coast to Germany is tolerable for many backend workloads. And if you need dedicated vCPU in a US location, Hetzner's CCX13 at $50.99 is competitive with Vultr's and DigitalOcean's dedicated-CPU tiers. The US vs EU VPS page goes through the latency question.