[lovegrenoble]

I've heard that Hetzner is a good provider, so I want to buy a cheap unmanaged VPS server in the USA. But can not find any mention about VPS. Any help, please?

Just need to replace this one (the same bad story $$$ as Netlify recently): https://www.leaseweb.com/fr/cloud/virtual-server

[treffer]

Virtual private server == anything that is not a whole machine, usually referring to small VMs.

In hetzner speak you want a "shared vCPU server".

That's roughly what others offer as VPS, just more clearly spelled out (IMHO). You get fractional CPU usage that should be burstable and roundabout one core.

[lovegrenoble]

Thank you, finally I understood that.

[Sebb767]

You're looking for the cloud servers: https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/

[lovegrenoble]

Sorry for my silliness, so 'cloud' is a new name for 'VPS'?

[CodesInChaos]

VPS are a part of the cloud offering now. Just like EC2 is part of AWS. Once change is that traditionally VPSs used local disk storage, while cloud servers use network block storage.

Usually clouds offer additional higher level features, in addition to basic VMs, such as load balancers, object storage and managed containers. Though Hetzner currently offers very little in that regard.

[skrause]

> Once change is that traditionally VPSs used local disk storage, while cloud servers use network block storage.

Hetzner Cloud uses local NVMe SSD storage. They used to have Ceph based network block storage, but deprecated that around 2 years ago.

[FooBarWidget]

This rename has been a thing for 10 years now. All the VPS providers jumped on the cloud bandwagon and call themselves cloud.

[dakiol]

Be ready to handover a copy of your national ID/passport

[fortunateregard]

I've had a similar experience where my account was banned despite providing all the info they requested (including my passport).

Hetzner was the only provider where I was banned despite providing everything I was asked for. I've deployed services on plenty of providers (AWS, GCP, Digital Ocean, Vultr, etc) without issue.

Apparently, this has been an on-going struggle for them. A few weeks ago they were even called out on an episode of the syntaxFM podcast for this behavior after one of the hosts had his account banned [0].

It's still a bit of a mystery to me honestly. Is their fraud detection so poor where they're forced to ban new sign-ups in this manner? How can Hetzner's competition tell that these accounts are legitimate (without ridiculous requirements such as passport) and Hetzner can't (even when provided with full home address, passport, etc)? I'm assuming Hetzner can't because they've seemingly developed a reputation for banning legitimate developers and the only reason I can think of where they'd be fine with that is if they actually have a very difficult time telling whether an account is legitimate or not.

[0]: https://twitter.com/stolinski/status/1750226126499139665

[type0]

They banned my prepaid account, I had few bucks on left on it to test and evaluate some selfhosting services. I didn't try to ask for my money back as I saw it like a pointless time waste trying to contact them.

[jamesblonde]

They are like Ryanair and Lidl brands - you get a reasonable product super-cheap. Don't argue about the terms and conditions, just be happy to do business with us. If you don't buy, somebody else after you will. This is not classic VC-funded IT. It's mass-market, low margin, low risk consumer products. It's not Enterprise IT.

[crotchfire]

It's mass-market, low margin, low risk consumer products

None of those have anything to do with demanding that customers expose themselves to identity theft risk.

[e145bc455f1]

They didn't even ask me for that, straight up banned my account.

[costco]

This will be required in the US for all providers within a year unless a sufficiently large number of people comment on the Commerce Department's proposed rule: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/us-department-commerce-...

[alwayslikethis]

Can you elaborate? I have a VPS and a storage box on Hetzner and I'm so far satisfied with it, minus the sometimes confusing interface between their different products.

[MikusR]

Because they are so cheap, they are often used by spammers or other shady entities. So occasionally they may ask for ID. For example, if you connect from one country, use an address from another country and use prepaid card from yet another country.

[crotchfire]

used by spammers

Then why don't they just ask for ID if you want port 25 unblocked?

Doesn't add up.

[V__]

The ports are blocked by default for new customers. After a few billing cycles, a request can be made to have it lifted.

[jeltz]

They have never asked me for any of my three accounts. And one I paid with credit card the two other with bank wire.

[mglz]

Managed virtual servers are available here: https://www.hetzner.com/managed-server/

[account42]

VPS = you get a virtual manchine which you administer yourself.

Managed servers are something different entirely.

[edm0nd]

Just use DigitalOcean. Easy setup and very cheap VPS options.

[TiredOfLife]

DigitalOcean is at least 2-3 times more expensive with 10-3 times less bandwidth

[AnonHP]

DigitalOcean, even before it had huge layoffs, blocked my new account and wouldn’t allow me to pay. There was absolutely no support whatsoever for that. Just a template email and no other way to escalate or write to a human. I can only imagine how much worse it would be now with reduced staff.

[lovegrenoble]

Thank you, Sir.

[stefs]

that said, while digital ocean is great, as far as i know hetzner is somewhat cheaper. compare!

at digital ocean, 12$: 2GB RAM, 1vCPU, 20GB SSD, 2TB transfer

at hetzner, 10,50$: 8GB RAM, 2vCPU, 80GB SSD, 20TB transfer

[Citizen_Lame]

Yes, but Hetzner costumer service is from another planet. So in case of issues they won't be able to help, and you will have issues.

[remram]

DigitalOcean has a long history of kicking out customers with no warning and no explanation.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11036554

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064169

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29596138

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29600320

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38880713

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39127683

[Radim]

Care to share why?

I've been a Hetzner customer for nearly 10 years now. I just checked – first invoice in June 2014. And during that period, Hetzner's support – which I needed maybe 3 times since things generally just work – has always been stellar.

I've used Linode too, and their support was comparable (=also great). But Hetzner wins on pricing, hands down.

I actually appreciate Hetzner hasn't join the BS enshittification gimmick train (yet). If that's your complaint.

[icetngugzer]

Similar to the other commenters I much disagree - "but this ofc. rly depends on what you expect from them..."

If the thing has power, network, working hardware and is able to "boot into there rescue-system" that is all they care about. And for that support has been stellar including preventive disk swaps, moving disk into new chassis and such with feedback and action within minutes basically 24/7.

But the software end is ofc. entirely on you, down to the BIOS where they roll you a network-KVM-Cart to the box for some hours after requesting it with a click. They wont fix your HTML errors, nor your php syntax errors, or explain how to setup SSL on your apache, nor will they help when you dont know how to operate ssh/putty ;) and if "with such an issue" one bothers the 24/7-datacenter guys (and not just "8-16/5 normal customer support") I may even understand that it seems a little rude ;-)

[radiator]

And in case of no issues, you save quite a lot of money.

[kosolam]

Hetzner has good support.

[_cenw]

Their abuse team is rude. Their technical support is usually professional, and the one time I talked to their legal team they were superb.

[huggingmouth]

I sttongly disagree based in my interaction with them. They were very rude. That said, their services are reasonably priced and they have been competent throughout my time with them.

Hetzner would be far more appealing if they ever decide to muzzle their rebid support team.

[rnewme]

This was my experience too, both with my tiny personal account and my giant clients accounts