1. 4-Core Tier Direct Comparison: Shared vs Dedicated EPYC 9645
All figures default to 0% VAT (excl. tax); use the selector to preview 19% German VAT or your local EU rate:
| Comparison Point | netcup VPS 1000 G12.5 | netcup RS 1000 G12.5 | Hetzner CX33 | Hetzner CPX32 | Hetzner CCX23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU allocation & type | 4 shared x86 vCores | 4 dedicated EPYC 9645 cores | 4 shared Intel/AMD vCPU | 4 shared AMD vCPU | 4 dedicated AMD vCPU |
| RAM & generation | 8 GB ECC | 8 GB DDR5 ECC | 8 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Included storage | 128 GB SSD | 128 GB NVMe | 80 GB NVMe | 160 GB NVMe | 160 GB NVMe |
| Cost per 100 GB storage / mo (0% VAT) | €9.52 | €14.27 | €11.24 | €22.49 | €54.06 |
| Bandwidth & traffic cap | 2 TB / 24h soft limit (€0 fee) | 3 TB / 24h soft limit (€0 fee) | 20 TB / mo (€1.00/TB at 0% VAT) | 20 TB / mo (€1.00/TB at 0% VAT) | 20 TB / mo (€1.00/TB at 0% VAT) |
| Billing model / Term | 1M / 12M / 24M contracts | 1M / 12M / 24M contracts | Hourly (destroy anytime) | Hourly (destroy anytime) | Hourly (destroy anytime) |
| 12M / Standard monthly price (0% VAT) | €12.18 | €18.26 | €8.99 | €35.99 | €86.49 |
| 24M contract monthly price (0% VAT) | €10.35 | €15.52 | – | – | – |
| Live promo code | 1 month free | 2 months free | – | – | – |
4-Core Tier Monthly Rental Comparison (0% VAT (excl. tax))
2. 24-Month Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in Production
In real-world production, servers generally maintain at least one weekly/monthly 60 GB snapshot backup. Here is the cumulative 24-month cost comparison (default 0% VAT excl. tax):
| Cost Component (24 Months · 0% VAT) | netcup VPS 1000 (24M + Code) | netcup RS 1000 (24M + Code) | Hetzner CX33 (4C/8G/80G) | Hetzner CCX23 (4 Ded. vCPU) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base instance rental | €248.40 | €372.48 | €215.76 | €2075.76 |
| Voucher discount (1–2 mo free) | −€10.35 | −€31.04 | €0.00 | €0.00 |
| 60 GB snapshot over 24 months | €0.00 (SCP export free) | €0.00 (SCP export free) | +€15.84 (€0.011/GB/mo · 0% VAT) | +€15.84 |
| Total 24-Month TCO | €238.05 | €341.44 | €231.60 | €2091.60 |
3. ARM64 (Hetzner CAX Series) vs x86_64 (netcup EPYC 9645): Compute & Ecosystem
Hetzner’s CAX lineup (Ampere Altra 80-core ARM64 — CAX11 2C/4G at €6.49/mo and CAX21 4C/8G at €10.99/mo at 0% VAT) offers attractive headline pricing, but developers must weigh important architectural tradeoffs:
- Single-Threaded Raw IPC: netcup RS G12.5 runs the latest AMD EPYC 9645 (Zen 5c), yielding a Geekbench 6 single-core score of 2,290. By comparison, Ampere Altra scores ~1,000–1,150 (under 50% of EPYC's throughput). Tasks like single-threaded PHP-FPM requests, Node.js event loops, and complex PostgreSQL queries execute twice as fast on netcup.
- Software Compatibility: netcup’s x86_64 architecture natively runs proprietary software, legacy binaries, and older Docker containers lacking
linux/arm64images. On ARM64 servers, running x86 images requires QEMU emulation, resulting in severe CPU overhead or unexpected segmentation faults.
4. Hetzner Cloud Full Lineup (CX / CAX / CPX / CCX)
Official pricing from hetzner.com/cloud (European/US East datacenter rates, default 0% VAT excl. tax):
| Plan | Cores | RAM | Storage | Traffic | Price / month (0% VAT) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner CX23 | 2 (shared Intel/AMD) | 4 GB | 40 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €5.99 |
| Hetzner CX33 | 4 (shared Intel/AMD) | 8 GB | 80 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €8.99 |
| Hetzner CX43 | 8 (shared Intel/AMD) | 16 GB | 160 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €16.49 |
| Hetzner CX53 | 16 (shared Intel/AMD) | 32 GB | 320 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €29.99 |
| Hetzner CAX11 | 2 (shared Ampere ARM64) | 4 GB | 40 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €6.49 |
| Hetzner CAX21 | 4 (shared Ampere ARM64) | 8 GB | 80 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €10.99 |
| Hetzner CAX31 | 8 (shared Ampere ARM64) | 16 GB | 160 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €21.49 |
| Hetzner CPX22 | 2 (shared AMD) | 4 GB | 80 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €19.99 |
| Hetzner CPX32 | 4 (shared AMD) | 8 GB | 160 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €35.99 |
| Hetzner CPX42 | 8 (shared AMD) | 16 GB | 320 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €69.99 |
| Hetzner CCX13 | 2 (ded. AMD) | 8 GB | 80 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €43.49 |
| Hetzner CCX23 | 4 (ded. AMD) | 16 GB | 160 GB NVMe | 20 TB | €86.49 |
| Hetzner CCX33 | 8 (ded. AMD) | 32 GB | 240 GB NVMe | 30 TB | €138.99 |
| Hetzner CCX43 | 16 (ded. AMD) | 64 GB | 360 GB NVMe | 40 TB | €276.49 |
5. Traffic Limits & Overage Billing Risks (20 TB Cap vs 2.5 Gbps Fair Use)
- Hetzner Metered Cloud Model: Each instance includes 20 TB monthly outbound traffic. Any overage is billed post-paid at €1.00 / TB at 0% VAT (€1.19 incl. 19% VAT) directly to your credit card. In cases of volumetric DDoS attacks, compromised software, or unanticipated spikes, this introduces financial unpredictability.
- netcup Predictable Fair-Use Model: Root Server includes 120 TB / month (3 TB / 24h rolling window); VPS includes 80 TB / month (2 TB / 24h rolling window) on a 2.5 Gbit/s port. If usage exceeds the rolling threshold, the port is temporarily throttled to 200/300 Mbit/s. Overage fees are strictly €0.00, and full 2.5 Gbps speed restores automatically as the rolling window clears.
6. Operational Privileges, Port 25, Snapshots & Networking
| Feature | netcup (RS & VPS G12.5) | Hetzner Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Datacenter locations | Nuremberg (DE), Vienna (AT), Amsterdam (NL, VPS), Manassas (US-VA), Singapore (SG) | Falkenstein (DE), Nuremberg (DE), Helsinki (FI), Ashburn (US-VA), Hillsboro (US-OR), Singapore (SG) |
| Location surcharges | €0 for Europe random; monthly fee to fix city | Free choice among DE/FI/US; Singapore significantly higher |
| Outbound SMTP Port 25 | 30-second self-service unblock in SCP Firewall | Blocked by default; requires 1 month tenure & manual ticket |
| Snapshots & local export | Manual snapshots free + free .raw.zst disk download to PC | €0.011/GB/mo (0% VAT); no direct snapshot downloads |
| Custom ISO uploads | Upload arbitrary bootable ISOs directly in SCP | No private ISO uploads (requires rescue system dd workaround) |
| VPC & API tooling | Cloud vLAN Free (100M) / Giga (paid); OAuth2 REST API | Cloud Networks included free; mature hcloud CLI & Terraform provider |
| Public IPv4 removal | Saves €0.50/mo at 0% VAT (€0.60 incl. 19% VAT) | Saves €0.50/mo at 0% VAT (€0.60 incl. 19% VAT) |
| Billing & Cancellation | Term contract (requires 31-day cancellation notice in CCP) | Hourly post-paid; destroy instance in 1 click anytime |
7. Verdict: When to Choose netcup vs Hetzner?
Engineering Selection Guide
- Choose netcup Root Server G12.5 when you require dedicated EPYC physical cores, 128 GB – 1 TB high-speed NVMe, out-of-the-box self-hosted mail servers (Port 25), or need to download
.raw.zstfull disk backups locally for disaster recovery over 6–24+ months. - Choose Hetzner Cloud when you need ephemeral, hourly-billed instances (e.g. CI/CD build nodes running 2 hours a day, dynamic Kubernetes worker scaling), or rely heavily on the
hcloudCLI and official Terraform providers for cloud orchestration.