Softwr

Cloud · head to head

Hetzner Cloud vs Hookdeck

Hetzner Cloud logo

Hetzner Cloud

Cloud

Affordable cloud servers in Europe

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Hookdeck logo

Hookdeck

Developer Tools

Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Hetzner Cloud cost-Optimized plans are shown as currently unavailable; Hookdeck pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • They diverge on capability: Hetzner Cloud covers Cloud servers, Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hetzner Cloud and Hookdeck actually diverge.

Attributes where Hetzner Cloud and Hookdeck differ
AttributeHetzner CloudHookdeck
Pricing modelusage-basedPer month by delivered event count
PlatformsWeb, Api, CliWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools
Founded1997Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Hetzner Cloud

  • Cloud servers
  • Block storage
  • Object storage
  • Load balancers
  • Networks
  • Firewalls
  • Floating IPs
  • Backups

Only in Hookdeck

  • Ingest and persist
  • Automatic retries
  • Filters and fan-out
  • Transformations
  • Local development CLI
  • Rate limiting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Hetzner Cloud

  • Low-cost virtual servers for development and testingnot Hookdeck
  • European hosting with data held in Germany or Finlandnot Hookdeck
  • Workloads with heavy egress, where included traffic mattersnot Hookdeck
  • Self-hosting applications away from the hyperscalersnot Hookdeck

Hookdeck

  • A payments integration where losing a Stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfillednot Hetzner Cloud
  • Fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separatelynot Hetzner Cloud
  • Debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fixnot Hetzner Cloud
  • Receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnelnot Hetzner Cloud

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Hetzner Cloud

  • Cost-Optimized plans are shown as currently unavailable
  • The shared-resource tiers are positioned for variable usage and development rather than sustained production workloads
  • Regions are limited to Germany, Finland, the United States and Singapore, so latency to other markets is a real constraint
  • The uptime guarantee is 99.9 percent, below what the large hyperscalers offer on comparable services
  • Support is 24/7 by email, without a phone channel

Hookdeck

  • Pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • Free-tier retention is three days, which is shorter than the time it typically takes to notice a failing integration, so the payloads needed for a replay are often already gone.
  • It becomes a single point of failure in front of every third-party integration, and an outage there means every provider webhook queues or fails at once.
  • The transformation layer runs JavaScript in a constrained environment, so anything that needs a database lookup or an external call has to happen downstream instead.
  • For a team already running Kafka or SQS the value is mostly the console and the replay UI, which is a hard cost to justify against infrastructure they already operate.

Pricing, plan by plan

Hetzner Cloud

Free
  • CX11$3.29/month
    • 1 vCPU
    • 1GB RAM
    • 25GB SSD
  • CX21$6.59/month
    • 2 vCPU
    • 4GB RAM
    • 40GB SSD

Hookdeck

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to ten thousand events per month
    • Three-day retention
    • One user
  • Team$39/month
    • Ten thousand events included
    • Unlimited users
    • Pay as you go metering above the included events
  • Growth$499/month
    • Ten thousand events included plus metered usage
    • Thirty-day retention
    • Uptime and latency SLAs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated event volume
    • Custom retention
    • Dedicated support

Which should you pick?

Choose Hetzner Cloud if

  • You need cloud servers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Api, Cli.
  • You also want block storage.
Hetzner Cloud review

Choose Hookdeck if

  • You need ingest and persist.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want automatic retries.
Hookdeck review

Questions people ask

Is Hetzner Cloud or Hookdeck better?
Neither clearly leads. Hetzner Cloud starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hetzner Cloud or Hookdeck?
Hetzner Cloud starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free.
Does Hetzner Cloud or Hookdeck run on more platforms?
Hetzner Cloud runs on Web, Api, Cli. Hookdeck runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Hetzner Cloud for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Hetzner Cloud best used for?
Hetzner Cloud is most often used for low-cost virtual servers for development and testing, european hosting with data held in germany or finland, workloads with heavy egress, where included traffic matters, self-hosting applications away from the hyperscalers. Of those, low-cost virtual servers for development and testing and european hosting with data held in germany or finland are not what Hookdeck is typically brought in for.
What can Hetzner Cloud do that Hookdeck cannot?
Hetzner Cloud covers Cloud servers, Block storage, Object storage, Load balancers. Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, Automatic retries, Filters and fan-out, Transformations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hetzner Cloud: What types of cloud plans does Hetzner Cloud offer?

Hetzner Cloud offers Shared Resource plans (Cost-Optimized and Regular Performance) for development and testing, and Dedicated Resource plans (General Purpose) for business applications. Plans are available with a price calculator on their website.

Source
Hookdeck: Is there a free plan?

Yes, ten thousand events a month with three-day retention and one user.

Hetzner Cloud: What is included with Hetzner Cloud servers?

Every cloud server comes with free one-click apps like Docker, WordPress, Nextcloud, and GitLab. All servers include stateful firewalls at no additional cost, networking capabilities, APIs, and CLI tools.

Source
Hookdeck: How is usage counted?

By delivered events, so a single inbound webhook fanned out to three destinations counts as three.

Hetzner Cloud: Where are Hetzner Cloud servers located?

Hetzner Cloud servers are available in Germany, Finland, Singapore, and the USA, with data centers in Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki, Hillsboro (Oregon), Ashburn (Virginia), and Singapore.

Source
Hookdeck: Can I replay a failed webhook?

Yes, individually or in bulk from the console, with the original payload.

Hetzner Cloud: What uptime guarantee does Hetzner Cloud provide?

Hetzner Cloud provides an SLA with 99.9% guaranteed uptime and clearly defined credits in case of malfunction. They also offer 24/7 support by email for business-critical workloads.

Source
Hookdeck: Does it work for outbound webhooks too?

Yes, the same queueing, retry and observability applies to webhooks you send.

Share

Related pages

More on Hetzner Cloud

More on Hookdeck

Keep looking

Other head to heads