AWS vs Hetzner vs DanubeData: Real Cloud Cost Comparison 2025

Cloud costs can make or break a startup. Choosing the wrong provider might cost you thousands of euros per month that could be spent on product development, marketing, or hiring.

In this comprehensive comparison, we analyze the real costs of running infrastructure on AWS, Hetzner Cloud, and DanubeData. No marketing fluff—just actual pricing data and real-world scenarios.

Why Cloud Costs Matter More Than Ever in 2025

The era of "growth at all costs" is over. Investors now scrutinize burn rates, and profitable unit economics are essential for survival. Your infrastructure spend is often one of your largest operational costs.

Consider these statistics:

• 32% of cloud spend is wasted according to Flexera's 2024 State of the Cloud report
• Average startup spends €15,000-50,000/year on cloud infrastructure
• Data transfer costs alone can exceed compute costs for data-intensive applications

Choosing the right provider from the start—or migrating to a more cost-effective one—can save your company tens of thousands of euros annually.

The Providers: Quick Overview

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The market leader with the broadest service catalog. AWS offers everything from basic VMs to AI/ML services. However, this comes with complexity and premium pricing.

Hetzner Cloud

German cloud provider known for aggressive pricing and excellent performance. Great for self-managed infrastructure but lacks managed database services.

DanubeData

European managed infrastructure platform built on Hetzner hardware. Combines Hetzner's price-performance with fully managed services for databases, caching, and VPS.

VPS / Compute Pricing Comparison

Let's compare equivalent virtual machines across all three providers. All prices are monthly and include the same approximate specifications.

What About Burstable vs Dedicated?

AWS t3 instances are "burstable"—you get baseline performance with occasional bursts. Run at full CPU for extended periods and you'll be throttled. Hetzner and DanubeData shared instances offer consistent performance without artificial throttling.

DanubeData offers both shared and dedicated CPU options:

• Shared CPU: 50% cheaper, great for web apps and APIs with variable load
• Dedicated CPU: Guaranteed resources for databases, CI/CD, or compute-intensive workloads

Managed Database Pricing Comparison

Managed databases are where costs diverge significantly. AWS RDS is convenient but expensive. Hetzner doesn't offer managed databases at all—you'd need to self-manage on a VPS.

What's Included in DanubeData Managed Databases?

• ✅ Automated daily backups with point-in-time recovery
• ✅ SSL/TLS encryption (certificates included)
• ✅ Monitoring and alerting
• ✅ Automatic security updates
• ✅ Read replica support for scaling
• ✅ Firewall rules and network isolation
• ✅ 99.9% uptime SLA

Cache (Redis/Valkey) Pricing Comparison

In-memory caching is essential for application performance. Here's how the providers compare:

DanubeData also offers Valkey (the open-source Redis fork) and Dragonfly (multi-threaded Redis alternative) at competitive prices.

Object Storage Pricing Comparison

Object storage costs add up quickly for applications handling user uploads, backups, or media files.

Real-World Cost Scenarios

Let's calculate actual monthly costs for three different company sizes.

Scenario 1: Early-Stage Startup

Simple SaaS app, 1,000 users, moderate traffic

Infrastructure needs:

• 1 application server (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM)
• 1 managed PostgreSQL database (2 GB RAM, 20 GB storage)
• 1 Redis cache (256 MB)
• 50 GB object storage, 100 GB egress/month

Savings with DanubeData vs AWS: €636/year (58%)

Scenario 2: Growing SaaS

B2B SaaS, 10,000 users, API-heavy, needs high availability

Infrastructure needs:

• 2 application servers (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM each)
• 1 managed PostgreSQL (8 GB RAM, 100 GB storage) + read replica
• 1 Redis cache (3 GB)
• 500 GB object storage, 2 TB egress/month

Savings with DanubeData vs AWS: €6,314/year (74%)

Scenario 3: Scale-Up Company

100,000+ users, high traffic, multiple environments

Infrastructure needs:

• 4 dedicated application servers (8 vCPU, 32 GB RAM each)
• 1 large PostgreSQL (16 GB RAM, 500 GB storage) + 2 read replicas
• 1 large Redis (6 GB) + replica
• 2 TB object storage, 10 TB egress/month

Savings with DanubeData vs AWS: €34,021/year (79%)

The Hidden Costs You're Missing

The sticker price is just the beginning. Here are costs that often surprise AWS customers:

1. Data Transfer (Egress)

AWS charges €0.09/GB for outbound data. Serve 1TB of content to users? That's €90. Every month. DanubeData charges €0.08/TB—that's 1,000x cheaper.

2. NAT Gateway

If your EC2 instances need internet access without public IPs, you'll pay for NAT Gateway: €0.052/hour + €0.052/GB processed. A moderately active NAT Gateway costs €100-300/month.

3. Load Balancer

Application Load Balancer: €21/month base + €8.50/LCU-hour. Real-world cost: €50-200/month.

4. Support

AWS support tiers:

• Basic: Free (documentation only)
• Developer: €29/month
• Business: 3% of monthly spend (minimum €100)
• Enterprise: 10% of spend for first €150K, then 7%

DanubeData includes priority support with all plans at no extra cost.

5. Reserved Instance Complexity

AWS Reserved Instances can save 30-60%, but they require:

• 1-3 year commitments
• Upfront payment (for best rates)
• Accurate capacity planning
• Managing reserved instance marketplace

DanubeData offers simple hourly billing with no commitments required.

European Data Residency: A Competitive Advantage

Both Hetzner and DanubeData operate exclusively in European data centers. This matters for:

GDPR Compliance

With data physically located in Germany, you simplify GDPR compliance. No need to worry about US CLOUD Act implications or data transfer mechanisms like SCCs.

Latency for European Users

Frankfurt-based infrastructure provides sub-20ms latency to most of Western and Central Europe. AWS eu-central-1 is also in Frankfurt, but at 4-5x the price.

Data Sovereignty

European hosting reassures B2B customers in regulated industries (healthcare, finance, government) who are increasingly concerned about US-headquartered cloud providers.

When Should You Still Choose AWS?

To be fair, AWS has legitimate advantages for certain use cases:

• Startup credits: AWS Activate provides up to $100,000 in credits. Use them while they last, then migrate.
• Specialized services: If you need SageMaker, Bedrock, or other advanced services with no equivalent, AWS is the only option.
• Global presence: If you need edge locations in 50+ countries, AWS has more regions than anyone.
• Enterprise requirements: Some enterprises mandate AWS/Azure/GCP for vendor approval reasons.

For the vast majority of startups and SMBs building web applications, APIs, and data-driven products, the AWS premium isn't justified.

Migration: Easier Than You Think

Worried about migration complexity? Most workloads can migrate in a weekend:

Step 1: Provision Infrastructure (15 minutes)

# DanubeData dashboard
# Click "Create Database" → PostgreSQL → Medium tier
# Click "Create VPS" → Small tier
# Done.

Step 2: Migrate Database (1-2 hours)

# Dump from RDS
pg_dump -h your-rds-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com 
  -U postgres -d myapp 
  -Fc -f backup.dump

# Restore to DanubeData
pg_restore -h your-instance.danubedata.com 
  -U postgres -d myapp 
  backup.dump

Step 3: Update DNS (5 minutes)

# Update application config
DATABASE_HOST=your-instance.danubedata.com
REDIS_HOST=your-cache.danubedata.com

# Lower TTL beforehand, then update records

That's it. No vendor lock-in with proprietary services. PostgreSQL is PostgreSQL. Redis is Redis.

Summary: The Numbers Don't Lie

Start Saving Today

Every month you stay on overpriced infrastructure is money that could fund product development, marketing, or extending your runway.

DanubeData offers:

• ✅ Transparent pricing with no hidden fees
• ✅ European data centers for GDPR compliance
• ✅ Managed services so you focus on code, not ops
• ✅ 60-80% savings compared to AWS
• ✅ No vendor lock-in—standard PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis

👉 Create your free account and deploy your first database in under 60 seconds.

Or view our complete pricing to calculate your savings.

Questions about migrating from AWS? Contact our team for a free infrastructure review and migration plan.