Hetzner CCX13 vs DanubeData Nano: Head-to-Head YABS Benchmark Showdown

When choosing a cloud VPS provider, raw performance benchmarks reveal the truth beyond marketing materials. We ran the industry-standard YABS (Yet-Another-Bench-Script) on both Hetzner's CCX13 instance and DanubeData's Nano VPS to see how they compare.

The Test Setup

Both instances were tested running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in German datacenters:

• DanubeData DD Nano: 2 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 40GB NVMe - Falkenstein, Germany - €8.99/month
• Hetzner CCX13: 2 vCPU, 8GB RAM, 80GB NVMe - Falkenstein, Germany - ~€15-20/month

Hetzner's CCX13 offers 4x the RAM. Let's see if the performance justifies the price premium.

CPU Performance: Geekbench 6 Results

The CPU benchmark results tell an interesting story:

DanubeData's €8.99 Nano instance delivers:

• +47.8% better single-core performance vs Hetzner CCX13
• +108.6% better multi-core performance vs Hetzner CCX13
• 58% higher clock speed (3,792 MHz vs 2,399 MHz)

At nearly half the price, DanubeData's Nano VPS running AMD EPYC Genoa (Zen 4 architecture) significantly outperforms Hetzner's CCX13 running the previous generation EPYC Milan.

Disk I/O: Local NVMe Performance

Both providers use local NVMe storage, but the generation gap shows:

Disk Performance Analysis

The results show different strengths:

• Small Block (4K-64K): DanubeData leads by 12-15%, crucial for databases and random I/O workloads
• Large Block (512K-1M): Hetzner CCX13 dominates with up to 97% higher throughput, better for large file operations
• IOPS: DanubeData shows 15% higher 4K IOPS (82.4K vs 71.5K), important for transactional workloads

Both use enterprise NVMe drives, but the workload type determines the winner. Database-heavy applications benefit from DanubeData's superior small-block performance, while video encoding or large file processing favors Hetzner's sequential throughput.

Network Performance

Network speeds show distinct characteristics:

Hetzner CCX13 provides significantly higher network bandwidth, with speeds up to 18 Gbps to nearby European locations. However, consider that:

• 1 Gbps is sufficient for most web applications and APIs
• DanubeData's internal traffic between VPS, databases, and caches is free and sub-millisecond within the same namespace
• High bandwidth matters most for CDN origin servers, backup operations, or large data transfers
• Application performance is often limited by database queries and code efficiency, not network bandwidth

The Hardware Advantage

DanubeData runs the latest AMD EPYC Genoa processors with Zen 4 architecture and DDR5 memory. This newer silicon delivers higher IPC (Instructions Per Cycle) and significantly higher clock speeds compared to Hetzner's EPYC Milan platform.

Price-Performance Analysis

DanubeData delivers:

• 2.5x better single-core price-performance
• 3.5x better multi-core price-performance
• Nearly half the monthly cost of Hetzner CCX13

When to Choose Each Provider

Choose DanubeData Nano if you need:

• Maximum CPU performance per euro - double the compute power at half the price
• Database workloads - superior 4K random I/O performance (82K IOPS)
• Web applications & APIs - faster request processing with Zen 4 CPUs
• Build & compilation tasks - 108% faster multi-core performance cuts build times dramatically
• Modern hardware - latest generation EPYC Genoa with DDR5
• Integrated ecosystem - sub-millisecond latency to DanubeData managed databases and caches

Choose Hetzner CCX13 if you need:

• More RAM - 8GB vs 2GB for memory-intensive applications
• High network bandwidth - up to 20 Gbps for CDN origins or large data transfers
• Large sequential I/O - nearly 2x faster for large file operations (1M block size)
• More storage - 80GB vs 40GB for applications with larger disk requirements

Real-World Performance Impact

For a typical LAMP/LEMP stack:

• PHP-FPM workers: DanubeData's 47% single-core advantage means faster request processing
• MySQL queries: 15% higher 4K IOPS translates to faster SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE operations
• Redis/session storage: Superior small-block performance improves cache hit latency
• Static assets: 1 Gbps is more than sufficient for serving static files

For build pipelines & CI/CD:

• npm install / composer install: Faster CPU means quicker dependency resolution
• Code compilation: 108% multi-core advantage cuts build times in half
• Test suites: Parallel test execution benefits from multi-core performance

Reproducible Results

These benchmarks are fully reproducible. Spin up instances from both providers and run the test yourself:

curl -sL yabs.sh | bash

Full Geekbench results:

• DanubeData Nano - Geekbench Result
• Hetzner CCX13 - Geekbench Result

The Bottom Line

Hetzner's CCX13 is an excellent VPS with ample RAM and exceptional network bandwidth. However, for pure CPU performance and small-block I/O throughput, DanubeData's Nano VPS running AMD EPYC Genoa processors delivers measurably better results at nearly half the price.

The key decision factors:

• If you need 8GB+ RAM or 20 Gbps network, Hetzner CCX13 is the clear choice
• If you need maximum CPU performance and database I/O per euro, DanubeData Nano wins decisively
• For most web applications, APIs, and development workloads, DanubeData's performance advantage and lower cost make it compelling

This isn't about one provider being universally better—it's about understanding the performance characteristics and choosing the right tool for your specific workload. The YABS benchmarks provide objective data to make that decision.

Ready to test DanubeData's performance yourself? Deploy your first VPS and run the benchmarks.