GCP → Hetzner

Migrating from GCP to Hetzner

Hetzner is a German provider offering market-leading IaaS pricing, but no managed Kubernetes, databases or messaging. Compute Engine and block storage have direct equivalents; GKE, Cloud SQL, BigQuery become self-hosted.

Which GCP services have a Hetzner equivalent?

"Equivalent" means direct IaaS mapping; everything else is self-hosted.

GCP services and their Hetzner equivalents.
GCPHetznerVerdict
Compute EngineHetzner Cloud servers Market-leading price per vCPU.Equivalent
Persistent DiskHetzner Volumes Direct equivalent.Equivalent
Cloud Load BalancingHetzner Load Balancers Covered.Equivalent
Cloud StorageHetzner Object Storage S3-compatible but narrower feature set.Partial
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)Self-host k3s / kubeadm No managed Kubernetes.Self-host
Cloud SQLSelf-host PostgreSQL No managed database.Self-host
BigQuerySelf-host ClickHouse No managed warehouse.Self-host
Cloud Pub/SubSelf-host NATS / Kafka No managed messaging.Self-host

What do you self-host?

Everything above IaaS. Lowest cost, highest operational burden.

  • Kubernetes: k3s or kubeadm.
  • PostgreSQL/MySQL: you run it.
  • Analytics: ClickHouse.
  • Messaging: NATS, Kafka.

Which services repoint directly?

Only IaaS rows repoint.

3 capabilities

  • Object storage

    Hyperscaler Amazon S3 Azure Blob Storage Google Cloud Storage
    EU-sovereign path Scaleway Object StorageOVHcloud Object Storage
    Verdict Mature

    S3-compatible API. A drop-in target for most SDKs, backups and static assets.

  • Block storage

    Hyperscaler Amazon EBS Azure Managed Disks Persistent Disk / Hyperdisk
    EU-sovereign path Scaleway Block StorageOVHcloud Block Storage
    Verdict Mature

    Network block volumes with snapshots. Standard building block, well covered.

  • Virtual machines

    Hyperscaler Amazon EC2 Azure Virtual Machines Google Compute Engine
    EU-sovereign path Scaleway InstancesOVHcloud Public CloudHetzner Cloud
    Verdict Mature

    General-purpose and dedicated instances are a solved problem in the EU.

Verdicts are conservative and reflect managed, EU-jurisdiction offerings as of 2026. Provider feature sets move quickly, so we re-check on every engagement.

How many engineer-days?

60-150 engineer-days

Higher because you build the operational layer.

  • Low: simple VMs, block storage.
  • High: self-host Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse.

Where does Hetzner run?

Three EU locations.

  • Falkenstein (FSN), GermanyPrimary.
  • Nuremberg (NBG), GermanySecond.
  • Helsinki (HEL), FinlandNordic.

Honest limitations

  • No managed Kubernetes You own patching and upgrades.
  • Leaner support Enterprise SLAs are not standard.

CTO questions

Is Hetzner cheaper even with ops cost?
Often yes, for teams already self-hosting.
Can we run production Kubernetes?
Yes. k3s or kubeadm.