Hetzner vs Coolify for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Hetzner Overview

Hetzner is a European cloud provider known for offering absurd value. Their cheapest VPS gives you 2 vCPUs, 4GB RAM, and 40GB SSD for EUR 3.79/month. Try getting that anywhere else. You won't. Dedicated servers start around EUR 39/month with real hardware that would cost you hundreds at AWS or GCP.

I run production workloads on Hetzner and the reliability has been solid. Uptime consistently above 99.9%, fast network, and German engineering applied to data centers. The catch is that Hetzner gives you a server and nothing else. No managed databases, no deployment pipelines, no app platform. You SSH in, you install things, you configure everything manually. If your Nginx config breaks at 2 AM, that's your problem.

For solo developers comfortable with Linux administration, Hetzner is the best deal in cloud computing. For those who aren't, it can be a time sink that pulls you away from building your product.

Coolify Overview

Coolify is an open-source, self-hosted PaaS that turns any VPS into your own Heroku. You install it on a server (takes about 5 minutes), point it at your Git repository, and it handles builds, deployments, SSL certificates, and reverse proxying automatically. Docker-based, with support for dozens of one-click services like PostgreSQL, Redis, MinIO, and Plausible Analytics.

The dashboard is genuinely well-designed. You see all your projects, their deployment status, resource usage, and logs in one place. Push to Git, Coolify builds and deploys. Need a database? Click a button. Need SSL? It handles Let's Encrypt automatically. Need environment variables? There's a panel for that.

Coolify also offers a cloud-hosted version starting at $5/month if you don't want to manage the Coolify installation itself. But most solo developers install it on a cheap VPS and get the full experience for free.

Key Differences

They solve different problems. This is the most important thing to understand. Hetzner gives you a server. Coolify gives you a deployment platform. They're not alternatives, they're complementary. Most Coolify users run it on a Hetzner VPS because the combination gives you a Heroku-like experience at VPS prices.

Management overhead. With Hetzner alone, you manage everything: Nginx, SSL, Docker, deployments, databases, backups. With Coolify on top, it manages deployments, SSL, reverse proxying, and service provisioning. You still manage the underlying server (updates, security), but the application layer is handled.

Cost structure. Hetzner charges for compute resources. Coolify is free when self-hosted. Running Coolify on a Hetzner CX22 (EUR 3.79/mo) gives you a full PaaS for under $5/month. Compare that to Heroku ($7/mo per dyno) or Railway ($5/mo + usage). The savings are enormous.

Scaling approach. Hetzner scales by upgrading server size or adding more servers. Coolify supports multi-server deployments, so you can add Hetzner servers to your Coolify cluster as you grow. It's not Kubernetes-level orchestration, but for a solo developer it handles growth well.

Ecosystem and services. Hetzner has load balancers, floating IPs, volumes, and object storage. Coolify has one-click deployment of 100+ services (databases, monitoring, analytics). Together they cover most needs without touching a managed service provider.

When to Choose Hetzner (Alone)

• You enjoy full control and prefer manual server configuration
• You're running custom infrastructure that doesn't fit a PaaS model (like K3s or Nomad)
• You need dedicated servers for heavy workloads
• You already have your own deployment pipeline (GitHub Actions, Kamal, etc.)
• You want to learn Linux administration hands-on

When to Choose Coolify

• You want Heroku-like deployments without Heroku pricing
• You want to deploy multiple services (app, database, Redis, monitoring) from one dashboard
• You don't want to manually configure Nginx, SSL, and Docker Compose for every project
• You want Git-push deployments with automatic SSL
• You're running several side projects and need a central management interface

The Verdict

This comparison is a bit of a trick question because the best answer is usually both. Install Coolify on a Hetzner VPS and you get the cheapest, most capable self-hosted platform available to solo developers. You get Hetzner's unbeatable price-to-performance ratio combined with Coolify's deployment automation.

If I had to pick just one, Coolify wins for most solo developers because it solves the deployment problem that actually slows you down. A bare Hetzner server requires hours of configuration before you deploy your first app. Coolify gets you deploying in minutes.

But seriously, the play is Hetzner + Coolify together. EUR 3.79/month for a full PaaS. That's less than a coffee, and it'll run your SaaS, your blog, your databases, and your monitoring stack. Nothing else in the hosting world comes close to that value.