Hetzner vs Hostmonster: guide for 2024

Final verdict

Looking over Hetzner vs. HostMonster, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.

• 
  HostMonster (Overall grade: 7.4)
  
  
  offers versatile web hosting services including WordPress and eCommerce hosting but is less sophisticated in cloud hosting capabilities. Known for its user-friendly features, HostMonster provides free domain registration for the first year, an intuitive website builder, and unlimited email hosting with varied management tools, making it ideal for beginners or small businesses with basic needs. However, its higher renewal costs, lack of scalability in cloud options, and somewhat inconsistent customer support, especially in terms of technical assistance, diminish its appeal for more advanced users or growing businesses.
  
• 
  Hetzner (Overall grade: 7.9)
  
  
  excels with advanced cloud and dedicated hosting solutions, featuring high-performance hardware, NVMe SSD storage, and a robust global infrastructure. Hetzner’s offerings include cost-effective scalable plans, comprehensive security measures such as DDoS protection, and extensive data center locations. Its superior performance in uptime and flexibility in management and scaling appeals to developers and enterprises needing reliable and high-performance hosting. Despite the lack of a user-friendly website builder and potentially restrictive service fees, Hetzner’s advanced features, extensive documentation, and more responsive support make it the better choice for users seeking high performance, control, and cost-effectiveness.
  

Hosting types offered

Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.

Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.

Detailed comparison

Winner Hetzner Online: Reliable and resilient with comprehensive network coverage.

Hetzner Online stands out with its consistent 99.9% uptime guarantee, occasionally reaching 100% in tests. Its diverse data center locations across Germany, Finland, and the USA ensure broad international coverage. The 24/7 monitoring system and free DDoS protection underline Hetzner’s commitment to uninterrupted service.

HostMonster also offers commendable uptime performance, showing minimal downtime over extended testing periods. It provides a “maximum guaranteed uptime” and is efficient in customer support, available 24/7 through multiple channels. Despite these strengths, it slightly falls short due to the lack of month-to-month billing and price increases after the first year.

🏆 Winner
Hetzner: When comparing Hetzner and HostMonster, Hetzner comes out ahead in terms of overall hosting performance. Hetzner’s data centers are spread across Germany, Finland, and the USA, offering ISO 27001 certification which ensures high security standards. They provide 24/7 support via telephone and email, with DDoS protection and daily backups included. HostMonster, while offering unmetered bandwidth and a decent range of features, falls short in terms of advanced hardware and comprehensive global data center locations. HostMonster’s data centers are not specified, which may indicate limited geographic distribution compared to Hetzner. Both providers include SSL certificates and support for various programming languages and CMS platforms, but Hetzner offers more advanced options such as NVMe SSD storage and dedicated vCPU options.

Hetzner’s NVMe SSD disk space results in faster read and write speeds, which significantly enhance website loading times. They also use high-performance hardware including Intel® Xeon® Gold and AMD EPYC™ series processors, which further improves speed and reliability. HostMonster’s performance is categorized by plan; the Pro plan offers higher performance, but details on specific hardware capabilities are limited. While both providers offer caching options, Hetzner’s advanced SSD technology and CPU options give it a noticeable edge in website speed.

Website Speed

Hetzner’s NVMe SSD disk space results in faster read and write speeds, which significantly enhance website loading times. They also use high-performance hardware including Intel® Xeon® Gold and AMD EPYC™ series processors, which further improves speed and reliability. HostMonster’s performance is categorized by plan; the Pro plan offers higher performance, but details on specific hardware capabilities are limited. While both providers offer caching options, Hetzner’s advanced SSD technology and CPU options give it a noticeable edge in website speed.

Scalability

Scalability with Hetzner is highly flexible, providing options for both shared and dedicated vCPU cloud hosting. They offer elastic scaling with no minimum contract period and a 30-day cancellation policy, allowing for expansive growth without long-term commitment. Managed servers allow for easy hardware exchange and various flexible invoicing options. HostMonster, on the other hand, requires plan upgrades for increased resources, and while they offer various tiers, the process isn’t as seamless. The precise costs to scale with HostMonster are unclear, making it harder to predict expenses as your needs grow.

🏆 Winner Hetzner: Provides extensive and advanced security features, making it an optimal choice for secure hosting.

Both Hetzner and HostMonster have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.

Technical security measures:

Hetzner offers a range of SSL certificates including Symantec Basic and Let’s Encrypt for free, while HostMonster provides SSL secure servers and premium certificates at an additional cost. Hetzner supports PHP versions 5, 7, and 8 with extensive PHP extensions, whereas HostMonster supports only PHP 5 and allows customization through PHP.INI files. Hetzner also excels with its DDoS protection and secure connections, including encrypted FTP and SSH access, which are complemented by a comprehensive set of mail security measures. HostMonster provides a basic security checklist along with SiteLock Security for daily vulnerability scanning and automated malware removal, but it doesn’t reach the depth of Hetzner’s technical security provisions.

Operational security measures:

Hetzner ensures daily backups and automatic defense mechanisms against brute force attacks, as well as continuous 24/7 monitoring of system integrity with SMS notifications to service technicians. HostMonster’s operational security includes two-factor authentication, hotlink protection, and Spam Assassin for email protection. SiteLock Security in HostMonster offers proactive vulnerability scanning and automated malware removal, but it lacks the nuanced internal and external system monitoring found in Hetzner. Hetzner’s approach to secure connections covers administrative interface, web mail, and other server accesses, adding an extra layer of protection that’s more extensive compared to HostMonster’s provisions.

Compliance and certifications:

Hetzner complies with GDPR, providing robust data protection in line with European regulations and supports a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) under GDPR Article 28. Moreover, Hetzner’s data centers have ISO 27001 certification. HostMonster complies with GDPR, listing extensive rights for EU residents and supports PCI compliance for Account Levels A and B. However, Hetzner lacks specific information about PCI compliance, while HostMonster does not mention ISO certifications.

🏆 Winner HostMonster: Acclaimed for its robust feature set and flexible hosting solutions, HostMonster emerges as the ideal choice for users seeking a comprehensive hosting package.

Both Hetzner and HostMonster offer impressive hosting features tailored to different user needs. Hetzner stands out with its extensive range of customizations and strong security measures, including daily backups, DDoS protection, and a minimum network availability of 99.9%. It also boasts unlimited traffic and supports a variety of scripting languages (PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby) which makes it ideal for developers. Unique to Hetzner is its support for webshops like Shopware, and it provides a wide range of domains, including popular options like .com and .net. However, Hetzner’s initial setup and additional service fees could be restrictive for users with budget constraints.

Conversely, HostMonster features unlimited domain hosting and unlimited disk storage, catering especially well to users who require vast resources without worrying about limits. Its free domain for the first year and a new website builder that supports drag-and-drop functionalities enhance user friendliness for beginners. Unlike Hetzner, HostMonster offers three different webmail solutions; it’s particularly great for users who prefer a variety of email management tools. Unlimited domains, subdomains, and email accounts bring extra convenience, and with support for numerous eCommerce solutions (like OS Commerce and Zen Cart), it can effortlessly cater to online businesses.

Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both Hetzner and HostMonster offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.

Email services:

Hetzner provides extensive email hosting services, offering up to unlimited mailboxes and email forwarding, as well as support for secure SMTP and multiple synchronization protocols like Exchange Active Sync and iCal. On the other hand, HostMonster offers limitless email support with POP3 and IMAP, along with three different webmail solutions for a more varied user experience. While Hetzner does well with secure email needs, HostMonster’s unlimited email features and multiple webmail interfaces offer a more flexible approach, making it a strong contender for users with diverse email management needs.

🏆 Winner Hetzner: Hetzner scores slightly higher overall, mainly due to the robust features included in their plans and the transparency of what’s included.

Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Hetzner offers a range of hosting and cloud services that provide competitive pricing and feature-rich plans compared to HostMonster. For basic shared hosting, Hetzner’s entry plan starts at €2.09 per month, offering 10 GB of NVMe SSD disk space with unlimited traffic, which is notably less expensive than HostMonster’s Basic Plan starting at $12.99 per month for 50 GB of website space. Additionally, Hetzner’s cloud solutions are varied with options starting from as low as €4.51 per month, whereas HostMonster’s shared hosting plans offer features like unmetered website space and bandwidth but come at a higher price point. Both providers have strengths, with Hetzner offering more economical hourly pricing for cloud options and HostMonster providing extensive email solutions and domain privacy in their higher-tier plans.