Hetzner vs Netfirms: guide for 2024

Final verdict

Looking over Hetzner vs. Netfirms, 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.

• 
  Hetzner (Overall grade: 7.9)
  
  
  delivers a robust hosting experience with a strong 99.9% uptime guarantee, high-performance NVMe SSDs, and advanced hardware like Intel Xeon Gold and AMD EPYC processors. It’s an excellent choice for high-traffic and multimedia websites due to its scalable cloud and VPS options, comprehensive suite of security features, and efficient user management tools. However, it lacks live chat support, which can be a drawback for users needing immediate assistance. Its versatile infrastructure, detailed documentation, and flexible scaling options make it a strong contender for businesses needing technical flexibility and high performance.
  
• 
  Netfirms (Overall grade: 7.3)
  
  
  offers reliable shared and dedicated hosting solutions with a focus on simplicity and cost-effectiveness, making it ideal for small businesses and beginners. It provides essential features like unlimited storage, scalable bandwidth, free SSL certificates, and a free domain for the first year. The 24/7 live chat support and user-friendly control panel are significant pluses, although it falls short in terms of advanced customization options and hardware capabilities. The lack of cloud and VPS hosting options limits its scalability for larger, more complex websites. Despite its limitations, Netfirms presents a solid choice for those seeking basic, affordable hosting services.
  

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: Provides reliable hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and extensive data center coverage.

Hetzner Online offers a well-established uptime guarantee of 99.9%, consistently supported by tests reaching and sometimes exceeding this benchmark. Their data centers are strategically located in Germany, Finland, and the USA, enhancing reliability. The hosting provider also ensures network availability of 99.9%, backed by a redundant network using Juniper backbone technology. Additionally, their 24/7 monitoring ensures swift response to any issues.

Netfirms offers a similarly strong uptime record in practice but lacks a clear, explicit uptime guarantee on their official site. With data centers in New York and Toronto, they provide geographic redundancy for North American users. Their 24/7 customer support through multiple channels helps address any issues promptly. Despite a stable performance, the less explicit uptime assurance brings a slight drawback compared to Hetzner Online.

🏆 Winner
Hetzner: Superior hosting features and performance.

When comparing the general performance of Hetzner and Netfirms, Hetzner stands out with its high-performance NVMe SSDs, load balancing, and support for advanced processors like Intel Xeon Gold, AMD EPYC, and Ampere Altra. This ensures faster load times and better overall performance for websites. Netfirms, while offering essential SSD storage and scalable bandwidth, cannot match Hetzner’s extensive hardware capabilities. Both providers offer free SSL certificates and have multiple data centers; Hetzner’s are in Germany, Finland, and the USA, whereas Netfirms does not specify locations.

Website Speed

Hetzner provides NVMe SSDs, which are known for high read/write speeds, boosting website performance. Additionally, Hetzner offers 24/7 monitoring and DDoS protection, ensuring a minimum of 99.9% uptime. Netfirms also boasts a 99.9% uptime but lacks the advanced hardware of Hetzner. While both offer scalable bandwidth, Hetzner’s infrastructure, including load balancers and dedicated server options, ensures faster and more reliable website speed.

Scalability

Hetzner offers flexible scaling options with shared and dedicated vCPU plans, allowing for automatic scaling based on needs. They also provide managed server services with no minimum contract period, 30-day cancellation, daily backups, and hardware exchange services, making scaling both easy and cost-effective. Netfirms offers dedicated and shared hosting plans that require manual upgrades. The cost to scale with Netfirms can be higher due to the lack of more automated and flexible options compared to Hetzner.

🏆 Winner Hetzner Online: Hetzner offers a comprehensive set of security features including SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and 24/7 monitoring.

Technical security measures:

Hetzner provides a comprehensive range of SSL certificates, including Symantec Basic SSL and Let’s Encrypt, both offered for free. Netfirms also offers a variety of SSL certificates, including free ones from Let’s Encrypt, as well as several paid options that come with warranties and TrustLogo® Site Seals. In terms of PHP versions, Hetzner supports multiple versions including PHP5, PHP7, and PHP8, providing flexible configuration through their PHP Configurator. Netfirms’ specific supported PHP versions are not provided. Both providers offer robust additional security features such as DDoS protection for Hetzner and SiteLock security plans for Netfirms.

Operational security measures:

Hetzner offers ISO 27001 certified data centers and DDoS protection with automated defense mechanisms and system integrity checks. It also provides secure connections for various accesses including KonsoleH, FTP, and SSH. Netfirms, on the other hand, offers SiteLock security including daily malware scanning and blacklist monitoring through different SiteLock plans. Additionally, Netfirms has various domain privacy and protection features to prevent identity theft and unauthorized access. Moreover, Netfirms provides domain security alerts and 24/7 support, which is a strong operational support feature.

Compliance and certifications:

Hetzner ensures GDPR compliance, providing a Data Processing Agreement and following strict European data protection regulations. Although there is no specific information about its HIPAA compliance, Hetzner does offer ISO 27001 certified data centers, indicating a high standard of data management and security. In contrast, Netfirms adheres to GDPR requirements and offers comprehensive PCI compliance, verified through their partner SiteLock. Netfirms also ensures merchants can confirm their PCI compliance through their e-commerce software developer and payment provider.

🏆 Winner
Hetzner Online GmbH: A comprehensive hosting provider with robust features and extensive customization options.

Hetzner and Netfirms both offer a range of hosting features, but they cater to different user needs. Hetzner stands out for its high degree of customization and technical flexibility, including interactive server login via SSH and support for multiple PHP scripts. Users can also benefit from unlimited traffic, a high number of sub-domains, mailboxes, and databases, making it suitable for those with more advanced requirements. This provider also offers diverse domain options and extensive backup solutions, contributing to its versatility and reliability.

Netfirms, on the other hand, focuses on simplicity and convenience, offering plans with unlimited storage and scalable bandwidth, which are ideal for small businesses or individual users. A free domain for the first year and the free SSL certificates across all plans are significant perks. Additionally, Netfirms provides essential eCommerce solutions and marketing tools, making it a good choice for beginners and small businesses looking to build a robust online presence without the complexity of more technical features.

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 Online GmbH and Netfirms 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:

Email services at Hetzner offers expansive email services, including numerous mailboxes, email forwarding, webmail, and support for synchronized email protocols like Exchange Active Sync. This makes it suitable for businesses needing comprehensive email hosting capabilities. Netfirms does not specify detailed email hosting features, which suggests a potentially less robust offering in this area. Users needing advanced email hosting should consider Hetzner for superior options.

🏆 Winner
netfirms: Netfirms offers a competitive edge with comprehensive pricing plans tailored for different user needs, ensuring great value.

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. Although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.

Hetzner’s web hosting plans range from €2.09 to €21.90 per month with features such as unlimited traffic, multiple databases, and DDoS protection. Netfirms offers pricing starting at $3.95 per month, scaling up to $10.95 per month, including unlimited storage and free SSL certificates. Both providers include comprehensive support options, but Netfirms includes a free domain name for the first year, adding considerable value to their offering. The unique hourly billing option by Hetzner offers flexibility, whereas Netfirms’ plans emphasize fixed monthly billing.

Enterprise plans

Hetzner offers managed server plans like vServer MC60, packed with 32 GB RAM and 400 GB NVMe SSD, making it viable for high-demand applications at €64.26/month. Meanwhile, Netfirms primarily focuses on shared and VPS hosting, providing scalable bandwidth and full eCommerce solutions, which are ideal for rapidly growing enterprises.

🏆 Winner Hetzner: Reliable managed server setup with extensive documentation and support.

Hetzner uses a custom admin panel called konsoleH, which allows users to create accounts, manage domains, emails, and websites with ease. This interface is user-friendly for both technical and non-technical users. The konsoleH panel offers a straightforward setup process, simplifying the management tasks for users who may not be familiar with server administration. Moreover, the ability to switch account types and delete accounts directly from the panel adds to its flexibility and usability.

Netfirms offers a more traditional approach with a control panel that integrates services like domain management and Google Workspace. This integration simplifies the onboarding process, making it easy to manage hosting and domain services in one place. Netfirms’ control panel is intuitive, making it accessible even to those who are not technically inclined. The instant access to Google Workspace within the control panel is a definite advantage for users who rely heavily on Google’s suite of tools.

Hetzner provides a comprehensive suite of migration tools, including detailed guides and tutorials for migrating domains, websites, mail, and databases. These resources are available for free and aim to make the migration process as smooth as possible. Netfirms offers onboarding assistance which includes site migration, but details on whether this service is free or paid are less clear. Both providers aim to simplify migration, but Hetzner’s extensive documentation gives it an edge.

The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. Hetzner’s help center includes extensive documentation, 24/7 support via telephone and email, and community-contributed tutorials, enhancing resource accessibility. The Hetzner documentation proves to be highly detailed and supportive for a variety of tasks, ensuring users can find help easily. Netfirms also provides 24/7 support via chat and phone, a well-stocked knowledge base, and specific support for Google Workspace integration. While both have strong support systems, Hetzner’s additional community-tutorial incentives add significant value.

🏆 Winner Hetzner: A versatile hosting provider with strong user management and advanced customizability.

Hetzner and Netfirms both offer substantial features for managing user roles, permissions, and accessibility. Hetzner enables administrators to create distinct user groups and assign roles with unique permissions. It also provides extensive customization options for each user. In contrast, Netfirms allows WordPress site owners to define user roles such as Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber, with permissions tailored to content management. While Netfirms provides predefined roles suited for a content-centric environment, Hetzner offers more flexibility in user role creation and management, ideal for diverse administrative needs.

Both Hetzner and Netfirms feature user interfaces and tools designed to simplify user management. Hetzner leverages a dashboard approach where administrators can easily navigate via their profile picture to add groups and users. Additional settings for storage quotas and user information are also seamlessly integrated. Netfirms, on the other hand, utilizes the WordPress Dashboard, which is straightforward and intuitive for site owners familiar with WordPress. It features simple navigation through the ‘Users’ section to add or manage users and assign roles, making user management hassle-free.

In terms of access control measures and scalability, Hetzner excels with its advanced options such as setting maintenance rules and defining administrative accounts. The platform allows detailed activity monitoring through a user activity overview and offers password reset and SSH access options. These features enable Hetzner to manage a growing user base efficiently. Netfirms, through WordPress, provides sufficient access control via predefined roles but lacks the detailed settings and customizability that Hetzner offers, which becomes critical as user numbers increase.

Hetzner user roles table:

🏆 Winner
Netfirms: Reliable 24/7 support with multiple channels including live chat offers a strong advantage.

Hetzner Online offers phone, email, and ticketing support, with extensive documentation to help users resolve issues independently. They provide support in various languages, which can be beneficial to a diverse customer base. However, the absence of live chat support and the reported slow resolution of billing and account issues are significant drawbacks.

Netfirms stands out with 24/7 availability via phone, web chat, and email, ensuring prompt and efficient problem-solving. This hosting provider also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee which can provide peace of mind to new users. Priority support for higher-tier customers further enhances its support efficacy. Despite some hassles with billing and cancellation, Netfirms generally delivers a positive customer service experience with quick response times.

User feedback

Users generally find the hosting provider to be cost-effective with robust performance capabilities, able to handle demanding tasks reliably. Many reviewers appreciate the competitive pricing, ease of use, and the fast, reliable infrastructure. While customer support is often praised for its availability and helpfulness, some users believe it could still see improvements. The platform’s dashboard and additional features could benefit from enhancements, but overall, users are satisfied with the value and quality of service provided.

Based on user reviews, the hosting provider appears to offer decent uptime and moderately reliable customer support. However, users frequently report slow server performance and connectivity issues that significantly hamper the experience. While some appreciate the low costs and basic domain registration services, others criticize the clunky system, confusing server setup, and unreliability, especially when working with CMS tools. Overall, the service seems better suited for those with low budgets and high patience.

FAQ