Coolify on Hetzner vs Cloudways: The $5/mo VPS vs Managed Cloud for Client Sites

I have spent over a decade building, launching, and maintaining client websites. For years, my standard agency playbook was simple: spin up a server on Cloudways, pick a DigitalOcean droplet, configure caching, and hand the monthly invoice over to the client. It was reliable, predictable, and saved me from having to play system administrator when an SSL certificate failed at midnight.

Over the past year, the developer community has seen a massive migration toward self-hosting. Open-source Platform-as-a-Service tools like Coolify v4 have matured, offering a polished web dashboard that runs on top of raw compute. When you pair Coolify with a high-value provider like Hetzner, the hardware-per-dollar numbers look absurd compared to traditional managed platforms. You can get a 4-core, 8 GB RAM server with 20 TB of traffic for around €7 a month—resources that would cost $50 to $100 or more on managed cloud providers.

When evaluating Coolify vs Cloudways, the real question for freelancers and agencies is not just raw compute pricing. It is the balance between hardware savings and operational responsibility: how much time you want to spend maintaining servers versus shipping client work.

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The short version

Think of Cloudways as renting a fully managed apartment: the plumbing, electrical wiring, and security guard are included in the bill. If a pipe bursts at 2 AM, you call maintenance and someone fixes it.

Coolify on Hetzner is like buying land and building your own modular house. You get four times the square footage for a quarter of the price, and you can paint the walls whatever color you want. But when the roof leaks on a Sunday evening, you are the one climbing up with the ladder.

• Pick Coolify on Hetzner if you build custom web apps (Next.js, Remix, Astro, Go, Python, Docker containers), understand basic Linux terminal commands, and want to pack 15 to 20 staging or low-traffic client sites onto a $7/mo box.
• Pick Cloudways if you build WordPress or WooCommerce sites for non-technical clients who pay you for reliability, automated offsite backups, and 24/7 human support that answers within three minutes.

The compute math: Hetzner pricing vs Cloudways markup

The primary driver behind the self-hosting movement is the stark price difference between raw unmanaged compute and managed SaaS platforms.

Managed cloud platforms take virtual machines from providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, or AWS, install a proprietary software management layer on top, and charge a monthly markup for the convenience.

Here is what that markup looks like when you compare real-world hardware specifications in 2026:

• Cloudways (DigitalOcean 2 GB Plan): 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe storage, 2 TB bandwidth for $28.00/mo.
• Cloudways (DigitalOcean 4 GB Plan): 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe storage, 4 TB bandwidth for $54.00/mo.
• Hetzner CX23 (x86 AMD EPYC): 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe storage, 20 TB bandwidth for €4.49/mo (~$4.85 with IPv4).
• Hetzner CX33 (x86 AMD EPYC): 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe storage, 20 TB bandwidth for €6.99/mo (~$7.50 with IPv4).
• Hetzner CAX21 (ARM Ampere): 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe storage, 20 TB bandwidth for €8.49/mo (~$9.15 with IPv4).

On Hetzner, €7 a month buys you 4 virtual CPU cores, 8 GB of memory, and 20 terabytes of outbound transfer. To get 8 GB of RAM on Cloudways via DigitalOcean, you pay roughly $99 a month.

Furthermore, Hetzner includes 20 TB of free monthly egress traffic across its European data centers. On hyperscalers and standard cloud providers, exceeding your 1 TB to 2 TB bandwidth limit costs $0.01 to $0.09 per gigabyte. If a client site hosts large media assets or video embeds, bandwidth overages on traditional clouds can generate surprising invoices.

What Coolify on Hetzner does well

Coolify is an open-source self-hosted PaaS with over 59,000 GitHub stars. It turns an unmanaged Linux VPS into a private deployment engine that feels very close to modern platforms like Vercel or Render.

Setting up a Coolify Hetzner setup takes about ten minutes: spin up an Ubuntu 24.04 server on Hetzner Cloud, connect via SSH, and run the official one-line installation script:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.coollabs.io/coolify/install.sh | sudo bash

Once installed, Coolify delivers several distinct advantages:

1. Zero per-application fees and flexible deployments

Coolify does not care how many websites, background workers, or databases you deploy. As long as your Hetzner server has free CPU and RAM, you can add another container with a single click.

It uses Nixpacks and Railpack to automatically inspect your code repository (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket), detect whether you are running Node.js, PHP, Python, Go, or Rust, build an isolated Docker container, and route traffic to it.

2. Modern full-stack freedom

Cloudways is historically built around PHP, Apache, and Nginx. Running a modern web stack—like an Astro marketing site, a Next.js web application, a Node.js background worker, a PostgreSQL database, and a Redis cache on the same server—is clumsy or impossible on traditional managed PHP platforms.

On Coolify, every application runs in its own Docker container. You have access to 280+ one-click service templates, including:

• WordPress (standalone or headless)
• Ghost CMS
• PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, and MongoDB
• Plausible or Umami analytics
• n8n workflow automation
• Directus and Strapi headless CMSs

3. Multi-server orchestration from one dashboard

You can run a single Coolify instance as your central control plane and connect multiple remote Hetzner servers over SSH. You can manage a €4/mo server in Germany, a €7/mo server in Finland, and a US-based instance all from one central web interface.

What Coolify on Hetzner demands from you: the ops reality

While the direct cost savings are compelling, running self hosted PaaS for client sites transfers all system administration responsibilities onto your shoulders.

Here are the maintenance realities you need to plan for before moving client workloads to Coolify:

1. Docker disk bloat and maintenance

Every time Coolify builds an application or updates a container, Docker caches build layers and creates dangling images. On an active development server, Docker can easily consume 20 to 30 GB of disk space in a few weeks.

If your server disk reaches 100% capacity, Docker crashes, databases stop accepting writes, and all client sites go offline. To prevent this, you must set up scheduled cron jobs to prune your Docker storage:

docker system prune -af --volumes

2. Manual Linux OS and security patches

Hetzner provides unmanaged virtual machines. When a critical OpenSSH vulnerability or Linux kernel exploit is announced, nobody patches your server automatically. You must log in via SSH, run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade, and manage server reboots.

3. S3 backup caveats and verification

Coolify includes automated database backup utilities that push database dumps to S3-compatible object storage, such as Cloudflare R2, AWS S3, or Hetzner Object Storage.

However, community issue reports have noted edge cases in Coolify v4’s S3 upload handler (such as issues #7779 and #6690 on GitHub). In some scenarios, a local database dump succeeds, triggering a green success status in the UI, even if the remote upload to an S3 bucket fails due to endpoint formatting.

When using Coolify for client sites, you must manually log into your S3 bucket periodically to verify that database backups are actually arriving.

4. No 24/7 emergency support team

If an Nginx configuration breaks or a database refuses to start on Cloudways, you open a live chat ticket and an engineer diagnoses the server stack.

If your Coolify server drops offline on a Saturday night, you are the support team. You will be reading Docker logs, checking Traefik proxy routes, and searching the Coolify Discord or GitHub issues.

What Cloudways does well

Cloudways exists specifically to eliminate server administration anxiety for digital agencies and freelancers.

1. 24/7 human support safety net

Cloudways provides 24/7/365 live chat support on all plans. For agencies that do not employ a full-time DevOps engineer, having an external team available to troubleshoot server loads, MySQL crashes, or SSL failures is a reliable safety net.

2. The ThunderStack PHP environment

Cloudways uses a custom-tuned server architecture called ThunderStack: an Nginx reverse proxy sits in front of Apache, handling static assets and SSL termination while passing dynamic requests to PHP-FPM, Varnish full-page cache, and Redis object cache.

For WordPress sites, this stack delivers fast Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB) out of the box with minimal manual tuning.

3. Automated offsite backups and 1-click staging

Cloudways takes automated snapshots at the server and application level, storing them offsite on independent infrastructure. Restoring a site or creating an isolated staging clone to test a plugin update takes a single click in the control panel.

4. Cloudflare Enterprise integration

For $4.99 per domain per month, Cloudways allows you to route client traffic through Cloudflare Enterprise. This includes edge page caching, image optimization, enterprise web application firewalls (WAF), and prioritised routing without needing an expensive enterprise contract directly with Cloudflare.

Direct comparison: Coolify on Hetzner vs Cloudways

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the core technical and operational features across both platforms:

Feature / Dimension	Coolify on Hetzner	Cloudways Flexible
Base Cost (2 vCPU / 4GB RAM)	€4.49/mo (~$4.85 USD)	$54.00/mo (DigitalOcean 4GB)
Bandwidth Included	20 TB / month	2 TB to 4 TB / month
Stack Flexibility	Any Docker container (Node, PHP, Go, Python, Rust)	Optimized PHP, WordPress, Magento, Laravel
Reverse Proxy	Traefik or Caddy with automated SSL	ThunderStack (Nginx + Apache + Varnish)
Application Limits	Unlimited (constrained only by RAM/CPU)	Unlimited (constrained only by RAM/CPU)
Supported Databases	Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, Mongo, Redis, ClickHouse	MySQL / MariaDB, Redis
Automated Backups	S3/R2 push (requires manual setup & testing)	Automated offsite snapshots with 1-click restore
1-Click Staging	Manual via Git branch deploy	Built-in 1-click staging and push-to-live
Security Patching	Manual Linux updates via SSH	Fully automated OS and stack patching
Support Model	Community Discord & GitHub Issues	24/7/365 live chat and ticketing
Vendor Lock-in	Zero (open-source Docker containers)	Proprietary cloud management panel

Total cost of ownership: 3 realistic agency scenarios

To see how the numbers play out over a year, let’s examine three typical agency hosting scenarios.

Scenario 1: Small freelancer with 5 client WordPress sites

• Hetzner + Coolify Setup: 1x Hetzner CX23 (€4.49/mo) + Cloudflare R2 backup storage ($0.50/mo) = ~$5.00/month ($60/year).
• Cloudways Setup: 1x DigitalOcean 2 GB plan ($28.00/mo) + backup fees ($0.50/mo) = ~$28.50/month ($342/year).
• Financial Difference: Hetzner + Coolify saves ~$282 per year.

Scenario 2: Growing agency with 25 client websites across 3 servers

• Hetzner + Coolify Setup: 3x Hetzner CX33 servers (12 vCPUs, 24 GB total RAM = €20.97/mo) + Coolify Cloud control plane ($5.00/mo) + AWS S3 backups ($3.00/mo) + external uptime monitoring ($15.00/mo) = ~$44.00/month ($528/year).
• Cloudways Setup: 3x DigitalOcean 4 GB servers ($162.00/mo) + offsite backup storage ($6.00/mo) = ~$168.00/month ($2,016/year).
• Financial Difference: Hetzner + Coolify saves ~$1,488 per year.

Scenario 3: High-traffic WooCommerce store requiring dedicated compute

• Hetzner + Coolify Setup: Hetzner CCX23 Dedicated (4 Dedicated vCPUs, 16 GB RAM = €31.49/mo) + S3 backups ($2.00/mo) = ~$36.00/month ($432/year).
• Cloudways Setup: DigitalOcean 8 GB plan ($100.00/mo) + Cloudflare Enterprise add-on ($4.99/mo) = ~$105.00/month ($1,260/year).
• Financial Difference: Hetzner + Coolify saves ~$828 per year.

The honest verdict

When choosing between Coolify vs Cloudways, the right choice depends on your project types and your comfort level with server maintenance.

Who should pick Coolify on Hetzner

• Full-stack and JavaScript developers: If your work involves Next.js, Remix, Astro, SvelteKit, Go APIs, or custom Docker containers, Coolify provides a superior developer experience.
• Freelancers building internal tools and side projects: You can host dozens of apps, staging databases, and automation tools like n8n for under $10 a month.
• Developers comfortable with the Linux CLI: If you know how to run docker logs, set up an S3 backup bucket, and manage SSH keys, the price-to-performance of Hetzner is unbeatable.

Who should pick Cloudways

• Agencies managing non-technical WordPress clients: If a client pays you $150 to $300 a month for a website care plan, passing along a $28/mo server fee to Cloudways is trivial. The automated staging, 1-click restores, and 24/7 live chat support give you peace of mind and protect your billable hours.
• E-commerce operators: If an online store generates thousands of dollars daily, having managed human support and automated snapshot restores is worth far more than saving $30 a month on hosting.

Where to start

If you are currently on a managed platform and curious about self-hosting:

1. Spin up a test Hetzner VPS: Get a €4.49/mo CX23 instance in Nuremberg or Falkenstein and install Coolify.
2. Deploy your non-critical apps first: Move your personal portfolio, side projects, or client staging environments to Coolify to learn the workflow and verify your backup pipeline.
3. Keep critical client WordPress sites on Cloudways until you have established a reliable routine for Docker maintenance and offsite backup verification.

This article is part of our Hosting Hub. For more on modern development and infrastructure, explore our Build Hub or our guides in AI Coding.

Frequently asked questions

Is Coolify on Hetzner cheaper than Cloudways for client sites?

Coolify on Hetzner is significantly cheaper on direct compute. A €6.99 monthly Hetzner server gives you 4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, and 20 TB bandwidth, whereas Cloudways charges $28 a month for 1 vCPU and 2 GB RAM on DigitalOcean. You get four times the hardware at a fraction of the cost.

Can I host client WordPress sites on Coolify?

Yes. Coolify includes one-click WordPress templates with MySQL and Redis caching via Docker Compose. It handles automated Let's Encrypt SSL and domain routing easily. However, you must configure and verify offsite database backups and server updates yourself instead of relying on a managed platform.

What happens if a Coolify server crashes at 2 AM?

You fix it yourself via SSH. Coolify does not have a 24/7 customer support team or phone line; troubleshooting relies on community Discord channels, GitHub issues, and your own Linux knowledge. On Cloudways, an on-duty support team handles server and platform incidents around the clock.

Can I use both Coolify and Cloudways together?

Yes, and many freelance developers do. Keep high-paying client WordPress or WooCommerce sites on Cloudways where you bill the client for managed hosting and peace of mind. Use Coolify on Hetzner for internal tools, staging environments, headless APIs, and side projects.