Deploying a Cheap, Self-Hosted Kubernetes Cluster on Hetzner Cloud
Cheap Self-Hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner Cloud
I explore how to build a cost-effective, highly available K3s cluster on Hetzner Cloud using the Kube-Hetzner Terraform module. By leveraging MicroOS for immutable nodes and optimizing network configurations, we achieve a production-ready setup for under 60 euros monthly, avoiding vendor lock-in while maintaining European data sovereignty.
Even if an attacker gains host-level access, any changes are discarded on reboot.
- rsyring
My experience with Hetzner VM pricing has turned me off of considering them for anything else. Maybe the experience in other world regions is not the same but this is what happened to us:
I started to use Hetzner's VM options in the Virginia, US datacenter. They had a great performance to cost ratio when I compared them to Linode/Akamai and Digital Ocean about a year ago. At that time, 4vcpu / 8GB server cost $24.99 per month.
Now, to get a VM like it, it's quoted $73.49 a month. Almost a 3x change.
I understand data center economics are changing due to LLM usage. But the Hetzner jump has not been mirrored by their competitors. I'm disappointed I made the switch from Linode. We still have some older VMs there and we'll likely continue to use them instead of Hetzner moving forward.
- input_sh
I wanted to compare the prices to the current prices:
> That puts us up to €26,97 a month on our six machines so far.
The cost for this same calculation has risen to €41,94 for the exact same configuration (3x CX23, 3x CX33).
> These two additional load balancers (lb11) bump up the price with €5.39/mo.
lb11 is now €7,49 x 2 = €14,98
> A public IP address costs €1,70/mo which adds an additional €10,20
According to Hetzner's pricing page, this is now free on CX23, but costs an additional €0,50 on CX33.
> ...making our total €47,95/mo pre-VAT
€41,94 + €14,98 + €1,50 = €58,42, or roughly a 22% increase. Still over €10 cheaper than the prices the article quotes for a managed cluster on AWS/GCP, but as someone that does this for a living, €10-15 extra is a very negligible price to pay to avoid the amount of headaches you'll get by having to manage and upgrade the cluster yourself.
- sixhobbits
I've been running k3 on a single bigger hetzner dedicated machine to power https://demo.opensuite.online, a work-in-progress open source replacement for Google Workspace, a distribution of what the Dutch government is trying to switch to but they seemingly don't care about UX at all so I wanted to try build on their foundations (which in turn are basically just nextcloud, element, and some others).
Anyway can definitely recommend, it feels like a real cluster but it's all on a single piece of hardware which makes snapshots etc super simple.