App hosting on Hetzner or DigitalOcean for a small product
For a steady-load app from a small team, Hetzner or DigitalOcean is much cheaper than AWS or Azure. Trade-off: fewer managed services and you own backup, monitoring, updates.
Try this first
- 1Hetzner Cloud: price leader, EU data centers (Falkenstein, Helsinki), simple UI
- 2DigitalOcean: a bit more expensive, better docs and a marketplace for one-click deploys
- 3Plan backup to a second provider (Backblaze, Wasabi), not just a snapshot in the same cloud
- 4Put monitoring and updates explicitly in scope, otherwise it eats your weekend
When to bring us in
For data residency or strict SLA, AWS or Azure stays the safe default. Not every workload fits a budget cloud.
See also
- Everyone logs in with the AWS root accountRoot is for emergencies and billing. Day-to-day work belongs in IAM users or SSO.
- Every developer has AdministratorAccessAdministratorAccess everywhere is convenient now, painful later. Start with role-based policies.
- Everyone has individual IAM users with their own passwordIdentity Center (formerly AWS SSO) links to your IdP and issues temporary credentials per session.
None of the above fits?
Describe your situation below. We pass your input plus the steps you already saw to our AI and return tailored next-step advice. If it's too risky to DIY, we'll say so.
Or skip the DIY entirely
Our Managed IT clients do not look these things up. One point of contact, a fixed monthly price, resolved within working hours.