Oracle free tier is two ARM instances max and they nuke idle accounts without warning. "Skill issue" is easy to say when you haven't lost a database to their quarterly purge.
oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
The $1/month host that wasn't terrible
I ran sysbench memory and cpu on the $1 tier for two weeks in May 2025. Results:
- Memory throughput: 4.2 GB/s, no throttling detected
- CPU: consistent with Xeon E5-2680v4 or similar
- Disk: 180 MB/s seq read, 45 MB/s random 4K
For $1/month these are not bad numbers. The catch is the 512MB RAM, which OOMs if you look at it wrong.
fio, iperf, geekbench. results or gtfo.
FyreJun
Member
Thank you for the clarification. I maintain that single-point monitoring remains insufficient for any serious claim. However I will concede that the supplementary data from other members improves the picture. My own preference is for Prometheus with multiple exporters.
The blocklist situation I mentioned has not improved as of last week. If anyone needs clean IP reputation for transactional mail, Hetzner is still a gamble. Not their fault entirely -- shared IPv4 space gets burned by neighbors -- but it is what it is.
SPF, DKIM, DMARC — holy trinity ✉️
norafilch
Member
We looked at Hetzner for a hospital project last year. The DPA issue creek29 raised killed it immediately. Our DPO would not sign off without Article 28 terms in writing. Ended up with OVH instead, not because they are better but because their paperwork arrives in 48 hours.
blogfranck
Member
I pay 4 EUR for their CX11 in Falkenstein. The $1 tier is not available to EU customers, only the US promotion. This is worth remembering -- the cheap tier discussed here is geographically gated.
I did not know the $1 tier was US-only. That explains why I had to select US-East during signup despite being in Warsaw.
licensing is a suggestion
Seattle here. Hillsboro DC is 4ms away for me. Anyone know if the $1 promo applies to US-West?
frankfurt_ops
Member
The $1 promo was Ashburn-only when I checked in January 2025. They may rotate it. I would not count on Hillsboro.
Month 20 update: they answer ticket finally. Say "network maintenance ongoing in Ashburn." No ETA. My uptime now 91%~~~ very much drop.