IaaS With K8s in Germany on Hetzner

Running Kubernetes on Hetzner infrastructure in Germany has become an increasingly popular choice for businesses that need a cost-effective, high-performance container orchestration platform while maintaining full control over their data. Hetzner's combination of competitive pricing, ISO 27001 certified data centers, and a robust API makes it well-suited for self-managed Kubernetes deployments.

Hetzner offers two primary infrastructure options for Kubernetes: dedicated root servers and Hetzner Cloud virtual machines. Dedicated servers provide raw performance at remarkably low prices, with machines featuring modern AMD or Intel processors, NVMe storage, and generous RAM allocations. Hetzner Cloud offers the flexibility of on-demand virtual machines with per-hour billing, a comprehensive API, and features like private networking, floating IPs, load balancers, and block storage volumes.

For Kubernetes specifically, the Hetzner Cloud Controller Manager and the Hetzner CSI (Container Storage Interface) driver enable native integration between Kubernetes and Hetzner's infrastructure. The Cloud Controller Manager provisions load balancers automatically when Kubernetes services of type LoadBalancer are created. The CSI driver allows Kubernetes persistent volumes to be backed by Hetzner Cloud block storage, providing dynamic volume provisioning directly from your cluster.

Several tools simplify the process of bootstrapping Kubernetes on Hetzner. kube-hetzner is a popular open-source project that uses Terraform to provision a production-ready Kubernetes cluster on Hetzner Cloud, complete with k3s as the lightweight Kubernetes distribution, Cilium or Flannel for networking, and optional components like Traefik for ingress. For those who prefer a more traditional Kubernetes distribution, kubeadm works well on both Hetzner Cloud VMs and dedicated servers.

Data sovereignty is a key advantage of choosing Hetzner for Kubernetes in Germany. Hetzner operates data centers in Nuremberg, Falkenstein, and Helsinki. For organizations that need to know exactly where their data resides, hosting Kubernetes workloads in German data centers provides clear jurisdictional certainty and straightforward regulatory compliance. Unlike hyperscaler offerings where data may traverse multiple regions, Hetzner's infrastructure is transparently located and managed.

Hetzner's ISO 27001 certification covers their data center operations, ensuring that physical security, access controls, and operational procedures meet internationally recognized standards. The company designs and builds its own data centers, maintaining full control over the infrastructure stack from the physical facility through to the network architecture.

Networking on Hetzner requires some planning for Kubernetes. Hetzner Cloud provides private networks (vSwitch) that allow servers to communicate over isolated Layer 3 networks without traffic traversing the public internet. This is essential for Kubernetes cluster communication, where etcd, the API server, and pod-to-pod traffic should be isolated from public networks. Floating IPs and load balancers provide stable entry points for external traffic.

The cost advantage of Hetzner over hyperscalers is substantial. A three-node Kubernetes cluster on Hetzner Cloud with capable VMs (4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM each) costs a fraction of what equivalent instances on AWS, GCP, or Azure would cost. For dedicated servers, the savings are even more pronounced. This makes Hetzner particularly attractive for startups, development environments, and organizations that have the expertise to manage their own Kubernetes infrastructure.

The trade-off is clear: Hetzner does not offer a managed Kubernetes service comparable to GKE, EKS, or AKS. You are responsible for cluster provisioning, upgrades, monitoring, and troubleshooting. This requires Kubernetes expertise on your team or through a consulting partner. However, for organizations that already have this expertise, the combination of Hetzner's infrastructure quality, German data center locations, and aggressive pricing makes it one of the most compelling options for running Kubernetes in Germany. Building on infrastructure owned and operated by a European company also means that critical decisions about your platform are not subject to the policy changes or pricing shifts of a distant corporate headquarters whose priorities may not align with yours.

ISO 27001, IaaS, Germany