Hetzner
- Servers in Germany
- Monthly price cap
- Daily backups
Hetzner rents us the servers our own tools run on: Twenty, n8n, Notifuse and HeadshotAI, each on its own machine in Germany. The price is capped every month, and the data sits on servers we chose.
- 4servers run our tools
- €65a month for all four, with backups, before VAT
- 2builds on it
- 2services it belongs to
Why our tools live on Hetzner
A price that doesn't creep
Each server has an hourly rate and a monthly cap, so one that runs all month costs the cap and no more. Our smallest is €9.49 a month before VAT.
One server per tool
The CRM, n8n, Notifuse and HeadshotAI each get their own machine. If one needs a restart or a rebuild, the others carry on.
Data in the EU
Our servers sit in Hetzner's data centres in Falkenstein and Nuremberg, in Germany. Our CRM records, workflows and email lists are stored on machines we picked.
Backups for a fifth of the price
Daily backups cost 20% of the server's price and keep the last seven. All four of our servers have them switched on.
Room to grow
When a tool needs more memory, Hetzner lets you move it up to a bigger server type. Our CRM is on the largest of ours: 4 vCPUs and 8 GB.
No per-seat bill
Twenty, n8n and Notifuse don't charge per user or per contact when you run them yourself. The server is the bill.
Hetzner is where our self-hosted tools run. We rent four cloud servers in Germany, one for each tool, and look after them ourselves.
What's on them
- Twenty, our CRM, on the biggest server (4 vCPUs, 8 GB of memory, €17.49 a month).
- n8n, which runs our workflows, on a server with dedicated CPU (2 vCPUs, 8 GB, €15.99 a month on a grandfathered price a new server of that size wouldn't get).
- Notifuse, our email platform (3 shared vCPUs, 4 GB, €9.49 a month).
- HeadshotAI, the headshot tool we built (the same size as Notifuse, €9.49 a month).
Prices are before VAT, from our August 2026 invoice. Each server also has daily backups at 20% of its price and a small charge for its IPv4 address. All four together come to about €65 a month.
What we take on
Hetzner gives you the machine and nothing else. The rest is ours: updates, backups, who can log in, and a written record of every server and what's on it. The API keys we use to check on them are read-only, so a check can't change anything.
We tidy up too
A server you've forgotten about still costs money and still needs patching. On 7 October 2026 we shut down two we'd stopped using, a comments server (three comments ever, all our own tests) and an unused mail server. We took a final snapshot of each first, and it saved about €18 a month, roughly a fifth of what the servers used to cost (about €83 a month before VAT).
Where Google Cloud fits instead
Things that only run when someone asks, like our TechStack Analyser, sit on Google Cloud. Cloud Run can scale down to nothing when nobody's using it, which a rented server can't do.
Which hosting fits you?
A rented server isn't always the cheap option. Pick what you're hosting and we'll tell you where we'd put it.
An app that runs all day
| What matters | HetznerOur pick |  Google CloudAWS and Azure work the same way |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | An hourly rate with a monthly cap for each server | Compute, storage and network, each metered and priced separately |
| A month that never sleeps | Costs the cap, the same every month | Depends on usage, so you estimate it with their calculator |
| Traffic | An allowance with each server, and only outgoing traffic counts | Data leaving their network is charged by the gigabyte, after a free allowance |
| Where it runs | Germany, Finland, the US or Singapore | Regions all over the world |
| Backups | Daily server backups for 20% of the server's price | Snapshots and managed backups, priced by storage |
| Who looks after the machine | You, or us | You, unless you use one of their managed services |
Our pick: Hetzner. A CRM or n8n runs around the clock, and a capped monthly price is easier to plan for than metered compute that's never idle.
Traffic that comes and goes
| What matters | Hetzner | Google CloudOur pick |
|---|---|---|
| Busy moments | You size the server for the peak, by hand | Adds instances automatically as requests arrive |
| Quiet moments | You pay for the server either way | Can scale to zero, so you don't pay for compute while it's idle |
| Deploying | Docker and your own scripts | Push a container image and it runs |
| Access | Whoever has the server login | A role for each person in Google Cloud IAM |
| Managed extras | You install them yourself | BigQuery, databases, queues and AI models ready to plug in |
Our pick: Google Cloud. Cloud Run starts up when a request comes in and scales back down when it's quiet, so a tool that's used now and then costs very little. That's where our TechStack Analyser runs.
Nobody wants to run servers
| What matters | Hetzner | The maker's own cloud plann8n Cloud, Twenty's managed cloud, Notifuse CloudOur pick |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | A server, plus someone's time | A subscription, often per seat or by usage |
| Updates and security patches | You run them | Done for you |
| Backups and uptime | You set them up and check they work | Their job, with a support team |
| Your data | On a server you picked, in the EU if you like | On their servers, in the regions they offer |
| Changes | Anything: it's your install | What their settings allow |
Our pick: The tool's own cloud plan, if nobody on your team wants to own updates and backups. Our rule is to self-host only when a named person patches the server and is on call for it. If that's not you, use the maker's plan and we can connect it to the rest of your setup. It can cost more each month than a small server, and when something breaks at 2am, it's their problem.
Google Cloud's and the makers' cloud plans' facts are from their own pricing pages and docs, October 2026. Prices change, so we've kept their numbers out. Hetzner's billing facts are from its own docs. Our server prices are from our August 2026 invoice, and the €65 is the four servers, their backups and IPv4 addresses added up.
What we connect it to
A server just runs software. Without updates, backups and someone keeping an eye on it, a self-hosted tool is a risk, not a saving.
Where we've used Hetzner
- Built by us
Pacing CRM
Our own CRM: a form fill becomes a person, a deal and an instant alert.
See the build
+2 - Built by us
Pacing Headshots
A headshot app we forked, rebuilt on our design system and run ourselves: 4 to 10 selfies in, studio-style headshots out, from £14.99 with no subscription
See the build
Services that use it
We don't sell it on its own. Each of these services uses it alongside the rest of your setup.
- Custom BuildsWhen nothing you can buy does the job, we build the missing piece and connect it to the rest. We've built and run several of these for ourselves.How it fits
- Place in the loop: TrackingTech & TrackingTracking that ties every visit and lead back to where it came from, and follows it into your CRM, set up so your data and your customers' data stay safe.Related tools: Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Stape, Looker Studio, Google Tag Manager (GTM)How it fits
What Hetzner is
Hetzner is a German hosting company, founded in 1997. It runs its own data centre parks in Nuremberg and Falkenstein in Germany and Helsinki in Finland, and also offers cloud servers in the US and Singapore.
Its cloud servers are billed by the hour with a monthly cap, so you never pay more than the monthly price. Backups cost 20% of the server's price and keep seven copies. Only outgoing traffic counts against the allowance that comes with each server. You get a bare Linux machine, or one with Docker ready to go, and everything on it is yours to run.
Questions about Hetzner
Straight answers on how we work, what it costs and what to expect. If yours isn't here, just ask.
Still have questions?
Talk to usIs self-hosting on Hetzner cheaper than paying for the tool?
The monthly bill usually is. Our servers cost between €9.49 and €17.49 a month each before VAT, and the tools on them (Twenty, n8n and Notifuse) don't charge per user or per contact when you run them yourself.
The catch is time. Someone has to apply updates, check the backups and fix it when it breaks. If nobody on your team wants that job, the tool's own cloud plan is often the better deal.
Start with your numbers.
We'll tell you which tools you need and which connections are missing.
Bring your numbers.
We'll tell you if the spend makes sense.
- A 15-minute callYour goals, your challenges, and whether we're the right fit.
- A 1-hour discovery callWe dig into your numbers. Worth a hundred emails.
- A concrete planAds, a custom build or both, as a one-off project or ongoing.