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Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

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Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#72
post #27

Are tariffs already in place or is this just a thinly-veiled scapegoat for haircutting traffic allocation by 95%? To a customer, it certainly feels like a bait and switch to sell a subscription product and once customers are embedded materially change the economic trade.

It's the language barrier. The German word Tarif doesn't mean the same as the English word tariff.

Well actually one meaning of the English word tariff is the same as the German meaning, although it's not as widely used. To quote Wiktionary:

> tariff (plural tariffs)

1. A system of government-imposed duties levied on imported or exported goods; a list of such duties, or the duties themselves.

2. A schedule of rates, fees or prices.

3. (British) A sentence determined according to a scale of standard penalties for certain categories of crime.

...so Hetzner's usage of the word is technically correct™, even though native speakers might not use it in this context.

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was expected considering during the last year everyone on Twitter was shouting left and right that everyone should use Hetzner because it is cheap. Yeah it was cheap - only because the demand was low and they were competing on price. Now it will only go up.

Its still a really good price though.

[deleted]

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#75
post #16

Was also disappointed after receiving this update today, price increases across the board and gone are the days of generous 20TB free traffic which we've been enjoying for over a decade. Our Hetzner VMs now limited to 1-3TB free traffic, feels like the end of an era.

But, really? What are you doing, that your VMs need more than 1TB of data per month? That's a huge amount! That's 23MB per minute, continuously. If you have a website with that kind of reach, the prices seem entirely reasonable.

We have about 50TB for about 500.000 users per month. Our Hetzner costs are about 2k per month. Similar setup at aws would cost us about 10 to 20k per month. No joke.

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#76
post #64

This seems to be a huge PR blunder. As a single data point, I have to say that my first reaction is illogical. I have two hetzner shared instances and I am royally pissed by the 20x reduction in traffic allowance. It is also irrelevant to me: over the last 12 months I never exceeded 1TB. My unhappiness on the traffic reduction is purely of a "what if I start using more" type. For which two rational answers is "well y…

Fair I felt similar about it.

But then, I have looked at alternatives before they even offered their US locations (and also for a CA one) and couldn't find anything decent for even nearly the price.

So we can pay a little more and get a little less, or move somewhere else and either pay a lot more or get a lot less

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#77

I run a dedicated server with them that does about 1 TB inbound / 50 GB outbound daily. If they start fucking people over on the dedicated servers as well, this product is basically dead because I can't find anywhere else that allows me to do this at the current price point... Unless of course I slap a box under my desk and hook it up to my fiber internet.

The traffic limit is outbound only. There is no limit on inbound / internal traffic. So even if they were to hit you with a 5TB / month limit, you'd be just fine.

https://docs.hetzner.com/robot/general/traffic/ (bottom of the page)

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#78
post #58
post #39

> Until this change, customers who have used fewer resources have covered the costs, in a way, for other customers who have used much more resources. That is utter nonsense. If the customers who are 'covering the costs' have a problem, they can move? Yet even still they are charging those SAME customers who now actually receive less resources, even if they were using them or not.

> That is utter nonsense. Hardly. Some level of cross subsidisation happens in all service of this nature. Depending on use youre either paying or receiving Most Providers and customers just ignore it as inconsequential though.

The reasoning the gave still doesn't pass the smell test. If it's as they say, then they wouldn't increase the price they would tariff the traffic. Like other providers.

Don't increase prices and claim it's to help the little guy.

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#79
post #39

> Until this change, customers who have used fewer resources have covered the costs, in a way, for other customers who have used much more resources. That is utter nonsense. If the customers who are 'covering the costs' have a problem, they can move? Yet even still they are charging those SAME customers who now actually receive less resources, even if they were using them or not.

Maybe that's exactly what happened. So now nobody is covering the free loaders and they need to charge them.

Re: Hetzner cuts traffic on US VPSs, raises prices

#80

Possible theory why they did it: To my understanding, you don't pay for traffic, you pay for network capacity. Maybe US instances aren't getting the uptake they had hoped for, and they are looking lower some costs by reducing their network capacity (they are a very German company and care a lot about efficiency). Hetzner is very cheap and still profitable because classic "economy of scale" and vertical integration. T…

Counterpoint: They could've lowered their capacity without changing plans if they were indeed seeing lower uptake, and increase capacity as/when it's needed if it did indeed ever pick up. They wouldn't be the first provider to put products out of stock whilst they scale back up.
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