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Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

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Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#21

Post by Sayrus »

input_sh wrote: post #20

I wanted to compare the prices to the current prices: > That puts us up to €26,97 a month on our six machines so far. The cost for this same calculation has risen to €41,94 for the exact same configuration (3x CX23, 3x CX33). > These two additional load balancers (lb11) bump up the price with €5.39/mo. lb11 is now €7,49 x 2 = €14,98 > A public IP address costs €1,70/mo which adds an additional €10,20 According to Het…

Not familiar enough about GCP internal, but AWS prices are way higher than what's quoted in the article. You'll get billed for bandwidth, should you want any logs of your control plane you'll pay them at a premium so high* it will dwarf the cluster price and machine price combined. And for ~$70/month, you get the cluster API, not the EC2 compute required for worker nodes.

* Because vended logs to s3 are not supported (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/AWS..., https://github.com/aws/containers-roadmap/issues/1141)

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#22

Post by purrcat259 »

sixhobbits wrote: post #12

I've been running k3 on a single bigger hetzner dedicated machine to power https://demo.opensuite.online , a work-in-progress open source replacement for Google Workspace, a distribution of what the Dutch government is trying to switch to but they seemingly don't care about UX at all so I wanted to try build on their foundations (which in turn are basically just nextcloud, element, and some others). Anyway can defini…

I've been doing the same for over a year. I think single node kubernetes is very underrated, both for running a single project or for multiple.

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#23

Post by tehlike »

Havoc wrote: post #14

Went a slightly different angle - Rasp 4s aren't impressing anyone these days, but 3 of them make for a fine HA controlplane. Once you've got a stable HA controlplane its much easier to connect whatever hardware you have lying around (Just don't use SD cards...use M10 optanes). Also...Talos not k3s.

Instead of Rasp 4s, just get a dell optiplex micro, hp elitedesk, lenovo m920q etc - much more stable, quite low power, and can also use it as a true node, and comes with quick sync for video related tasks.

Install proxmox onto each, create talos VM(s) on each for kubernetes nodes, and you are off to races.

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#24

Post by Havoc »

tehlike wrote: post #23
Havoc wrote: post #14

Went a slightly different angle - Rasp 4s aren't impressing anyone these days, but 3 of them make for a fine HA controlplane. Once you've got a stable HA controlplane its much easier to connect whatever hardware you have lying around (Just don't use SD cards...use M10 optanes). Also...Talos not k3s.

Instead of Rasp 4s, just get a dell optiplex micro, hp elitedesk, lenovo m920q etc - much more stable, quite low power, and can also use it as a true node, and comes with quick sync for video related tasks. Install proxmox onto each, create talos VM(s) on each for kubernetes nodes, and you are off to races.

I've got worker nodes on m920qs and proxmox VMs too for workers, but like the clean segregation of a HA control node group.

I doubt it matter much either way tbh. K8S is inherently resilient.

I did have the rasps on hand though...not sure I'd go and specifically buy them just to achieve said segregation.

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#25

Post by sshine »

I also run Kubernetes on Hetzner and created my nodes prior to two price hikes.

Here's how expenses look and would look if I recreated it today:

  Control Plane   3xCX23  @ €3.99  = €11.97    @ €6.49  = €19.47
  Worker nodes    3xCX33  @ €6.49  = €19.47    @ €9.99  = €29.97
  NAT gateway     1xCPX22 @ €7.99  = €7.99     @ €30.99 = €30.99
  Load Balancers  2xLB11  @ €7.49  = €14.98    @ €9.36  = €18.72
  Hetzner Volumes 240GB   @ €0.044 = €10.56    @ €0.044 = €10.56
  ------------------------------------------------------------
  Total per month                    €64.97               €109.71
Even with the new prices, this is almost twice as cheap as Scaleway for comparable hardware.

---

Only the NAT gateway and the LBs have public IPv4 addresses.

The CPX22 NAT gateway is a little overkill, but I was experimenting with making it both the NAT gateway and the load balancer, and I figured I needed dedicated CPU cores to handle inbound traffic. It was an attempt to cut the cost of Hetzner's own LBs, if it proved to scale. I haven't got around to that part, but today the economics wouldn't add up: LBs are cheaper and less work.

This is Talos Linux: https://talos.dev

Talos can be upgraded via talosctl, so even less maintenance than k3s.

The NAT gateway effectively is a bastion host and would serve fine as a VPN gateway.

The nodes themselves can join a tailnet,

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#26

Post by deepsun »

sshine wrote: post #25

I also run Kubernetes on Hetzner and created my nodes prior to two price hikes. Here's how expenses look and would look if I recreated it today: Control Plane 3xCX23 @ €3.99 = €11.97 @ €6.49 = €19.47 Worker nodes 3xCX33 @ €6.49 = €19.47 @ €9.99 = €29.97 NAT gateway 1xCPX22 @ €7.99 = €7.99 @ €30.99 = €30.99 Load Balancers 2xLB11 @ €7.49 = €14.98 @ €9.36 = €18.72 Hetzner Volumes 240GB @ €0.044 = €10.56 @ €0.044 = €10.5…

Is it per hour/day/month?

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#27

Post by sshine »

deepsun wrote: post #26
sshine wrote: post #25

I also run Kubernetes on Hetzner and created my nodes prior to two price hikes. Here's how expenses look and would look if I recreated it today: Control Plane 3xCX23 @ €3.99 = €11.97 @ €6.49 = €19.47 Worker nodes 3xCX33 @ €6.49 = €19.47 @ €9.99 = €29.97 NAT gateway 1xCPX22 @ €7.99 = €7.99 @ €30.99 = €30.99 Load Balancers 2xLB11 @ €7.49 = €14.98 @ €9.36 = €18.72 Hetzner Volumes 240GB @ €0.044 = €10.56 @ €0.044 = €10.5…

Is it per hour/day/month?

I've clarified; it's per month.

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#28

Post by [deleted] »

deepsun wrote: post #26
sshine wrote: post #25

I also run Kubernetes on Hetzner and created my nodes prior to two price hikes. Here's how expenses look and would look if I recreated it today: Control Plane 3xCX23 @ €3.99 = €11.97 @ €6.49 = €19.47 Worker nodes 3xCX33 @ €6.49 = €19.47 @ €9.99 = €29.97 NAT gateway 1xCPX22 @ €7.99 = €7.99 @ €30.99 = €30.99 Load Balancers 2xLB11 @ €7.49 = €14.98 @ €9.36 = €18.72 Hetzner Volumes 240GB @ €0.044 = €10.56 @ €0.044 = €10.5…

Is it per hour/day/month?

[deleted]

Re: Cheap self-hosted Kubernetes on Hetzner cloud (2025)

#30

Post by nzoschke »

I love Hetzner for some of the cheapest cloud components that can do anything.

One use case is a custom ACME cert broker and DNS server. Another is their storage boxes split up into sub accounts for my and friends backups and music.

I've moved all my web stuff over to exe.dev, but I also turn my Hetzer box into a similar "Agent Computer" by dropping in a binary with `claude` setup and a chat server:

https://github.com/housecat-inc/scratch

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