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Hetzner switches to new billing model

docs.hetzner.com

141–150 of 206 posts

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#141
post #119
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's terrifying. Did they at least give you time to backup your data?

Please note that Hetzner does this only in couple cases: a) fake account data ; b) previous strikes (unpaid invoices, abuse etc..) with them ; c) in some cases customer is from country they do not do business with. I bet gazzilion OP above is within a or b

d) the customer is black, romanian or a jew

I'm awaiting donwvotes, but honestly, if they don't give you a reason, everything can be one, and refusing a service on arbitrary grounds seems illegal to me :D

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#142
post #17

I have a dedicated server in Hetzner and I don't understand what this means. How do they decide when the server is "used"? Based on CPU allocation? SSH sessions? HTTP traffic? Power? It's easy to shut down virtual servers and continue from the same position. It's not that easy to do the same for servers. The linked page is very unclear about this.

It seems pretty clear to me:

> How precisely does Hetzner calculate the hourly billing?

> The beginning of the hourly billing starts as soon as the product becomes available to you.

So for a dedicated server you start paying once the server has been commissioned to you. You stop paying once you return it.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#143
post #139

If we can get over the fact that they ban accounts out of nowhere, that can be good news. But not for me. Because I couldn't even sign up.

Same here. I provided an authentic US drivers license for their verification (which I normally wouldn't do) yet that didn't pass the verification, no reason given. Well, if they don't my money, fine, I'll do it elsewhere.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#144
post #26

I've heard that Hetzner is a good provider, so I want to buy a cheap unmanaged VPS server in the USA. But can not find any mention about VPS. Any help, please? Just need to replace this one (the same bad story $$$ as Netlify recently): https://www.leaseweb.com/fr/cloud/virtual-server

Just use DigitalOcean. Easy setup and very cheap VPS options.

DigitalOcean, even before it had huge layoffs, blocked my new account and wouldn’t allow me to pay. There was absolutely no support whatsoever for that. Just a template email and no other way to escalate or write to a human. I can only imagine how much worse it would be now with reduced staff.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#145

It would be nice if cloud offerings like Hetzner would allow one to set the contract duration and pay in advance, for example, one year. And once that year passes, you could tell them to extend it for another year, or do nothing and get your server deleted. This way you have a control over your spending and avoid surprises. I guess some providers (OVH?) allow you to do that, but of course it requires that all costs b…

As far as I known there are no surprises on Hetzner, they're a solid company, not one of the shady ones that bill on usage without limits.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#146
post #54

It would be nice if cloud offerings like Hetzner would allow one to set the contract duration and pay in advance, for example, one year. And once that year passes, you could tell them to extend it for another year, or do nothing and get your server deleted. This way you have a control over your spending and avoid surprises. I guess some providers (OVH?) allow you to do that, but of course it requires that all costs b…

You can buy credits using a bank transfer [1]. You can also set E-Mail alerts in case your monthly invoice is higher then expected (more traffic etc.) [2]. However, there is no auto-delete as far as I can tell. [1] https://docs.hetzner.com/accounts-panel/accounts/payment-faq... [2] https://docs.hetzner.com/cloud/billing/faq/#how-do-i-keep-my...

I’ve been waiting for Hetzner to allow adding credits into one’s account using credit cards or debit cards (or other modes like PayPal). Being outside Germany (and the EU), a bank transfer is not possible or is difficult and prohibitively expensive.

Hetzner also didn’t seem to support credits across all its services when I checked a few years ago.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still the case, right

Any recommendation for a provider with dedicated servers in the US? I’m with a provider now who is phasing them out.

At a prior company I'd occasionally lease dedicated servers from INAP (now calling that part of their business HorizonIQ after bankruptcy and reorg) - https://www.horizoniq.com/services/compute/bare-metal/

Their business was always a bit chaotic but the technical side of the organization was competent. We were colo'd in one of their datacenters so it was nice to be able to rent additional capacity in the same facility. Servers were manually provisioned, but manageable as you'd expect via online portal after provisioning was complete.

So... not a glowing recommendation I guess, given their corporate instability? But a recommendation nonetheless, the corporate instability never impacted our technical operations and the product was good.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#148

I've only ever heard fantastic things about Hetzner. I'm shocked PE hasn't bought them yet and raised prices.

So had I, until I actually tried to sign up. Have a look at the way they treat you when they have (unfounded) suspicions. It's beyond ridiculous.

They ask for a government ID in some cases. I was able to provide one with some details masked, and they wanted the name on my account to match the name on the government ID. This is a commercial transaction, not Facebook. So I was kinda ok with that. But it is weird and ridiculous.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#149
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So had I, until I actually tried to sign up. Have a look at the way they treat you when they have (unfounded) suspicions. It's beyond ridiculous.

So many problems just disappear when your prices are (relatively) expensive…

Maybe. But price is still one of the larger concerns for many people. When I checked this a couple of years ago, it seemed like Hetzner’s Storage Box (the one sorta competes with your rsync.net) had a much lower price, a much larger capacity per dollar/euro and more storage tiers.

Re: Hetzner switches to new billing model

#150

Hetzner is one of those "just take my money" services, so more power to them. Besides, for some reason I always thought they charge hourly but show pricing in monthly format for easier pricing.

Way better than DigitalOcean, I hope they keep being that way
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