Introduction
When it comes to protecting your Hetzner Cloud servers, you have two primary backup options: automated Backups and manual Snapshots. While both create copies of your server's disk, they differ significantly in pricing models, features, and use cases.
Understanding these differences is crucial for optimizing your backup strategy and costs. This comprehensive analysis examines the pricing structures, technical capabilities, and practical applications of both solutions to help you make an informed decision.
We'll explore real-world scenarios where each option excels, provide detailed cost comparisons across different server configurations, and examine the technical limitations and advantages of both approaches.
Feature comparison overview
Hetzner Backups vs Snapshots
Key differences between automated and manual backup solutions
| Feature | Hetzner Backups | Hetzner Snapshots |
|---|---|---|
| Creation Method | Automatic daily | Manual on-demand |
| Retention | 7 backups maximum | Unlimited (until deleted) |
| Pricing Model | 20% of server monthly cost | €0.012 per GB per month |
| Survives Server Deletion | No | Yes |
| Storage Location | Same location as server | Different location than server |
| Scheduling Control | Automated (no control) | Full manual control |
| Protection Feature | Not available | Lock protection available |
Pricing model analysis
The most significant difference between Hetzner Backups and Snapshots lies in their pricing approaches. Understanding these models is essential for predicting your monthly backup costs accurately.
Hetzner Backups: Server-price-based model
Backups follow a simple percentage-based pricing model:
- Cost calculation: 20% of your monthly server price
- Predictable billing: Easy to calculate and budget for
- No storage size impact: Cost remains constant regardless of actual disk usage
- Inclusive approach: All 7 backup slots included in the single price
Hetzner Snapshots: Storage-based model
Snapshots use a pay-per-usage storage model:
- Cost calculation: €0.012 per GB of actual disk usage per month
- Variable billing: Costs fluctuate based on stored data volume
- Efficient pricing: Pay only for compressed, deduplicated storage used
- Scalable approach: Each snapshot is billed individually
Cost comparison: Small server scenario
CX11 - 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB disk (€3.79/month server cost)
Cost comparison: Medium server scenario
CPX31 - 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 160 GB disk (€13.60/month server cost)
Cost comparison: Large server scenario
CPX51 - 16 vCPU, 32 GB RAM, 360 GB disk (€72.70/month server cost)
Why snapshots are technically better
Beyond pricing advantages, Snapshots offer significant technical benefits that make them the better choice for modern infrastructure backup strategies. Here's why the technical capabilities of Snapshots outshine traditional automated backups.
Precise control when it matters most
The ability to create snapshots exactly when needed is invaluable for maintaining system integrity and minimizing downtime during critical operations.
Snapshot advantages for modern infrastructure
- Pre-deployment snapshots
- Create backups before every deployment, ensuring you can rollback instantly if issues arise
- Maintenance window alignment
- Schedule snapshots during low-traffic periods for optimal system performance
- Development workflow integration
- Perfect for development environments where you need snapshots at specific milestones
- Long-term archival
- Keep important snapshots indefinitely for compliance and historical reference
- Server migration protection
- Unlike backups, snapshots survive server deletion and can be used for infrastructure migrations
- Geographic redundancy
- Automatically stored in different locations for enhanced disaster recovery protection
Better data redundancy and geographic distribution
Why Snapshots work better for disaster recovery
- Automatically stored in different location
- Random allocation within network zone
- Enhanced geographic redundancy
- Better disaster recovery protection
- Independent of source server lifecycle
Backup limitations
- Stored in same location as source server
- Usually different datacenter within same location
- Provides fire zone separation only
- Limited geographic redundancy
- Deleted when server is deleted
Use case recommendations
When evaluating backup solutions for your Hetzner Cloud infrastructure, Snapshots consistently offer superior flexibility, control, and long-term value. Here's why Snapshots are the recommended choice for most use cases.
Advantages of using snapshots
- Perfect timing before deployments
- Create snapshots exactly when your data is in a known good state, before critical changes
- Snapshots survive server deletion
- Unlike backups, snapshots persist even after you delete the original server
- Complete control over timing
- No reliance on automated schedules that might miss important moments
- Better geographic redundancy
- Automatic cross-location storage for enhanced disaster recovery protection
- Unlimited retention
- Keep important snapshots forever for compliance and historical reference
- Cost-effective storage
- Pay only for compressed, deduplicated storage you actually use
Conclusion and recommendations
When choosing between Hetzner Backups and Snapshots, Snapshots are the clear winner for most modern infrastructure needs. They offer better flexibility, improved protection, and more cost-effective pricing for the majority of use cases.
Snapshots provide better control: Create backups exactly when you need them, before critical deployments, and keep them as long as necessary. Unlike Backups, your snapshots survive server deletion and are automatically stored in different locations for enhanced disaster recovery protection.
Cost advantages speak for themselves: For small to medium servers, Snapshots often cost significantly less than Backups. Even for larger servers where costs are similar, the enhanced features make Snapshots the obvious choice.
The automation challenge solved: The only drawback of manual snapshots – the management overhead – is elegantly solved by hetsnap. You get enterprise-grade automation with intelligent scheduling, retention policies, and cost monitoring, while keeping all the advantages of the snapshot approach.
Don't limit yourself to inflexible, expensive backup solutions. Choose Snapshots for better protection and use hetsnap to automate them professionally. Your infrastructure deserves better than basic backups.