Primcast vs Hetzner
Looking for a Hetzner alternative closer to American visitors? Primcast rents dedicated servers in New York, Miami and San Francisco as well as Amsterdam and Bucharest, with one IPv4 address in the price and cPanel installed for you if you want it.
Hetzner builds good machines, but its dedicated servers live only in Germany and Finland. If your audience is in the Americas, that is an ocean between them and your site.
| Item | Primcast | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Cities | Five, in the US and Europe | Germany and Finland |
| Lowest price | $5 a month | $67.10 a month, while stock lasts |
| First IPv4 | In the price | Billed on its own |
| cPanel | Sold and installed by us | Bring your own licence |
| Radio and video | On the same account | Not offered |
01 Why people switch
Most people who look for an alternative to Hetzner are not unhappy with the hardware. They need servers in America, a smaller first step, or a few things Hetzner no longer sells.
01Location
Hetzner sells cloud servers in the US but keeps its dedicated machines in Europe. We run dedicated servers in New York, Miami and San Francisco, plus Amsterdam and Bucharest, so you can put each site or stream near the people who use it. Each city has its own page in our data center guide.
02Price
The smallest Hetzner dedicated server comes with 64 GB of memory and a price to match. If you only need a small box for a site, a VPN or a test, our entry server is $5 a month and you can move up when you need to.
03Software
Hetzner stopped selling new cPanel licences in January 2025. With us you tick cPanel on the order form, it is $49.50 a month for up to 100 domains, and we install it. Would you rather skip the licence? The ISPConfig panel has no monthly fee.
04Streaming
We also run radio hosting and live video, so a station, its website and its server can all sit on one account. The Platinum radio plan takes up to 5,000 listeners at once. Hetzner sells no streaming service, so you would need a second provider.
02 Prices
Each of our starting builds sits above the Hetzner server nearest to it. Some of theirs carry more memory or faster disks for the money, and we say so. Ours win on where they run, on the lower entry price and on what comes in the box.
Entry
$5 a monthplus $13 setup, once
Configure this servervs
$67.10 a monthno setup fee, limited stock
Eight cores
$83.67 a monthplus $29 setup, once
Configure this servervs
$117.10 a monthplus $59 setup, once
Server processors
$217.59 a monthplus $29 setup, once
Configure this servervs
$667.10 a monthplus $334 setup, once
Our prices come live from the order form and are the cheapest complete build of each machine; memory, disks and port can all be raised before you pay. A ready server ordered exactly as it stands has no setup fee, apart from the entry server's own. Hetzner prices are its US dollar list from the price change of 15 June 2026, before VAT and before the IPv4 address, which Hetzner charges for separately. Check Hetzner's site for today's figure, as it changed its prices more than once in 2026.
03 Service
The price of a server is only part of the bill. Here is how the rest compares.
| Topic | Primcast | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated server cities | New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Bucharest | Falkenstein and Nuremberg in Germany, Helsinki in Finland; US locations are cloud only |
| Time to go live | About 30 minutes for a ready server; built to order within 24 hours | Standard models are usually quick; custom options take longer |
| IPv4 address | One included, more on the order form | Charged on top of the server price |
| Port | Unmetered; up to 100 Gbps on our Xeon line | 1 Gbps as standard, faster uplinks as paid extras |
| Control panel | cPanel at $49.50 a month, or ISPConfig with no monthly fee; both installed by us | No new cPanel licences since January 2025 |
| Streaming | Radio and live video on the same account | Not offered |
| Help | Our chat assistant replies within seconds and can look at your account and server; a person steps in whenever you ask | Unmanaged servers; you look after the software yourself |
04 Moving
Keep your Hetzner server running until the new one has passed every check. Then switch.
Pick the data center closest to most of your users, then a server with at least the memory and disk you use today. Tell us what runs on the old box if you want a second opinion.
Install the same operating system, copy your data across over the unmetered port and test the new server under its own address while the old one keeps serving.
Lower your DNS TTL a day early, sync once more, point your domains at the new server and cancel Hetzner when the traffic has moved. Our migration guide walks through each step.
05 Questions
Primcast rents dedicated servers in New York, Miami and San Francisco, which Hetzner does not, plus Amsterdam and Bucharest for Europe. You get one IPv4 address in the price, an unmetered port and cPanel if you want it, and you can add radio or live video on the same account.
It is Hetzner's cheapest dedicated server: an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with 64 GB of memory and two 512 GB NVMe drives, listed at $67.10 a month with no setup fee after the June 2026 price change. LTD means limited, so it is only sold while stock lasts, and it runs in Europe only.
From 15 June 2026, Hetzner lists the AX42-1 at $117.10 a month plus a $59 setup fee. The AX42-1-LTD has the same Ryzen 7 PRO 8700GE with 64 GB of memory and is sold from limited stock at $77.30 a month plus $39 setup. Both figures leave out VAT and the IPv4 address. Hetzner changed its prices and setup fees several times in 2026, so check its site for the current figure.
Not from Hetzner. It stopped selling new cPanel licences on 15 January 2025, so you buy one from cPanel or a reseller and install it yourself. With us, cPanel is an option on the order form at $49.50 a month plus $29.99 once for the installation, which our team does for you.
Yes, every dedicated server comes with one IPv4 address at no extra cost, and you can add more on the order form. Hetzner's list prices leave the IPv4 address out and charge for it on its own.
No. Our ports are unmetered, so you pay for the port speed and never for the gigabytes you send. Hetzner's standard 1 Gbps ports are not metered either, so the difference is in where the server sits and how fast a port you can buy, up to 100 Gbps with us.
A ready server goes live in about 30 minutes after your payment is approved. A machine built to your own specification is ready within 24 hours, and the login details arrive by email.
Start a chat and our assistant answers within seconds. It can check your account and your server, and if you would rather talk to a person, a member of our team takes the conversation over.
Choose a city, pick a machine and pay month to month. If you are not sure which server matches your Hetzner box, ask us in chat first.
