# Hetzner Server Auction

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Hetzner Server Auction and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Cheap dedicated servers, often with ECC and SSD+HDD combinations, that people use for cost-efficient hosting at scale. Hardware is often old and availability can be unreliable.

## Why people recommend it

- Cost-efficient compared with VMs and colocation (3 comments): "It's just way more cost efficient at any sort of scale (number of projects) when compared to regular VMs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47737522)) "considering RAM shortages gonna be much cheaper than colocation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542431)) "For what I get, those prices are more than reasonable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47135991))
- Good value if latest hardware isn't needed (2 comments): "that's exactly what you're asking for. Used servers, some of them with Skylake (2015) processors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48549621)) "if you don't need the latest hardware, Hetzner is still and outstanding deal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48542806))
- Works for many use cases (3 comments): "entirely on Hetzner auction servers with Firecracker microVMs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46840330)) "Hetzner server auction is great for many use-cases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49111857)) "basically anything on Server Auction is good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773639))
- ECC and SSD+HDD configurations available (2 comments): "auction servers which are great if you are looking for combinations of SSD + HDD servers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47139304)) "Server auction still features cheap servers with ECC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48543668))

## What people warn about

- Auction prices going up (2 comments): "Server auctions are more expensive than last month, I feel like 50% more at a minimum." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48550943)) "We agreed a price by auction, and they are putting it up.." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47152275))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Hetzner dedicated server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hetzner-dedicated-servers.md): 41 recommend
- [OVH dedicated server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ovh-dedicated-servers.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.hetzner.com/sb/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Hetzner Server Auction", https://hackerapproved.com/p/hetzner-server-auction/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).