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      1 +++
      2 title = "Moving To Hetzner Cloud from DigitalOcean"
      3 date = 2020-11-01
      4 +++
      5 
      6 Since I began working on self-hosting, I've been using a
      7 [DigitalOcean][do] (affiliate link) VPS running [Debian 10][debian].
      8 However, after investigating the alternatives in the space,
      9 I'll be moving to [Hetzner Cloud][hetzner] when my DigitalOcean
     10 credits run out in six months. Here's why.
     11 <!-- more -->
     12 
     13 I went with DigitalOcean as my hosting platform primarily because
     14 of the USD$50 credit included with [Github Student][gh-student].
     15 I've used USD$20 of that credit as of today, and the remaining money
     16 should run out around April 2020, giving me almost a year of VPS
     17 for free. Not a bad deal.
     18 
     19 With that said, as my credits hit the half-way point, I've begun
     20 to think about what's to come. Namely, the fact that my current
     21 server is running at a constant 80% memory usage – severely
     22 limiting what I can self-host.
     23 
     24 ## Money talks...
     25 
     26 I currently use the cheapest DigitalOcean VPS available. I have
     27 1 vCPU, 1GB of RAM, 25GB of SSD, and 1TB of data transfer. All that
     28 power is packed in a clean USD$5 per month. This is, as far as cloud
     29 hosts go, pretty good bang for your buck. Hetzner **blows that out of
     30 the water**. Take a look at this table:
     31 
     32 | **USD/Month** | **vCPU** | **Memory** | **Storage** | **Traffic** | **Provider** |
     33 |:--------------|:---------|:-----------|:------------|:------------|:-------------|
     34 | $3.41 | 1 | 2GB | 20GB | 20TB | Hetzner |
     35 | $4.77 | 2 | 2GB | 40GB | 20TB | Hetzner |
     36 | $5.00 | 1 | 1GB | 25GB | 1TB | DigitalOcean |
     37 | $6.70 | 2 | 4GB | 40GB | 20TB | Hetzner |
     38 | $10.00 | 1 | 2GB | 25GB | 2TB | DigitalOcean |
     39 
     40 Check out the math on that, seriously. Hetzner's base tier offers
     41 1 vCPU, 2GB of ram, 20GB of SSD, and 20TB of data transfer for
     42 USD$3.41 per month. That's double the ram and 20 times the transfer
     43 for almost **half the price** of my current DigitalOcean droplet.
     44 The fourth down in the table above, the one I plan on purchasing, costs
     45 USD$1.70 more than DigitalOcean and has **quadruple the performace**
     46 of my current VPS. That's more than even *Docker* could need. Ok that
     47 might be a slight exaggeration, but it's still a lot.
     48 
     49 ## ...and it speaks for the trees.
     50 
     51 Hetzner is a [green hosting provider][green-web-directory], as
     52 certified by the [Green Web Foundation][gwf]. DigitalOcean is not.
     53 Obviously, climate change is important. If we look at it objectively,
     54 it's one of the only extinction-level threats to human existence at
     55 the moment. All that is to say that switching to a green hosting provider
     56 is the only thing [I need to do][my-carbon] according to [this online
     57 website carbon calculator][carbon-calc], and you know I can't resist
     58 online website metrics.
     59 
     60 ## So that's nice.
     61 
     62 Anyways, that's a pretty good summary of my thoughts on the move. I'm
     63 probably going to use the move to make a few other changes to my hosting
     64 setup (i.e. `docker-compose` to [`k3s`][k3s], [`umami`][umami] to
     65 [`plausible`][plausible]). I'll keep you all abreast of the latest updates
     66 to my hosting in future posts.
     67 
     68 Until then, this is FIGBERT signing off. I should make a more consistent outro.
     69 
     70 [do]: https://m.do.co/c/1f23d011ae24
     71 [debian]: https://www.debian.org/
     72 [hetzner]: https://www.hetzner.com/
     73 [gh-student]: https://education.github.com/pack
     74 [green-web-directory]: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/directory/
     75 [gwf]: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/
     76 [my-carbon]: https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/figbert-com/
     77 [carbon-calc]: https://www.websitecarbon.com/
     78 [k3s]: https://k3s.io/
     79 [umami]: https://umami.is/
     80 [plausible]: https://plausible.io/