AWS vs GCP vs Self-Hosted Hetzner: 2026 Infrastructure Cost Benchmark for 100k MAU
An itemized cost breakdown comparing managed cloud providers (AWS, GCP) against bare-metal self-hosting (Hetzner + Kubernetes) for a SaaS app serving 100,000 monthly active users.
AWS vs GCP vs Self-Hosted Hetzner: 2026 Cost Benchmark for 100k MAU
As SaaS applications scale beyond initial product-market fit, cloud infrastructure bills frequently become the largest operational expense. Managed cloud platforms like AWS and GCP offer unmatched convenience, but their egress data fees, managed database markups, and compute overhead scale exponentially.
This article provides an itemized 2026 cost comparison for running a production web application with 100,000 Monthly Active Users (MAU) across AWS, GCP, and a self-hosted Hetzner Dedicated / Cloud setup with Kubernetes.
1. Workload Specification (100k MAU Baseline)
- Compute: 4 App Servers (8 vCPU, 16GB RAM total)
- Database: Managed Postgres (Primary + Read Replica, 32GB RAM, 250GB NVMe Storage)
- Caching: Redis / Valkey Cluster (8GB RAM)
- Bandwidth / Egress: 5 TB Egress Transfer / Month
- Object Storage: 500 GB Storage + CDN
2. Monthly Cost Breakdown Matrix
| Service Component | AWS (US-East-1) | GCP (us-central1) | Hetzner Cloud + Bare-Metal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute Nodes | $276.48 (4x t4g.xlarge) | $298.20 (4x n2d-standard-4) | $48.20 (2x CPX41 Cloud Instances) |
| Managed DB | $412.00 (RDS Postgres Multi-AZ) | $445.10 (Cloud SQL Multi-AZ) | $82.00 (Dedicated AX42 Bare Metal) |
| Redis Cache | $68.40 (ElastiCache t4g.medium) | $72.00 (Memorystore) | $0.00 (Co-located container) |
| Network Egress (5TB) | $450.00 ($0.09/GB) | $600.00 ($0.12/GB) | $5.00 (20TB Included free) |
| Object Storage + CDN | $45.00 (S3 + CloudFront) | $52.00 (GCS + Cloud CDN) | $12.00 (Hetzner Storage Box + BunnyCDN) |
| Total Monthly Bill | $1,251.88 / mo | $1,467.30 / mo | $147.20 / mo |
3. The 8.5x Cost Differential: Why Egress & DB Markups Matter
Egress Bandwidth Tax
AWS charges ~$0.09 per GB of outbound data after the first 100GB. For bandwidth-heavy applications (video, image assets, document downloads), egress alone often exceeds the compute bill. Hetzner includes 20TB of free monthly traffic per dedicated server.
Database Managed Surcharge
Managed database services (RDS / Cloud SQL) charge a 2.5x to 3x premium over raw compute for automated backups and failover. Running automated pgBackRest or CloudNativePG operator on Kubernetes achieves equivalent RPO/RTO at zero markup.
4. When Should You Stay on AWS / GCP?
Despite the cost disparity, managed hyperscalers are the right choice when:
- Compliance Requirements: You need SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, or FedRAMP certification out of the box.
- Small Engineering Team: You don't have dedicated SRE/DevOps capacity to manage database backups and node upgrades.
- Global Edge Footprint: Your users require sub-20ms latency across Asia, Europe, and South America simultaneously.
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Last content review: July 2026 · Learntrix by Vyuhantrix
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