Hetzner vs Leaseweb CDN

Compare Hetzner y Leaseweb CDN en capacidades, jurisdicción, garantías y encaje para compradores europeos.

Logo: Hetzner

Hetzner

Germany· Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist for German-owned IaaS/bare metal in DE/FI parks, API cloud VMs, inclusive-traffic EU economics, ISO 27001 + BSI C5 Type 2. Skip for hyperscaler PaaS depth, SOC 2-first audits, or zero US-group footprint (optional US Ashburn/Hillsboro + Singapore via subsidiaries/colocation). Prefer OVHcloud/Scaleway for broader EU portfolios; STACKIT for DE public-sector framing.

EU-operated (DE HQ)Owned DE/FI parksISO 27001:2022BSI C5 Type 2Bare metal + auctionOptional US/SG cloud
Logo: Leaseweb CDN

Leaseweb CDN

Netherlands· Web Hosting and Cloud Computing

Needs review

Shortlist when you want a Dutch (or other local Leaseweb) B2B contract that fronts four partner CDNs with NS1 Pulsar steering and included Amsterdam or Washington, D.C. origin shields. Skip when you need EU-only processors, named partner inventory up front, Cloudflare-class WAF or Workers, or signed URLs without a shield hop. Consider Cloudflare for a single global edge platform, or OVHcloud if you want a French-operated CDN attached to EU datacentres.

Dutch sales entityMulti-CDN (4 partners)Origin shield (AMS + WDC)Portal + REST APIISO 27001 (company, claimed)
Hetzner vs Leaseweb CDN: Resumen
CaracterísticaLogo: HetznerHetznerLogo: Leaseweb CDNLeaseweb CDN
País de origenGermanyNetherlands
CategoríaCloud ComputingWeb Hosting and Cloud Computing
Código abiertoNoNo
AutoalojadoNoNo
SedeGermanyNetherlands
Entidad legalHetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen (HRB 6089 Ansbach)Leaseweb Netherlands B.V. (KvK 30141839, Amsterdam). Website: Leaseweb Global B.V. (KvK 60593652). Other local sales entities exist.
Matriz / control EE.UU.Sin matriz estadounidense conocidaSin matriz estadounidense conocida
Exposición CLOUD Act (indicativa)MedioMedio
Alojamiento / residenciaOwned parks: Nuremberg, Falkenstein (DE), Helsinki (FI). Non-cloud EU-only. Cloud optional US (Ashburn, Hillsboro) and Singapore on 3rd-party colocation. AV subprocessors: Hetzner Finland Oy; US: Hetzner US LLC, NTT Americas, QTS Hillsboro; SG: Hetzner Singapore, NTT SG1. Master data stays EU.Delivery is a mix of four unnamed third-party CDNs (global PoPs). Leaseweb origin shields in Amsterdam and Washington, D.C. Request steering via NS1 Pulsar. Origins may be customer HTTP hosts or S3-compatible buckets (including AWS). Raw logs (including client IP) collected from partners and optionally written to customer S3. No public CDN subprocessor list naming the four partners.
Resumen

German data center operator (Gunzenhausen): dedicated servers, Hetzner Cloud VPS, storage, and owned parks in Germany and Finland, with optional US and Singapore cloud locations.

Dutch Multi-CDN that steers traffic across four partner networks with NS1 Pulsar, plus included origin shields in Amsterdam and Washington, D.C. Sold under local Leaseweb sales entities.

Etiquetas
De un vistazo: Hetzner vs Leaseweb CDN
De un vistazoLogo: HetznerHetznerLogo: Leaseweb CDNLeaseweb CDN
HQGunzenhausen, GermanyAmsterdam, Netherlands
Legal entityHetzner Online GmbH (HRB 6089 Ansbach)No indicado
EU parksNuremberg, Falkenstein (DE); Helsinki (FI)No indicado
Optional cloud regionsAshburn and Hillsboro (US); SingaporeNo indicado
ModelIaaS / dedicated / hosting (unmanaged cloud and root)No indicado
Open sourceNo (commercial infrastructure)No indicado
Website operatorNo indicadoLeaseweb Global B.V. (KvK 60593652)
Typical NL contractNo indicadoLeaseweb Netherlands B.V. (KvK 30141839)
FoundedNo indicado1997 (vendor, 2023 press)
Product typeNo indicadoManaged Multi-CDN (not self-hosted, not open source)
EdgeNo indicadoFour unnamed partner CDNs, 400+ PoPs (vendor claim)
Shield locationsNo indicadoAmsterdam and Washington, D.C.
SteeringNo indicadoNS1 Pulsar (Volume: cost; Premium: QoE)
Commercial modelNo indicadoB2B traffic tiers, annual commitment
Key capabilities: Hetzner vs Leaseweb CDN
Key capabilitiesLogo: HetznerHetznerLogo: Leaseweb CDNLeaseweb CDN
EU-operated (DE HQ)No indicado
Owned DE/FI parksNo indicado
ISO 27001:2022No indicado
BSI C5 Type 2No indicado
Bare metal + auctionNo indicado
Optional US/SG cloudNo indicado
Dutch sales entityNo indicado
Multi-CDN (4 partners)No indicado
Origin shield (AMS + WDC)No indicado
Portal + REST APINo indicado
ISO 27001 (company, claimed)No indicado

Hetzner

  • Dedicated root servers and Server Auction

    Bare-metal root servers with full hardware isolation for predictable I/O and custom OS installs. The Server Auction lists surplus or end-of-primary-use machines at declining prices for labs, secondary environments, and cost-sensitive dedicated capacity.

  • Hetzner Cloud with API, networks, and apps

    VMs with shared or dedicated vCPU classes, managed via Console, REST API, and CLI. Private networks, stateful firewalls, load balancers, Linux images, Terraform/Ansible/Kubernetes integrations, and one-click apps (Docker, Nextcloud, GitLab CE, WireGuard, and more) for self-hosted stacks.

  • Owned EU data center parks plus optional US/Singapore cloud

    Company-operated parks in Nuremberg, Falkenstein (Germany), and Helsinki (Finland). Cloud also in Ashburn, Hillsboro (USA), and Singapore on third-party colocation. Non-cloud products and EU-selected cloud locations keep server data in the EU per Hetzner docs; master data stays in the EU.

  • ISO 27001, BSI C5 Type 2, and console DPA

    Public ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate for DE/FI park scope; BSI C5 Type 2 for cloud; Art. 28 DPA accept-in-console with published TOMs and annual external TOM review available to DPA customers. Not a SOC 2-first vendor.

  • Inclusive traffic-oriented European cloud pricing model

    Pay-as-you-go cloud (hourly or monthly) and list-based dedicated servers, with marketing emphasis on high inclusive traffic on European plans versus hyperscaler egress bills. Confirm current allowances and rates only on the official calculator—figures change by region and over time.

Leaseweb CDN

  • Four-provider Multi-CDN (400+ PoPs claimed)

    Leaseweb sells a managed mix of four unnamed third-party CDNs and claims more than 400 points of presence. One distribution CNAME (examples in docs: di-xxxx.leasewebultracdn.com, *.pr.lswcdn.net, *.vo.lswcdn.net) fronts the mix. Features are limited to the common subset all four support. You cannot pin a user to a specific PoP.

  • NS1 Pulsar Volume and Premium steering

    Leaseweb says it connects partner performance to NS1 Pulsar real-user metrics. Volume tier chooses the most cost-effective partner at similar latency. Premium tier chooses on latency and quality of experience. Regional DNS logic can still send a whole region to a single partner when that path is faster.

  • Origin shields in Amsterdam and Washington, D.C.

    Shield CDN distributions add a Leaseweb cache layer so partner edges do not all hit origin. Marketing states shields are included on Volume and Premium and sit in Amsterdam and Washington, D.C. Shields support multiple path policies, origin groups (up to 10 hosts, round-robin, consistent, sticky, or failover), and tokenized URLs. Wildcard invalidation is not supported on shields. A Multi-CDN invalidation does not clear the shield automatically.

  • HTTP, S3, and object-storage origins

    Simple origins take a hostname or IP. AWS Signature Version 4 can authenticate S3-compatible buckets (Leaseweb Object Storage or AWS). Advanced origins (custom ports, subdirectory) work only behind shields and do not support Sig V4. Authenticated object storage cannot join an origin group. Each origin is HTTP or HTTPS exclusively, not mixed.

  • Portal, REST API, and raw logs to S3

    Distributions, origins, certificates, and invalidations are managed in the Leaseweb Customer Portal (CDN menu, active contract required) or via the documented REST API on developer.leaseweb.com. Raw logs from all partners can be normalized to JSON and uploaded as .gz files to a customer S3 bucket. Leaseweb states logs are informational only and may be delayed or incomplete versus billing records.

  • Cache templates and edge ACLs

    Web, live, and VoD templates set methods, TTL, compression, and stale-serve defaults. Operators can force CDN-controlled or origin-controlled cache, passthrough or static headers, geo blocking, IP-subnet blocking, and referrer allowlists. HTTP/2 is default on all partners. Gzip delivery compression applies only to files up to 20 MB. CORS Access-Control-Allow-Origin is stripped unless you passthrough or set it.

Assurance & compliance: Hetzner vs Leaseweb CDN
Assurance & complianceLogo: HetznerHetznerLogo: Leaseweb CDNLeaseweb CDN
Independent security / no-logs audit
Not applicable

Hosting/IaaS, not a no-logs VPN. Public ISO 27001, BSI C5 Type 2, and annual TOM review (TUV Rheinland) instead.

Not found

Multi-CDN collects partner access logs (IP, URI, cache status) and can ship them to S3. No public independent audit of CDN logging or routing found.

ISO 27001
Verified

ISO/IEC 27001:2022; public SOCOTEC certificate. Scope: infrastructure, operation, support of Nuremberg, Falkenstein, Helsinki parks.

Vendor claimed

ISO 27001:2022 via EY CertifyPoint for multiple entities including Leaseweb Netherlands B.V. and Leaseweb Global B.V. Published certified services omit CDN (bare metal, VPS, cloud, colo, web hosting, domains). Ask for SoA / CDN scope.

SOC 2 / SOC 3
Not found

Hetzner states focus on ISO 27001 rather than SOC 2 for international market.

Partial

SOC 2 published for Leaseweb Canada, Inc. colocation (Security and Availability). Not a Multi-CDN report. Several entities have SOC 1 Type II (EY) covering cloud, dedicated, colo, and web hosting, not CDN.

GDPR / EU data protection
Vendor claimed

German entity; public privacy policy, Art. 28 DPA, TOMs, subprocessor list. Customer remains controller for data on rented systems.

Vendor claimed

EU sales entities; privacy page states GDPR is taken into account. DPA in sales terms. Transfers to US entity via DPF (Leaseweb USA, Inc.). Multi-CDN partners unnamed.

US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)
Partial

EU entity / no known US parent, but optional US cloud uses Hetzner US LLC and US colocation (NTT, QTS); Singapore similarly. EU placements keep server data in EU per docs. Not legal advice.

Partial

Dutch group, no known US parent, but path includes Washington, D.C. shields, Leaseweb USA, Inc., NS1 Pulsar, and four unnamed global partner CDNs. Assessment row, not a vendor claim. Not legal advice.

Data processing agreement (B2B)
Vendor claimed

Standard DPA accept-in-console; sample PDF published; no custom wet-ink DPAs per vendor docs.

Vendor claimed

Vendor: DPA incorporated as Clause 8 of local sales terms; additional standalone DPA on request when appropriate. Confirm Multi-CDN partners and NS1 are scheduled.

EU AI Act
Not applicable

Infrastructure hosting, not an AI system product.

Not applicable

Content delivery and traffic steering product, not an AI system offering.

BSI C5 (cloud)
Verified

Vendor publishes BSI C5 Type 2 attestation PDF for cloud services (German BSI catalogue).

No indicado
KRITIS / section 8a BSIG
Vendor claimed

Hetzner states BSI classification as operator of critical services and certification under section 8a BSIG.

No indicado
PCI DSSNo indicado
Partial

Vendor: PCI DSS 4.0 scoped to physical security at named DCs (AMS-01, FRA-01, LON-01, WDC-02, SIN-01, Montreal). Not a card-data or CDN application control.

CISPE IaaS Code of ConductNo indicado
Vendor claimed

Company says it registered products with CISPE. Confirm whether Multi-CDN is on the public CISPE register.

Considerations & known limitations: Hetzner vs Leaseweb CDN
Considerations & known limitationsLogo: HetznerHetznerLogo: Leaseweb CDNLeaseweb CDN
Optional US and Singapore cloud regions
Medium

Ashburn, Hillsboro, and Singapore use third-party colocation and local subsidiaries; server content placed there leaves the EU. Zero-US-footprint policies may still reject the vendor even for EU-only workloads.

No indicado
Unmanaged cloud and dedicated servers
Medium

You own OS patching, app security, and backups. Platform firewalls help but do not replace customer ops. Poor fit if you need managed DBaaS and full-stack ops.

No indicado
Narrower managed-service catalog vs hyperscalers
Low

Strong IaaS and bare metal; weak match if procurement assumes AWS-parity managed services. Plan hybrid architecture early.

No indicado
ISO scope is DE/FI parks
Low

Published ISO 27001 scope centers on German and Finnish parks. Do not assume identical coverage for every US/Singapore deployment without reading current certificates.

No indicado
Unnamed partner CDNs and NS1 in the data pathNo indicado
High

Delivery and RUM leave Leaseweb facilities. The four partners are not named on public product or legal pages. NS1 Pulsar steers requests. Treat as a multi-processor design until sales produces a current list and DPA schedule.

Washington, D.C. origin shieldNo indicado
Medium

Included shields are in Amsterdam and Washington, D.C. Enabling a shield can place origin-pull traffic in the United States even when the sales entity is Dutch. Live streaming docs also advise against shields for latency reasons.

ISO / SOC reports do not list CDNNo indicado
Medium

Published ISO 27001 and SOC 1 service lists omit CDN. SOC 2 is Canada colocation only. Do not assume Multi-CDN inherits those reports without a scoped letter.

Features limited to partner intersectionNo indicado
Medium

No Multi-CDN URL tokens, no PoP pin, Gzip-only compression with a 20 MB cap, no MPEG-DASH Gzip, mixed origin HTTP/HTTPS unsupported, invalidation rate-limited. SSL and stats propagate on partner clocks.

Raw logs not billed as completeNo indicado
Low

Partner logs shipped to S3 are informational. Leaseweb states they may be late or missing versus invoice counters. Do not use them as a legal completeness record.

Encaje

Hetzner

Best fit when

  • Teams that want German-jurisdiction hosting with owned parks in Germany and Finland
  • Workloads that need bare-metal root servers or cost-effective dedicated via Server Auction
  • Ops-heavy orgs comfortable with unmanaged IaaS (Console/API/CLI, Terraform, apps)
  • Buyers optimizing for EU residency plus inclusive traffic economics versus hyperscaler egress
  • German/EU checklists asking for ISO 27001, BSI C5, and an Art. 28 DPA in-console

Poor fit when

  • Orgs that need a full AWS/Azure-style managed services catalog (PaaS, serverless, AI)
  • Policies that forbid any US subsidiary, US colocation, or optional US region at group level
  • Buyers requiring SOC 2 as the primary assurance artifact (Hetzner focuses on ISO/C5)
  • Teams expecting fully managed OS patching, databases, and DR without operating the stack

Consider instead when

  • When: You need a broader European cloud portfolio or more managed service surface

    Consider: OVHcloud or Scaleway

    Still European operators; compare regions, bare-metal depth, and support models.

  • When: German public-sector sovereign cloud framing is the primary procurement driver

    Consider: STACKIT

    Different product and governance story; verify current certifications and residency.

  • When: You need hyperscaler managed depth more than EU-owned IaaS

    Consider: AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud (accept US-group CLOUD Act posture)

    Trade EU operator control for catalog breadth.

  • When: You want a smaller EU regional cloud with a different feature/region mix

    Consider: Exoscale or UpCloud

    Compare locations, SLAs, and managed options against Hetzner's park scale.

Leaseweb CDN

Best fit when

  • Teams already on Leaseweb dedicated servers, object storage, or private cloud who want delivery on the same invoice
  • Media, ads, SaaS, or gaming publishers who want multi-CDN failover without four vendor contracts
  • Origins that can sit behind an Amsterdam or Washington, D.C. shield and pull over HTTP or HTTPS (or S3 with Sig V4)
  • Operators who will live with partner-subset features (HTTP/2, geo/IP/referrer ACLs, portal and REST API) rather than Workers-style compute
  • Buyers who can accept Volume (cost) versus Premium (QoE) steering instead of pinning a single CDN

Poor fit when

  • Organizations that require an EU-only edge with a public, named subprocessor list (partners are unnamed; WDC shield and NS1 are in path)
  • Sites that need signed URLs, a WAF, bot management, or edge functions on the same product
  • Teams that must purge thousands of URLs per minute or treat invalidation as the publish pipeline
  • Buyers who want a self-serve free tier or an open-source, self-hosted CDN
  • Workloads that need MPEG-DASH Gzip, mixed HTTP and HTTPS to one origin, or per-user PoP selection

Consider instead when

  • When: You need a single global edge with WAF, bot management, Workers, and a self-serve free tier

    Consider: Cloudflare

    US company. Broader edge platform. Different jurisdiction story.

  • When: You want CDN plus compute from one European infrastructure group and can diligence that group's own PoPs

    Consider: OVHcloud

    French operator. Own datacentres. Not a four-provider multi-CDN.

  • When: You mainly need EU origin compute and will add a CDN you can inventory yourself

    Consider: Hetzner or Scaleway

    Neither replaces Multi-CDN. They keep origin in EU facilities you can name.

  • When: You wanted Swiss-branded hosting with optional Cloudflare, not a multi-CDN fabric

    Consider: Swissnode

    Different product class. Optional Cloudflare on web plans.

Open questions for due diligence

Hetzner

  • Does your policy allow a German provider that also offers US/Singapore regions if you only deploy in DE/FI?
  • Is BSI C5 Type 2 + ISO 27001 sufficient, or is SOC 2 mandatory for your auditors?
  • Which SKUs (cloud vs dedicated vs managed web hosting) match your backup and support needs?
  • Will you need regions or managed services Hetzner does not offer natively (CDN, managed DB, AI APIs)?

Leaseweb CDN

  • What are the current four partner CDN legal names, and can they be listed in the DPA?
  • Can routing be constrained to EU (or named) partners and the Amsterdam shield only?
  • Is Multi-CDN in the current ISO 27001 statement of applicability?
  • Will Leaseweb sign a standalone DPA that covers NS1 Pulsar and each partner?
  • What is the current annual-commitment commercial offer (confirm on the official Multi-CDN page or with sales)?