PostgreSQL Benchmark: AWS RDS vs Hostim vs Self-Hosted on Hetzner (2026)
· 9 min read
Short answer first: at the same size (2 vCPU / 4 GB, PostgreSQL 16), Hostim had the fastest writes, about 2.5× the write throughput of AWS RDS db.t4g.medium and 2.1× a default self-hosted Postgres on Hetzner. Hetzner had the fastest reads, on raw per-core CPU speed. RDS was slowest or near-slowest on both, and its listed price is the smallest part of the real bill.
This post shows every number, the exact commands to reproduce them, and (because it changes the conclusion) what high availability actually costs on each platform.