This recurring question of "why AWS/Azure instead of Hetzner/OVH ?" keeps happening because people are incorrectly comparing higher-level PaaS to lower-level IaaS without realizing it.

PaaS != IaaS are not equivalent. IaaS is not a direct drop-in replacement for PaaS to save money if the workload is using PaaS features that IaaS does not include.

The author Troy Hunt is using the higher-level Azure services like Table Storage (like AWS DynamoDB/SimpleDB) and Azure Functions (like AWS Lambda), and others. E.g. One of the article's hyperlinks talks about using Azure Functions.[1]

If he used Hetzner, he'd have to reinvent the Azure services stack with open-source projects (some of which are buggy and immature) and expend extra sysadmin/programming work for something that's not as integrated. The Azure/AWS stack includes many desirable housekeeping tools such as provisioning, monitoring, routing, etc which he'd also have to re-invent.

TLDR: People choose Azure/AWS because it has more features out of the box. You just have to figure out on a case-by-case basis if the PaaS value-add makes financial sense for your particular workload.

EDIT to downvoters: if Hetzner actually has built-in equivalents to AWS Lambda and DynamoDB, please reply with a correction because I don't want to spread misinformation.

[1] https://www.troyhunt.com/serverless-to-the-max-doing-big-thi...