AWS
vs
DigitalOcean
Both sell VPS with managed Kubernetes, databases, serverless and GPUs. AWS adds hundreds of services and GB200 to GB300 nodes worldwide, while DigitalOcean charges less for medium VMs, egress and storage.
What's good about each
- 200+ managed services across compute, storage, databases and AI
- 30+ datacenter locations, including two GovCloud regions
- 100 GB of free egress each month
- Single-GPU T4 up to 8x H200 and B200 nodes
- Monthly price caps on bundled Droplet plans
- Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, plus bare metal
- Outbound traffic allowance shared across the whole account
- Large tutorial library and 1-click app marketplace
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | AWS | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.77 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (t3a.micro) | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | 11% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Medium VM | $110.16 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (c6a.xlarge) | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | 56% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $220.32 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (c6a.2xlarge) | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | 24% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Block storage | $8.00 /mo 100 GB | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | 20% cheaper on AWS |
| Object storage | $37.96 /mo 1 TB | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | 47% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| PostgreSQL | $57.59 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (db.t3.medium) | $60.90 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | 5% cheaper on AWS |
| Redis | $19.58 /mo 2 vCPU, 1.37 GiB RAM (cache.t3.small, Valkey) | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | 23% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Load balancer | $22.34 /mo Network Load Balancer | $12.00 /mo Regional HTTP, 1 node | 46% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Serverless | $36.25 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | Within 5% |
| Egress allowance | 100 GB / mo | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | |
| Egress | $90.00 /TB $0.09 / GB (North America) | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | 89% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
AWS offers 18 GPU models, while DigitalOcean offers 10. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | AWS | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
6 configs · 3 configs
|
$6.88 /GPU/hr On-demand | $4.41 /GPU/hr On-demand | 36% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
|
B300
1 config · 2 configs
|
$17.80 /GPU/hr On-demand | $7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | Different terms |
|
H200
1 config · 3 configs
|
$7.91 /GPU/hr On-demand | $4.47 /GPU/hr On-demand | 44% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
|
L40S
24 configs · 1 config
|
$1.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | 16% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
|
B200
1 config
|
$14.24 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | AWS only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
6 configs
|
$3.36 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | AWS only |
|
A100
6 configs
|
$1.17 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | -- | AWS only |
MI300X
3 configs
|
-- | $1.91 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI355X
1 config
|
-- | $2.97 /GPU/hr Spot | DigitalOcean only |
|
RTX 6000 Ada
1 config
|
-- | $1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | DigitalOcean only |
AWS bills on-demand and reserved (12 or 36 months); DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | AWS | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Data centers only |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | SAQ-A |
| FedRAMP | High, GovCloud; Moderate in US East-West | -- |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | AWS | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2006 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 36 | 16 |
| Example customers | Vanguard, Disney, Samsung, Zocdoc, GoPro | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai |
| Website | aws.amazon.com | digitalocean.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare AWS and DigitalOcean against other cloud providers.
Our data for AWS was last updated on Sept. 27, 2026, and for DigitalOcean on Sept. 27, 2026.