Amazon Web Services logo DigitalOcean logo

AWS vs DigitalOcean

AWS is an extensive cloud platform for startups, businesses, and governments of all sizes, while DigitalOcean also offers a wide range of managed services but with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.

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What's good about...

Amazon Web Services logo AWS

  • Extensive range of managed services, from serverless to databases to queues to video streaming
  • Generous free tier and savings plan available to lock-in discounts
  • 30+ datacenter locations around the world

DigitalOcean logo DigitalOcean

  • Simple, developer-first cloud
  • Predictable pricing & monthly caps
  • AI platform powered by Paperspace GPUs
  • Vast library of tutorials & 1-click apps

Price comparison

How do AWS's prices compare against DigitalOcean?

VM Small

Closest config to 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$7.49 / mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (t3.micro)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$6.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic)

VM Medium

Closest config to 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$119.80 / mo 4 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (t3.xlarge)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$48.00 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic)

VM Large

Closest config to 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (dedicated preferred).
Amazon Web Services AWS
$248.20 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (c5.2xlarge)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$168.00 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized)

Block Storage

Closest config to 100+ GB SSD, 3,000+ IOPS, 100+ MB/s throughput, no snapshots.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$8.00 / mo 100 GB
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$10.00 / mo 100 GB

Object Storage

Closest config to 1 TB stored, 100 GB in / 250 GB out, 1M GET, 100k PUT/POST.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$24.63 / mo 1 TB
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$20.00 / mo 1 TiB

Load Balancer

Closest config to TCP, 1 node (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM), 200+ Mbps, 1,000 conn/sec, 1 TB processed/mo.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$22.57 / mo Network Load Balancer
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$12.00 / mo

Managed PostgreSQL

Closest config to 1 node, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50+ GB storage, 10 GB read / 5 GB write per month.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$57.59 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (db.t3.medium)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$60.00 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage

Managed Redis®*

Closest config to 1 node, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 req/s, 1 KB avg request size.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$24.82 / mo 1 vCPU, 1.55 GiB RAM (cache.t2.small)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$15.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM

Serverless 25M Executions

Closest config to 25M invocations, 150ms execution time, 512 MB memory.
Amazon Web Services AWS
$36.26 / mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$34.69 / mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration

Free egress allowance

Amazon Web Services AWS
100 GB / mo
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
100 GB - 10 TB / mo per instance

1 TB of egress beyond allowance

Amazon Web Services AWS
$90.00 $0.09 / GB (North America)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$10.00 $0.01 / GB

GPU Fleet Overview

Starting Price

Amazon Web Services AWS
$0.19/hr
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$0.76/hr

Billing Options

Amazon Web Services AWS
On-DemandReserved (36mo)Reserved (12mo)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
On-DemandReserved (12mo)

Available Models

AWS offers 15 GPU models, while DigitalOcean offers 8.

Amazon Web Services AWS
H100(6) A100(6) H200(1) L40S(24) B200(1) RTX Pro 6000(6) V100(6) L4(24) B300(1) T4(21)
View all 15 GPUs
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
H100(2) H200(1) L40S(1) B300(1) RTX 6000 Ada(1) MI300X(2) RTX 4000 Ada(1) MI325X(1)

Heads up: We do our best to keep these specs & prices accurate. However, cloud costs may fluctuate based on region, usage, and other factors not listed here. These are estimates based on common setups and are for informational purposes only. Always verify current rates & exact specs with the provider before provisioning.

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Which services do they offer

Here are some managed services that AWS and DigitalOcean offer:

Service AWS DigitalOcean
Analytics
App Testing
Block Storage
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Container Registry
Crash Reporting
GPU-powered Servers
Load Balancer
Managed Containers
Managed Kubernetes
Managed MySQL
Managed PostgreSQL
Managed Redis®*
NoSQL Databases
Object Storage
Performance Monitoring
Push Notifications
Realtime Databases
Remote Config
Serverless Cron Jobs
Serverless Functions
Static Sites
User Authentication
Vector Databases
Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Company details

Website
Amazon Web Services AWS
aws.amazon.com
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com
Headquarters
Amazon Web Services AWS
United States of America
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
United States of America
Founded
Amazon Web Services AWS
2006
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
2011
Data Center Locations
Amazon Web Services AWS
31
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
14
Example Customers
Amazon Web Services AWS
Vanguard, Disney, Samsung, Zocdoc, GoPro
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai

Alternatives to consider

Compare AWS and DigitalOcean against other cloud providers.

View all comparisons

Our data for AWS was last updated on June 19, 2026, and for DigitalOcean on June 19, 2026.

Runpod Logo
Runpod
Our sponsor
Spin Up a GPU in Seconds - No Setup Required
Deploy AI Models Globally in 24+ Regions
Scale from 0 to 1000 GPUs on Demand
PyTorch, Tensorflow & Docker Ready
Learn more