DigitalOcean
vs
Google Cloud
Both sell VPS, managed Kubernetes, databases, serverless and H100 and H200 GPUs. DigitalOcean charges less for medium VMs, egress and storage, while Google Cloud adds BigQuery, TPUs and hundreds of services.
What's good about each
- 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
- 40+ regions across 26 countries
- BigQuery, GKE and Gemini models on Vertex AI
- TPUs, plus Nvidia T4 up to 8x B200 nodes
- Automatic sustained use discounts on N1 and N2 VMs
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | DigitalOcean | Google Cloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | $6.79 /mo 2 vCPU (shared-core), 1 GB RAM (e2-micro) | 12% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Medium VM | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | $94.20 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (E2 custom) | 49% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | $220.44 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (n4-highcpu-8) | 24% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | $7.89 /mo 100 GB (Hyperdisk Balanced) | 21% cheaper on Google Cloud |
| Object storage | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | $42.13 /mo 1 TB | 53% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| PostgreSQL | $60.90 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | $94.22 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD (Cloud SQL Enterprise) | 35% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Redis | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | $22.90 /mo 1.4 GB (Memorystore for Valkey, shared-core-nano) | 34% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Load balancer | $12.00 /mo Regional HTTP, 1 node | $29.16 /mo Passthrough Network Load Balancer | 59% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Serverless | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | $44.66 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (Cloud Run functions, 0.333 vCPU) | 22% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Egress allowance | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | 1 GB / mo (Compute Engine), 100 GB / mo (Cloud Storage) | |
| Egress | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | $120.00 /TB $0.12 / GB (Premium network) | 92% 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
DigitalOcean and Google Cloud each offer 10 GPU models. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | DigitalOcean | Google Cloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
3 configs · 15 configs
|
$4.41 /GPU/hr On-demand | $11.07 /GPU/hr On-demand | 60% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
|
H200
3 configs · 3 configs
|
$3.40 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | $7.32 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | 54% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
|
B300
2 configs
|
$7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
MI355X
1 config
|
$2.97 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI300X
3 configs
|
$1.91 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
L40S
1 config
|
$1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
B200
3 configs
|
-- | $4.18 /GPU/hr Spot | Google Cloud only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
16 configs
|
-- | $1.98 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | Google Cloud only |
|
A100
36 configs
|
-- | $1.31 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | Google Cloud only |
|
L4
32 configs
|
-- | $0.32 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | Google Cloud only |
DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months); Google Cloud bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 or 36 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 | DigitalOcean | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Data centers only | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | SAQ-A | Yes |
| FedRAMP | -- | High |
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 | DigitalOcean | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2008 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 16 | 40 |
| Example customers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai | Shopify, Wayfair, Etsy, The Home Depot, Unilever, Lloyds Banking Group |
| Website | digitalocean.com | cloud.google.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare DigitalOcean and Google Cloud against other cloud providers.
Our data for DigitalOcean was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Google Cloud on Oct. 1, 2026.