DigitalOcean
vs
Heroku
Both run managed containers, Postgres and Redis. DigitalOcean charges less for VMs and adds VPS, Kubernetes, object storage and GPUs, while Heroku charges less for Postgres and adds an add-on marketplace.
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
- Add-on marketplace for databases, logging, monitoring and email
- Postgres with forks, followers and rollback
- Network-isolated Private Spaces across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific
- Salesforce integration through Heroku Connect and AppLink
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | DigitalOcean | Heroku | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | $50.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (Standard-2X) | 88% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Medium VM | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | $250.00 /mo 2.5 GB RAM (Performance-M) | 81% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | $500.00 /mo 14 GB RAM (Performance-L) | 66% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | -- Not listed | |
| Object storage | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | $60.90 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | $50.00 /mo 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage (Standard-0) | 18% cheaper on Heroku |
| Redis | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | $200.00 /mo 1 GB RAM (Premium-5) | 93% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Load balancer | $12.00 /mo Regional HTTP, 1 node | Included in plan | |
| Serverless | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | 2 TB / mo per app | |
| Egress | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | Not publicly listed Soft limit of 2 TB / mo per app |
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 offers 10 GPU models. We don't currently list GPU prices for Heroku.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | DigitalOcean | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Data centers only | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | SAQ-A | Level 1, Heroku Shield only |
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 | Heroku |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2007 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 16 | 10 |
| Example customers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai | World Economic Forum, PixieBrix, TAO Drive, Fastcall |
| Website | digitalocean.com | heroku.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare DigitalOcean and Heroku against other cloud providers.
Our data for DigitalOcean was last updated on Oct. 12, 2026, and for Heroku on Sept. 18, 2026.