DigitalOcean
vs
Hetzner
Both sell VPS, object storage and load balancers. DigitalOcean adds managed Kubernetes, databases, an app platform and datacenter GPUs, while Hetzner charges less for medium VMs, storage and egress.
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
- High performance VPS configurations at affordable prices (shared, high memory, dedicated CPU)
- Easy to use web console & developer tooling (Terraform SDKs, official CLI)
- EU-based company, may simplify GDPR compliance for some
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | DigitalOcean | Hetzner | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | $6.72 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM (CX23) | 11% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Medium VM | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | $10.09 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (CX33) | 79% cheaper on Hetzner |
| Large VM | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | $18.51 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (CX43) | 89% cheaper on Hetzner |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | $4.94 /mo 100 GB | 51% cheaper on Hetzner |
| Object storage | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | $7.29 /mo 1 TB | 64% cheaper on Hetzner |
| PostgreSQL | $60.90 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | -- Not listed | |
| Redis | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | -- Not listed | |
| Load balancer | $12.00 /mo Regional HTTP, 1 node | $8.41 /mo LB11 | 30% cheaper on Hetzner |
| Serverless | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | 1-60 TB / mo per instance | |
| Egress | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | $1.12 /TB €1 / TB | 89% cheaper on Hetzner |
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, while Hetzner offers 2. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | DigitalOcean | Hetzner | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
B300
2 configs
|
$7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
H100
3 configs
|
$3.26 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
H200
3 configs
|
$3.40 /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 |
|
RTX 6000 Ada
1 config
|
$1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI325X
3 configs
|
$2.88 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
1 config
|
-- | $2.16 /GPU/hr On-demand | Hetzner only |
|
RTX 4000 SFF Ada
1 config
|
-- | $0.42 /GPU/hr On-demand | Hetzner only |
DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months); Hetzner bills on-demand. 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 | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | -- |
| ISO 27001 | Data centers only | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | SAQ-A | Card payments 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 | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 1997 |
| Headquarters | USA | Germany |
| Locations | 16 | 6 |
| Example customers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai | Outdooractive, Bitdefender, Userlike, Whereby, Autodoc |
| Website | digitalocean.com | hetzner.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare DigitalOcean and Hetzner against other cloud providers.
Our data for DigitalOcean was last updated on Oct. 3, 2026, and for Hetzner on Sept. 18, 2026.