DigitalOcean
vs
Azure
What's good about each
- Simple, developer-first cloud
- Predictable pricing & monthly caps
- AI platform powered by Paperspace GPUs
- Vast library of tutorials & 1-click apps
- Integrations with the rest of Microsoft's products
- Extensive range of managed services, from serverless to databases to queues to AI
- Generous free tier, and compute savings plans available
- 60+ datacenter locations around the world
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | DigitalOcean | Azure | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | $6.13 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (B2pts v2) | Within 5% |
| Medium VM | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | $86.87 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (B4pls v2) | 45% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | $173.74 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (B8pls v2) | Within 5% |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | $8.10 /mo 100 GB | 19% cheaper on Azure |
| Object storage | $20.00 /mo 1 TiB | $21.50 /mo 1 TB | 7% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| PostgreSQL | $60.00 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | $131.89 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (Gen 5) | 2.2x more expensive on Azure |
| Redis | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM | $39.60 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic C1) | 2.6x more expensive on Azure |
| Load balancer | $12.00 /mo | $23.25 /mo Standard | 48% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Serverless | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | $29.80 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | 14% cheaper on Azure |
| Egress allowance | 100 GB - 10 TB / mo per instance | 100 GB / mo | |
| Egress | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | $87.00 /TB $0.087 / GB (Premium network North America) | 8.7x more expensive on Azure |
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 Azure each offer 10 GPU models. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | DigitalOcean | Azure | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
3 configs · 20 configs
|
$4.41 /GPU/hr On-demand | $6.98 /GPU/hr On-demand | 37% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
|
H200
3 configs · 4 configs
|
$4.47 /GPU/hr On-demand | $13.78 /GPU/hr On-demand | 3.1x more expensive on Azure |
MI300X
3 configs · 4 configs
|
$2.59 /GPU/hr On-demand | $7.86 /GPU/hr On-demand | 3x more expensive on Azure |
|
B300
2 configs
|
$7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI355X
1 config
|
$4.50 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | 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 |
|
RTX PRO 6000
40 configs
|
-- | $1.02 /GPU/hr Spot | Azure only |
|
A100
20 configs
|
-- | $0.68 /GPU/hr Spot | Azure only |
|
GB200
4 configs
|
-- | $11.90 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | Azure only |
DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months); Azure 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.
Company details
| Fact | DigitalOcean | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 | 2008 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 14 | 66 |
| Example customers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai | General Motors, NHS, Fujitsu, NBA |
| Website | digitalocean.com | azure.microsoft.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare DigitalOcean and Azure against other cloud providers.
Our data for DigitalOcean was last updated on Sept. 14, 2026, and for Azure on Sept. 14, 2026.