DigitalOcean
vs
UpCloud
DigitalOcean and UpCloud both focus on simplicity and offer a wide range of managed services at competitive prices. However, UpCloud being headquartered in the EU may ease GDPR compliance for businesses with strict requirements.
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
- Wide range of VPS options at competitive prices
- Good selection of managed services, from databases to object storage to Kubernetes
- Offers a 100% SLA with 50x compensation for service outages
- Based in the EU, may ease GDPR compliance
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | DigitalOcean | UpCloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | $3.50 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB storage (Starter) | 42% cheaper on UpCloud |
| Medium VM | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | $24.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 40 GB storage (Starter) | 2x more expensive on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | $92.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (Cloud Native) | 45% cheaper on UpCloud |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | $25.00 /mo 100 GB (MaxIOPS) | 2.5x more expensive on UpCloud |
| Object storage | $20.00 /mo 1 TiB | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | Identical |
| PostgreSQL | $60.00 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | $69.00 /mo 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 10 GB storage (Standard) | 13% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Redis | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM | $8.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | 47% cheaper on UpCloud |
| Load balancer | $12.00 /mo | Free 1 node, 1,000 sessions (Essentials) | Free on UpCloud |
| Serverless | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 100 GB - 10 TB / mo per instance | -- Not listed | |
| Egress | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | Free within fair usage policy 1-48 TB per instance, then reduced bandwidth |
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 UpCloud offers 4. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | DigitalOcean | UpCloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
3 configs · 8 configs
|
$4.41 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.89 /GPU/hr On-demand | 2.3x more expensive on DigitalOcean |
|
L40S
1 config · 22 configs
|
$1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | $1.19 /GPU/hr On-demand | 24% cheaper on UpCloud |
|
B300
2 configs
|
$7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
H200
3 configs
|
$3.40 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
MI300X
3 configs
|
$1.91 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI355X
1 config
|
$4.50 /GPU/hr Spot | -- | 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 |
|
B200
8 configs
|
-- | $3.90 /GPU/hr Spot · sold out | UpCloud only |
|
L4
22 configs
|
-- | $0.68 /GPU/hr Spot | UpCloud only |
DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months); UpCloud bills on-demand and spot. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Company details
| Fact | DigitalOcean | UpCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | USA | Finland |
| Locations | 14 | 15 |
| Example customers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai | Aiven, Xensam, HackTheBox, LeadDesk |
| Website | digitalocean.com | upcloud.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare DigitalOcean and UpCloud against other cloud providers.
Our data for DigitalOcean was last updated on Sept. 11, 2026, and for UpCloud on Sept. 12, 2026.