DigitalOcean
vs
Zenlayer
Both sell VPS, load balancers and GPUs. DigitalOcean adds managed Kubernetes, databases and datacenter GPUs, while Zenlayer charges less for egress and runs edge locations across Latin America and Southeast Asia.
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
- 350+ Points of Presence across 50+ countries with focus on emerging markets
- Flexible quarterly billing for GPUs (no 2-3 year lock-in)
- Strong presence in Southeast Asia, India, China, South America
- Competitive GPU pricing
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | DigitalOcean | Zenlayer | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | $11.50 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM | 48% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Medium VM | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | $52.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM | 8% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | $104.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM | 38% cheaper on Zenlayer |
| Block storage | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | $8.00 /mo 100 GB volume | 20% cheaper on Zenlayer |
| Object storage | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| 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 | $32.70 /mo 1 TB estimated usage | 63% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Serverless | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | -- Not listed | |
| Egress | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | $4.50 /TB Estimated cost to transfer 1 TB per month | 55% cheaper on Zenlayer |
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 Zenlayer offers 1. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | DigitalOcean | Zenlayer | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
3 configs
|
$3.26 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
B300
2 configs
|
$7.94 /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 4000 Ada
1 config
|
$0.76 /GPU/hr On-demand | -- | DigitalOcean only |
|
T4
2 configs
|
-- | $0.56 /GPU/hr On-demand | Zenlayer only |
DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months); Zenlayer 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 | Zenlayer |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Yes |
| ISO 27001 | Data centers only | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | -- |
| PCI DSS | SAQ-A | -- |
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 | Zenlayer |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | -- |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | 16 | 22 |
| Example customers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai | -- |
| Website | digitalocean.com | cloud.zenlayer.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare DigitalOcean and Zenlayer against other cloud providers.
Our data for DigitalOcean was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Zenlayer on Oct. 1, 2026.