Compare / DigitalOcean Droplet vs Hetzner Cloud
DigitalOcean Droplet vs Hetzner Cloud
Pre-calculated from hand-checked data — DigitalOcean checked 2026-09-15, Hetzner Cloud checked 2026-09-15.
The short version
DigitalOcean Droplet wins more of our comparison points, but Hetzner Cloud still fits if european projects that need serious compute or move a lot of traffic describes you.
Price DigitalOcean Droplet
DigitalOcean Droplet is cheaper at every stage we model — about $24/mo even for a growing project.
Ease Tie
Both take similar effort to get a first deploy live.
Features DigitalOcean Droplet
DigitalOcean Droplet comes out ahead on 1 of the 15 features we track, versus 0.
What developers say about this matchup
First-person discussions from the past three years that compare these products directly. Summaries are paraphrased; follow the source for the full context.
Users of both compare uptime, networks, support, capacity, managed services, and price; opinions split between DigitalOcean polish and Hetzner value.
Hetzner vs DigitalOcean in 2026A first-person migration compares real costs, performance, and the practical move from DigitalOcean to Hetzner.
Great experience migrating from DigitalOceanThe linked first-person case study reports a large monthly saving and zero-downtime migration while discussing operational trade-offs.
Migrating from DigitalOcean to Hetzner: $1,432 to $233 per monthThe same application was deployed on both providers to compare performance, price, and developer experience.
I deployed the same app on DigitalOcean and HetznerShow 1 more comparison sources
Users directly compare the shortlisted providers on price, performance, support, locations, and production reliability.
DigitalOcean vs Hetzner vs Netcup vs VultrAt a glance
| DigitalOcean Droplet | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Developers comfortable with a Linux server who want predictable pricing and full control. | European projects that need serious compute or move a lot of traffic. |
| How deploys work | You get root on an Ubuntu server: install your runtime, or start from a 1-click image. | You get root on a bare server: bring your own setup, or use one-click apps like Docker and WordPress. |
| The tradeoff | You are the ops team — security updates, backups, and monitoring are on you. | Self-managed like any VPS, and the bandwidth advantage mostly applies to EU locations. |
| Free tier | None | None |
What you'd realistically pay
| Project stage | DigitalOcean Droplet | Hetzner Cloud | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just starting | ≈$6/mo s-1vcpu-1gb — 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM, 25 GiB SSD, 1,000 GiB transfer. A $4 Droplet with 512 MiB exists if that is enough. | ≈€5.99/mo CX23 (EU) — €5.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. Germany and Finland only. | DigitalOcean Droplet |
| Steady traffic | ≈$6/mo s-1vcpu-1gb — A single small Droplet handles steady modest traffic; resize when it stops being enough. | ≈€8.99/mo CX33 (EU) — €8.49 + €0.50 IPv4. 4 shared vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD, 20 TB traffic. | DigitalOcean Droplet |
| Growing | ≈$24/mo s-2vcpu-4gb — 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 4 TB transfer; resize further as needed. | ≈€43.49/mo CCX13 (EU) — €42.99 + €0.50 IPv4. 2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 80 GB NVMe — move to dedicated CPUs when shared bursting stops being enough. | DigitalOcean Droplet |
DigitalOcean Droplet pricing notes
- Same prices in US and EU regions; IPv4 included.
- Billed per second with a 60-second minimum; bandwidth overage $0.01/GiB.
- 1-click images (WordPress, Docker, and more) handle initial setup.
Hetzner Cloud pricing notes
- Traffic overage costs €1/TB in the EU — most providers charge 10–100x that per GB.
- Billed hourly up to a monthly cap.
- Singapore pricing is higher: CCX13 costs €53.99 and CCX23 costs €108.49 before IPv4.
- The Arm-based CAX plans match CX specs at similar prices if the Intel CX line is out of stock.
Our ratings
Ease of use
Pricing clarity
Free tier
Scaling
Control
Feature by feature
DigitalOcean Droplet wins 1, Hetzner Cloud wins 0, with 14 even.
Deploy workflow
| DigitalOcean Droplet | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy from Git push | No No built-in deploy pipeline — you script your own or use CI. | No No deploy pipeline — bring your own CI or scripts. |
| Preview deploys | No Nothing built in. | No Nothing built in. |
| Official CLI | Yes doctl creates, resizes, and snapshots Droplets. | Yes hcloud CLI manages servers, networks, and snapshots. |
| Instant rollbacks | Partial Snapshots and backups can restore a machine; not per-deploy rollbacks. | Partial Snapshots and paid backups restore machines; no deploy-level rollback. |
Platform
| DigitalOcean Droplet | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domains + HTTPS | Yes Point DNS at the Droplet; you run certbot or a proxy for TLS. | Yes Point DNS at the server; TLS is yours via certbot or a proxy. |
| Built-in CDN / edge network | No No CDN — add Cloudflare in front if you need one. | No No CDN product — put Cloudflare in front if needed. |
| Serverless functions | No Not on a Droplet. | No Not a VPS feature. |
| Docker containers | Yes Install Docker or start from the Docker 1-click image. | Yes Docker CE one-click app or install it yourself. |
| SSH / shell access | Yes Full root SSH — it is your server. | Yes Full root SSH. |
| EU hosting region | Yes Amsterdam and Frankfurt at identical US prices. | Yes Germany and Finland are the home turf — this is where the value is. |
Runtime & operations
| DigitalOcean Droplet | Hetzner Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic scaling | No Manual resizing or manual horizontal scaling. | No Manual resizing or manual fleet management. |
| Scale to zero | No The server bills whether busy, idle, or powered off. | No Servers bill until deleted, even powered off. |
| Scheduled jobs | Yes Classic cron on the box. | Yes Classic cron on the box. |
| Managed database | Yes DO Managed Databases run separately and connect over the private network. | No No managed database product — self-host or go external. |
| Logs & metrics built in | Partial Basic CPU/bandwidth graphs and optional metrics agent; app logs are yours to manage. | Partial Basic server graphs in the console; app-level monitoring is yours. |
Watch out for
DigitalOcean
- App Platform containers are small for the money — $12/month buys 1 GiB of RAM, while a $24 Droplet has 4 GiB.
- Managed databases bill separately from both products.
- Bandwidth allowances pool at the team level; overage is $0.02/GiB on App Platform and $0.01/GiB on Droplets.
Hetzner Cloud
- Hetzner raised prices on 15 June 2026: dedicated CCX and shared CPX plans roughly tripled, while the budget CX line rose about 35%.
- The cheap CX plans are sold in Germany and Finland only, in limited capacity — Hetzner sometimes pauses sales when stock runs out.
- US locations include only 1–2 TB of traffic versus 20 TB in the EU — the famous value is a European value.
- Singapore has separate, higher prices. A CCX13 costs €53.99 there versus €42.99 in the EU.
- A public IPv4 address costs €0.50/month extra; only IPv6 is free.
- Servers bill until deleted, even while powered off.
Read the full reviews: DigitalOcean and Hetzner Cloud. Or answer four questions to see what fits your project.