Hetzner vs DigitalOcean
Compare monthly cost, included bandwidth, and EU sovereignty for the same vCPU/RAM workload.
Editorial Verdict
Hetzner dominates on raw price-per-vCPU/RAM (€3.49 vs $24 for 4vCPU/8GB) and includes 20TB bandwidth. DigitalOcean wins on global PoPs, managed ecosystem (App Platform, Spaces, Managed DBs), and US enterprise invoicing.
Cost Benchmark Across Typical Workloads
Starter (1 vCPU / 2GB / 1TB)
Hetzner Cloud €3.49/mo
vs
DigitalOcean $12.00/mo
Hetzner Cloud is $8.23/mo cheaper
Web App (2 vCPU / 4GB / 5TB)
Hetzner Cloud €3.49/mo
vs
DigitalOcean $34.00/mo
Hetzner Cloud is $30.23/mo cheaper
High Traffic (4 vCPU / 8GB / 20TB)
Hetzner Cloud €5.39/mo
vs
DigitalOcean $184.00/mo
Hetzner Cloud is $178.18/mo cheaper
Strengths & Trade-offs
Hetzner Cloud
Visit Hetzner Cloud →Strengths
- €3.49/mo for CX22 (2vCPU/4GB/40GB NVMe + 20TB)
- EU GDPR sovereign (Germany/Finland, no CLOUD Act)
- No bandwidth overage surprise with generous included transfer
Gotchas
- EU-only datacenters (no US/Asia without Cloud)
- No native managed Kubernetes autoscale at same level as DO
DigitalOcean
Visit DigitalOcean →Strengths
- 14+ global regions plus CDN
- Rich managed services and 1-click marketplace
- Transparent $24/mo Basic 4 GB droplet with predictable USD billing
Gotchas
- ~3x higher monthly cost for same vCPU/RAM
- Only 3–5TB included bandwidth on equivalent plan
Configure your exact vCPU/RAM/bandwidth
Test your custom workload in the interactive calculator.