Hetzner's CX22 gives you 2 vCPU and 4 GB RAM for $4.35/mo, while DigitalOcean's equivalent costs $18/mo, four times the price for the same specification. DigitalOcean charges more for its managed services and broader regional coverage.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Hetzner | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | No free tier | Free available |
| Paid price | $4.35/mo USD | $6/mo USD |
| Regions | 6 global regions | 9 global regions |
| Bare Metal Option | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | ||
| Managed Databases | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Load Balancers | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| Private Networking | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Firewalls | ||
| Monitoring | ||
| Score | 9/10 | 8/10 |
Hetzner
9
DigitalOcean
8
Runner-up
Hetzner wins on raw value because the 4x price difference is hard to ignore and reliability is comparable. DigitalOcean is worth the premium when you use its managed services heavily or need broader regional coverage, but Hetzner is the obvious choice for a plain VPS.
Pricing
Hetzner's CX22 includes shared AMD EPYC, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, and 20 TB of traffic for $4.35/mo, while DigitalOcean's 2 vCPU / 4 GB Droplet costs $18/mo and includes 4 TB of outbound traffic. Five Hetzner servers cost $21.75/mo, compared with $90/mo for five comparable DigitalOcean servers.
What DigitalOcean Offers for the Premium
DigitalOcean's managed services explain the premium: managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, and OpenSearch are available alongside Droplets in the same control panel, with automated backups, failover, and connection pooling. Its managed Kubernetes offering, DOKS, is more mature than Hetzner's Managed Kubernetes, and Hetzner has no equivalent to App Platform for PaaS-style deploys.
DigitalOcean's documentation is also an advantage because its tutorials cover edge cases, security hardening, and production setup in detail that Hetzner's documentation does not match.
Regions
Hetzner has regions in Europe, Asia, and the United States, while DigitalOcean offers a wider set of regions, making it the safer choice when your workload needs a location Hetzner does not cover.
Reliability
Both have 99.9% SLAs, and Hetzner holds ISO 27001 certification for its data centers, so their reliability is comparable for standard production workloads.