Hetzner vs DigitalOcean (2026)

Updated 2026-06-14 · Independent affiliate site (disclosure)

Head-to-head comparison

Specs verified on each provider's pricing page on 2026-06-14. We run production sites on Hetzner and have run evaluation workloads on DigitalOcean. The "Winner" column is per-row only, the right overall pick depends on your use case (see below).

How we tested

We did not reprint either company's marketing numbers. These are our measurements under a real workload, plus a price audit of the line items that do not show up in the headline rate.

• Workload: WordPress 6.5 with Yoast, a caching layer (LiteSpeed or Nginx FastCGI plus Redis), and a 2 GB seed database, mirrored on each provider's comparable plan.
• Latency: TTFB sampled from 12 global locations via WebPageTest, sustained over 7 days, recorded as median and P95.
• Disk: NVMe and SSD random read IOPS measured with fio on a fresh instance, before any production data was loaded.
• Reliability: uptime tracked over 90 days with an independent monitor at a 1-minute interval.
• Hidden-cost audit: bandwidth overage, IPv4 charges, snapshot and backup pricing, and the price of the closest-matching plan at each RAM tier. The headline price is rarely the real price.

Where Hetzner wins

Hetzner is a German cloud host that has become the price-performance leader over the past few years. On a pure cost-per-GB-of-RAM and cost-per-TB-of-bandwidth basis, nothing in DigitalOcean's catalog comes close.

What we measured on Hetzner

• TTFB London to Falkenstein: 8 to 12 ms median, 18 ms P95.
• NVMe random read IOPS: about 38,000 sustained on a fresh CX22.
• Uptime over 90 days: 99.99% across two production WordPress sites.
• Effective price per GB of RAM: roughly EUR 1.13 at the CX22 tier (EUR 4.50 for 4 GB).

The bandwidth math is the headline

The CX22 includes 20 TB of outbound traffic and charges around EUR 1 per extra TB in the EU. DigitalOcean's entry Droplet includes 1 TB in a pooled allowance and charges $0.01 per GB over the pool, which works out to $10 per TB. For a site that serves images, downloads, or video, that gap dominates the bill. A workload pushing 5 TB a month sits comfortably inside Hetzner's included allowance while costing $40 a month in DigitalOcean overage on top of the Droplet.

When Hetzner is the right call

• You are comfortable opening a terminal and running apt commands.
• Your audience is mostly EU and US (or you front the origin with a CDN like Cloudflare).
• You want the most RAM, NVMe, and bandwidth per euro, and you do not need first-party managed databases.

Where DigitalOcean wins

DigitalOcean is not trying to win on price. It sells a developer platform: a clean control panel, a marketplace of one-click images, managed data services, and a documentation library that is genuinely the best in the business.

What we measured on DigitalOcean

• NVMe / SSD random read IOPS: about 12,000 to 16,000 on the Basic tier (Premium AMD and Premium Intel tiers run faster NVMe).
• WordPress LCP (1 GB Droplet, cache on): 0.6 to 0.9s on a static-content homepage.
• Time to provision: under 60 seconds from create to SSH-ready.
• Regional TTFB: low single-digit to low double-digit milliseconds to users near a DO region (Singapore, Bangalore, Sydney, several US and EU sites).

The platform advantages

• More datacenters. DigitalOcean spans more continents than Hetzner, so far-away users get lower latency from a nearby region without you running a multi-region setup.
• Managed databases. Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB mean you do not have to run, patch, or back up your own database server.
• Managed Kubernetes (DOKS), Spaces, and App Platform. A real PaaS layer for teams that want to ship without server administration.
• Documentation. The tutorial library is a learning asset on its own. For people new to Linux, that lowers the time to a working stack.
• $200 trial credit. New accounts get a 60-day credit, useful for evaluating before you commit.

When to pick DigitalOcean over Hetzner

We are a Hetzner affiliate and we still tell people to choose DigitalOcean in these cases, because it is the honest answer:

• Your users are concentrated in Asia or Australia. A Singapore, Bangalore, or Sydney Droplet beats a distant Hetzner origin for uncacheable, latency-sensitive traffic.
• You want managed databases without running them. Hetzner gives you the server; DigitalOcean gives you a managed Postgres or Redis with backups and failover handled for you.
• You are new to servers and learn from tutorials. DigitalOcean's docs and one-click marketplace flatten the learning curve.
• You want a PaaS, not a VPS. App Platform deploys from a Git repo with no server to manage. Hetzner has no equivalent first-party product.
• You want to test on free credit first. The $200 / 60-day trial lets you prove out an architecture before paying.

Our recommendation by use case

A common winning pattern: run the origin on a cheap Hetzner CX22 and put Cloudflare in front of it. The CDN caches static assets at edge locations worldwide, which removes most of DigitalOcean's geographic advantage for cacheable content while keeping Hetzner's price and bandwidth allowance. Only truly dynamic, far-from-Europe requests still favor a nearby DigitalOcean region.

Honesty disclosures

We use Hetzner's referral program. If you sign up through our Hetzner link, you get EUR 20 in account credit once you spend EUR 10, and we get EUR 10 in credit after that. It is a mutual-credit program, not a one-way commission, and we think that is the most honest way to describe how we monetize Hetzner. The price you pay is the same either way.

We do not earn a commission on DigitalOcean. Any link to digitalocean.com on this page is a plain link with no tracking parameters. If you decide DigitalOcean is the right fit, sign up on their main site, we earn nothing either way, and we would rather you pick the host that fits your workload than the one we get paid on.

FAQ

Is Hetzner cheaper than DigitalOcean?

Yes, by a wide margin. Hetzner CX22 is EUR 4.50/mo for 4 GB RAM, 2 shared vCPU, 40 GB NVMe, and 20 TB of traffic. The nearest DigitalOcean plan with 4 GB RAM is the Basic 4GB Droplet at $24/mo with only 4 TB of transfer, roughly 4 to 5 times more expensive for one fifth of the bandwidth. DigitalOcean's entry Droplet is $6/mo for 1 GB / 1 vCPU / 25 GB SSD / 1 TB transfer.

Is DigitalOcean faster than Hetzner?

Not on raw disk or CPU. We measured higher NVMe IOPS on Hetzner CX22 (about 38,000 random read) than on a comparable DigitalOcean Basic Droplet (about 12,000 to 16,000). Where DigitalOcean wins is geographic latency: it runs more datacenters across more continents, so a user in Bangalore, Sydney, or Singapore gets lower TTFB from a nearby DO region than from Hetzner's EU or US sites.

What is the difference in bandwidth pricing between Hetzner and DigitalOcean?

Hetzner includes 20 TB of outbound traffic on the CX22 and charges roughly EUR 1 per extra TB in the EU. DigitalOcean pools transfer across Droplets, starts at 1 TB on the $6 plan, and charges $0.01 per GB over the pool, which is $10 per extra TB. For bandwidth-heavy workloads, Hetzner is dramatically cheaper.

Does DigitalOcean have managed databases and Hetzner does not?

Yes. DigitalOcean sells managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Kubernetes (DOKS), Spaces object storage, and App Platform PaaS. Hetzner Cloud offers core primitives (servers, volumes, load balancers, networks, snapshots) and S3-compatible object storage, but no first-party managed database. If you want managed data services without running them yourself, DigitalOcean has the broader catalog.

Which should I pick for a WordPress site?

If you are comfortable with a Linux terminal, Hetzner CX22 at EUR 4.50/mo gives you far more RAM and bandwidth for the money and handles a WordPress site to roughly 30,000 monthly visitors with caching. If you want the largest tutorial library and a marketplace one-click WordPress image, DigitalOcean is friendlier for first-timers but costs more per GB of RAM.

Do both charge for IPv4 addresses?

Yes. Hetzner adds about EUR 0.50/mo per dedicated IPv4. DigitalOcean includes one public IPv4 in the Droplet price but charges for reserved (floating) IPs that are not attached to a running Droplet. Both offer free IPv6. Budget a small monthly add-on for IPv4 on Hetzner.

Can I use Cloudflare in front of Hetzner to fix its limited datacenter coverage?

Yes, and we recommend it. Putting Cloudflare (or any CDN) in front of a Hetzner origin caches static assets at edge locations worldwide, which neutralizes most of DigitalOcean's geographic advantage for cacheable content. Dynamic, uncacheable requests still hit the Hetzner origin, so latency-sensitive APIs for far-away users may still prefer a nearby DigitalOcean region.

Related Guides

• Best Cheap VPS Hosting (2026), the full ranked list with Hetzner, Cloudways, Hostinger, and more.
• Best DigitalOcean Alternatives, cheaper and faster options when DO's pricing does not fit.
• Contabo vs Hetzner, the other budget-EU matchup, cores-per-dollar vs disk speed.
• Hetzner vs Azure: $24 vs $160, head-to-head benchmark with charts.