DigitalOcean vs Hetzner: Complete 2026 Comparison

Two of the most popular VPS providers, but with very different approaches. DigitalOcean pioneered developer-friendly cloud, while Hetzner offers unbeatable European value. Let's break down which one wins.

Quick Verdict

Category	Winner
Pricing	🏆 Hetzner (40-60% cheaper)
Performance	🏆 Hetzner (better specs/dollar)
Ecosystem	🏆 DigitalOcean (managed services)
Documentation	🏆 DigitalOcean (legendary tutorials)
Global Reach	🏆 DigitalOcean (more regions)
Best Value	🏆 Hetzner

TL;DR: Hetzner wins on price/performance. DigitalOcean wins on ecosystem and convenience. For pure VPS hosting, Hetzner is the better deal.

Pricing Comparison

Here's where Hetzner dominates:

Specs	DigitalOcean	Hetzner	Savings
1 vCPU, 1GB RAM	$6/mo	€3.29/mo (~$3.50)	42%
2 vCPU, 2GB RAM	$18/mo	€5.39/mo (~$5.80)	68%
2 vCPU, 4GB RAM	$24/mo	€6.49/mo (~$7)	71%
4 vCPU, 8GB RAM	$48/mo	€14.99/mo (~$16)	67%
8 vCPU, 16GB RAM	$96/mo	€29.99/mo (~$32)	67%

Hetzner is 40-70% cheaper for equivalent specs. That's not a typo.

Bandwidth

• DigitalOcean: 1-6TB included, $0.01/GB overage
• Hetzner: 20TB included, €1/TB overage

Hetzner's bandwidth is far more generous.

Performance Benchmarks

Testing on comparable plans (2 vCPU, 4GB RAM):

Metric	DigitalOcean	Hetzner
Geekbench 6 (single)	~1,100	~1,250
Geekbench 6 (multi)	~1,900	~2,300
Disk Read (MB/s)	~300	~450
Disk Write (MB/s)	~250	~400
Network (internal)	2 Gbps	1 Gbps

Hetzner's AMD EPYC CPUs outperform DigitalOcean's Intel chips in most workloads.

Data Center Locations

DigitalOcean (14 regions):

• US: NYC, SFO, Toronto
• Europe: London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam
• Asia: Singapore, Bangalore
• Australia: Sydney

Hetzner (5 regions):

• Europe: Nuremberg, Falkenstein, Helsinki
• US: Ashburn (Virginia), Hillsboro (Oregon)

Winner: DigitalOcean for global reach. Hetzner is excellent if you're serving Europe or US, limited elsewhere.

Features Comparison

DigitalOcean Advantages

1. Managed Databases — PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB
2. Managed Kubernetes — Full K8s without the ops
3. App Platform — PaaS for deploying apps
4. Spaces — S3-compatible object storage
5. Container Registry — Built-in Docker registry
6. Monitoring & Alerting — Integrated dashboards
7. One-click Apps — WordPress, Docker, GitLab, etc.

Hetzner Advantages

1. Price — Drastically cheaper
2. vSwitch — Private networking between servers
3. Floating IPs — Free failover IPs
4. Volumes — Cheap block storage (€0.044/GB)
5. Load Balancers — €5.39/mo (vs $12 at DO)
6. Dedicated vCPU — True dedicated CPU plans
7. Robot API — Full automation

Feature Matrix

Feature	DigitalOcean	Hetzner
Managed Databases	✅	❌
Managed Kubernetes	✅	❌
Object Storage	✅ Spaces	❌
Block Storage	✅	✅ (cheaper)
Load Balancers	✅ $12/mo	✅ €5.39/mo
Firewalls	✅	✅
Snapshots	✅ $0.06/GB	✅ €0.012/GB
Backups	✅ 20% of VPS	✅ 20% of VPS
Private Network	✅ VPC	✅ vSwitch
API	✅	✅
Terraform	✅	✅

Developer Experience

DigitalOcean

The original developer cloud. Beautiful UI, legendary documentation, and everything just works:

# Install doctl CLI
brew install doctl

# Create a droplet
doctl compute droplet create my-server \
  --image ubuntu-22-04-x64 \
  --size s-2vcpu-4gb \
  --region nyc1

Their community tutorials are gold. Need to set up Nginx? PostgreSQL? Docker Swarm? There's a step-by-step guide.

Hetzner

Clean, functional UI. Good API and Terraform support:

# Using hcloud CLI
hcloud server create \
  --name my-server \
  --type cx21 \
  --image ubuntu-22.04 \
  --location nbg1

Documentation is adequate but not as comprehensive. Community is smaller.

Support

DigitalOcean:

• Ticket support (24/7)
• Premium support plans available
• Massive community forum
• Extensive documentation

Hetzner:

• Ticket support (business hours DE)
• German efficiency — quick, direct responses
• Smaller community
• Good but sparse docs

Both are self-service focused. Don't expect hand-holding.

When to Choose DigitalOcean

✅ You need managed databases or Kubernetes ✅ You want an integrated PaaS (App Platform) ✅ You're in Asia/Pacific and need local servers ✅ You value documentation and tutorials ✅ You're using their ecosystem (Spaces, Registry, etc.) ✅ Your company pays, and convenience matters more than cost

When to Choose Hetzner

✅ Price is the priority (save 50%+ monthly) ✅ You're serving Europe or US ✅ You want raw VPS performance ✅ You manage your own stack (databases, K8s, etc.) ✅ You're running multiple servers (savings multiply) ✅ You're comfortable with self-managed infrastructure

Our Recommendation

For most developers: Hetzner.

The price difference is too significant to ignore. You get better specs for less money. Unless you specifically need DigitalOcean's managed services, Hetzner is the smarter choice.

But consider Hostinger if you want the best value overall — $4.99/mo for 4GB RAM beats both on the low end.

Use Case	Recommended
Budget-conscious	Hetzner or Hostinger
Managed services needed	DigitalOcean
Europe/US hosting	Hetzner
Asia/Pacific	DigitalOcean
Learning/Tutorials	DigitalOcean
Production workloads	Hetzner

FAQ

Is Hetzner as reliable as DigitalOcean?

Yes. Hetzner has been running data centers since 1997. Their uptime is excellent.

Can I migrate from DigitalOcean to Hetzner?

Absolutely. Snapshot your droplet, download the image, and restore on Hetzner. Or use rsync for file-level migration.

Does Hetzner have one-click apps?

Yes, but fewer. They have Docker, GitLab, WordPress, and others. DigitalOcean's marketplace is larger.

Which has better DDoS protection?

Both include basic DDoS mitigation. Neither is specialized for DDoS defense — consider Cloudflare for that.

Is Hetzner GDPR compliant?

Yes, Hetzner is German and fully GDPR compliant. Great for EU data residency requirements.