DigitalOcean vs Hetzner: Complete 2026 Comparison
DigitalOcean and Hetzner are both cloud infrastructure providers, but they suit different priorities. Across our 7-category breakdown, DigitalOcean comes out ahead, winning 2 of them — including Performance and Beginners.
Data last updated June 2026
Overall Winner
DigitalOcean
- Wins in 2 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Performance, Best for Beginners
- 4.2/5 overall rating
DigitalOcean vs Hetzner: Overview
On entry pricing, Hetzner is the cheaper option at $1.90/mo versus $4.00/mo for DigitalOcean. Hetzner also gives you a longer 14-day money-back window to test risk-free.
DigitalOcean's standout is best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach — a natural fit for developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing. Hetzner, by contrast, leans on best price-performance VPS in industry with 100% green energy and German data protection, ideal for developer or business wanting affordable, high-performance infrastructure with European data sovereignty.
Category Winners
Best Price
Hetzner
$1.90/mo vs $4.00/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
DigitalOcean
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Tie
Similar support options
Best for WordPress
Tie
Similar WordPress features
Best for Developers
Tie
Similar developer features
Best for Beginners
DigitalOcean
Higher ease of use score (6.5/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | Cloud Infrastructure | Cloud Infrastructure |
| Monthly Price | $4.00/mo | $1.90/mo |
| Renewal Price | $4.00 | $1.90 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.0/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 2,140 | 2,570 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $48.00 | $41.88 |
| Second Year Cost | $48.00 | $41.88 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 14 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | 0 months | 1 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD/NVME | SSD/NVME |
| Bandwidth | 500 GB | 20000 GB |
| Max Websites | — | — |
| Max Databases | — | — |
| PHP Versions | — | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 |
| SSH Access | ||
| Git Deployment | ||
| Staging Environment | — | — |
| Cron Jobs | ||
| Redis Available | ||
| Programming Languages | ||
| Node.js Support | ||
| Python Support | ||
| Ruby Support | ||
| WordPress Features | ||
| WordPress Optimized | ||
| WordPress Auto-Install | ||
| WordPress Auto-Updates | ||
| WordPress Staging | ||
| WooCommerce Optimized | ||
| LiteSpeed Cache | ||
| Object Caching | ||
| WP Multisite | ||
| WP-CLI Access | ||
| Security | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| DDoS Protection Level | Standard DDoS protection included on all Droplets | Basic DDoS protection included; Advanced protection available |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Weekly (20% extra) or Daily (30% extra) or Usage-based | Manual/Snapshot-based |
| Backup Retention | 7 days | — |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Ticket, Live Chat (paid plans), Knowledge Base, Community Forum, Tutorials | Ticket, Phone, Knowledge Base, Community Forum |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7 (Standard $99/mo and Premium $999/mo plans) | — |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | — | Business hours (Mon-Fri) |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | German, English |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | — | — |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | 0 | 0 |
| Mailbox Size | — | — |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | DigitalOcean CDN (additional product, paid) | — |
| Server Locations | New York (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Toronto (TOR1), Amsterdam (AMS3), Frankfurt (FRA1), London (LON1), Bangalore (BLR1), Singapore (SGP1), Sydney (SYD1), Atlanta (ATL1) | Nuremberg (Germany), Falkenstein (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Ashburn, VA (US), Hillsboro, OR (US), Singapore |
| Server Location Count | 15 | 6 |
| Choose Server Location | ||
| HTTP/2 Support | ||
| Brotli Compression | — | — |
| Uptime SLA Credit | ||
| Platform Support | ||
| Drupal Support | ||
| Joomla Support | ||
| Magento Support | ||
| Laravel Support | ||
| Django Support | ||
| Next.js Support | ||
| Rails Support | ||
| Static Site Support | ||
| Control Panel | ||
| cPanel Included | ||
| Control Panel | DigitalOcean Control Panel | Hetzner Cloud Console |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 0 | 0 |
| Migration Turnaround | — | — |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | — |
| Migration Quality | — | — |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS | ISO 27001, SOC 1, SOC 2, C5 (BSI) |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 4.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Performance Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Support Quality | 3.5/10 | 2.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4.5/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.5/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 2.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 4.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 1.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Outbound transfer included per plan (500GiB-11TB); $0.01/GiB overage; Inbound always free | 20TB+ included; €1.19/TB overage |
| Storage Overage | Pay for additional Block Storage at $0.10/GiB/month | Pay for additional storage volumes |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2012 | 1997 |
| Headquarters | United States | Germany |
| Parent Company | Independent (publicly traded NYSE: DOCN since March 2021; major investors include Access Industries, BlackRock, Vanguard) | Independent (privately held; founded by Martin Hetzner) |
| Green Hosting | — | |
| Instant Activation | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Managed WP Available | ||
| Pricing Model | — | — |
| Monthly Visit Limit | — | — |
| Visit Overage Cost | — | — |
| PHP Workers | — | — |
| Plugin Restrictions | — | — |
| Dev Environment | — | — |
| Dev Env Name | — | — |
| Regional Info | ||
| Best Countries | United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Canada, Australia | Germany, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, United States |
| Local Currencies | USD | EUR, USD |
| Support Languages | English | German, English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS | GDPR |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.5/5 |
| BBB Rating | D- | N/A (Germany-based) |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available) | MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | — |
| PHP Switching | — | |
| Subdomains | — | — |
| FTP Accounts | — | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | No money-back guarantee; Pay-as-you-go with per-second billing (60-second minimum); Can destroy resources anytime; Unused credits remain in account | 14-day cancellation period for most services; Dedicated servers typically have setup fees that may not be refunded |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Bank Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or Load Balancer SSL | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) |
| Dedicated IP Cost | $4/mo | $1/mo |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | — | Germany |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | — | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring percentage | Revenue share |
| Commission Amount | 10% recurring commission for 12 months per referred customer; 30-day cookie; No minimum payout; Via Impact Radius | 10% recurring commission; 30-day cookie |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | $0.01 | $1.19 |
| Account Suspension Policy | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment after grace period; abuse reports | Violation of ToS; non-payment; abuse reports; illegal content |
| Malware Removal Cost | — | — |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | Developers and startups wanting reliable cloud infrastructure; Teams valuing excellent documentation and tutorials; App Platform users wanting PaaS simplicity; Kubernetes users; Companies needing PCI compliance; Users wanting predictable transparent pricing; API-first automation workflows | Developers wanting best price-performance VPS/dedicated; European businesses needing GDPR-compliant hosting; Users comfortable with self-management; Cost-conscious users wanting consistent pricing; Large-scale deployments; Users wanting green hosting |
| Avoid If | Need managed WordPress hosting; Want phone support; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included email hosting; Want cPanel included; Budget-constrained (free support limited); Need many global locations (only 15 vs Vultr's 32) | Need managed WordPress hosting; Want 24/7 live chat support; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need cPanel included; US-based wanting local support; Need included email hosting |
| Known Issues | No phone support; Free support tier limited (24hr+ response); No managed WordPress; Billing issues reported causing resource deletion without warning; Backups and support plans add significant cost; No cPanel/Plesk included; GPU droplets require commitments; Some report occasional hardware failures; Limited data center count (15) vs some competitors | Support limited to business hours and primarily German; No live chat support; Strict account verification can frustrate users; No managed WordPress; No cPanel/Plesk included; SSL not included free; Mixed Trustpilot reviews (3.5) despite excellent G2 (4.5); Some account termination complaints |
| Unique Selling Point | Best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach | Best price-performance VPS in industry with 100% green energy and German data protection |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing | Developer or business wanting affordable, high-performance infrastructure with European data sovereignty |
| Best Alternative To | AWS Lightsail | Contabo |
| Primary Competitors | Vultr, Linode, AWS Lightsail | Contabo, OVHcloud, Vultr |
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Our Verdict
Choose DigitalOcean if you...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
- Are new to web hosting
- Want more server locations (15 available)
Choose Hetzner if you...
- Want to save money ($1.90/mo vs $4.00/mo)
- Need phone support
DigitalOcean vs Hetzner: Frequently Asked Questions
Is DigitalOcean cheaper than Hetzner?
Yes — Hetzner is cheaper, starting at $1.90/mo compared with $4.00/mo for DigitalOcean. Factor in renewals too: Hetzner marks up about 0% after the first term.
Does DigitalOcean or Hetzner have better uptime?
DigitalOcean edges out Hetzner on performance with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and a 4.2/5 overall rating. For uptime-sensitive sites, it's the more dependable choice.
Is DigitalOcean or Hetzner better for beginners?
DigitalOcean is friendlier for beginners, scoring higher on ease of use in our assessment. New users will generally find it quicker to get started.
Should I choose DigitalOcean or Hetzner?
For most users, DigitalOcean is the better overall choice, winning 2 of our 7 categories (notably Performance and Beginners). That said, the right host depends on your specific needs — check the category breakdown above for the factors that matter to you.