DigitalOcean Droplets vs Hetzner Cloud Servers

DigitalOcean Droplets4.0Visit HSHetzner Cloud Servers3.0Visit

Higher score DigitalOcean Droplets #1 in Cheap VPS Hosting 4.0/10 From $4/mo ✓ 0 of 2 features Visit DigitalOcean

vs

HS Hetzner Cloud Servers #2 in Cheap VPS Hosting 3.0/10 Paid ✓ 0 of 2 features Visit Hetzner

• DigitalOcean Droplets fits best

  Budget VPS with a broad, easy-to-manage cloud stack

• Hetzner Cloud Servers fits best

  Low-cost VPS with hourly billing and DDoS filtering

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Side by side

Feature	DigitalOcean Droplets 4.0/10 Visit ↗	HSHetzner Cloud Servers 3.0/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	4.0	3.0
Ranking	#1 in Cheap VPS Hosting	#2 in Cheap VPS Hosting
Best for	Budget VPS with a broad, easy-to-manage cloud stack	Low-cost VPS with hourly billing and DDoS filtering
Pricing model	Paid	Paid
Starting price	$4/mo	Not published
Free plan	—	—
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web, Linux	Web, Linux, Windows
Support	Email, Live chat, Tickets · 24/7	Email, Docs · 24/7
Compliance	SOC 2, PCI DSS	GDPR, 2FA, ISO 27001
Integrations	2 integrations	5 integrations
Built for	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features DigitalOcean Droplets 0/2 · Hetzner Cloud Servers 0/2
Managed option	Not published	Not published
DDoS protection	Not published	Not published
Specs
vCPU cores	Not published	Not published
RAM	Not published	4 GB
NVMe storage	Not published	Not published
Bandwidth	Not published	Not published
Server locations	Not published	Not published
Our review
Pros	Starts at $4/month with 500 GiB transfer and 10 GiB SSD Multiple Droplet configurations plus horizontal autoscaling pools Control panel, CLI, API, Terraform, and 16 available regions	CX23 includes 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe storage. Hourly billing has a monthly price cap. Includes DDoS filtering, firewalls, snapshots and optional backups.
Cons	Backups and snapshots are available only as add-ons Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines No free plan; the entry Basic tier has 512 MiB memory	No free plan is offered. Backups are optional rather than included. Pricing and availability vary by location.
Our verdict	DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines for hosting websites, applications, databases, development environments, and other cloud workloads. They suit solo developers through enterprise teams that want cloud infrastructure… Read the review →	Hetzner Cloud Servers provide virtual machines for running operating systems and applications on Hetzner infrastructure in Europe, the United States and Singapore. They suit solo operators and organizations that want VPS resources with… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• DigitalOcean Droplets — where it wins

  • Starts at $4/month with 500 GiB transfer and 10 GiB SSD
  • Multiple Droplet configurations plus horizontal autoscaling pools
  • Control panel, CLI, API, Terraform, and 16 available regions

  Where it doesn't

  • Backups and snapshots are available only as add-ons
  • Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines
  • No free plan; the entry Basic tier has 512 MiB memory

• Hetzner Cloud Servers — where it wins

  • CX23 includes 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe storage.
  • Hourly billing has a monthly price cap.
  • Includes DDoS filtering, firewalls, snapshots and optional backups.

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is offered.
  • Backups are optional rather than included.
  • Pricing and availability vary by location.

• DigitalOcean Droplets4.0/10 · From $4/mo

  A $4/month Linux VPS with flexible configurations, automation tools, and autoscaling.

  Visit DigitalOceanFull verdict →
• HSHetzner Cloud Servers3.0/10 · Paid

  Flexible cloud servers with hourly billing, NVMe storage and included DDoS filtering.

  Visit HetznerFull verdict →