Head-to-head
DigitalOcean vs Hetzner
The two favorite clouds of independent developers: the friendly American platform with the famous tutorials against the German price-performance champion.
Full control
DigitalOceanDigitalOcean
DigitalOcean
The friendliest cloud for developers.
Our pick
Full control
HetznerHetzner Online GmbH
Hetzner
The best price-to-performance in cloud hosting.
DigitalOceanHetzner
Our score4.4 / 54.5 / 5
PriceFrom $4/moFrom $4.59/mo
Free planNoNo
Best forDevelopersPrice-to-performance
CategoryCloud & developersCloud & developers
ProviderDigitalOceanHetzner Online GmbH
Our verdict
Hetzner wins on raw value: per dollar you get two to three times the performance, with excellent hardware and a no-nonsense interface. DigitalOcean wins on ecosystem: the tutorials, the managed databases and app platform, and the larger choice of US regions. If you mainly need a fast, cheap server and know your way around Linux, take Hetzner. If you lean on documentation and managed add-ons, DigitalOcean earns its premium.
“Your own server is running within a minute and the documentation is among the best on the internet. With per-second billing, experimenting is cheaper than ever.”Editorial team, on DigitalOcean
“Europe’s best-kept secret: two to three times cheaper per unit of performance than the big clouds, with solid German engineering. The smartest deal for anyone who can manage a server.”Editorial team, on Hetzner