DigitalOcean vs Hetzner: Complete Comparison Guide
Compare DigitalOcean and Hetzner on pricing, performance, datacenter locations, and managed services. Discover which cloud provider best fits your budget and project requirements.
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is an American cloud platform known for its developer-friendly approach. With Droplets (VPS), managed databases, App Platform, and Kubernetes, DigitalOcean provides an accessible cloud experience without the complexity of AWS or GCP. The platform targets startups, developers, and SMBs with transparent pricing and excellent documentation.
Hetzner
Hetzner is a German hosting provider active since 1997, known for its exceptionally competitive pricing. With datacenters in Germany, Finland, and the US, Hetzner offers both dedicated servers and cloud instances. Hetzner is particularly popular in Europe thanks to its combination of low costs, powerful bare-metal servers, and full EU data sovereignty.
Comparison table
| Feature | DigitalOcean | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing level | Droplets from $4/month — transparent but higher than Hetzner | Cloud servers from €3.29/month — up to 3x cheaper for comparable specs |
| Managed services | Managed databases, Kubernetes, App Platform, Spaces (S3) | Limited: only cloud servers, load balancers, and volumes |
| Datacenter locations | US, Europe (Amsterdam, Frankfurt), Singapore, India, Australia | Germany (Falkenstein, Nuremberg), Finland (Helsinki), US (Ashburn) |
| Bare-metal servers | Not available — virtual machines only | Dedicated servers with powerful hardware from €37/month |
| Developer experience | Excellent UI, CLI, API, and documentation — very beginner-friendly | Functional but spartan interface — more geared toward experienced users |
| Data sovereignty | US company — EU region data possible but US jurisdiction | German company — fully GDPR-compliant with EU datacenters |
Verdict
DigitalOcean and Hetzner both serve the market below the major cloud providers, but with fundamentally different approaches. DigitalOcean offers a polished developer experience with managed services that remove the complexity of infrastructure management. Hetzner excels in pure price-to-performance ratio, offering up to three times more resources for the same price. For European businesses that value data sovereignty, Hetzner as a German company has a clear advantage. The choice comes down to convenience versus cost efficiency.
Our recommendation
At MG Software, we recommend DigitalOcean for clients who want to get started quickly with managed services and appreciate an intuitive interface. For cost-driven projects and clients with strict EU data sovereignty requirements, we recommend Hetzner — the price-to-performance ratio is unmatched. Our own applications run primarily on Vercel and Supabase, but for clients needing dedicated infrastructure, we design architectures on both platforms depending on their priorities.
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