Hetzner vs DigitalOcean: Which Cloud Server Should You Pick?
Hetzner is known for very low prices on powerful servers, mostly in Europe; DigitalOcean for simplicity, documentation and managed services worldwide. How they compare on price, regions, managed databases, support and ecosystem, and which fits a small app.
If you've decided to run your app on your own server — a VPS — two names come up constantly: Hetzner and DigitalOcean. Both are good. They're optimised for different things. (What is a VPS?, VPS vs PaaS)
Both companies change prices; Hetzner raised several cloud server prices in 2026. Check hetzner.com/cloud and digitalocean.com/pricing for current numbers.
The short version
- Hetzner — a German hosting company. Typically far more CPU and memory per euro than most competitors, with data centres mainly in Germany and Finland (plus some in the US and Singapore). Fewer managed extras.
- DigitalOcean — a US company built around developer experience: simple dashboard, excellent tutorials, many regions worldwide, and a broad set of managed services.
Side by side
| Hetzner | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per resources | Usually much lower | Higher |
| Regions | Mostly EU, some US and Asia | Many regions worldwide |
| Managed databases | No managed Postgres | Yes (Postgres, MySQL, Redis and more) |
| App platform / PaaS | No | App Platform |
| Object storage | Yes | Spaces |
| Load balancers, firewalls, volumes | Yes | Yes |
| Kubernetes | No managed offering | Managed Kubernetes |
| Documentation & tutorials | Decent | Famous for it |
| Billing | Hourly, capped monthly, in EUR (or USD) | Per-second/hourly, capped monthly, USD |
| Account verification | Can be strict for new accounts | Straightforward |
Where Hetzner wins
- Price-to-performance. For the same money you typically get noticeably more vCPU, RAM and disk. For a busy app or heavy builds, that matters.
- Generous traffic allowances in the EU.
- Dedicated servers too, if you outgrow cloud VMs.
- EU data residency — useful if your customers or regulations want data in Europe. (GDPR basics)
Trade-offs: fewer managed services (you run your own database and backups), fewer regions, and support that's competent but less hand-holding. New account sign-up checks can be strict.
Where DigitalOcean wins
- Easier for beginners. Clean dashboard, one-click apps, and tutorials for almost everything.
- Managed databases with automatic backups and failover — one less thing to run yourself. (Postgres backup and restore)
- Global regions — useful if your users are in the Americas, Asia or Australia. (What is latency?)
- App Platform if you want PaaS-style deploys without managing a server.
Trade-offs: you pay more for the same raw resources, and managed services add up.
What you're responsible for on either
A VPS is a bare Linux machine. On both providers, you handle:
- Security updates and hardening (How to secure a new VPS)
- Firewall (UFW basics)
- Installing and running your app (Deploy a Node.js app to a VPS)
- HTTPS certificates (How automatic SSL works)
- Backups — and testing them (Backups for beginners)
- Monitoring (Know when your app is down)
That work is the same whichever provider you pick, and it's often a bigger factor than the price difference.
How to choose
- Users mainly in Europe, and you're comfortable on Linux: Hetzner.
- New to servers and want great docs and managed databases: DigitalOcean.
- Users spread worldwide: DigitalOcean's regions (or a CDN in front of either). (What is a CDN?)
- Want a server without doing the admin: consider a managed layer on top of a VPS.
EasySpawn runs on Hetzner's EU infrastructure and handles the admin for you — security updates, firewall, HTTPS, Postgres and daily backups — with Claude Code built in, at a flat price per server. See pricing or join the waitlist.
Related: What Is a VPS? · VPS vs PaaS · How to Secure a New VPS · How Much Does It Cost to Run an App?
Keep reading
Render vs Railway vs Fly.io: Which Platform for Your App?
Three popular platforms for deploying full-stack apps with databases. How Render, Railway and Fly.io differ in deployment model, databases, free tiers, pricing style, regions and learning curve — and which kind of app suits each.
Coolify vs Dokploy: Self-Hosted PaaS Compared
Coolify and Dokploy turn your own VPS into a Heroku- or Vercel-like platform: push to Git, get a deploy with HTTPS, databases and backups. How they compare on features, architecture, multi-server support and maturity — and what you still have to look after yourself.