Hetzner vs DigitalOcean: which is better? Comparison 2026
By our public methodology Hetzner scores 80 out of 100 and DigitalOcean scores 78. Below: the factors and facts where they differ, each fact with its source.
Score breakdown
| Hetzner | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 58 | 76 |
| Resources | 94 | 69 |
| Features | 89 | 71 |
| Reliability | 95 | 94 |
Pros and cons
Hetzner
- Uptime guaranteed in an SLA with credits
- Pay only for the hours a server runs
- Snapshots or backups with a clear price
- DDoS protection at no extra cost
DigitalOcean
- Uptime guaranteed in an SLA with credits
- Pay only for the hours a server runs
- Free trial or credit for new accounts
- Snapshots or backups with a clear price
Facts side by side
| Fact | Hetzner | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB plan, per month (monthly billing) | $22.35 hetzner.com | $24.00 digitalocean.com |
| Billing term of that price, months | 1 mo hetzner.com | 1 mo digitalocean.com |
| Disk in that plan, GB | 80 hetzner.com | 85.9 digitalocean.com |
| Included traffic, TB per month | 20 hetzner.com | 4 digitalocean.com |
| Hourly or per-second billing | Yes hetzner.com | Yes digitalocean.com |
| Free trial or signup credit | Not verified | Yes docs.digitalocean.com |
| IPv6 at no extra charge | Yes docs.hetzner.com | Yes docs.digitalocean.com |
| Snapshots or backups (included or with a published price) | Yes hetzner.com | Yes digitalocean.com |
| DDoS protection included | Yes hetzner.com | Not verified |
| Public API or Terraform provider | Yes hetzner.com | Yes docs.digitalocean.com |
| VPS data-center locations | 6 hetzner.com | 16 docs.digitalocean.com |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% hetzner.com | 99.99% digitalocean.com |
| Company founded | 1997 hetzner.com | 2012 digitalocean.com |
| ISO 27001 or SOC 2 | Yes hetzner.com | Yes digitalocean.com |
| Public status page | Yes status.hetzner.com | Yes status.digitalocean.com |
| Company headquarters | Germany hetzner.com | Not verified |
| Company | Hetzner Online GmbH hetzner.com | DigitalOcean, LLC digitalocean.com |
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