Hetzner vs DigitalOcean

Hetzner and DigitalOcean are often shortlisted together by teams that want straightforward servers without a large platform bill. They diverge on what comes with the server rather than on the server itself.

Configurations and prices in the catalogue

Both tables read from the live product records and match the product pages exactly.

What actually differs

• Location. Hetzner is built around European data centre locations, which matters for latency to European users and for where data physically sits.
• Resource pricing. Hetzner is generally chosen for the amount of CPU and memory you get for the money.
• Platform breadth. DigitalOcean layers managed databases, object storage and app hosting on top of plain servers.
• Documentation. DigitalOcean has an unusually large library of practical tutorials, which shortens the first week for less experienced teams.

Where each one tends to fit

Hetzner suits

• Long-running servers where monthly cost per core and per gigabyte is the deciding number.
• Projects with a European user base or a European data residency preference.
• Teams comfortable assembling their own database, cache and storage layers.

DigitalOcean suits

• Teams that would rather rent a managed database than run one.
• Workloads that need an open port 25 configuration.
• Projects likely to grow into several platform services.

What to check before you buy

• Which configuration above matches the resources you need, not the one with the lowest number.
• Where your users are, since region choice usually beats specification tuning.
• Whether you need services beyond plain servers within the next few months.
• Your backup plan, since snapshots are a convenience rather than a backup strategy.

For the longer written comparison, read Hetzner and DigitalOcean: What European Teams Weigh Up in the Cloud Library.

Questions