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VPS and cloud servers

DigitalOcean Droplets vs Vultr Cloud Compute

DigitalOcean Droplets start at $4 with pooled transfer and managed services in 13 regions; Vultr starts at $2.50 IPv6-only and covers 33 regions on six continents, plus bare metal and custom ISOs.

§1

The short answer

At small sizes the plans are close. DigitalOcean’s Basic 1 GiB Droplet lists $6 with 25 GiB SSD and 1,000 GiB of transfer; Vultr’s Regular Performance 1 GB lists $5 with 25 GB SSD and 1 TB, and its High Performance 1 GB is $6 with NVMe and 2 TB. Vultr also goes lower, to $3.50 with IPv4 or $2.50 IPv6-only, where DigitalOcean starts at $4.

Location is the clearest difference. Vultr lists 33 regions, including Johannesburg, Santiago, São Paulo, Tel Aviv and Mexico City; DigitalOcean has 13 across North America, Europe, India, Singapore and Australia. Vultr also offers custom ISOs, BGP with your own IP space, and bare metal.

DigitalOcean publishes its overage rate, $0.01/GiB, and pools transfer across a team; Vultr’s overage rate was not shown on its pricing pages. Both sell managed databases and Kubernetes as separate products. Vultr’s Regular Performance plans run on previous-generation Intel CPUs and plain SSD.

Choose DigitalOcean Droplets if

  • You want a published $0.01/GiB overage rate and transfer pooled across servers
  • You plan to add managed databases or App Platform later
  • You value well-known documentation and tutorials

Choose Vultr Cloud Compute if

  • Your users are in Latin America, Africa or the Middle East
  • You want a test server for $2.50 to $3.50 a month
  • You need a custom ISO, BGP or bare metal
§2

Side by side

DigitalOcean Droplets Vultr Cloud Compute
Stages HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise HobbyIndieStartupScale-upEnterprise
What it is Cloud VPS Cloud VPS
From From $4/mo From $2.50/mo (IPv6 only), $3.50/mo with IPv4
Free tier None None
Cheapest plan 1 vCPU, 512 MiB, 10 GiB SSD: $4/mo 1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD: $2.50/mo (IPv6 only)
Regions 13 regions, 16 data centers 33 regions on six continents
Transfer 500 GiB to 11,000 GiB pooled; $0.01/GiB over 0.5 TB to 15 TB included per plan
Billing Per second (60 s minimum), monthly cap Hourly, capped monthly
Open source No No
Self-hostable No No
EU data residency Available Available
Compliance Not stated Not stated
Checked 28 Sept 2026 28 Sept 2026
Strengths
  • Clear published prices with transfer included and a low $0.01/GiB overage rate.
  • 13 regions across North America, Europe, India, Singapore and Australia.
  • Managed databases, Kubernetes and App Platform let a project grow without changing provider.
  • Well-known documentation and tutorials, with API, CLI and Terraform support.
  • One of the widest region lists among VPS providers, useful for latency-sensitive apps.
  • Very low entry price, including an IPv6-only option.
  • Bandwidth included in every plan and hourly billing.
  • Custom ISOs, BGP and bare metal for more unusual setups.
Limitations
  • Basic plans give less RAM per dollar than budget hosts such as Hetzner, netcup or Contabo.
  • The $4 plan has only 512 MiB RAM and 10 GiB of disk.
  • Backups are extra, at 20% to 30% of the Droplet price.
  • Some newer data centers (Atlanta, Richmond, Kansas City) have limited availability for Basic plans.
  • Regular Performance plans run on previous-generation Intel CPUs and plain SSD.
  • The $2.50 plan is IPv6 only, which some services and users cannot reach.
  • VX1 plans are not capped at a monthly price, so an always-on instance bills every hour of the month.
  • Overage bandwidth pricing is not listed on the main pricing page.

Sources: DigitalOcean Droplets pricing, Vultr Cloud Compute pricing. Full plans on each tool's page.

§3

Plans

DigitalOcean Droplets

Basic 512 MiB
1 vCPU, 512 MiB RAM, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer		 $4/mo
Basic 1 GiB
1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM, 25 GiB SSD, 1,000 GiB transfer		 $6/mo
Basic 2 GiB
1 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM, 50 GiB SSD, 2,000 GiB transfer		 $12/mo
Basic 4 GiB
2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 80 GiB SSD, 4,000 GiB transfer		 $24/mo
CPU-Optimized 4 GiB
2 dedicated vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 25 GiB SSD		 $42/mo
General Purpose 8 GiB
2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GiB RAM, 25 GiB SSD		 $63/mo

Vultr Cloud Compute

Regular Performance 0.5 GB (IPv6)
1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 10 GB SSD, 0.5 TB bandwidth, IPv6 only		 $2.50/mo
Regular Performance 0.5 GB
1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 10 GB SSD, 0.5 TB bandwidth		 $3.50/mo
Regular Performance 1 GB
1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB bandwidth		 $5/mo
High Performance 1 GB
1 vCPU (AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon), 1 GB RAM, 25 GB NVMe, 2 TB bandwidth		 $6/mo
Regular Performance 4 GB
2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD, 3 TB bandwidth		 $20/mo
VX1 General Purpose
2 dedicated vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 5 TB bandwidth, block storage boot		 $0.060/hr

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