VPS and app hosting · 8 alternatives to DigitalOcean
8 DigitalOcean alternatives (2026): cloud VPS compared on price, specs and traffic
Vultr, UpCloud, Kamatera, Akamai (Linode), AWS Lightsail, Hetzner, Hostinger VPS and Contabo compared with DigitalOcean Droplets on the cheapest server, RAM, storage, included traffic, regions and trials.
DigitalOcean made cloud servers simple: pick a Droplet size, pay by the second up to a monthly cap. The smallest Droplet is $4 a month with 512 MiB of RAM, 10 GiB of storage and 500 GiB of transfer; 1 GiB of RAM is $6.
The costs add up around the edges. A powered-off Droplet is still billed until you destroy it, backups add 20% (weekly) or 30% (daily), and DigitalOcean’s pricing page names no current credit for new users.
So we compared eight alternatives on what you get for the money: the cheapest server with an IPv4 address, its RAM and storage, how much traffic is included, regions and trials. Every price comes from each provider’s own pricing page, in US dollars, checked on October 18, 2026.
At a glance
| # | Tool | Paid from | Free | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VultrOur pick | $3.50/month with IPv4 (1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 10 GB SSD, 0.5 TB bandwidth); $2.50 IPv6-only | New-customer promo credit ($200 to $300 listed, select products, terms apply) | Cheap servers in many regions |
| 2 | UpCloud | $3.50/month (Starter: 1 CPU core, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB storage, IPv4 included) | Free trial, limited to 2 cores and 4 GB (its pricing page says 30 days, its docs 7) | Predictable bills with no egress fees |
| 3 | Kamatera | $4/month (Basic: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 5 TB traffic) | 30-day free trial with services worth up to $100 on 1 server | Custom-sized servers you can try free |
| 4 | Akamai Cloud (Linode) | $5/month (Nanode: 1 shared vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB storage, 1 TB transfer) | US$100 credit for new customers (not for GPU plans); a payment method is required | Bandwidth-heavy apps |
| 5 | AWS Lightsail | $5/month with IPv4 (0.5 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer); $3.50 IPv6-only | No Lightsail trial for new customers; the AWS Free Tier gives up to $200 in credits | AWS users who want a simple fixed-price server |
| 6 | Hetzner Cloud | $8.09/month (CPX02: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 20 TB traffic, Germany or Finland) | No free tier or trial credit | Lots of traffic for users in Europe |
| 7 | Hostinger VPS | $6.49/month intro (KVM 1: 1 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe, 4 TB bandwidth), renews at $11.99/month | No free tier; 30-day money-back guarantee | n8n and AI agents with one-click setup |
| 8 | Contabo | $5.28/month before VAT for the first 24 months (Cloud VPS 4: 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD) | No free tier or trial; no setup fee on 1-, 12- or 24-month terms | The most CPU and RAM per dollar, on a long term |
Prices are the cheapest paid plan in US dollars as each tool shows it, checked Oct 18, 2026.
1 VultrOur pick
- Paid from
- $3.50/month with IPv4 (1 vCPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 10 GB SSD, 0.5 TB bandwidth); $2.50 IPv6-only
- Free
- New-customer promo credit ($200 to $300 listed, select products, terms apply)
- Best for
- Cheap servers in many regions
Vultr sells the same kind of server as DigitalOcean: hourly-billed virtual machines with no contract, plus bare metal and GPUs, in 33 regions. Its smallest server with an IPv4 address is $3.50 a month, and 1 GB of RAM is $5.
Bandwidth over your quota is $0.01 a GB. Check your region, since some locations price differently, and add 20% if you want automatic backups.
What's good
- Hourly billing, with no long-term contracts
- Bandwidth over your quota is $0.01/GB
- 33 data center regions, and a free Kubernetes control plane
Watch out for
- Some locations have different hourly and monthly prices
- The $2.50 plan is IPv6-only, and automatic backups add 20%
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on vultr.com, vultr.com, docs.vultr.com
2 UpCloud
- Paid from
- $3.50/month (Starter: 1 CPU core, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB storage, IPv4 included)
- Free
- Free trial, limited to 2 cores and 4 GB (its pricing page says 30 days, its docs 7)
- Best for
- Predictable bills with no egress fees
UpCloud's selling point is the bill: no egress fees under its fair transfer policy, an IPv4 address included, and hourly billing capped at 28 days a month. The Starter plan is $3.50 a month with 1 GB of RAM and a 99.99% SLA.
Past your fair share of traffic (0.5 TB on the 1 GB plan), speed may drop to 100 Mbit/s unless you pay $0.01 a GB.
What's good
- No egress fees, under its Fair Transfer Policy
- Billed by the hour, at most 28 days a month, with IPv4 included
- 99.99% SLA on Starter plans
Watch out for
- The 1 GB Starter plan is limited to 5 servers per customer
- Past your fair share (0.5 TB on the 1 GB plan), speed may drop to 100 Mbit/s unless you pay $0.01/GB
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on upcloud.com, upcloud.com, upcloud.com
3 Kamatera
- Paid from
- $4/month (Basic: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 5 TB traffic)
- Free
- 30-day free trial with services worth up to $100 on 1 server
- Best for
- Custom-sized servers you can try free
Kamatera lets you build a server to order (CPU type, RAM, storage, location) and pay monthly or by the minute. The Basic preset is $4 a month with 5 TB of traffic, and the 30-day trial gives up to $100 of services on one server.
The $4 price uses its budget Type A CPUs. Its recommended General Purpose preset is $25 a month, so price the CPU type you actually need.
What's good
- Hourly servers are billed by the minute; monthly billing is also offered
- Traffic over 5 TB is $0.01/GB, and extra storage is $0.05/GB a month
- 21 data centers in its pricing tool, 8 of them in the US
Watch out for
- The $4 plan uses budget Type A CPUs; the recommended General Purpose preset is $25/month
- Price depends a lot on CPU type: one General Purpose core with 512 MB is $10/month
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on kamatera.com
4 Akamai Cloud (Linode)
- Paid from
- $5/month (Nanode: 1 shared vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB storage, 1 TB transfer)
- Free
- US$100 credit for new customers (not for GPU plans); a payment method is required
- Best for
- Bandwidth-heavy apps
Linode, now Akamai Cloud, has the cheapest extra bandwidth here: $0.005 a GB beyond your allowance, half of DigitalOcean's rate. The Nanode is $5 a month with 1 GB of RAM, 25 GB of storage and 1 TB of transfer.
Billing is hourly up to the monthly price. Like a Droplet, a powered-off Linode is still billed until you delete it.
What's good
- Transfer beyond the allowance is $0.005/GB
- Billed hourly, but never more than the monthly rate (except transfer overages)
- Shared plans include transfer: 1 TB on the Nanode, 2 TB on the 2 GB plan
Watch out for
- Powered-off Linodes are still billed
- Some plans cost more in some regions, and the new G8 dedicated plans include no transfer
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on akamai.com, akamai.com, techdocs.akamai.com
5 AWS Lightsail
- Paid from
- $5/month with IPv4 (0.5 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer); $3.50 IPv6-only
- Free
- No Lightsail trial for new customers; the AWS Free Tier gives up to $200 in credits
- Best for
- AWS users who want a simple fixed-price server
Lightsail is Amazon's answer to Droplets: fixed monthly bundles of compute, storage and transfer, billed hourly up to the monthly price, with a free static IP and free DNS. The $5 bundle includes 1 TB of transfer.
Outside the US, Canada and Europe, some regions get half the transfer allowance, and overage runs from $0.09 to $0.17 a GB.
What's good
- Bundles bill hourly up to a fixed monthly maximum
- A static IP is free while attached, and DNS management is free (3M queries a month)
- Every plan includes SSH in the browser, monitoring and an API
Watch out for
- Stopped instances keep billing until you delete them
- Half the transfer allowance in some regions (Mumbai, Sydney, São Paulo and others); overage $0.09 to $0.17/GB
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on aws.amazon.com, aws.amazon.com
6 Hetzner Cloud
- Paid from
- $8.09/month (CPX02: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 20 TB traffic, Germany or Finland)
- Free
- No free tier or trial credit
- Best for
- Lots of traffic for users in Europe
Hetzner has long been the value pick for European servers, and the traffic allowance is still unmatched: 20 TB included in its EU locations, then $1.20 a TB. Prices include an IPv4 address, and billing is hourly up to a monthly cap.
Its cheapest Cost-Optimized plans all showed as unavailable when we checked, so the cheapest server you could order was the CPX02 at $8.09 a month. US servers start at $21.09 with 1 TB of traffic.
What's good
- 20 TB of traffic included in EU locations; extra traffic is $1.20 per TB
- Hourly billing, never above the monthly cap
- IPv6 is free, and listed prices already include an IPv4 address
Watch out for
- Every Cost-Optimized plan (CX and CAX) showed as not available on October 18, 2026
- US servers start at $21.09/month with 1 TB of traffic; servers bill until deleted
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on hetzner.com, hetzner.com, docs.hetzner.com
7 Hostinger VPS
- Paid from
- $6.49/month intro (KVM 1: 1 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe, 4 TB bandwidth), renews at $11.99/month
- Free
- No free tier; 30-day money-back guarantee
- Best for
- n8n and AI agents with one-click setup
Hostinger's KVM 1 gives four times the RAM of a $6 Droplet, 4 GB, plus 50 GB of NVMe storage and 4 TB of bandwidth, and it has one-click templates for n8n and AI agent apps such as Dify and Agent Zero.
The $6.49 is an introductory price paid upfront, and it renews at $11.99 a month. The VPS page doesn't say what term the intro price needs, so check the cart before you buy.
What's good
- One-click n8n template, plus AI apps such as Dify and Agent Zero
- Free weekly backups and a dedicated IP on every plan
- KVM 2 (2 vCPU, 8 GB, 100 GB NVMe, 8 TB) is $8.99/month intro
Watch out for
- Intro prices are paid upfront and renew higher: KVM 1 renews at $11.99/month
- The VPS page doesn't say what term the intro price needs
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on hostinger.com
8 Contabo
- Paid from
- $5.28/month before VAT for the first 24 months (Cloud VPS 4: 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD)
- Free
- No free tier or trial; no setup fee on 1-, 12- or 24-month terms
- Best for
- The most CPU and RAM per dollar, on a long term
Contabo's numbers are hard to beat: 4 vCPU, 8 GB of RAM, 100 GB of SSD and unlimited traffic for $5.28 a month before VAT. It has data centers in Europe, the UK, the US, Asia and Australia, and n8n is one of its one-click apps.
That price needs a 24-month term (shorter terms cost more), the cheapest plan has a 200 Mbit/s port, and some regions cost extra.
What's good
- Unlimited inbound and outbound traffic, under a fair usage policy
- Free firewall, DDoS protection, IPv4 and IPv6 on every plan
- n8n is among its one-click apps
Watch out for
- $5.28 needs a 24-month term and excludes VAT; shorter terms cost more
- The cheapest plan has a 200 Mbit/s port, and some regions cost extra
Checked Oct 18, 2026 on contabo.com, contabo.com
Our pick
Vultr
For most people moving off DigitalOcean, Vultr is the closest swap: the same kind of hourly-billed cloud servers, in 33 regions, starting at $3.50 a month with an IPv4 address (DigitalOcean starts at $4), and extra bandwidth at $0.01 a GB.
If bandwidth bills worry you, UpCloud charges no egress fees and starts at $3.50 a month. If you want the most CPU and RAM for the money and can commit for two years, Contabo gives 4 vCPU and 8 GB of RAM for $5.28 a month before VAT.
Questions
What is the cheapest DigitalOcean alternative?
With an IPv4 address, Vultr and UpCloud both start at $3.50 a month and Kamatera at $4, against $4 for the smallest Droplet. Vultr and AWS Lightsail are cheaper still IPv6-only ($2.50 and $3.50). Contabo gives far more RAM for $5.28 a month but needs a 24-month term.
Which DigitalOcean alternative includes the most traffic?
Contabo includes unlimited traffic under a fair usage policy, Hetzner 20 TB in its EU locations, and Kamatera 5 TB on its $4 plan. A $4 Droplet includes 500 GiB.
Which is best for self-hosting n8n or an AI agent?
You need about 1 to 2 GB of RAM for n8n. Hostinger's KVM 1 has 4 GB and a one-click n8n template, Contabo has 8 GB with n8n as a one-click app, and DigitalOcean has an n8n 1-Click App too. Our guide to self-hosting n8n compares the options.
How we compare: we read each tool's own pricing and documentation and note the date. We haven't run these tools hands-on for this article, so we don't score them. See our editorial policy.
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