VPS and app hosting
DigitalOcean
Developer-friendly cloud with simple monthly-priced Droplets (VPS).
- From
- $4/mo
- Free plan or trial
- Yes
- Checked
- Oct 18, 2026
Overview
- Plans: 6 paid plans, from $4/mo (Basic Droplet 512 MiB) to $48/mo (Basic Droplet 8 GiB).
- Compared on: VPS and app hosting
- Switching? DigitalOcean alternatives compares 8 alternatives.
Best for
- Simple managed apps next to other DigitalOcean services
- A simple managed host that sits next to DigitalOcean servers and GPUs
What's good
- Billed per second with a one-minute minimum; jobs bill only while running
- The transfer allowance is pooled across all apps in the team
- Development Postgres database for $7 a month
- Deploys from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or a Docker Hub image
- Billed by the second; transfer is pooled across your team
Watch out for
- Autoscaling works only on dedicated-CPU plans, from $29/month
- The $5 size can't scale; transfer beyond the allowance is $0.02/GiB
- Autoscaling works only on dedicated-CPU instances, not shared ones
- The $5 size is limited to one container instance; extra transfer is $0.02/GiB
Where we compare it
- Vercel alternatives$5/month (1 shared vCPU, 512 MiB, 50 GiB transfer)
- Railway alternatives for hosting an AI app$5/month (1 shared vCPU, 512 MiB, 50 GiB transfer)
DigitalOcean pricing
| Plan | Price | Specs / includes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Droplet 512 MiB | $4/mo | 1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 10 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.00595/hr). Regular CPU option. |
| Basic Droplet 1 GiB | $6/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 25 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.00893/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 2 GiB (1 vCPU) | $12/mo | 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 50 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.01786/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 2 GiB (2 vCPU) | $18/mo | 2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 60 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.02679/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 4 GiB | $24/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.03571/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 8 GiB | $48/mo | 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 160 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.07143/hr). 16 GiB / 8 vCPU / 320 GiB is $96/mo ($0.14286/hr). |
Prices in US dollars from DigitalOcean's own site, checked Oct 18, 2026: digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets, digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform, docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/details/pricing
Free plan
$5 signup credit, applied automatically when you create your first team
Free credits
DigitalOcean signup credit$5 signup credit, applied automatically when you create your first team
- Credit expires 90 days after signup
- Valid payment method required before creating Droplets
- Not for SaaS Add-Ons; can't be moved to other teams
DigitalOcean alternatives
Other tools on our VPS and app hosting page, cheapest first where prices compare.
Fly.io
Vultr
Hostinger
UpCloud
Kamatera
Akamai Cloud (Linode)
AWS Lightsail
Cloudflare Workers & PagesDigitalOcean compared head to head
FAQ
How much does DigitalOcean cost?
DigitalOcean's cheapest paid plan is Basic Droplet 512 MiB at $4/mo, hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.00595/hr) (checked Oct 18, 2026 on DigitalOcean's own site).
Does DigitalOcean have a free plan?
Yes: $5 signup credit, applied automatically when you create your first team.
What are the best alternatives to DigitalOcean?
Other VPS and app hosting options we've checked: Fly.io ($2.19/mo), Vultr ($2.50/mo), Hostinger ($2.99/mo), UpCloud ($3.50/mo). Our DigitalOcean alternatives roundup compares them in detail.
This page is built from the prices and facts we checked on each tool's own site. We haven't tested DigitalOcean hands-on.How we work