Hetzner and DigitalOcean both sell cloud servers, but a fair comparison needs the whole deployment: compute, storage, network traffic, backups and the services your team will operate. A simple Europe versus US shorthand is outdated: Hetzner now runs six locations across Germany, Finland, the United States and Singapore, and DigitalOcean has expanded well beyond plain virtual machines into managed platform services.
Key takeaways
- Hetzner now runs six locations across Germany, Finland, the US and Singapore, not just Europe.
- DigitalOcean bundles managed Kubernetes, managed databases and App Platform alongside plain Droplets.
- Build the same cost estimate, including storage, backup and traffic, before comparing sticker prices.
Where can each provider actually run your workload?
Hetzner Cloud operates six locations across four network zones: Falkenstein and Nuremberg in Germany, Helsinki in Finland, Ashburn in Virginia and Hillsboro in Oregon in the United States, and Singapore in Asia-Pacific. Hetzner is explicit that it owns and operates its three German and Finnish data center parks directly, while the US and Singapore locations run on colocation space at other providers' facilities, a distinction worth knowing if your compliance requirements care about who physically operates the building. DigitalOcean's regions are spread similarly across North America, Europe and Asia, with the exact list documented on its own site and subject to change as it adds capacity. Confirm the current region list and any data-residency guarantees directly with each provider before committing to one for a workload with strict location requirements, since documentation reflects a point in time.
What do you actually pay beyond the base VM price?
Build the same estimate for both providers using five line items: VM size, region, a public IPv4 address, block storage and outbound traffic, since a monthly VM price alone does not show total cost. Hetzner explicitly notes that cloud server prices vary by location and that public IPv4 addresses are billed as a separate resource, not bundled into the server price. DigitalOcean publishes product-specific pricing pages and a calculator that lets you model Droplets, storage volumes, bandwidth and managed services together before committing. Backup policy is another line item both providers price separately from compute: decide whether you need automated snapshots and factor that in rather than adding it as an afterthought once you have already picked a provider. Run the same workload's numbers through both calculators side by side rather than comparing a single advertised starting price.
How much operational work does each platform take off your plate?
DigitalOcean lists managed Kubernetes (DOKS) with a free control plane, managed databases that include automated backups with point-in-time recovery, and App Platform for deploying application code without managing servers directly, alongside plain Droplets and GPU Droplets for compute-heavy workloads. It has also added AI-native services, including managed agents, managed Weaviate for vector search, and serverless Functions, extending the platform well past basic virtual machines. Hetzner Cloud focuses more narrowly on virtual machines and core infrastructure features such as private networks, block storage volumes and firewalls, leaving most application-layer services to be run by you or a third-party tool on top. You can install more software yourself on either provider; the real question is whether that operational work belongs with your team or is worth paying a platform to absorb.
What should you test before migrating a real workload?
Test the following before committing budget or migration time to either provider, since a feature list cannot substitute for measured behavior under your own traffic.
- Deploy the same application in the required region and measure its real response time from representative client locations.
- Test backup restoration end to end and document who is responsible when a node or disk fails.
- Calculate outbound transfer, storage and support costs for your expected traffic, not a minimum-tier estimate.
- Check compliance and data-location requirements against each provider's current region list and ownership structure.
Use Hetzner's location and billing guide, its server overview and DigitalOcean's calculator for a current quote. The Hetzner and DigitalOcean profiles provide directory context.
Sources checked 27 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Does Hetzner own its US and Singapore data centers?
No. Hetzner owns and operates its data center parks in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, Germany, and Helsinki, Finland, directly. Its Ashburn, Hillsboro and Singapore locations run on colocation space at other facilities, worth knowing if your compliance requirements specify who physically controls the building.
Does DigitalOcean charge for the Kubernetes control plane?
DigitalOcean's managed Kubernetes service includes a free control plane, so you pay for the worker node Droplets and any attached storage or load balancers rather than a separate control-plane fee. Confirm current pricing on DigitalOcean's own Kubernetes page before budgeting, since managed-service pricing structures change.
Is a public IP address included in Hetzner's server price?
No. Hetzner bills public IPv4 addresses as a separate resource from the cloud server itself, and pricing also varies by the location you choose. Build a full estimate including the IP address, storage and outbound traffic rather than comparing only the advertised base server price.