DigitalOcean pricing and plans
Predictable unmanaged cloud with the gentlest learning curve
DigitalOcean built its reputation on flat monthly pricing and documentation that a solo developer can actually finish reading. Droplets are plain virtual machines: you get root access and you own the operating system, the patching and the backups. It is the usual first step off shared hosting for people who want control without a cloud-architecture certification.
We may earn a commission if you sign up through our link.
Plans and derived unit cost
The final two columns are computed from the monthly price, which is how you spot the tier where a provider stops being good value.
DigitalOcean
Basic 1GB
$6.00
per month
- Specification
- 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM
- Storage
- 25 GB SSD
- Included transfer
- 1 TB
- Cost per vCPU
- $6
- Cost per GB RAM
- $6
- Annual
- $72
AffiliatePricing pageDigitalOcean
Basic 2GB
$12.00
per month
- Specification
- 1 vCPU / 2 GB RAM
- Storage
- 50 GB SSD
- Included transfer
- 2 TB
- Cost per vCPU
- $12
- Cost per GB RAM
- $6
- Annual
- $144
AffiliatePricing pageDigitalOcean
Basic 2GB / 2 vCPU
$18.00
per month
- Specification
- 2 vCPU / 2 GB RAM
- Storage
- 60 GB SSD
- Included transfer
- 3 TB
- Cost per vCPU
- $9
- Cost per GB RAM
- $9
- Annual
- $216
AffiliatePricing pageDigitalOcean
Basic 4GB
$24.00
per month
- Specification
- 2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM
- Storage
- 80 GB SSD
- Included transfer
- 4 TB
- Cost per vCPU
- $12
- Cost per GB RAM
- $6
- Annual
- $288
AffiliatePricing pageDigitalOcean
Basic 8GB
$48.00
per month
- Specification
- 4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM
- Storage
- 160 GB SSD
- Included transfer
- 5 TB
- Cost per vCPU
- $12
- Cost per GB RAM
- $6
- Annual
- $576
AffiliatePricing page
| Provider & plan | Monthly | vCPU | RAM | Storage | Transfer | / vCPU | / GB RAM | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DigitalOcean Basic 1GBAffiliate | $6.00 | 1 | 1 GB | 25 GB | 1 TB | $6 | $6 | Open |
DigitalOcean Basic 2GBAffiliate | $12.00 | 1 | 2 GB | 50 GB | 2 TB | $12 | $6 | Open |
DigitalOcean Basic 2GB / 2 vCPUAffiliate | $18.00 | 2 | 2 GB | 60 GB | 3 TB | $9 | $9 | Open |
DigitalOcean Basic 4GBAffiliate | $24.00 | 2 | 4 GB | 80 GB | 4 TB | $12 | $6 | Open |
DigitalOcean Basic 8GBAffiliate | $48.00 | 4 | 8 GB | 160 GB | 5 TB | $12 | $6 | Open |
All figures are the providers' own published list prices in USD, on-demand monthly, recorded on 2026-08-30. Nothing here is live or negotiated pricing. Hetzner publishes in euros, so its dollar figure moves with the exchange rate. Check the provider's pricing page before you commit.
Where DigitalOcean wins
- Flat monthly price per Droplet size, so the invoice is predictable
- Generous included egress compared with the hyperscalers
- Documentation and community tutorials are unusually good
- Managed databases, object storage and Kubernetes available alongside
Where it does not
- Unmanaged: OS updates, security hardening and backups are your job
- Fewer regions than AWS or Google Cloud
- Backups and snapshots are billed on top of the Droplet price
Who should actually pick this
Developers who want a real server with predictable billing and no surprise egress invoice.
Support: Ticket support on all plans; paid support tiers for faster response.
Compare DigitalOcean directly
Some links on this page are affiliate links, marked Affiliate, and we may earn a commission if you sign up through them. Hetzner and Akamai Cloud pay us nothing and are included anyway, because a comparison that hides the cheapest option is worthless. Commission never affects the ordering: every table on this site is sorted by the figures you choose.