Comparing prices across every provider we track...
CloudHosting.ioCloudHosting.io
Droplets · $4/mo (512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB SSD, 500 GB transfer)
DigitalOcean's $4/mo Basic 512MB plan is competitively priced but several alternatives offer better specs (more RAM, storage, or transfer) at similar or lower cost. IONOS Cloud VPS XS and Vultr offer the best immediate value, though watch for renewal pricing traps and bandwidth overages.
Double the RAM (1GB vs 512MB), same vCPU, 10GB NVMe storage, and unlimited traffic up to 1 Gbit/s for half the price.
Caveat: Intro pricing at $2/mo is a promotional rate; renewal after 1-year contract jumps to $6-12/mo, and outbound data beyond 2TB is charged at $0.036/GB.
Matches DigitalOcean's 512MB RAM and 1 vCPU, includes 10GB disk and 500GB transfer, for $1.50/mo less.
Caveat: Bandwidth overage rates vary by data center location and are not clearly published; 100% network uptime SLA is strong but does not cover compute.
Slightly cheaper than DigitalOcean, with 2 vCPU (vs 1), 20GB SSD (vs 10GB), and 1000GB transfer (vs 500GB).
Caveat: Data transfer overage rates are region-dependent ($0.09-$0.132/GB) and can exceed DigitalOcean's $0.01/GB; renewal or region changes may alter effective cost.
1GB RAM (vs 512MB), 10GB SSD, 1 vCPU, and industry-leading 99.999% SLA for $0.50 less than DigitalOcean.
Caveat: Backup add-ons are expensive (10-60% surcharge); data transfer beyond Fair Transfer Policy allowance is charged despite free egress marketing.
Matches DigitalOcean's $4/mo price but offers 1GB RAM (vs 512MB), 20GB NVMe (vs 10GB SSD), and 5TB transfer (vs 500GB).
Caveat: Non-dedicated CPU thread with no guaranteed resources; bandwidth overage is $0.01/GB (same as DigitalOcean); Windows licensing and managed services add significant hidden costs.
Before you switch
| Vultr | Cloud Compute · Regular 1vCPU/0.5GB | $2.5/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB | Visit |
| InMotion Hosting | Shared Hosting · Core | $2.99/mo | 512 MB RAM, 100 GB SSD | Visit |
| AWS Lightsail | Virtual Servers · GP 0.5GB (Linux, IPv6) | $3.5/mo | 512 MB RAM, 2 vCPU, 20 GB SSD | Visit |
| UpCloud | Cloud Servers - Starter · STARTER-1xCPU-1GB | $3.5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB Standard SSD | Visit |
| Microsoft Azure | Virtual Machines · B1ls | $3.8/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU | Visit |
| Namecheap | VPS Hosting · Spark | $3.88/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB SSD | Visit |
| Kamatera | Cloud VMs · Type A base (Availability, 1 vCPU/1GB) | $4/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 20 GB NVMe SSD | Visit |
| Alibaba Cloud | Simple Application Server · economy-e-2c-0.5g | $4.55/mo | 512 MB RAM, 2 vCPU, 40 GB SSD | Visit |
| Liquid Web | VPS Hosting · Compute 1 | $5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 30 GB SSD | Visit |
| Linode (Akamai) | Shared CPU Compute · Nanode 1 GB | $5/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD | Visit |
| Civo | Compute Instances · xSmall | $5.43/mo | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB NVMe | Visit |
| Exoscale | Standard Instances · Micro | $5.75/mo | 512 MB RAM, 1 vCPU, 200 GB SSD | Visit |
IONOS
Vultr
View DigitalOcean's plan
AWS Lightsail
UpCloud
Kamatera