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# DigitalOcean vs Vultr vs Hetzner: Real Homelab Cost Comparison
- URL: https://ditchthesaas.com/digitalocean-vs-vultr-vs-hetzner-real-homelab-cost-comparison/
- Published: 2026-09-16T12:53:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-16T12:53:32.000Z
- Description: I'm going to be straightforwardly biased here in one way and honest in every other: I run this whole stack on Vultr, but Hetzner is objectively the cheapest option for raw specs. Here's the real comparison, trade-offs included.
- Author: Jordan Cole
- Tags: Self-Hosted Stack

I should say this upfront: I run everything on this site on Vultr, and that's the link I have to offer if you sign up through this post. That doesn't mean it's the cheapest option — it isn't — so here's the honest comparison of the three providers people ask me about most, at the tier most of the setups on this site actually use.

## What the same money actually buys

| Provider       | \~$12/month tier                                   | Locations                                                                                             |
| -------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| DigitalOcean   | 2GB RAM / 1 vCPU / 50GB SSD ($12/mo Basic Droplet) | \~15 regions                                                                                          |
| Vultr          | 2GB RAM / High Frequency tier ($12/mo)             | \~32 locations                                                                                        |
| Hetzner (CX22) | 4GB RAM / 2 vCPU / 40GB SSD ($4.59/mo)             | 6 locations (Germany: Nuremberg & Falkenstein, Finland: Helsinki, US: Ashburn & Hillsboro, Singapore) |

Read that table again: Hetzner's $4.59/month tier has **double the RAM and double the vCPUs** of DigitalOcean's $12/month 2GB/1vCPU tier, for well under half the price — and it still beats Vultr's $12/month 2GB tier on RAM alone, for a third of the cost. On pure specs-per-dollar, it's not close, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise just because I don't have a Hetzner link to offer you.

## Why I'm still on Vultr anyway

A few real reasons, not marketing ones:

- **Signup friction.** Hetzner runs identity verification on new accounts — government ID or video verification, sometimes a manual review delay — before your first server goes live. Vultr and DigitalOcean both let you spin up a server within minutes of signing up with a card. If you want to be running something tonight, that difference matters.
- **Location coverage.** Hetzner's 6 locations are excellent if your audience is in Europe or the US East/West coast (Ashburn and Hillsboro cover those now). Vultr's \~32 and DigitalOcean's \~15 locations give you more options if you need a specific region — closer to a specific audience, or specific data-residency needs.
- **I was already set up before the CX line's current pricing existed.** Migrating a working stack to save a few dollars a month, for zero difference my readers would ever notice, isn't worth the weekend. If I were starting from zero today, this section would probably look different.

## My honest recommendation

If you're price-sensitive, comfortable with a short identity-verification step, and don't need a location outside Hetzner's six, **Hetzner is the better raw deal** — I'd say so even though I don't have a referral link for them. If you want to be running a server five minutes after you decide to, or you need a specific region they don't have, Vultr and DigitalOcean are functionally similar at this tier, and the deciding factor is usually which one has a data center where you actually need it.

Every setup on this site — n8n, Grafana + Loki, Vikunja, Ghost, BookStack, ntfy — runs comfortably in the $6–$12/month range on any of these three. The provider matters less than actually starting.

I run mine on [Vultr](https://www.vultr.com/?ref=9922680).

*Disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link to Vultr. If you sign up through it, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I don't have referral links for DigitalOcean or Hetzner, which is part of why I could write the Hetzner section above as bluntly as I did.*