Hetzner Cloud vs DigitalOcean
Both are alternatives to AWS (EC2 compute). Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Hetzner Cloud
TOP PICKTwo to four times the hardware per dollar, 20 TB of traffic included.
The price-performance king of European cloud: ~€4.50/mo for 2 vCPU / 4 GB with 20 TB of included EU traffic — a spec competitors price at $24 or more, plus bandwidth. Transparent flat pricing, EU and US locations, and the provider half the self-hosting community quietly runs on. It pays Macrostack nothing, which tells you why it's the pick.
DigitalOcean
The smoothest developer experience in the VPS world.
Droplets from $4–6/mo, the best tutorial library in the industry, and clean managed add-ons (databases, App Platform, Kubernetes) when you want them. You pay more per gigabyte than Hetzner — what the margin buys is polish, docs, and an ecosystem that makes juniors productive fast.
Side by side
| Hetzner Cloud | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 70 | 55 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Local-first | No | No |
| License | Proprietary service | Proprietary service |
| Pricing | From ~€4.50/mo (2 vCPU / 4 GB, 20 TB EU traffic); US locations slightly higher | Droplets from $4–6/mo; 2 vCPU / 4 GB ≈ $24/mo |
Hetzner Cloud is Macrostack's recommended AWS (EC2 compute) alternative, so it's our pick here.
Hetzner Cloud
Strengths
- +Two to four times the compute per dollar of US-priced rivals
- +20 TB of included traffic — bandwidth-heavy apps save $50–100/mo
- +Transparent flat pricing with EU data-protection jurisdiction
Trade-offs
- −Smaller region map (EU, US, Singapore)
- −Fewer managed services than the big platforms
- −New-account vetting can be strict
DigitalOcean
Strengths
- +Best-in-class documentation and tutorials
- +Clean managed add-ons: databases, Kubernetes, App Platform
- +Predictable flat pricing, no billing surprises
Trade-offs
- −Notably pricier per spec than EU rivals
- −Bandwidth allowances are modest with overage fees
Facts verified 2026-07-19. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.