# DigitalOcean vs Vultr

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/digitalocean-vs-vultr/

Every value below is read from DigitalOcean's and Vultr's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | DigitalOcean | Vultr |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Entry paid plan | $4.00 | $2.50/month for vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6: 1 vCPU, 512 MB memory, 10 GB SSD, 512 GB bandwidth, IPv6 only — and available in two of Vultr's 33 regions, Newark and Atlanta. The first plan offered nearly everywhere is vc2-1c-1gb at $5.00, in 31 of them. |
| Pricing model | billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher | Hourly billing; Cloud Compute is billed up to 672 hours per month, with a one-hour minimum billing unit |
| Egress over allowance | $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team. | $0.01 per GB |
| When you exceed a cap | Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free | Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB. |
| Storage (entry plan) | 10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo). | 10 GB SSD on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, 1 vCPU, 512 MB, IPv6 only). |
| Memory (entry plan) | 512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo). | 0.5 GB on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, IPv6 only). The plans API reports it as "ram":512 without naming a unit. |
| Sites or apps included | No more than 10 Droplets can be created at the same time through the Control Panel or the API | An account-wide maximum-instances limit applies; the number is shown only in the Vultr Console under Billing > Limits and is not published (increases can be requested) |
| Included bandwidth | 500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU). | 2 TB of free bandwidth per account per month, plus each running instance's own monthly cap allocated hourly |
| File, inode or volume limit | Up to 5000 Block Storage volumes per account | Up to 16 Vultr Block Storage volumes can be attached to the same Cloud Compute instance |
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported |
| Containers | Supported | Supported |
| Persistent storage | Supported | Supported |
| Managed databases | Supported | Supported |
| Edge network | Limited | Supported |
| Scales to zero | Not supported | Not supported |
| Autoscaling | Supported — App Platform autoscales on CPU or on request metrics; containers are added and removed by workload. | Limited |
| Regions | Thirteen regions holding 16 datacenters: New York City (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), Amsterdam (AMS3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Bangalore, Sydney, Atlanta, Richmond, Kansas City and Memphis. | 33 regions across six continents: 11 in North America, 9 in Europe, 8 in Asia, 2 in Australia, 2 in South America and 1 in Africa. |
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 Type II certifications issued by independent auditor Schellman & Company; reports via the Security Reports & Certifications Center. | To maintain a strong security posture, Vultr conducts quarterly penetration testing by certified ethical hackers (CEH/OSCP), real-time vulnerability scanning aligned with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and annual SOC 2+ Type II audits. |
| Encryption at rest | Volumes block storage is encrypted with LUKS; the storage cluster is fully encrypted at rest and snapshots inherit that encryption. | Vultr Block Storage and File Storage provide encryption for data in transit and at rest; OS-level encryption such as LUKS is advised in addition. |
| Customer-managed keys | Spaces object storage supports SSE-C (server-side encryption with customer-provided keys); bucket-level encryption settings are not supported. Spaces object storage only; read from the Spaces S3-compatible API reference. | Object Storage supports SSE-C server-side encryption with a customer-provided key; the customer alone manages and safeguards those keys. Object Storage only; no platform key-management service found on the site. |
| Role-based access control | Teams have six predefined roles, plus custom roles containing only the permissions you choose. | IAM roles bundle policies for users or groups: assignable roles for permanent access, assumable roles for time-bound elevated sessions. |
| Private networking / VPC | VPC networks are private interfaces inaccessible from the public internet; traffic within a VPC or between peered VPCs in the same datacenter is free. | VPC networks give instances a secure, isolated private IPv4 network, with auto-assigned or custom subnet ranges and optional custom static routes. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Four of the five bundled Droplet plans use dedicated CPUs with guaranteed full hyper-thread access; only the Basic plan shares hyper-threads. | Bare Metal instances offer direct, unvirtualized access to dedicated physical servers; Cloud Compute by contrast runs in a virtualized environment. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- DigitalOcean: $4.00 ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets))
- Vultr: $2.50/month for vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6: 1 vCPU, 512 MB memory, 10 GB SSD, 512 GB bandwidth, IPv6 only — and available in two of Vultr's 33 regions, Newark and Atlanta. The first plan offered nearly everywhere is vc2-1c-1gb at $5.00, in 31 of them. ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans?per_page=500))
- Lean: 38% DigitalOcean / 62% Vultr — inversely proportional to the documented price. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Pricing model

- DigitalOcean: billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/details/pricing/))
- Vultr: Hourly billing; Cloud Compute is billed up to 672 hours per month, with a one-hour minimum billing unit ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/how-am-i-billed-for-my-servers))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Egress over allowance

- DigitalOcean: $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/billing/bandwidth/))
- Vultr: $0.01 per GB ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/what-is-the-bandwidth-overage-rate))
- Lean: 50% DigitalOcean / 50% Vultr — inversely proportional to the documented price. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### When you exceed a cap

- DigitalOcean: Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/details/pricing/))
- Vultr: Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/what-is-the-bandwidth-overage-rate))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Storage (entry plan)

- DigitalOcean: 10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo). ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets))
- Vultr: 10 GB SSD on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, 1 vCPU, 512 MB, IPv6 only). ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans?per_page=500))
- Lean: 52% DigitalOcean / 48% Vultr — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Memory (entry plan)

- DigitalOcean: 512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo). ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets))
- Vultr: 0.5 GB on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, IPv6 only). The plans API reports it as "ram":512 without naming a unit. ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans?per_page=500))
- Lean: 50% DigitalOcean / 50% Vultr — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Sites or apps included

- DigitalOcean: No more than 10 Droplets can be created at the same time through the Control Panel or the API ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/details/limits/))
- Vultr: An account-wide maximum-instances limit applies; the number is shown only in the Vultr Console under Billing > Limits and is not published (increases can be requested) ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/platform/billing/manage-account-limits))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Included bandwidth

- DigitalOcean: 500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU). ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets))
- Vultr: 2 TB of free bandwidth per account per month, plus each running instance's own monthly cap allocated hourly ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/how-are-bandwidth-caps-calculated))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### File, inode or volume limit

- DigitalOcean: Up to 5000 Block Storage volumes per account ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/details/limits/))
- Vultr: Up to 16 Vultr Block Storage volumes can be attached to the same Cloud Compute instance ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/storage/block-storage/faq))
- Lean: 98% DigitalOcean / 2% Vultr — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Edge network

- DigitalOcean: Limited ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/spaces/details/features/))
- Vultr: Supported ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/network/cdn-pull-zone))
- Lean: 36% DigitalOcean / 64% Vultr — documented support level. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Autoscaling

- DigitalOcean: Supported — App Platform autoscales on CPU or on request metrics; containers are added and removed by workload. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/how-to/scale-app/))
- Vultr: Limited ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/support/products/vke/how-does-vultr-kubernetes-engine-handle-scaling))
- Lean: 64% DigitalOcean / 36% Vultr — documented support level. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Regions

- DigitalOcean: Thirteen regions holding 16 datacenters: New York City (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), Amsterdam (AMS3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Bangalore, Sydney, Atlanta, Richmond, Kansas City and Memphis. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/platform/regional-availability/))
- Vultr: 33 regions across six continents: 11 in North America, 9 in Europe, 8 in Asia, 2 in Australia, 2 in South America and 1 in Africa. ([source](https://api.vultr.com/v2/regions?per_page=500))
- Lean: 28% DigitalOcean / 72% Vultr — proportional to the documented capacity. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### SOC 2

- DigitalOcean: SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 Type II certifications issued by independent auditor Schellman & Company; reports via the Security Reports & Certifications Center. ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/trust/certification-reports))
- Vultr: To maintain a strong security posture, Vultr conducts quarterly penetration testing by certified ethical hackers (CEH/OSCP), real-time vulnerability scanning aligned with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and annual SOC 2+ Type II audits. ([source](https://www.vultr.com/trust-center/))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Encryption at rest

- DigitalOcean: Volumes block storage is encrypted with LUKS; the storage cluster is fully encrypted at rest and snapshots inherit that encryption. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/volumes/details/features/))
- Vultr: Vultr Block Storage and File Storage provide encryption for data in transit and at rest; OS-level encryption such as LUKS is advised in addition. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/platform/security-best-practices/vbs-vfs))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Customer-managed keys

- DigitalOcean: Spaces object storage supports SSE-C (server-side encryption with customer-provided keys); bucket-level encryption settings are not supported. Spaces object storage only; read from the Spaces S3-compatible API reference. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/spaces/reference/s3-compatibility/))
- Vultr: Object Storage supports SSE-C server-side encryption with a customer-provided key; the customer alone manages and safeguards those keys. Object Storage only; no platform key-management service found on the site. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/how-to-use-server-side-encryption-sse-c-with-s3-object-storage-on-vultr))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Role-based access control

- DigitalOcean: Teams have six predefined roles, plus custom roles containing only the permissions you choose. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/platform/teams/roles/))
- Vultr: IAM roles bundle policies for users or groups: assignable roles for permanent access, assumable roles for time-bound elevated sessions. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/platform/iam/roles/how-to-create-a-role))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Private networking / VPC

- DigitalOcean: VPC networks are private interfaces inaccessible from the public internet; traffic within a VPC or between peered VPCs in the same datacenter is free. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/networking/vpc/details/pricing/))
- Vultr: VPC networks give instances a secure, isolated private IPv4 network, with auto-assigned or custom subnet ranges and optional custom static routes. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/network/vpc-networks/provisioning))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

### Dedicated infrastructure

- DigitalOcean: Four of the five bundled Droplet plans use dedicated CPUs with guaranteed full hyper-thread access; only the Basic plan shares hyper-threads. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/concepts/choosing-a-plan/))
- Vultr: Bare Metal instances offer direct, unvirtualized access to dedicated physical servers; Cloud Compute by contrast runs in a virtualized environment. ([source](https://docs.vultr.com/products/compute/instances/bare-metal/faq))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

## Which should you choose?

Pick DigitalOcean if Teams that want plain Linux virtual machines with predictable per-second billing from $4 a month, and the option of managed databases beside them. App Platform adds Git and Docker deploys on top.

Pick Vultr if Teams that want cheap virtual machines with generous included transfer — 2 TB a month per account — and overage at a cent per gigabyte. Block storage and managed databases sit alongside.

Consider something else: DigitalOcean — You want a platform that manages the runtime for you rather than a server you administer.

Consider something else: Vultr — The $2.50 entry plan is IPv6-only; the equivalent machine with IPv4 starts at $3.50, and stopped instances are still billed.

## Documented by only one

One side documents these and the other does not. An absence is a missing source, not a stated "no" — except where a line says the other page was READ on a date and does not mention it, which is a sourced observation and the only one-sided case this site leans on.

- Free tier: DigitalOcean: Yes — App Platform static sites only: up to three static-site-only apps, 1 GiB outbound data each
- Kind of free offer: DigitalOcean: Free tier
- Startup credit program: DigitalOcean: DigitalOcean Startups (formerly Hatch): credits (amount varies, up to $10,000/month) for 12 months, plus 15 months of free Standard Tier support. Requires ≤$10M raised and a registered business account; service-based startups are not eligible.
- Max request duration: DigitalOcean: The maximum timeout is 15 minutes. This includes initialization and function execution.
- Git deployment: DigitalOcean: Supported
- Docker deployment: DigitalOcean: Supported
- Scheduled jobs: DigitalOcean: Supported
- Persistent processes: DigitalOcean: Supported
- Uptime SLA: DigitalOcean: 99.99% monthly uptime per individual Droplet, with a 100% service credit for any month below it. Instance-level, and the same for every customer.
- Support on entry paid plan: DigitalOcean: Free ticket-based support for everyone, 24/7. Paid plans buy speed and channels rather than infrastructure: Developer $24/month, Standard $99/month with live chat, Premium $999/month with a dedicated Slack channel and video calls.
- Response time commitment: DigitalOcean: Under 8 hours on Developer ($24/month), the cheapest paid support plan. Free is under 24 hours, Standard under 2 hours and Premium under 30 minutes. Not severity-based.
- ISO 27001: DigitalOcean: Listed only for DigitalOcean's colocated data center facilities, not as a DigitalOcean corporate certification; certificates via the Certifications Center.
  - Vultr: not stated on https://www.vultr.com/trust-center/, read 2026-09-22. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 78% DigitalOcean / 22% Vultr — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-22).
- HIPAA: DigitalOcean: Annual third-party HIPAA/HITECH attestation; BAA offered through sales; ePHI allowed only on listed HIPAA Eligible products such as Droplets, Kubernetes, Spaces.
  - Vultr: not stated on https://www.vultr.com/, read 2026-09-21. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 78% DigitalOcean / 22% Vultr — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-21).
- GDPR / data residency: DigitalOcean: Customer selects the datacenter location at account creation; EU/UK residency available via the Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London datacenters.
  - Vultr: not stated on https://www.vultr.com/trust-center/, read 2026-09-22. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 78% DigitalOcean / 22% Vultr — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-22).
- PCI DSS: DigitalOcean: PCI-DSS SAQ-A validation under a Zero-Footprint data policy; DigitalOcean does not store, process or transmit cardholder data in its admin environment.
  - Vultr: not stated on https://www.vultr.com/trust-center/, read 2026-09-22. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 78% DigitalOcean / 22% Vultr — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-22).

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: DigitalOcean or Vultr?**

DigitalOcean: $4.00
Vultr: $2.50/month for vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6: 1 vCPU, 512 MB memory, 10 GB SSD, 512 GB bandwidth, IPv6 only — and available in two of Vultr's 33 regions, Newark and Atlanta. The first plan offered nearly everywhere is vc2-1c-1gb at $5.00, in 31 of them.

**Egress over allowance: DigitalOcean or Vultr?**

DigitalOcean: $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team.
Vultr: $0.01 per GB

**When you exceed a cap: DigitalOcean or Vultr?**

DigitalOcean: Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free
Vultr: Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB.

**Should I choose DigitalOcean or Vultr?**

Pick DigitalOcean if Teams that want plain Linux virtual machines with predictable per-second billing from $4 a month, and the option of managed databases beside them. App Platform adds Git and Docker deploys on top.
Pick Vultr if Teams that want cheap virtual machines with generous included transfer — 2 TB a month per account — and overage at a cent per gigabyte. Block storage and managed databases sit alongside.