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DigitalOcean vs Vultr

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of DigitalOcean and Vultr built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 38 criteria comparedSources last checked

Adoption share

BuiltWith counts — how much more of the web runs DigitalOcean than Vultr, among the sites BuiltWith actually detects. Measured . Source: BuiltWith.

DigitalOcean76.2% · 2,189,877 sites
Vultr23.8% · 683,495 sites

The short answer

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • DigitalOcean: You want a platform that manages the runtime for you rather than a server you administer.
  • Vultr: The $2.50 entry plan is IPv6-only; the equivalent machine with IPv4 starts at $3.50, and stopped instances are still billed.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: DigitalOcean alternatives · Vultr alternatives

18 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit DigitalOcean documentationVisit Vultr documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionDigitalOceanVultr
Pricing
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 modelbilled per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higherHourly 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 capBilled automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is freeBilled automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB.
Limits
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 includedNo more than 10 Droplets can be created at the same time through the Control Panel or the APIAn 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 bandwidth500 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
Execution
Managed connection poolingSupportedSupported
Deployment
ContainersSupportedSupported
Infrastructure
Persistent storageSupportedSupported
Managed databasesSupportedSupported
Edge network
Limited
Supported
Scales to zeroNot supportedNot 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.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 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 restVolumes 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 keysSpaces 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 controlTeams 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 / VPCVPC 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 infrastructureFour 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.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Entry paid plan

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.
Sources (2) →
  • Droplet Pricing — DigitalOcean ↗

    “Memory vCPU Transfer SSD $/hr $/mo 512 MiB 1 vCPU 500 GiB 10 GiB $0.00595 $ 4.00 1 GiB 1 vCPU 1,000 GiB 25 GiB $0.00893 $ 6.00”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • List Plans — Vultr API v2 ↗

    “{"id":"vc2-1c-0.5gb-v6","vcpu_count":1,"ram":512,"disk":10,"disk_type":"SSD","disk_count":1,"bandwidth":512,"monthly_cost":2.5,"hourly_cost":0.003,"monthly_cost_preemptible":2.5,"hourly_cost_preemptible":0.003,"invoice_type":"monthly","type":"vc2","locations":["ewr","atl"]”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

Pricing model

DigitalOcean
billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher
Vultr
Hourly billing; Cloud Compute is billed up to 672 hours per month, with a one-hour minimum billing unit
Sources (2) →

Egress over allowance

DigitalOcean
$0.01 per GiB (Droplets); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team.
Vultr
$0.01 per GB
Sources (2) →

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
Vultr
Billed automatically — bandwidth above the plan quota is charged at an overage rate of $0.01 per GB.
Sources (2) →

Storage (entry plan)

DigitalOcean

10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo).

Vultr

10 GB SSD on the cheapest paid Cloud Compute plan ($2.50/month, 1 vCPU, 512 MB, IPv6 only).

Sources (2) →

Memory (entry plan)

DigitalOcean

512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo).

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.

Sources (2) →

Sites or apps included

DigitalOcean
No more than 10 Droplets can be created at the same time through the Control Panel or the API
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)
Sources (2) →

Included bandwidth

DigitalOcean
500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU).
Vultr
2 TB of free bandwidth per account per month, plus each running instance's own monthly cap allocated hourly
Sources (2) →

File, inode or volume limit

DigitalOcean

Up to 5000 Block Storage volumes per account

Vultr

Up to 16 Vultr Block Storage volumes can be attached to the same Cloud Compute instance

Sources (2) →

Edge network

DigitalOcean
Limited
Vultr
Supported
Sources (2) →

Autoscaling

DigitalOcean
Supported — App Platform autoscales on CPU or on request metrics; containers are added and removed by workload.
Vultr
Limited
Sources (2) →
  • Scale Apps — DigitalOcean Docs ↗

    “Autoscaling automatically adds or removes containers based on workload. This is useful for apps with high but inconsistent traffic. App Platform supports two categories of autoscaling metrics:”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

  • How Does Vultr Kubernetes Engine Handle Scaling? | Vultr Docs ↗

    “Automatic Node Pool Scaling: VKE supports autoscaling for node pools. Based on workload demand, the autoscaler adjusts the number of nodes within a specified range. This ensures your applications remain responsive during peak traffic while reducing costs during periods of low activity.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

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.

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.

Sources (2) →
  • Regional Availability — DigitalOcean Docs ↗

    “DigitalOcean has 16 datacenters across 13 regions. [...] Datacenter Region Slug NYC1 New York City, United States nyc1 NYC2 New York City, United States nyc2 NYC3 New York City, United States nyc3 AMS3 Amsterdam, the Netherlands ams3 SFO2 San Francisco, United States sfo2 SFO3 San Francisco, United States sfo3 SGP1 Singapore sgp1 LON1 London, United Kingdom lon1 FRA1 Frankfurt, Germany fra1 TOR1 Toronto, Canada tor1 BLR1 Bangalore, India blr1 SYD1 Sydney, Australia syd1 ATL1 Atlanta, United States atl1 RIC1 Richmond, United States ric1 MKC1 Kansas City, United States mkc1 MEM1 Memphis, United States mem1”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

  • List Regions — Vultr API v2 ↗

    “{"regions":[{"id":"ams","city":"Amsterdam","country":"NL","continent":"Europe" [...] {"id":"yto","city":"Toronto","country":"CA","continent":"North America","options":["ddos_protection","block_storage_storage_opt","load_balancers","kubernetes"],"connectivity":["public_ip","nat_gateway"]}],"meta":{"total":33”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

DigitalOcean
Volumes block storage is encrypted with LUKS; the storage cluster is fully encrypted at rest and snapshots inherit that encryption.
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.
Sources (2) →

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.
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.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

DigitalOcean
Teams have six predefined roles, plus custom roles containing only the permissions you choose.
Vultr
IAM roles bundle policies for users or groups: assignable roles for permanent access, assumable roles for time-bound elevated sessions.
Sources (2) →
  • Team Roles | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗

    “Teams come with six predefined roles which cover common use cases for levels of access. [...] For more granular control, you can create custom roles with only the permissions you choose.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • How to Create a Role - Vultr Docs ↗

    “Roles contain policies that specify what actions are allowed or denied on which resources. [...] Assignable roles provide permanent access and are attached directly to users or groups. [...] Assumable roles provide temporary, elevated access through time-bound sessions. Assumable roles support IP restrictions and trust-based assumption (by user, group, organization, or OIDC issuer).”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

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.
Vultr
VPC networks give instances a secure, isolated private IPv4 network, with auto-assigned or custom subnet ranges and optional custom static routes.
Sources (2) →
  • VPC Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗

    “VPC networks are inaccessible from the public internet and other VPC networks [...] Network traffic is free within a VPC network or between peered VPC networks in the same datacenter.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • How to Create a VPC Network - Vultr Docs ↗

    “A Vultr Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network creates a secure and isolated private networking environment for instances to connect and share resources. A VPC network supports IPv4 network addresses to enable communication and data sharing between instances.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

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.
Vultr
Bare Metal instances offer direct, unvirtualized access to dedicated physical servers; Cloud Compute by contrast runs in a virtualized environment.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Free tierDigitalOcean: Yes — App Platform static sites only: up to three static-site-only apps, 1 GiB outbound data each
Kind of free offerDigitalOcean: Free tier
Startup credit programDigitalOcean: 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 durationDigitalOcean: The maximum timeout is 15 minutes. This includes initialization and function execution.
Git deploymentDigitalOcean: Supported
Docker deploymentDigitalOcean: Supported
Scheduled jobsDigitalOcean: Supported
Persistent processesDigitalOcean: Supported
Uptime SLADigitalOcean: 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 planDigitalOcean: 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 commitmentDigitalOcean: 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 27001DigitalOcean: Listed only for DigitalOcean's colocated data center facilities, not as a DigitalOcean corporate certification; certificates via the Certifications Center.Vultr: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-22 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Vultr.
HIPAADigitalOcean: 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 its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Vultr.
GDPR / data residencyDigitalOcean: Customer selects the datacenter location at account creation; EU/UK residency available via the Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London datacenters.Vultr: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-22 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Vultr.
PCI DSSDigitalOcean: 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 its own page when read on 2026-09-22 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Vultr.
04.

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.

Provider pages

DigitalOceanCloud infrastructure provider offering Linux virtual machines, managed databases, object storage and an app platform across global datacenter regions.VultrCloud provider offering virtual machines, bare metal servers, managed Kubernetes, managed databases, block and object storage, and a CDN across global data center locations.

Related comparisons

DigitalOcean vs HetznerDigitalOcean vs Hostinger VPSDigitalOcean vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)Hetzner vs VultrVultr vs Hostinger VPSVultr vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)Hetzner vs Hostinger VPSHetzner vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.