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What is DigitalOcean Droplets?
Short answer
DigitalOcean Droplets is a VPS host from DigitalOcean, best for developer-friendly cloud VPS. It has no free plan; paid plans start at $4 / mo.
| Fact | DigitalOcean Droplets | VPS median (6 tools) |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | 0 of 6 have one |
| Entry price | $4 / mo | $5 / mo |
| Top plan | $18 / mo | $23.69 / mo |
| 1st year | $48 | $60 |
| Paid plans | 4 | 4 |
| Platforms | Web, API, Linux | — |
What does DigitalOcean Droplets do?
DigitalOcean Droplets covers these jobs, as listed on DigitalOcean's pricing and feature pages.
- Hourly/per-second billing with monthly cap
- Basic shared-CPU Droplets
- Included monthly transfer
- Dedicated CPU and memory-optimized sizes
- Managed databases and Kubernetes add-ons
How much does DigitalOcean Droplets cost?
$4 / mo to $18 / mo.
| Plan | Price | Billed monthly | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic 512 MiB | $4 / mo | $4 / mo | 1 vCPU · 512 MiB · 10 GiB SSD |
| Basic 1 GiB | $6 / mo | $6 / mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GiB · 25 GiB SSD |
| Basic 2 GiB | $12 / mo | $12 / mo | 1 vCPU · 2 GiB · 50 GiB SSD |
| Basic 2 vCPU | $18 / mo | $18 / mo | 2 vCPU · 2 GiB · 60 GiB SSD |
What are the best DigitalOcean Droplets alternatives?
Closest on first-year cost: OVHcloud VPS, Vultr Cloud Compute, Amazon Lightsail.
| Alternative | Free plan | From |
|---|---|---|
| OVHcloud VPS | No | $4.54 / mo |
| Vultr Cloud Compute | No | $5 / mo |
| Amazon Lightsail | No | $5 / mo |
Is DigitalOcean Droplets better than OVHcloud VPS?
DigitalOcean Droplets is best for developer-friendly cloud VPS; OVHcloud VPS for unmetered-traffic budget VPS. First year: $48 vs $54.48.
Sources
| Vendor page | URL | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean Droplets pricing | digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets | 27 Oct 2026 |
Prices in USD as published by each vendor, billed yearly where offered. How we compare