$ k8scalc compare hetzner digitalocean
Hetzner vs DigitalOcean
Head-to-head comparison of Hetzner Cloud and DigitalOcean for Kubernetes, VPS, and self-hosted infrastructure. Price, performance, and features.
Verdict
Hetzner wins on price by a wide margin — a cx43 (8 vCPU / 16 GB) costs €11.99/mo vs DigitalOcean's equivalent at ~$86/mo. Hetzner also includes 20 TB of outbound traffic free and now offers managed Kubernetes (HKE, free control plane). DigitalOcean wins on managed services maturity: DOKS, App Platform, and a larger global footprint. For self-managed Kubernetes on a budget, Hetzner is the clear winner. For teams that want a fully managed experience, DigitalOcean DOKS is more polished.
VPS & Cloud Hosting
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