Vultr vs DigitalOcean pricing: which is cheaper for your team?
Vultr's cheapest paid tier (Regular IPv6-only) lists at $2.5/month, which beats the other on entry pricing. Mid-tier and enterprise math can flip the answer — use the per-tier table below to see the real cost for your team size at each tier.
Calculate the cost for your team
Vultr pricing tiers
| Tier | Monthly | Annual (eq) | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular IPv6-only | $2.5 | $2.5 | month | 1 vCPU, 0.5GB RAM, $0.004/hr. Previous-gen Intel + SSD. |
| High Performance | $6 | $6 | month | 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, AMD EPYC or Intel Xeon + NVMe. |
| High Frequency | $6 | $6 | month | 3GHz+ Xeon, NVMe SSD. |
| Optimized General Purpose | $30 | $30 | month | Dedicated AMD EPYC vCPUs, starts at $0.045/hr. |
| VX1 General Purpose | $43 | $43 | month | $0.060/hr, 2 vCPUs/8GB RAM. |
DigitalOcean pricing tiers
| Tier | Monthly | Annual (eq) | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Droplet | $4 | $4 | month | Per-second billing, 60s minimum. 500 GiB outbound transfer included. |
| App Platform Starter | $0 | $0 | month | Build and deploy 3 static sites for free. |
| App Platform Basic | $5 | $5 | month | Managed container apps, scales horizontally. |
| App Platform Pro | $12 | $12 | month | Dedicated CPU, autoscaling, more instances. |
Feature by feature
The non-pricing differences that drive the real decision.
| Capability | Vultr | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | month | month |
| Pricing model | Hourly or monthly per instance | Per-second hourly billing with monthly cap |
| Cheapest paid tier | Regular IPv6-only at $2.5/month | Basic Droplet at $4/month |
| Mid-tier benchmark | High Frequency at $6/month | App Platform Basic at $5/month |
| Total paid tiers published | 5 | 3 |
| Last verified | 2026-05-17 | 2026-05-17 |
Best for…
Hand-picked use cases mapped to the winner.
| Use case | Winner |
|---|---|
| Lowest entry price (10-person team) | Vultr Regular IPv6-only |
| Most pricing tiers (room to grow) | Vultr (5 tiers) |
| Predictable per-seat billing | Neither (both flat/usage) |
| Most recently verified pricing | Vultr |
Choose Vultr when
- Bare-metal-friendly cloud with cheap shared-CPU starter VMs and dedicated AMD EPYC tiers.
- Entry tier (Regular IPv6-only) at $2.5/month is your budget ceiling.
- Volume and reserved discounts available via Vultr sales; pricing page is pay-as-you-go only.
Choose DigitalOcean when
- Predictable Droplet IaaS plus App Platform.
- Entry tier (Basic Droplet) at $4/month is your budget ceiling.
- Volume agreements available via DigitalOcean sales but not advertised on the public page.
Switching considerations
Watch the hidden fees on both sides. Vultr: Public bandwidth allowance varies per plan; overages billed per GB. DigitalOcean: Outbound transfer overage at $0.01/GiB once 500 GiB cap is hit. Always confirm with the vendor before purchase.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper for a 10-person team, Vultr or DigitalOcean?
At entry tier and 10 seats on annual billing: Vultr Regular IPv6-only comes to $3/mo; DigitalOcean Basic Droplet comes to $4/mo. Vultr is the cheaper entry-tier choice at this team size.
Does Vultr have more pricing tiers than DigitalOcean?
Vultr publishes more paid tiers (5 vs 3). More tiers usually means more granular ways to grow without re-platforming.
Which pricing was verified more recently?
Vultr's pricing was last verified 2026-05-17; DigitalOcean's on 2026-05-17. Both pages link to the vendor's official pricing source so you can re-check before committing.