DigitalOcean Pricing | Code Boost
Description: DigitalOcean has earned a reputation as a developer-friendly cloud hosting provider with transparent and competitive pricing. Whether you're a startup, a growing business, or an individual developer,

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# DigitalOcean Pricing

By Matt · Dec 4, 2024

DigitalOcean has earned a reputation as a developer-friendly cloud hosting provider with transparent and competitive pricing. Whether you're a startup, a growing business, or an individual developer, understanding DigitalOcean's pricing options is crucial for selecting the right services to match your needs and budget. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of DigitalOcean's pricing structure — including Droplets, managed databases, Kubernetes, and all the additional services — updated for 2026.

For a deeper dive into Virtual Private Server (VPS) options, visit the DigitalOcean VPS Pricing Guide or our DigitalOcean Pricing Calculator.

## What Sets DigitalOcean Apart?

DigitalOcean's pricing model is simple, transparent, and flexible. Unlike rigid subscription plans or AWS's complex per-service billing, DigitalOcean uses a usage-based pricing model where monthly charges are determined by the resources you configure. Key advantages:

- Flat-rate monthly billing — no surprise charges, no per-API-call fees
- Bandwidth included — generous outbound transfer included with every Droplet
- $200 in free credits for new accounts — enough to run a Droplet for months
- Hourly billing option — pay only for the hours you use, up to the monthly cap

Click here for $200 in free DigitalOcean promotional credit

## Droplets Pricing (Virtual Machines)

DigitalOcean's Droplets are virtual private servers (VPS) available in several tiers to match different workload requirements:

Droplet Type | Starting Price | Use Cases | Features
--- | --- | --- | ---
Shared CPU (Basic) | $4/month | Personal websites, test environments, low-traffic apps | Shared processing power; dynamic scaling during high loads
Premium Intel Droplets | $7/month | Applications requiring enhanced performance | Latest Intel CPUs, NVMe SSDs for faster storage
Premium AMD Droplets | $8/month | Cost-effective premium performance | AMD EPYC CPUs, NVMe SSDs
General Purpose | $63/month | Medium-to-high-traffic web servers, eCommerce | Balanced memory-to-CPU ratio, dedicated vCPU
CPU-Optimized | $42/month | CI/CD pipelines, ML inference, compute-heavy tasks | Dedicated CPU access, optimized for computation
Memory-Optimized | $84/month | High-performance databases, big data | 8 GB RAM per vCPU for memory-intensive workloads
Storage-Optimized | $131/month | Databases, storage-heavy applications | High-performance NVMe storage, large local disk

### Common Droplet Configurations and Prices

vCPU | RAM | Storage | Transfer | Price/Month
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1 | 512 MB | 10 GB SSD | 500 GB | $4
1 | 1 GB | 25 GB SSD | 1 TB | $6
2 | 2 GB | 60 GB SSD | 3 TB | $12
2 | 4 GB | 80 GB SSD | 4 TB | $24
4 | 8 GB | 160 GB SSD | 5 TB | $48
8 | 16 GB | 320 GB SSD | 6 TB | $96

For more details, visit the DigitalOcean VPS Pricing Guide.

## Additional Cloud Services and Pricing

Click here for $200 in free DigitalOcean credit

Service | Price | Features
--- | --- | ---
Managed Kubernetes (DOKS) | $12/month (control plane free) | Fully managed Kubernetes, optional autoscaling, free control plane
App Platform | Free for up to 3 static sites / from $5/month for apps | PaaS for web apps, automatic deploys from Git, managed scaling
Block Storage | $10/month per 100 GB | Expandable persistent storage for Droplets, SSD performance
Spaces (Object Storage) | $20/month for 1 TiB + 1 TiB outbound CDN | S3-compatible API, built-in CDN, ideal for static assets and backups
Load Balancers | $12/month | Distribute traffic across multiple Droplets, SSL termination
Managed PostgreSQL | $15/month (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM); $60/month (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) | Automated backups, failover, read replicas, connection pooling
Managed MySQL | $15/month (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | Same managed features as PostgreSQL
Managed MongoDB | $15/month | Fully managed MongoDB with automated backups
Managed Redis | $15/month (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) | In-memory caching and session storage
Serverless Functions | $34.69/month for 25 million invocations | Event-driven, auto-scaling, pay-per-use after free tier
Managed DNS | Free | DNS management for any domain, included for all accounts
CDN | Included with Spaces ($20/month) | Global edge caching for static assets via Spaces CDN

## Bandwidth and Transfer Pricing

DigitalOcean's pricing includes a pooled outbound network traffic allowance across all instances in your account. This pooling is significant — a Droplet that doesn't use its full transfer allowance contributes unused bandwidth to other Droplets in the same account.

- Inbound transfer: Always free
- Outbound transfer within DigitalOcean network: Free
- Outbound transfer beyond plan allowance: $0.01 per GiB
- Spaces CDN outbound: First 1 TiB included in Spaces plan, then $0.01/GiB

## DigitalOcean vs AWS vs Linode: Price Comparison

Configuration | DigitalOcean | AWS EC2 | Linode/Akamai
--- | --- | --- | ---
1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM | $6/month (all-in) | ~$9/month (+ $2 EBS storage) | $6/month (Nanode)
2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM | $24/month (all-in) | ~$30/month (+ $4 EBS storage) | $24/month
4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM | $48/month (all-in) | ~$75/month (+ storage) | $48/month

DigitalOcean and Linode (now Akamai Cloud) price similarly for raw compute. DigitalOcean's advantage is its developer tooling, UI quality, managed database selection, and documentation ecosystem. AWS offers a far broader service catalog but charges separately for nearly everything — storage, egress, API calls — making budgeting harder.

## Who Should Use DigitalOcean?

- Developers: Access to developer-friendly tools, transparent pricing, and excellent documentation. Great for side projects, APIs, and self-hosted tools.
- Startups: Cost-effective with $200 in free credits to get started. Scales easily without complex billing structures.
- Small to Medium Businesses: Predictable monthly costs with performance that handles most production workloads.
- DevOps teams: DOKS (managed Kubernetes), managed databases, and load balancers simplify infrastructure management without AWS complexity.

## Payment Methods: Can You Pay DigitalOcean With Crypto?

When evaluating DigitalOcean pricing, it's also worth understanding how you can pay — especially if you're operating internationally or prefer alternative payment methods.

### What Payment Methods Does DigitalOcean Accept?

DigitalOcean primarily supports traditional payment options, including:

- Major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express)
- PayPal and select digital wallets (availability varies by region)
- ACH direct debit for qualifying U.S.-based accounts

### Does DigitalOcean Accept Cryptocurrency?

DigitalOcean has limited and region-specific support for crypto-based payments, typically through supported stablecoins via certain wallets. This option is not universally available and may not appear for all accounts. DigitalOcean does not broadly accept direct Bitcoin or Ethereum payments.

Some developers use crypto-funded virtual debit cards (which convert crypto to fiat at checkout) or third-party platforms that resell DigitalOcean infrastructure while accepting crypto payments — though these are not officially part of DigitalOcean's billing system.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is the cheapest DigitalOcean Droplet?

The cheapest Droplet is the Basic Shared CPU plan with 512 MB RAM at $4/month. For most practical use cases including n8n, WordPress, and small web apps, the 1 GB RAM plan at $6/month is a better starting point — the extra $2/month significantly reduces out-of-memory issues.

### Does DigitalOcean offer free trials or credits?

Yes — new customers get $200 in free credits valid for 60 days. This is enough to run a 1 GB Droplet for over a year, or test managed databases, Kubernetes, and other services at no upfront cost.

### How does DigitalOcean handle additional traffic costs?

Additional outbound transfer beyond your Droplet's included allowance is billed at $0.01 per GiB. The allowance is pooled across all Droplets in your account — unused bandwidth from one Droplet can be used by another. Most small-to-medium projects never exceed their included transfer.

### How does DigitalOcean compare to AWS?

DigitalOcean is simpler and more cost-effective for smaller projects with predictable workloads. AWS offers 200+ services, more global regions, and enterprise-level compliance options — but with significantly more complexity and variable billing. For developers and startups without a dedicated cloud architect, DigitalOcean's simplicity is a major practical advantage.

### Can I resize a Droplet without losing data?

Yes. DigitalOcean supports both permanent resizes (increases CPU and RAM) and flexible resizes (adjusts RAM and CPU but keeps original disk). Power down the Droplet, resize it from the dashboard, and restart — your data remains intact. You can also scale up by adding Block Storage volumes without resizing the Droplet itself.