When you need a server, not a whole platform # DigitalOcean alternatives: cheaper places to run a plain VPS If your Droplet is just a Linux box with a few services on it, these five providers may give you more CPU, RAM or traffic for the money. [Try DataPasa](https://cloud.datapasa.com/register) [See plans](#plans) ## What matters when you leave Droplets The points we compared for each provider on the list. ### Shared or dedicated CPU Basic Droplets share CPU. We note which alternatives give dedicated cores and at what price. ### Price for the same size Listed monthly prices for servers close to the Droplet sizes people actually use. ### Included traffic Outbound transfer allowances differ a lot, which matters for downloads, media and backups. ### How you pay Invoiced after the month, prepaid, or locked into a term, plus the payment methods each host lists. ### Sign-up rules Whether a card is required up front and what a host may ask for to confirm who you are. ### Managed services What you give up by moving to a provider that sells servers without the extra platform pieces. ## DataPasa plans next to your Droplets Monthly prices for easy comparison. Charges are taken hourly from your prepaid balance. VPS-1 $1.81/mo $0.0025/hr CPU 1 vCPU RAM 1 GB NVMe 16 GB Traffic 1 TB [Order VPS-1](https://cloud.datapasa.com/cloud/order?tariff=ce21ba18-988f-4eb8-947a-41adb86019d9) VPS-2 $3.54/mo $0.0048/hr CPU 1 vCPU RAM 2 GB NVMe 32 GB Traffic 32 TB [Order VPS-2](https://cloud.datapasa.com/cloud/order?tariff=a8cdefa7-dc24-45d3-aeaf-ce97fee1837d) VPS-3 $7.09/mo $0.0097/hr CPU 2 vCPU RAM 4 GB NVMe 64 GB Traffic 32 TB [Order VPS-3](https://cloud.datapasa.com/cloud/order?tariff=402a3c18-a3ab-4447-85a5-138162552777) VPS-4 $12.16/mo $0.0167/hr CPU 4 vCPU RAM 8 GB NVMe 128 GB Traffic 32 TB [Order VPS-4](https://cloud.datapasa.com/cloud/order?tariff=0a5f56fa-c6bf-475a-a5c9-e6afa6900f93) VPS-5 $18.24/mo $0.0250/hr CPU 6 vCPU RAM 12 GB NVMe 192 GB Traffic 32 TB [Order VPS-5](https://cloud.datapasa.com/cloud/order?tariff=1996df81-13df-49af-a356-f964a1afc780) VPS-6 $24.12/mo $0.0330/hr CPU 6 vCPU RAM 16 GB NVMe 256 GB Traffic 32 TB [Order VPS-6](https://cloud.datapasa.com/cloud/order?tariff=c28784c2-2828-48e5-a589-7e2250ffb88b) [See all plans and prices](https://datapasa.com/en/pricing) ## Why developers move off DigitalOcean The most common reason is cost for plain servers. At the time of our check a Basic Droplet with shared CPU, 1 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM and 50 GiB SSD was listed at $12 a month, and 2 vCPU with 4 GiB at $24. Dedicated CPU meant a CPU-Optimized Droplet from $42, or General Purpose with 4 vCPU and 16 GiB at $126. Outbound transfer on Basic plans ranged from 500 GiB to 6,000 GiB. Billing and sign-up are the other reasons. DigitalOcean charges your saved payment method for the previous month on the first of each month, sometimes earlier if usage crosses a threshold. A payment method is required before you can create anything, virtual and prepaid cards are refused, and stablecoin payments are open only to some customers and locations. ## DataPasa: dedicated vCPU from $1.81, paid in advance DataPasa sells one thing: KVM virtual servers with dedicated vCPU, dedicated RAM and NVMe storage in Falkenstein, Germany. For the sizes people usually run on Basic Droplets, the list price is well below DigitalOcean. VPS-2 matches the $12 Droplet on CPU and memory for $3.54 a month, and VPS-3 matches the $24 one for $7.09. Plans from VPS-2 up include 32 TB of traffic. Instead of a card on file, you keep a prepaid USD balance and each server takes one hour of charges at a time. What you lose compared with DigitalOcean: managed databases, Kubernetes, load balancers, a marketplace of 1-Click Apps and a dozen regions. You install and run your stack yourself, with step by step guides for common software. - Good for: bots, small web apps, n8n or Coolify, staging servers, anything that runs fine on a Linux VPS. - Bigger sizes: VPS-6 with 6 vCPU, 16 GB RAM and 256 GB NVMe is $24.12 a month. VPS-7 with 8 vCPU and 24 GB is $33.45. - Billing: hourly, from a balance you top up from $5. No setup fee and no minimum term. - Ways to top up: Stripe for cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PIX, and Cryptomus for about 100 coins and networks, available on every account. - Sign-up: just an email. Documents are requested only if AML screening flags a deposit. - Locations: Falkenstein today, São Paulo, Brazil coming soon. ## Hetzner Cloud: close to the Droplet experience Of all the alternatives here, Hetzner Cloud feels most like DigitalOcean: cloud servers billed hourly up to a monthly cap, with an invoice once the month is over. It also has a large library of community tutorials. At the time of our check its cheapest CX23 (2 shared vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe) started at $7.09 with IPv4 but was marked unavailable, while CPX12 with 1 vCPU and 2 GB began at $14.09. - Good for: teams that like the cloud console workflow and want to stay on post paid invoices. - CPU: shared on Cost-Optimized and Regular Performance plans, dedicated on General Purpose. - Accepted: four card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, UnionPay), PayPal, bank transfer and SEPA direct debit on EUR accounts. Crypto is ruled out. - Sign-up: may require a government ID or an advance card payment as a fraud check. - Locations: Falkenstein, Nuremberg, Helsinki, Ashburn, Hillsboro and Singapore. Included traffic is at least 20 TB in the EU and 0.5 TB in Singapore. ## Contabo: the most RAM per dollar on a long term Contabo is the budget option for memory heavy servers that will run for a long time. When we checked, Cloud VPS 4 had 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and 100 GB SSD for €5.50 a month, the effective rate on a 24 month subscription including tax. A Droplet of similar size costs several times that. The trade-off is commitment: terms start at one month and renew for the same length. - Good for: long lived workloads that need lots of RAM or disk and can live with SSD and a 200 Mbit/s port. - Billing: contract terms, with four weeks of notice for postpaid orders. - Accepted: cards and PayPal in every account currency, with Skrill, bank transfer and direct debit added for EUR accounts. No crypto. - Sign-up: Contabo verifies customer data, and some orders need an ID document or utility bill scan. - Locations: nine regions with eleven locations across the EU, UK, US, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia. ## OVHcloud: bundled backups and many regions OVHcloud is the alternative that keeps a broad footprint while costing less than DigitalOcean for mid sized servers. At the time of our check, VPS-1 with 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM and 40 GB NVMe was $5.35 a month, and VPS-2 with 4 vCores and 8 GB was $10.00, both before tax, with lower rates on a 12 month prepayment. Daily backups and anti-DDoS protection were part of every plan. - Good for: 4 GB to 8 GB servers you will keep a year or more. - Billing: by the month, or committed for a year and paid upfront. - Accepted: Visa, Mastercard and Maestro cards, PayPal, or a prepaid OVHcloud account. Crypto was absent. - Sign-up: a random payment validation may slow an order. ID rules are not published. - Regions: five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK) plus Canada, Singapore, Australia, India and Local Zones. ## LightNode: hourly VPS in more countries than DigitalOcean LightNode keeps the hourly model but spreads it over 40+ locations on five continents, including places DigitalOcean does not cover in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. Hourly usage is capped at 672 hours per calendar month. When we checked, plans started at $7.71 a month ($0.012 per hour) for 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM and 50 GB NVMe, with 1 TB of bandwidth. - Good for: putting a server next to users in a specific country. - Accepted: cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, UnionPay), Alipay, Google Pay and PayPal, charged in US or Hong Kong dollars. No crypto option was shown. - Sign-up: verification rules were not described publicly. - Extras: new accounts can get up to $15 in credit, and Windows is offered even on the entry plans. ## Choosing a DigitalOcean alternative First, check how much of DigitalOcean you actually use. If your stack leans on managed databases, Kubernetes or load balancers, moving means running those yourself, and staying may be worth the price. If your Droplets are plain Linux servers, most providers here list lower prices for the same size. Second, match the provider to your users and your payment habits. Europe based traffic works well from Germany. A specific country elsewhere points to LightNode or a host with a local region. If you want to prepay, use crypto or PIX, or avoid putting a card on file, DataPasa was designed for that. - Need managed services: stay on DigitalOcean. - Want a similar console with post paid invoices: Hetzner. - Long term, RAM heavy server: Contabo or OVHcloud. - Server in a particular country: LightNode. - Dedicated vCPU, 32 TB of traffic, prepaid hourly billing, crypto or PIX: DataPasa. ## Step by step guides Written by our team and tested on DataPasa servers. [How to buy a VPS at DataPasa](https://datapasa.com/wiki/getting-started/how-to-buy-a-vps) [How hourly billing works](https://datapasa.com/wiki/billing/hourly-billing) ## DigitalOcean alternatives FAQ For a plain VPS, DataPasa, OVHcloud and LightNode all listed lower prices than Basic Droplets of a similar size when we checked. DataPasa VPS-2 (1 vCPU, 2 GB) is $3.54 a month with dedicated vCPU, against $12 for a shared CPU Droplet. DataPasa gives dedicated vCPU on every plan, starting with the $1.81 VPS-1. On DigitalOcean, dedicated CPU begins with CPU-Optimized Droplets at $42 a month. At DataPasa, yes. You top up a balance by card, PIX or crypto, and nothing is charged automatically later. DigitalOcean requires a payment method before you create resources. No. DataPasa sells KVM servers with root access. You can install PostgreSQL, Docker or a lightweight Kubernetes distribution yourself, but there is no managed version of these services. DataPasa plans from VPS-2 up include 32 TB a month. Contabo and OVHcloud advertise unlimited traffic on their VPS plans, Contabo under a fair use policy and OVHcloud in most regions. Deploy the new server, install your stack, copy files with rsync and restore a database dump. Lower the DNS TTL a day before, switch the records, and remove the Droplet once the new server is stable. ## Related pages [ DataPasa vs DigitalOcean See how DataPasa and DigitalOcean Droplets compare on price, CPU type, traffic, billing and payment options before you choose where to deploy. ](https://datapasa.com/en/compare/digitalocean)[ Hetzner alternatives Prices, billing rules, accepted payments, account checks and regions for each option, plus the cases where staying on Hetzner is the smarter call. ](https://datapasa.com/en/hetzner-alternatives)[ Crypto VPS Fund the account with USDT, BTC, ETH, XMR or dozens of other coins, start a German KVM server within minutes and remove it the moment it is no longer needed. ](https://datapasa.com/en/crypto-vps) ## Get a dedicated vCPU server for less Create an account with an email, add $5 and deploy a KVM VPS in Germany, billed hour by hour. [Create an account](https://cloud.datapasa.com/register) [View pricing](https://datapasa.com/en/pricing) --- Canonical: https://datapasa.com/en/digitalocean-alternatives Site overview for agents: https://datapasa.com/llms.txt