Comparing DigitalOcean vs. Hetzner as VPS hosting providers (2025)

DigitalOcean is an American cloud service provider headquartered in New York City. The company operates 15 globally distributed data centers and offers cloud infrastructure services primarily to developers, startups, and small to medium-sized businesses. It is known for its VPS offerings, Kubernetes-based container services, and serverless computing solutions.

Founded in 2012, DigitalOcean emerged from the TechStars startup accelerator and grew rapidly, becoming one of the first cloud-hosting providers to offer SSD-based virtual machines in 2013. The company expanded internationally, opened multiple data centers, and acquired several companies, including Nimbella, CSS-Tricks, and Cloudways. DigitalOcean went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and continues to expand its infrastructure and product offerings, including GPU-based computing for AI workloads.

Hetzner Online GmbH is a German internet service provider based in Gunzenhausen, employing around 306 people as of 2021.

The company was founded in 1997 by Martin Hetzner and has operated under various legal structures, currently as a GmbH. Its services include dedicated servers, cloud solutions, web hosting, domain registration, and colocation services in data centers located in Germany, Finland, and the U.S.