AWS EC2 vs DigitalOcean Kubernetes
DigitalOcean Kubernetes is cheaper across every workload modelled here.
List prices checked
Rate cards side by side
Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.
| Billing axis | AWS EC2 | DigitalOcean Kubernetes | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | — | $12.00/mo | — |
| Compute | $0.042/vCPU-hr | — | — |
| Data transfer out | $0.090/GB | $0.010/GB | 9× DigitalOcean Kubernetes |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · DigitalOcean pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost for three real workloads
The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.
| Workload | AWS EC2 | DigitalOcean Kubernetes | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $39 | $13 | DigitalOcean Kubernetessaves $26/mo (67%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $151 | $34 | DigitalOcean Kubernetessaves $117/mo (77%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $930 | $112 | DigitalOcean Kubernetessaves $818/mo (88%) |
Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.
What each one is for
AWS EC2
by Amazon Web Services
On-demand instances across every region and instance family. List rates are the highest in this category on both compute and egress; reserved instances and savings plans are how the price actually comes down.
Free tier: 750 hours per month of a t-class micro instance for 12 months
DigitalOcean Kubernetes
by DigitalOcean
Managed Kubernetes with no charge for the control plane on the standard tier, so you pay only for worker nodes — unlike the hyperscalers, which bill roughly $70 per month per cluster.
Free tier: Control plane free on the standard tier
Common questions
- Is AWS EC2 or DigitalOcean Kubernetes cheaper in 2026?
- DigitalOcean Kubernetes is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- What is the difference in egress cost between AWS EC2 and DigitalOcean Kubernetes?
- DigitalOcean Kubernetes charges $0.010 per GB against AWS EC2's $0.090, roughly 9× cheaper. Egress usually dominates the bill once traffic is measured in terabytes.
- Which has the better free tier, AWS EC2 or DigitalOcean Kubernetes?
- Both publish one. AWS EC2: 750 hours per month of a t-class micro instance for 12 months. DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Control plane free on the standard tier.
- What do these estimates not include?
- Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.