DigitalOcean App Platform vs Vercel
Neither wins outright: DigitalOcean App Platform is cheaper for 2 of 3 workloads and Vercel for the rest.
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 | DigitalOcean App Platform | Vercel | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | $5.00/mo | $20.00/mo | 4× DigitalOcean App Platform |
| Data transfer out | $0.020/GB | $0.150/GB | 7.5× DigitalOcean App Platform |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: DigitalOcean pricing (May 2026) · Vercel 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 | DigitalOcean App Platform | Vercel | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $5.00 | $20 | DigitalOcean App Platformsaves $15/mo (75%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $23 | $20 | Vercelsaves $3.00/mo (13%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $203 | $1,370 | DigitalOcean App Platformsaves $1,167/mo (85%) |
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
DigitalOcean App Platform
by DigitalOcean
Managed application hosting on DigitalOcean's infrastructure, with flat per-container pricing and bandwidth an order of magnitude cheaper than the frontend-focused platforms.
Free tier: Three free static sites
Vercel
by Vercel
The reference platform for Next.js, priced per seat with bundled usage. Bandwidth overage costs roughly fifteen times what a discount CDN charges, which is where surprise bills come from.
Free tier: Hobby plan with 100 GB of transfer per month
Common questions
- Is DigitalOcean App Platform or Vercel cheaper in 2026?
- It depends on volume — DigitalOcean App Platform wins 2 of the 3 modelled workloads and Vercel wins 1. The scenario table above shows where the crossover falls.
- What is the difference in egress cost between DigitalOcean App Platform and Vercel?
- DigitalOcean App Platform charges $0.020 per GB against Vercel's $0.150, roughly 7.5× cheaper. Egress usually dominates the bill once traffic is measured in terabytes.
- Which has the better free tier, DigitalOcean App Platform or Vercel?
- Both publish one. DigitalOcean App Platform: Three free static sites. Vercel: Hobby plan with 100 GB of transfer per month.
- 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.