DigitalOcean Kubernetes vs Hetzner Cloud
Hetzner Cloud 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 | DigitalOcean Kubernetes | Hetzner Cloud | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | $12.00/mo | $3.79/mo | 3.2× Hetzner Cloud |
| Compute | — | $0.0052/vCPU-hr | — |
| Data transfer out | $0.010/GB | $0.0012/GB | 8.3× Hetzner Cloud |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: DigitalOcean pricing (May 2026) · Hetzner 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 Kubernetes | Hetzner Cloud | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $13 | $3.80 | Hetzner Cloudsaves $9.20/mo (71%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $34 | $7.59 | Hetzner Cloudsaves $26/mo (78%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $112 | $3.80 | Hetzner Cloudsaves $108/mo (97%) |
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 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
Hetzner Cloud
by Hetzner
The cheapest mainstream cloud compute by a wide margin, with 20 TB of traffic bundled into every instance. Regions are limited to Germany, Finland, Singapore, and the United States.
Free tier: 20 TB of traffic included with every server
Common questions
- Is DigitalOcean Kubernetes or Hetzner Cloud cheaper in 2026?
- Hetzner Cloud is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- What is the difference in egress cost between DigitalOcean Kubernetes and Hetzner Cloud?
- Hetzner Cloud charges $0.0012 per GB against DigitalOcean Kubernetes's $0.010, roughly 8.3× cheaper. Egress usually dominates the bill once traffic is measured in terabytes.
- Which has the better free tier, DigitalOcean Kubernetes or Hetzner Cloud?
- Both publish one. DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Control plane free on the standard tier. Hetzner Cloud: 20 TB of traffic included with every server.
- 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.