VPS Comparison: Hetzner vs. DigitalOcean
The VPS which hosted this site for about a year ran on a 2 GB 1 vCPU DigitalOcean Droplet. In December i decided to give Hetzner a try and I’m impressed by the results which are reflected by both an increase in performance but also a 3x price decrease
These are the results for all VPS options using Geekbench6 benchmarks
-
DigitalOcean (1 CPU Core, 2GB RAM)
- Cost: 15€/month
- Single-core score: 911
- Multi-core score: 915
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Hetzner CX22 Intel (2 CPU Cores, 4GB RAM)
- Cost: 4,50€/month (3,92€ + 0,60€ IPv4)
- Single-core score: 733
- Multi-core score: 1276
-
Hetzner CAX11 Ampere (2 CPU Cores, 4GB RAM)
- Cost: 4,50€/month (3,92€ + 0,60€ IPv4)
- Single-core score: 1045
- Multi-core score: 1893
Cost vs. Performance
| Provider | Cost (€/month) | Single-Core Score | Multi-Core Score | Performance per Euro (Single-Core) | Performance per Euro (Multi-Core) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | 15 | 911 | 915 | 60.7 | 61 |
| Hetzner CX22 Intel | 4.5 | 733 | 1276 | 162.9 | 283.6 |
| Hetzner CAX11 Ampere | 4.5 | 1045 | 1893 | 232.2 | 420.7 |
- Hetzner CAX11 Ampere provides the best overall value, delivering the highest single-core and multi-core performance at just 4,50€/month.
- Hetzner CX22 Intel is also a great value and probably more practical for legacy x86 tasks
- DigitalOcean, while decent in single-core performance, is hard to justify at three times the cost of Hetzner's offerings.
Conclusion
For those prioritizing raw performance per euro, Hetzner's VPSs clearly outshine DigitalOcean Droplets. The CAX11 Ampere and CX22 Intel offer great value for general workloads.
While I had a good experience with DigitalOcean, its pricing and performance are a pretty bad deal compared to services like those Hetzner provides. I’m currently running this site on the CX22 mainly because of some x86-only binaries but am considering switching to the ARM option.