Cheapest VPS 2026: Hetzner vs DigitalOcean vs Vultr

Most cheapest-VPS tables floating around in 2026 are quietly wrong, for two reasons. They predate Hetzner's April 1, 2026 price increase, and they quote Hetzner's headline €3.99 box without saying it is a European-region price whose 20 TB traffic allowance does not travel to the United States. This comparison fixes both. Every figure is dated 2026-07-17, and every number is labeled either verified (read from a vendor's own pricing page) or estimated (pulled from third-party trackers, where the vendor page is gated).

1. What is the actual cheapest box on each host?

Host	Cheapest plan	Spec	Included traffic	Price
Hetzner (EU)	CX23 (x86)	2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB NVMe	20 TB	~€3.99/mo (estimated)[1][3]
DigitalOcean	Basic Droplet	1 vCPU / 512 MB / 10 GB	500 GB	$4/mo[4]
Vultr	Regular Cloud Compute	1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB	~2 TB	~$5/mo (estimated)[6][7]
Linode / Akamai	Nanode 1 GB	1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB	1 TB	$5/mo[8]

The asymmetry in that table matters more than any single price. Hetzner's floor is a 4 GB machine; the $4 to $5 floors at DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode are 512 MB to 1 GB boxes^[4][6][8]. So Hetzner's cheapest plan is not really competing with the others' cheapest plans; it is competing with their $24 four-gig tier. Two footnotes on the floor itself: Hetzner's Arm-based CAX11 lands a touch higher at about €4.49 for the same 4 GB^[1], and Vultr sells a $2.50/mo IPv6-only instance for anyone who can run without a dedicated IPv4 address, the lowest sticker of the four^[6][7]. Both the Hetzner and Vultr numbers are estimated from third-party trackers; the vendor pages are gated, so verify live before you commit^[2][6].

2. The April 2026 Hetzner price increase

On April 1, 2026, Hetzner raised Cloud prices by roughly 30-37% across the line^[2]. This is the single fact that makes most live comparison tables inaccurate: they still cite the pre-hike CX figures, which sat below €3, so you will see Hetzner quoted cheaper than it now is. The post-increase entry prices are about €3.99 for the CX23 (2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB), €4.49 for the CAX11 Arm box (4 GB), and €7.99 for the CPX22 AMD plan (3 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB)^[1][2]. Hetzner's own adjustment post puts the CAX11 move at €3.29 → €4.49 and the CX23 at €2.99 → €3.99 for Germany and Finland^[9].

Treat those three numbers as estimated, not gospel. Hetzner's own pricing page renders figures through JavaScript that a static fetch cannot read, so the corroborating source here is a post-increase third-party tracker rather than the vendor page itself; confirm the live figure before you commit^[2][3]. Hetzner also bills in euros, so any dollar figure in this article is a currency approximation, not a fixed rate^[3].

3. The EU-vs-US bandwidth cliff

The €3.99 / 20 TB combination that makes Hetzner look unbeatable is a European-region price. Hetzner runs data centers in Germany and Finland, plus Ashburn (Virginia), Hillsboro (Oregon), and Singapore^[3]. The cheap CX line does not exist in the non-EU locations: the US regions run CPX and CCX plans only, landing around €8-9, and they include just 1 TB of traffic instead of 20 TB^[1][3].

So a founder who needs US latency loses the two things that make Hetzner cheap at once: the low sticker price and the 20 TB allowance drop to a mid-single-digit-euro plan with a twentieth of the bandwidth. That is the cliff most tables never mention. If your users are in North America or Asia and you care about round-trip time, model Hetzner at its US CPX pricing, not its German CX pricing, before assuming it beats DigitalOcean everywhere.

4. What does a 4 GB always-on box cost on each?

To compare like for like, here is the same target machine (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) priced on each host, platform cost only:

Host	Plan	Spec	Traffic	Monthly
Hetzner (EU)	CX23	2 vCPU / 4 GB / 40 GB NVMe	20 TB	~€3.99 (estimated)[1][3]
Hetzner (US/EU AMD)	CPX22	3 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB	20 TB EU / 1 TB US	~€7.99 (estimated)[1][3]
DigitalOcean	Basic Droplet	2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB	4 TB (pooled)	$24[4]
Vultr	High Performance	2 vCPU / 4 GB / 100 GB	5 TB	~$24 (estimated)[6][7]
Linode / Akamai	Linode 4 GB	2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB	4 TB	$24[8]

At the 4 GB tier the gap is stark. Hetzner's CX23 delivers the same 2 vCPU and 4 GB as the $24 boxes at DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode for €3.99 in an EU region, roughly 4-5× cheaper, and with 20 TB of traffic against their 4-5 TB^[1][3][4][8]. The DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode four-gig plans land within a dollar of each other at $24, so among the dollar-priced hosts this tier is a wash on price and comes down to region coverage, overage rate, and ecosystem^[4][6][8]. If you are indifferent to region, Hetzner wins this row outright. If you need North American or Asian presence at Hetzner prices, you are on its CPX22 at about €7.99 with only 1 TB of US traffic, still cheaper than $24 but no longer a blowout^[1][3].

5. Where does the bandwidth math actually bite?

Host	Included (entry)	Overage	Note
Hetzner	20 TB EU / 1 TB US	~€1/TB[1][3]	Cheapest per TB by a wide margin, in EU regions
DigitalOcean	500 GB, account-pooled	$0.01/GiB[4][5]	Transfer pooled across all Droplets on the account
Vultr	~2 TB	$0.01/GB[6][7]	Per-instance allowance
Linode / Akamai	1 TB	$0.005/GB[8]	Cheapest metered overage of the four

Overage is where the ranking reshuffles. Hetzner charges about €1 per TB past its allowance, which at 20 TB included is close to irrelevant for most solo apps in an EU region^[1][3]. Among the dollar-priced hosts, Linode's $0.005/GB is the cheapest metered overage, half of DigitalOcean's and Vultr's $0.01/GB^[4][6][8]. DigitalOcean pools included transfer across every Droplet on the account, so a fleet of small boxes shares one bandwidth bucket, which quietly softens the small per-box 500 GB entry allowance^[5]. If your workload is bandwidth-heavy and must stay in the US, Linode's overage rate is the number to fold into your AI stack cost calculator run.

6. Which should you pick?

• Cheapest real box, EU-tolerant: Hetzner CX23 at about €3.99 for 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 20 TB, if you deploy in Germany or Finland; verify the live price first^[1][3].
• Managed developer experience and the widest add-on ecosystem: DigitalOcean, $4 floor, account-pooled bandwidth, roughly 9 regions across 15 data centers^[4][5].
• Widest global reach: Vultr, around 32 locations, $5 entry (or $2.50 IPv6-only); prices estimated, confirm live^[6][7].
• Cheapest overage: Linode (Akamai), $0.005/GB metered, about 26 core regions^[8].

The honest summary: Hetzner is 4-5× cheaper at the 4 GB tier, but only if a European region works for you and only at prices you should re-check on the live page, since both its and Vultr's figures here are third-party estimates^[1][2][6]. The moment US or Asian latency is a requirement, the dollar-priced trio converges near $24 and the decision turns on ecosystem, reach, and overage rather than sticker price. For the layer that runs on top of the box, see Railway vs Render vs Fly pricing; to fold hosting into a full monthly figure, use the AI stack cost calculator.

DigitalOcean and Linode (Akamai) prices verified against official pricing pages on 2026-07-17. Hetzner and Vultr prices are estimated from third-party trackers because both vendor pages are gated; re-verify on the live pricing page before deploying.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest VPS in 2026?

By sticker price, Vultr's $2.50/mo IPv6-only instance is the lowest, if you can run without a dedicated IPv4 address. By value, Hetzner's CX23 is in a different class: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe, and 20 TB of traffic for about €3.99/mo, versus 512 MB to 1 GB boxes at the $4-$5 floors of DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode. The catch is that the €3.99 CX23 is a European-region price. Hetzner and Vultr figures here are estimated from third-party trackers because both vendor pages are gated (Hetzner renders prices in JavaScript, Vultr blocks fetchers with a 403), so verify them on the live pricing page before you deploy. DigitalOcean and Linode prices are read from their own pricing pages. All figures accessed 2026-07-17.

Why is Hetzner so much cheaper than DigitalOcean or Vultr?

Two structural reasons. First, Hetzner's cheapest plan is already a 4 GB machine, so it competes with the $24 four-gig tier at the other hosts rather than with their $4-$5 entry boxes. Same 2 vCPU and 4 GB for roughly one-fifth the price in a European region. Second, Hetzner includes 20 TB of traffic on that plan against 4-5 TB elsewhere, and its overage runs about €1 per TB. The trade-off is geography and support model: the €3.99 price and the 20 TB allowance both apply only in Hetzner's EU regions (Germany and Finland). Hetzner also bills in euros, so any dollar figure is a currency approximation.

Did Hetzner raise its prices in 2026?

Yes. Hetzner increased Cloud prices by roughly 30-37% across the line on April 1, 2026, which is why most comparison tables you find still quote the old sub-€3 CX figures and are now wrong. The post-increase entry prices are about €3.99 for the CX23 (Intel/AMD x86, 4 GB), €4.49 for the CAX11 (Arm, 4 GB), and €7.99 for the CPX22 (AMD, 3 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB). These are estimated from third-party trackers dated after the increase; Hetzner's own pricing page renders figures in JavaScript that static fetches cannot read, so confirm the live number before committing.

Which VPS has the cheapest bandwidth overage?

Among the four, Linode (Akamai) has the cheapest metered overage at $0.005/GB, half of DigitalOcean's and Vultr's $0.01/GB. Hetzner is a special case: it includes 20 TB on its EU plans and charges only about €1 per TB beyond that, so for most solo apps overage is close to irrelevant in an EU region. DigitalOcean also pools included transfer across every Droplet on the account, which softens the small per-box entry allowance for a fleet of small machines. If your workload is bandwidth-heavy and must stay in the US, Linode's rate is the one to model.