Cheap VPS in 2026: DigitalOcean and Vultr compared, with our value picks

Two well-documented clouds, judged on entry price, billing transparency, product range and trial terms — plus how to keep a low-cost VPS actually low-cost.

"Cheap" is the easy part of a VPS search; "cheap and worth running" is the hard part. A $4 plan that charges for every gigabyte of egress, or one whose backups double your bill, is not really the bargain it looks like on the pricing page.

This guide ranks on documented, checkable evidence rather than headline numbers alone. Two providers publish enough detail to compare fairly: DigitalOcean, whose Droplet pricing is listed tier by tier, and Vultr, whose product range and trial terms are documented. Where a number appears below it is an observation made on 2026-07-25 and tied to the vendor's own page; always confirm current pricing on the provider's site before you buy, since plans change.

At a glance

In short

For the lowest published entry price with predictable billing: DigitalOcean Basic Droplets, from $4.00/mo (512 MiB, 1 vCPU) as of 2026-07-25, with per-second billing and monthly caps. For product breadth and testing before you commit: Vultr, whose site advertises $250 in credit over 30 days (as of 2026-07-25) across a wide service menu. Confirm all current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.

Head to head

Key differences side by side; the stronger option is tinted green.

Feature matrix

✅ full · 🟡 partial/paid · ❌ not supported

Pricing

Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.

DigitalOcean Basic Droplet (entry)$4.00/mo (as of 2026-07-25)

• 512 MiB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer

• Steps up to $6, $12, $18, $24, $48, $96/mo Basic tiers

• Per-second billing (min 60s or $0.01) effective 1 Jan 2026

• Flat pricing with monthly caps

• Confirm current pricing on digitalocean.com

View DigitalOcean Droplet pricingDigitalOcean CPU-Optimized DropletFrom $42.00/mo (as of 2026-07-25)

• 4 GiB RAM, 2 dedicated vCPUs, 25 GiB SSD to start

• 2:1 memory-to-CPU ratio for consistent performance

• Premium variant offers up to 10 Gbps outbound and NVMe SSD

• Confirm current pricing on digitalocean.com

View DigitalOcean Droplet pricingVultr Cloud Compute$250 trial credit over 30 days; per-plan pricing on vultr.com (as of 2026-07-25)

• Broad product range: Cloud Compute, Bare Metal, Cloud GPU

• Managed Databases, Kubernetes, Object & Block Storage, CDN

• Sign-up credit to test before committing

• Confirm current Cloud Compute rates on vultr.com

Explore Vultr products

Pros & cons

DigitalOceanPros

• Full, tier-by-tier Droplet pricing published for easy comparison

• Low $4.00/mo entry point (as of 2026-07-25)

• Per-second billing with flat monthly caps suits short-lived jobs

• Documented managed databases, Kubernetes and storage to grow into

Cons

• Included transfer, backups and faster support are separate line items

• 512 MiB entry tier is tight for database-backed apps

• Trial terms not listed on the pages checked (2026-07-25)

VultrPros

• $250 credit over 30 days to test before spending (as of 2026-07-25)

• Wide documented product range around the core VPS

• Bare Metal and Cloud GPU options alongside standard compute

Cons

• Per-plan VPS pricing not on the documentation pages checked (2026-07-25) — must confirm on vultr.com

• Region count and included transfer not stated on the pages checked

How we judged a cheap VPS

A low sticker price only matters if the rest of the bill and the platform hold up. We weighed five things, in roughly this order:

• Entry price and tier granularity. How little you can spend to get a usable instance, and whether the steps between plans are small enough to right-size.

• Billing transparency. Predictable, published rates and clear minimums beat a low base price wrapped in surprises.

• Product range around the VPS. Managed databases, object and block storage, Kubernetes and load balancers let a project grow without a migration.

• Trial or credit terms. Being able to test before committing lowers the real cost of a wrong choice.

• Regions and reach. More data centers usually means lower latency to your users.

We deliberately did not rank on raw benchmark scores. Independent, repeatable VPS benchmarks vary by region, instance and time of day, and the vendor pages here do not publish comparable figures, so a ranking built on them would be guesswork.

Best for predictable, low-cost billing: DigitalOcean Droplets

DigitalOcean's Basic Droplets are the clearest low-end value here because every tier is published. As of 2026-07-25, the DigitalOcean Droplet pricing page lists Basic Droplets starting at $4.00/mo (512 MiB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer), then $6.00/mo (1 GiB / 25 GiB SSD), $12.00/mo (2 GiB), $18.00/mo (2 GiB / 2 vCPUs), $24.00/mo (4 GiB / 2 vCPUs), $48.00/mo (8 GiB / 4 vCPUs) and $96.00/mo (16 GiB / 8 vCPUs). Basic Droplets are described as best for bursty workloads that can tolerate variable CPU.

Two billing details make the low tiers easier to trust. The same page states that, effective 1 January 2026, Droplets moved to per-second billing with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01 (whichever is higher), which helps short-lived jobs like batch runs and automated tests. It also describes flat pricing with monthly caps, so an hourly rate does not run past the monthly figure. For steadier workloads that need dedicated cores, CPU-Optimized Droplets start at $42.00/mo (4 GiB / 2 vCPUs) as of 2026-07-25.

Beyond the VM, DigitalOcean's documentation covers Managed Databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Kafka, OpenSearch, Valkey), Managed Kubernetes, App Platform, Spaces object storage, block-storage Volumes and Load Balancers — room to grow a cheap Droplet into a larger stack. The DigitalOcean homepage cited 20 data centers across 11 regions as of 2026-07-25.

Best for product breadth and testing before you commit: Vultr

Vultr is the pick when you want to trial a platform first and keep a wide menu of services on one account. As of 2026-07-25, Vultr's site advertises sign-up credit of $250 to try its products over 30 days, which lets you validate a workload before spending anything of your own.

Vultr's documentation lists a broad product set around the core VPS: Cloud Compute, Cloud GPU, Bare Metal, Block Storage, Object Storage, a File System, Managed Databases, CDN, Serverless, Kubernetes, Container Registry, Direct Connect and Load Balancers. That range means a small instance can sit next to managed data and container services without leaving the provider.

Vultr's per-plan VPS prices are not listed on the documentation pages checked on 2026-07-25, so confirm current Cloud Compute rates and included transfer directly on vultr.com before comparing them dollar-for-dollar against DigitalOcean's published tiers.

What "cheap" can quietly cost you

The monthly plan price is rarely the whole bill. Before you settle on the lowest tier, price the extras that low-end VPS shoppers most often miss:

• Bandwidth beyond the included transfer. DigitalOcean's Basic tiers publish an included transfer allowance per plan (for example, 500 GiB on the $4.00/mo plan as of 2026-07-25). Traffic above your allowance is billed separately, so estimate egress for media-heavy or high-traffic sites.

• Backups and snapshots. Automated backups and stored snapshots are typically add-ons, not part of the base plan. Confirm the rate on the vendor's pricing page.

• Support tier. The cheapest accounts usually come with standard support; faster response times may require a paid plan.

• Right-sizing. The smallest Droplet (512 MiB) is fine for a static site, a bot or a staging box, but tight for a database-backed app. Paying $6.00 or $12.00/mo for headroom often beats a crashing $4.00 instance.

None of these are unique to one provider; they are the line items that turn a advertised bargain into an ordinary bill. Read the specific plan's included allowances rather than the starting price alone.

Matching the plan to the workload

A few common cases map cleanly onto the tiers above (all figures observed 2026-07-25 on the DigitalOcean Droplet pricing page):

• Static site, personal project or bot: a Basic Droplet at $4.00–$6.00/mo is usually enough.

• Small dynamic app or CMS: $12.00–$24.00/mo Basic tiers give 2–4 GiB of RAM and more transfer.

• Consistent, CPU-bound service (media, analytics, small game server): a dedicated-core plan such as CPU-Optimized from $42.00/mo trades a higher price for steadier performance.

• Not sure yet: use Vultr's $250 / 30-day credit to load-test a candidate instance before you commit budget.

If your project is likely to add a managed database, object storage or Kubernetes later, picking a provider whose documentation already covers those services — both do — saves a migration down the line.

Verdict

On the evidence available on 2026-07-25, DigitalOcean is the value pick for most people who just want a cheap, dependable VPS: its Droplet tiers are published in full, the entry plan is $4.00/mo, and per-second billing with monthly caps makes the bill predictable. That transparency is why it wins on price detail and billing model in the comparison, even though the real cost depends on transfer, backups and support you add on top.

Choose Vultr if breadth and a risk-free trial matter more than a headline number. Its $250 / 30-day credit lets you validate a workload before spending, and its documented product range is wide. Because per-plan VPS prices were not on the pages checked, confirm current Cloud Compute rates on vultr.com before deciding on price alone. Both are full-featured clouds; the cheaper choice for you is whichever one's included allowances match your actual traffic and storage.

FAQ

What is the cheapest VPS plan here?

As of 2026-07-25, DigitalOcean's Droplet pricing page lists its cheapest Basic Droplet at $4.00/mo (512 MiB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer). Vultr advertises $250 in trial credit over 30 days but does not list per-plan VPS prices on the documentation pages checked, so confirm its Cloud Compute rates on vultr.com.

Is there a free way to try a cheap VPS?

Vultr's site advertises $250 in credit to try its products over 30 days as of 2026-07-25, which lets you test an instance before paying. DigitalOcean's trial terms were not listed on the pages checked; look for current promotions on digitalocean.com.

Does the low monthly price include everything?

No. The plan price covers the VM; bandwidth above your included transfer, automated backups and snapshots, and faster support tiers are typically billed separately. Check the specific plan's included allowances on the vendor's pricing page before you commit.

Can I move from a cheap Droplet to a bigger plan later?

Both providers document a range of larger instances and managed services (databases, Kubernetes, object and block storage) on the same account, so you can scale up without switching vendors. Confirm resize options and any downtime in each provider's documentation.

Sources

1. DigitalOcean — Droplet pricing

2. DigitalOcean — AI-Native Cloud (homepage)

3. DigitalOcean Docs — products and platform

4. Vultr Docs — products and trial credit

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Originally published at https://stack.utilverse.info/compare/cheap-vps-in-2026-digitalocean-and-vultr-compared-with-our-value-picks/.