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DigitalOcean vs Render pricing

What each charges for the same traffic, and what happens when a post goes viral.

Verdict at 100,000 pageviews a month: DigitalOcean is cheaper: DigitalOcean comes to $4 and Render to $57.55 a month at 100,000 pageviews with our default traffic profile. Viral day: DigitalOcean bills ≥ $4; Render goes past its free limits, and its paid plan comes to $105.40.
DigitalOcean vs Render
DigitalOceanRender
TypeVPSPlatform (PaaS)
Free tierUnverifiedSource · Oct 16—
Free bandwidth—5 GBSource · Oct 16
Free requests—UnverifiedSource · Oct 16
Paid planBasic Droplet 512MiB/1vCPU/10GiBSource · Oct 16ProSource · Oct 16
Price$4/monthSource · Oct 16$25/monthSource · Oct 16
Included500 GiB transferSource · Oct 1625 GB bandwidth, 1K build minsSource · Oct 16
Bandwidth overageUnverifiedSource · Oct 16$0.15/GBSource · Oct 16
Requests overage——
Over the free limitNo free tierBehaviour unverified

Try your own traffic

Scenario
Traffic details2 MB pages · 20 requests · 10% dynamic · 30 deploys
Pages
Functions
Deploys
Always-on server

The always-on server is used for Railway, which bills a service that runs all month. Fly.io uses one small machine.

One month at your traffic. Totals use verified prices only; “≥” means some items are unverified and left out.

  1. DigitalOcean
    Basic Droplet 512MiB/1vCPU/10GiB
    $4/mo
    Cheapest verifiedKeeps billingNo free tier.
    How this is calculated
    Cost breakdown
    Droplet (flat monthly price)$4.00Source, Oct 16, 2026

    A flat-price server has fixed CPU and RAM; whether it can serve this much traffic depends on your app.

  2. Render
    Pro
    $57.55/mo
    Keeps billingFree tier goes over its limits (what happens next isn’t stated) at ~2.6k pageviews/mo.
    How this is calculated
    Cost breakdown
    Pro workspace$25.00Source, Oct 16, 2026
    Starter instance (512 MB)
    one always-on web service
    		$7.00Source, Oct 16, 2026
    Bandwidth
    170.31 GB over 25 included × $0.15
    		$25.55Source, Oct 16, 2026

FAQ

Is DigitalOcean or Render cheaper for 100,000 pageviews a month?

DigitalOcean is cheaper: DigitalOcean comes to $4 and Render to $57.55 a month at 100,000 pageviews with our default traffic profile.

What happens to DigitalOcean and Render on a viral day?

On a month with one day at 50× normal traffic: DigitalOcean bills ≥ $4; Render goes past its free limits, and its paid plan comes to $105.40.

Does DigitalOcean or Render have a hard cap on the free tier?

DigitalOcean has no free tier. Render's free tier: behaviour unverified.

Full details: DigitalOcean pricing · Render pricing