An honest comparison, row by row

Same NVMe speed. Zero babysitting.

DigitalOcean hands you an unmanaged box and a backup surcharge. Nxeon is fully managed, backups included, and we migrate you across for free — compared honestly, row by row, including where DigitalOcean wins.

Daily backups included. DigitalOcean charges 30% extra.
Managed and monitored 24/7, not left to you
Free migration off DigitalOcean, done for you
A real person on every plan, no paid support tier

Save up to$459

a year per server: Nxeon Pro on an annual term against DigitalOcean’s closest Droplet with daily backups.

First month free on hostingFree migrationCancel anytime

Calculate your savings See all 14 rows

Plan for plan, backups included

Every Nxeon plan includes daily backups, so we compare against DigitalOcean with daily backups switched on. The fair fight.

Nxeon Starter

vs the closest DigitalOcean Droplet

Nxeon Starter
1 vCPU, 2 GB, 25 GB NVMe, 1 TB$12.78Monthly, daily backups included. $10.22 on an annual term.

DigitalOcean
Basic 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 50 GB SSD, 2 TB$15.60$12.00 Droplet + $3.60 for daily backups

You save every month$2.82

DigitalOcean’s closest plan has more disk and more transfer at this size.

Nxeon Standard

vs the closest DigitalOcean Droplet

Nxeon Standard
2 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB NVMe, 2 TB$18.70Monthly, daily backups included. $14.96 on an annual term.

DigitalOcean
Basic 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 80 GB SSD, 4 TB$31.20$24.00 Droplet + $7.20 for daily backups

You save every month$12.50

DigitalOcean’s closest plan has more disk and more transfer at this size.

Nxeon Pro

vs the closest DigitalOcean Droplet

Nxeon Pro
3 vCPU, 8 GB, 80 GB NVMe, 4 TB$30.22Monthly, daily backups included. $24.18 on an annual term.

DigitalOcean
Basic 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 160 GB SSD, 5 TB$62.40$48.00 Droplet + $14.40 for daily backups

You save every month$32.18

DigitalOcean’s closest plan has one more vCPU, more disk and more transfer at this size.

DigitalOcean prices: Basic Droplets and backup rates as published on digitalocean.com, checked September 2026. Daily backups are 30% of the Droplet price; weekly backups are 20%. Nxeon includes daily backups on every plan.

What you’d really pay in a year

Set your fleet. We’ll do the maths, with the same backups on both sides.

Plan size

Servers1

Nxeon billing term

Daily backups on DigitalOceani

Nxeon$0

DigitalOcean$0

You keep, every year$0

Start saving on Nxeon

Nxeon vs DigitalOcean, line by line

Only public facts and our own live prices, including the rows DigitalOcean wins. Tap a row to see why.

0Nxeon wins

0Even

0DigitalOcean wins

ComparedNxeon · managed, from $12.78/moDigitalOcean · unmanaged cloudVerdict

Pricing & terms

New Nxeon hosting accounts get the first month on the house — try the real thing before you commit a cent.

DigitalOcean bills Droplet backups at 20% (weekly) or 30% (daily) on top of the Droplet. On Nxeon, scheduled backups come with the plan.

Different, not better: hourly billing suits bursty, spin-up-spin-down work; a flat all-in price suits always-on projects.

Performance & specs

Both are genuinely fast. Ours sits on a ZFS mirror for snapshot-friendly backups and data integrity.

Both spin up fast — we're not going to pretend a few seconds is a moat, because it isn't.

A dedicated IPv4 ships with the box on both sides — table stakes, and we treat it that way.

If you need US regions, multiple EU locations or a worldwide footprint, DigitalOcean wins this outright. We're two low-latency nodes — Singapore for Asia-Pacific, Falkenstein, Germany for Europe.

Management & support

24/7 here means automated monitoring and auto-restarts, not a night-shift call centre — but you're not the one patching at 2am.

You reach a human who can actually touch your server — no support-tier paywall to unlock a reply.

A read-only scan finds your stack, then we copy files to the same paths and bring Docker/compose + databases back up. You watch.

Platform & ecosystem

Game servers are a headline use case here, with one-click setup and sane defaults. On a plain Droplet you wire it up yourself.

Buy and point a domain without leaving your hosting account. DigitalOcean does DNS, but you register the name elsewhere.

Want managed Postgres, Kubernetes or load balancers you don't run yourself? That's DigitalOcean's turf, and a real reason to pick them.

Network-level DDoS mitigation ships on both — table stakes, and we treat it that way.

The 2am test

Specs are easy to compare. What happens when something goes wrong is what you actually pay for.

On DigitalOcean

You’re the sysadmin

On Nxeon

Managed and monitored for you

Why the move sticks

You stop being your own sysadmin

Unmanaged droplets are yours to patch, harden and babysit. Nxeon is managed and monitored — restarts and updates just happen, so you ship instead of firefighting.

The bill has no surprises

Backups are included, not a 20–30% line item. No metered-bandwidth shocks at the end of the month. What you see on the plan is what you pay.

Switching is free and hands-off

We scan your old server read-only, move apps, databases and containers to the same paths, and bring them back up — then flag anything that needs a manual touch.

Free managed migration

Switching from DigitalOcean? We move everything.

Point us at your old server. A read-only scan finds your apps, databases and containers, then we copy them to the same paths and bring them back up, while you watch it happen.

Apps, databases and Dockermoved for you, not a folder copy
Restored to the same pathsno reconfiguring anything
Your DigitalOcean server stays untouchedswitch DNS only when you’re happy

Start a free migrationNo agent to install. Nothing changes on the old box.

Nxeon migrationReady

Connect your old DigitalOcean server

Read-only. We never store your credentials.

Source host

SSH portUser

No agent to install. Nothing changes on this server.

Scanning your server

Here’s what we found

5.8 GB

WordPress site/var/www/html, 4.2 GB
Next.js app/srv/billing, 42 MB
3 Docker containersredis, postgres, app (compose)
MySQL and PostgreSQLAll databases, no password, 1.6 GB

Migrating to nxeon-sg-01

Installing prerequisites
Copying files
Migrating databases
Starting containers
Verifying

Migrated and running

on nxeon-sg-01, verified live

Files restored to their original paths
MySQL and PostgreSQL databases imported
3 Docker containers up with compose
Ports 443, 3000 and 6379 listening

We start everything we can and flag anything that needs a manual touch.

Which is right for you?

Tell us what matters. We’ll give you a straight answer, even when it’s them.

Lowest total cost, backups included

Hands-off management and a real human

Game servers, domains and hosting in one place

Many global regions

Managed databases and Kubernetes

Your best fit

Nxeon

Nxeon0%

DigitalOcean0%

Create your account

Choose Nxeon if…

Your players or users are in Asia-Pacific
You want managed hosting without becoming a sysadmin
You'd like game servers, domains and hosting in one dashboard
You want backups and a real human included, not billed extra

Create your account

Choose DigitalOcean if…

You need multiple global regions
You want managed databases, Kubernetes or load balancers
You're building a distributed, multi-region platform
You prefer hourly, usage-based cloud billing

Common questions

Straight answers, including the ones that favor DigitalOcean.

Is Nxeon cheaper than DigitalOcean?

Nxeon focuses on a lean, two-region VPS platform, which lets us keep entry pricing low and include backups, plus the first month free on shared hosting. DigitalOcean offers more regions and managed products, which can be worth the premium for distributed production teams. Compare the specific plan you need rather than the headline price.

Where are Nxeon servers located?

Nxeon runs two real regions: Singapore and Falkenstein, Germany. If your users are in Asia-Pacific or Europe, that means low latency without paying for a global footprint you don't use. If you specifically need US regions or DigitalOcean's much longer list of locations, DigitalOcean's broader coverage is the better fit.

Is the free migration off DigitalOcean really free?

Yes. We connect to your existing Droplet over SSH with a read-only scan, then copy your files, databases and Docker/compose to the same paths on Nxeon and bring them back up. There's no per-gigabyte migration fee, and your old server is untouched until you switch DNS.

Does Nxeon offer managed databases and Kubernetes like DigitalOcean?

No. Nxeon is a focused, managed VPS with full root access — you install your own stack and we keep the box healthy. If you want managed Postgres, Kubernetes or load balancers off the shelf, DigitalOcean's larger menu is the better choice.

Can I run a Minecraft or game server on either?

Yes on both, but Nxeon treats game servers as a first-class use case with one-click setup and sensible defaults, whereas on DigitalOcean you configure everything yourself on a plain Droplet.

DigitalOcean is a trademark of its respective owner and is not affiliated with Nxeon. This comparison reflects Nxeon's understanding at the time of writing — always check each provider's current plans and pricing.

Same speed. Backups included. Someone watching.

First month free on hosting plans, and a free migration off DigitalOcean.

Deploy on Nxeon Migrate for free