AWS T3 vs DigitalOcean Droplet
By SightLab editors · 2026-08-22
Small Linux VM plus internet transfer: t3.micro/medium list prices versus Basic Droplets that include SSD and bandwidth.
A 1 GB Linux box looks cheap on every cloud until you add a boot disk and internet transfer. AWS t3.micro in us-east-1 is $0.0104/hour (~$7.59/month at 730 hours) for compute only. DigitalOcean’s s-1vcpu-1gb Basic Droplet is $6/month and includes 25 GB SSD plus 1,000 GB outbound transfer.
This page holds hours and bytes constant. It does not include AWS gp3 disks, Elastic IPs, or T3 Unlimited CPU-credit overages. It does not include Reserved Instances.
Tiny site, 100 GB outbound
730 hours, 1 vCPU / 1 GB, 100 GB internet, free tiers on. SightLab VM catalog:
- AWS t3.micro: compute $0 after 750-hour Free Tier (12-month accounts only); egress $0 after 100 GB free. Year two is ~$7.59 plus disk.
- DigitalOcean s-1vcpu-1gb: $6 compute (monthly cap), 100 GB inside the 1 TB grant, total $6 including disk.
2 vCPU / 4 GB plus 2 TB outbound
Free tiers no longer cover these sizes. t3.medium compute is about $30.37. After 100 GB free, 1,900 GB of AWS internet egress at $0.09 is $171. DigitalOcean s-2vcpu-4gb is $24 and includes 4 TB transfer, so 2 TB outbound adds $0. The gap is transfer, not the VM line.
When T3 is still rational
If the instance talks only to S3, RDS, and other AWS services in the same region, internet egress may be near zero and AWS same-region transfer is often free on the data-transfer SKU. IAM, VPC, and managed databases then dominate the choice. Re-run from the small VM calculator with your region group and egress GB.
Related tools
- Small Cloud VM Cost Calculator — Compare small Linux VMs on AWS T3, Azure B-series, Google E2, and DigitalOcean Droplets, including transfer.
- Cloud Data Egress Cost Calculator — Estimate monthly internet and cross-region data-transfer cost from a source region.