Hosting · working at 10,000 users · rates as read 26 Sept 2026
On free tier, Vercel is $0 /mo. (Hobby): non-commercial use only and DigitalOcean App Platform is Free Tier Starting at $0 /month. On cheapest paid plan, Vercel is $20 /mo. (Pro) and DigitalOcean App Platform is Paid Tier Starting at $5 /month. On rate above what's included, Vercel is Fast Data Transfer 100 GB included on Hobby; on Pro it is covered by flat rate CDN and DigitalOcean App Platform is Additional outbound transfer $0.02 per GiB. StackTab sells neither of these and takes no referral fee on either: it scores them. Every figure was read off the named company's own page on or since 2026-09-18; the URLs and the dates are at the foot of this page, and a job re-fetches each one on a schedule and fails when a figure is no longer on the page it came from.
2 compared · 3 criteria, identical for every column · every competitor figure read off that company's own page · last verified 2026-09-18
| Service | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| VercelThe Next.js host. Zero-config, and the bill is entirely usage-shaped.verified 25 Sept 2026vercel.com/pricing | $ | $ | $ |
| DigitalOcean App PlatformFlat-rate app containers with a predictable monthly number.verified 25 Sept 2026digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform | $ | $ | $ |
- Sorted by the total at
- The Next.js host. Zero-config, and the bill is entirely usage-shaped.verified 25 Sept 2026vercel.com/pricing
- 1,000 users
- $
2020 Pro - 10,000 users
- $
2020 Pro - 100,000 users
- $
175175 Pro
- Flat-rate app containers with a predictable monthly number.verified 25 Sept 2026digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform
- 1,000 users
- $
5.005.00 Basic - 10,000 users
- $
7.007.00 Basic - 100,000 users
- $
4343 Basic
| Criterion | Vercel | DigitalOcean App Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0 /mo. (Hobby): non-commercial use onlyThe restriction is the whole story: a plan that forbids charging money for the app is not an option for a business, at any price. | Free Tier Starting at $0 /month3 apps, static sites only, with a 1 GiB data-transfer allowance per app. |
| Cheapest paid plan | $20 /mo. (Pro)Includes $20 of usage credit, so the first $20 of metered usage is absorbed before anything else appears on the bill. | Paid Tier Starting at $5 /monthPer container. DigitalOcean has collapsed what used to be a Basic and Professional ladder into one paid tier. |
| Rate above what's included | Fast Data Transfer 100 GB included on Hobby; on Pro it is covered by flat rate CDNVercel moved CDN usage onto flat rate CDN on Pro after this row was read on 8 September 2026: "CDN requests, fast data transfer, and other resources are no longer billed directly." The 1 TB allowance and the $0.15 per GB overage this row recorded are both off the page. The $0.15 per GB still on the page belongs to static IPs on the shared pool. The metered rates that remain on Pro include function invocations starting at $0.60 per 1M, Fluid active CPU starting at $0.128 per hour and Fluid provisioned memory starting at $0.0106 per GB-hour. | Additional outbound transfer $0.02 per GiBDedicated egress IPs are $25.00/mo per app and a development database is $7.00. |
- Free tier: what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words
- Rate above what's included: the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one
Vercel: $0 /mo. (Hobby): non-commercial use only. The restriction is the whole story: a plan that forbids charging money for the app is not an option for a business, at any price. DigitalOcean App Platform: Free Tier Starting at $0 /month. 3 apps, static sites only, with a 1 GiB data-transfer allowance per app. Read from vercel.com and digitalocean.com on 2026-09-18. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.
Vercel: $20 /mo. (Pro). Includes $20 of usage credit, so the first $20 of metered usage is absorbed before anything else appears on the bill. DigitalOcean App Platform: Paid Tier Starting at $5 /month. Per container. DigitalOcean has collapsed what used to be a Basic and Professional ladder into one paid tier. Read from vercel.com and digitalocean.com on 2026-09-18.
Vercel: Fast Data Transfer 100 GB included on Hobby; on Pro it is covered by flat rate CDN. Vercel moved CDN usage onto flat rate CDN on Pro after this row was read on 8 September 2026: "CDN requests, fast data transfer, and other resources are no longer billed directly." The 1 TB allowance and the $0.15 per GB overage this row recorded are both off the page. The $0.15 per GB still on the page belongs to static IPs on the shared pool. The metered rates that remain on Pro include function invocations starting at $0.60 per 1M, Fluid active CPU starting at $0.128 per hour and Fluid provisioned memory starting at $0.0106 per GB-hour. DigitalOcean App Platform: Additional outbound transfer $0.02 per GiB. Dedicated egress IPs are $25.00/mo per app and a development database is $7.00. Read from vercel.com and digitalocean.com on 2026-09-18. Rate above what's included here means the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one.
Vercel: You are shipping Next.js and you want the framework and the platform to be the same decision. Nothing else here matches Vercel on that, the $20 of included usage absorbs the metered lines for a long time on an app that mostly serves HTML and JSON, and the preview-deployment workflow is the one every other platform is copying. DigitalOcean App Platform: You already run other things on DigitalOcean and you want one invoice and one support relationship. App Platform sits beside the droplets and managed databases you have, at $5/month per container, and the whole pricing structure is one paid tier rather than a ladder to reason about.
StackTab does not sell any of these and has nothing to gain from which one you choose: it scores them. Each case below is the one that option genuinely wins.
- Vercel: You are shipping Next.js and you want the framework and the platform to be the same decision. Nothing else here matches Vercel on that, the $20 of included usage absorbs the metered lines for a long time on an app that mostly serves HTML and JSON, and the preview-deployment workflow is the one every other platform is copying.
- DigitalOcean App Platform: You already run other things on DigitalOcean and you want one invoice and one support relationship. App Platform sits beside the droplets and managed databases you have, at $5/month per container, and the whole pricing structure is one paid tier rather than a ladder to reason about.
Prices and limits move, and a page quoting a stale one is worth less than a page quoting none. Every source is printed here so a reader can check it against the day they are reading this, and a job re-fetches each of these URLs on a schedule and fails when a figure above no longer appears on the page it came from.
- Vercel: vercel.com/pricing: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-18.
- DigitalOcean App Platform: www.digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-18.
Last verified 2026-09-18. https://stacktab.thecompound.tech/compare/vercel-vs-digitalocean-app