Comparison

SelfHost vs

DigitalOcean

Both are simple managed PostgreSQL options. But SelfHost ships features DigitalOcean doesn't — at a similar price point.

PITR, Autoscaling, BYOC, MCP

SelfHost includes features DigitalOcean simply doesn't offer at any price.

30 AWS regions

vs DigitalOcean's 8 data center regions. Better global coverage for latency and compliance.

~$55 vs ~$61 at 4 GB

Similar pricing at the 4 GB tier, but SelfHost includes far more features.

Pricing

Real-world
cost comparison.

Entry

1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB storage

DigitalOcean
$15.15/mo
1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GB storage Single node, basic metrics
SelfHost
$9.36/mo
t4g.micro = $8.28 compute 10 GB gp3 = $1.08 storage + $0 Free
38% less

Production

4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 60 GB storage

DigitalOcean
$60.90/mo
4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 60 GB storage No PITR, no autoscaling, no BYOC
SelfHost
$58.59/mo
t4g.medium = $33.11 compute 60 GB gp3 = $6.48 storage + $19 Starter
Similar price, far more features

Scaled with HA

8 GB RAM, 4 vCPU, 140 GB storage, high availability

DigitalOcean
$244.20/mo
$122.10 x 2 (HA standby node) No PITR, no autoscaling, no BYOC, no MCP
SelfHost
$199.76/mo
r7g.medium $52.82 + replica $52.82 140 GB x 2 = $15.12 storage + $79 Pro
18% less + PITR, autoscaling, BYOC, MCP

Features

Side by side.
No spin.

Feature SelfHost DigitalOcean
PITR Yes (Pro) No
Autoscaling Yes (Pro) No
BYOC Yes ($79/mo) No
AI management 75 MCP tools None
Regions 30 AWS 8 DO regions
Connection pooling Coming soon Built-in pooler
Monitoring Up to 90-day history Basic metrics
Alerts Email + Slack (Pro: unlimited) Basic email
Daily backups Yes (Starter+) Yes (included)
HA / Replicas Replicas on Pro Standby node (2x price)
Storage overage $0.108/GB/mo $0.215/GB/mo
Forking Yes (Pro) No
PG config Full tuning Limited
SLA 99.9% (Pro), 99.99% (Enterprise) 99.99%

Deep dives

The details
that matter.

The Feature Gap

DigitalOcean is simple and affordable — great for getting started. But it lacks features that growing teams need: PITR for point-in-time recovery, autoscaling for traffic spikes, BYOC for infrastructure ownership, and AI-powered management via 75 MCP tools. SelfHost includes all of these on the Pro tier.

PITR
Autoscaling
BYOC
75 MCP tools

Region Coverage

DigitalOcean has 8 data center regions. SelfHost deploys on 38 AWS regions globally — including locations DigitalOcean doesn't cover like Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Frankfurt, and more. This matters for latency-sensitive applications and data residency requirements.

SelfHost: 38 regions
DigitalOcean: 8 regions

Storage Cost at Scale

DigitalOcean charges $0.215/GB/mo for additional storage. SelfHost charges $0.108/GB/mo (gp3 with markup). At 200 GB of extra storage, that's $43/mo on DO vs $21.60 on SelfHost — a 50% savings that grows with data.

200 GB on DO: $43/mo
200 GB on SelfHost: $21.60/mo

More features.
Same price.

Get PITR, autoscaling, BYOC, and 75 MCP tools — features DigitalOcean doesn't have — for a similar monthly cost.

No credit card on Free Tier
38 AWS regions
Deploy for free See pricing