Question

Price per hour or per month

Posted on September 28, 2013
Asked by erelsgl

Hello,

I am looking for a host for my Node.js applications. They are low-traffic applications - I expect an average of 1 hour of use per day, so I am looking for a package where I can pay per use only. I noticed that your cloud VPS packages are priced per hour of use, but, I am not sure how is “use” defined.

DigitalOcean FAQ says that: “If you use your server for less than 672 hours during the month, you will be billed for each hour that you used it. If you use your server for more than 672 hours that month, you will be billed at the monthly cost”. But on the other hand, in the next question they say: “Am I charged while my Droplet is in a powered-off state? - Yes. Your diskspace, CPU, RAM, and IP address are all reserved while your Droplet is powered off”. If I understand this correctly, this means that, even when no one enters my website, they charge me as if I do use the site.

So, my question is, what package should I choose, in order to be charged 1 hour per day?

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Bobby Iliev

Site Moderator

• October 11, 2020

Accepted Answer

Hello,

If you deploy a Droplet and let it run for 1 hour only, then delete it after that. You will be charged for this 1 hour only.

Note that, if you just power off the Droplet and do not delete it you will still be charged for it just as if it was running.

Regards, Bobby

Thibault Molleman • July 6, 2016

Well, for anyone who finds this on Google. If you really want to use Digital ocean hourly (which is what some people probably should be doing)

On this page they describe how to do it: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/digitalocean-backups-and-snapshots-explained

Occasional Usage: Snapshots can also provide a way to use droplets for a limited time without having to pay for hours when the server is not in use. Should you only need to use a server for a certain time every so often, you can take a snapshot of your current configuration, delete the droplet, and spin the system back up as soon as you need it once again—the image will remain in your account. In such a way, you only have to pay for the amount of time that you will actually use the droplet each month.

warren • November 18, 2013

If $5 a month is that much of a make/break for you, you probably don’t need to be hosting it just yet :)