Our take
Pick DigitalOcean if app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (3 static-site apps, 1 GiB transfer each) while they open a first Insights tab, then buy a shared container at $5 / month (1 vCPU / 512 MiB) when they need a web service or worker. Pick ngrok if developers who will burn the Free $5 one-time credit at $0 while they open a first Traffic Inspector, then Hobbyist at $10/month of included usage when the credit is
Best for
DigitalOcean CPU / memory you chart at a public $
ngrok HTTP you inspect at a public $
Free plan
DigitalOcean $0 · / month. 3 apps with static sites. 1 GiB transfer / app. GitHub / GitLab deploy. Automatic HTTPS. Extra static-only apps $3 / month
ngrok $0 · $5 of one-time included usage. No overflow. Up to 3 online endpoints. Up to 1 GB data transfer. Up to 20k HTTP/S requests. Interstitial on HTTP/S. Assigned dev domain. 1 team member. Traffic Inspector retention 24 hours
Lowest paid
DigitalOcean Paid containers $5
ngrok Hobbyist $10/mo
Next step up
DigitalOcean Add-ons we fetched $25
ngrok Pay-as-you-go $20/mo
Runs where
DigitalOcean Hosted
ngrok Hosted
Watch out
DigitalOcean Free is static sites only
ngrok Hobbyist hard-stops when the monthly credit is gone
Last checked
DigitalOcean 2026-10-23 · digitalocean.com/pricing/app-platform
ngrok 2026-10-23 · ngrok.com/pricing
app teams who will stay on Free at $0 (3 static-site apps, 1 GiB transfer each) while they open a first Insights tab, then buy a shared container at $5 / month (1 vCPU / 512 MiB) when they need a web service or worker.
Read the DigitalOcean pagedevelopers who will burn the Free $5 one-time credit at $0 while they open a first Traffic Inspector, then Hobbyist at $10/month of included usage when the credit is gone — not Pay-as-you-go $20 unless they need overflow billing.
Read the ngrok page
