VPS Comparison for Dropbox → Google Drive Migration
Use case: Run rclone to stream data from Dropbox API to Google Drive API. Needs minimal CPU, RAM, and disk — just good network throughput.
Cheapest Viable Plans (all prices excl. VAT)
| Hetzner CX22 | UpCloud DEV | DigitalOcean | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | ~€3.79 | €3.00 | ~$4 (~€3.70) | ~$2.50 (~€2.30) |
| Hourly | €0.006 | €0.0045 | ~$0.006 | ~$0.004 |
| vCPU | 2 (shared, AMD) | 1 (shared) | 1 (shared) | 1 (shared) |
| RAM | 4 GB | 1 GB | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Disk | 40 GB SSD | 10 GB Standard | 10 GB SSD | 10 GB SSD |
| Network | 1 Gbps | 1 Gbps | 1 Gbps | 1 Gbps |
| Transfer | 20 TB included | "Fair use" (unlimited*) | 500 GB then $0.01/GB | 2 TB pooled then $0.01/GB |
| IPv4 | Included | Included | Included | Included |
*UpCloud's "zero-cost egress" is subject to a Fair Transfer Policy — essentially unlimited for normal use, but they reserve the right to throttle abuse.
Estimated Cost for This Migration (~1 TB, ~15-48 hours)
| Provider | Estimated total cost |
|---|---|
| Vultr | ~€0.06 – €0.19 |
| UpCloud | ~€0.07 – €0.22 |
| Hetzner | ~€0.09 – €0.29 |
| DigitalOcean | ~€0.09 – €0.29 |
All under €0.30 — the difference is negligible.
What Actually Matters for This Job
Network throughput to Dropbox/Google APIs: All four providers have excellent European peering. Hetzner (Falkenstein/Nuremberg), UpCloud (Amsterdam/Frankfurt/Helsinki), DigitalOcean (Amsterdam/Frankfurt), and Vultr (Amsterdam/Frankfurt) are all fine.
Google Drive's 750 GB/day upload limit is the real bottleneck, not the VPS. A 1.5 TB migration takes ~2 days minimum regardless of provider.
RAM/CPU: rclone with 16 transfers uses ~100-200 MB RAM and barely any CPU. Even the 512 MB plans work, though 1 GB gives more headroom for the OS + rclone.
Disk: rclone streams data directly — it doesn't cache files to disk. 10 GB is plenty (just OS + log files).
Transfer limits: For this migration, the data flows into the VPS (from Dropbox) and out (to Google Drive). Both directions count at some providers. With ~1 TB in each direction, Hetzner's 20 TB is more than enough. DigitalOcean's 500 GB free tier could incur ~$5 overage for a 1 TB migration. Vultr's 2 TB pooled is tight but workable.
EU Data Center Locations
| Provider | European locations |
|---|---|
| Hetzner | Falkenstein, Nuremberg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland) |
| UpCloud | Helsinki, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Warsaw + more (15 DCs total) |
| DigitalOcean | Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London |
| Vultr | Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Warsaw |
Pros and Cons for This Specific Use Case
Hetzner
- + Most generous transfer quota (20 TB)
- + Proven reliability, huge community
- + Best specs for the price (4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU at €3.79)
- + German company, GDPR compliant
- - Fewer DC locations than others
- - Price increase coming April 1, 2026
UpCloud
- + Cheapest at €3/mo
- + Zero-cost egress (no transfer surprises)
- + Finnish company, strong EU presence
- + 15 data center locations
- - Lowest specs at base tier (1 GB RAM, 10 GB disk)
- - Limit of 2 servers on cheapest plan
- - Smaller community, less third-party documentation
DigitalOcean
- + Excellent documentation and community
- + Per-second billing (new in 2026)
- + Great UI and developer experience
- - Only 500 GB free transfer — could cost extra for large migration
- - US company, USD billing
- - Smallest base plan (512 MB RAM)
Vultr
- + Cheapest base plan ($2.50/mo)
- + Many European locations
- + Per-second billing
- - Only 2 TB pooled transfer
- - Smallest base plan (512 MB RAM)
- - US company, USD billing
Recommendation
For a one-time migration where you'll delete the server within days:
- Hetzner if you want the most headroom and simplest setup — 4 GB RAM and 20 TB transfer means zero worries
- UpCloud if you want the cheapest EU option with zero transfer concerns
- Either way, total cost is under €0.50
Both Hetzner and UpCloud are European companies with strong privacy practices, which may matter to you as a Belgian business owner.
What About Google Cloud?
Since the data is going to Google Drive, running the migration on a Google Cloud VM means traffic between the VM and Google APIs stays within Google's internal network, potentially reducing per-file API latency.
| Google Cloud e2-micro | Google Cloud e2-small | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Free tier eligible | ~€6/mo |
| vCPU | 0.25 (shared) | 0.5 (shared) |
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB |
| Disk | 30 GB free | 30 GB free |
| Network | 1 GB egress free/mo | Standard pricing |
Verdict for this migration: Marginal benefit. The bottleneck is Google Drive's API rate limits (750 GB/day upload, ~10-30 TPS before throttling), not network latency. Whether the API call takes 5ms (Google internal) or 15ms (UpCloud Amsterdam to Google), you're capped at the same transactions per second. The time saved per file is milliseconds — across thousands of files that adds up to minutes, not hours.
Where Google Cloud shines: Persistent services that make frequent Google API calls (e.g. a license server integrated with Google Workspace, or a service syncing data with Google Sheets). For those use cases, being on the same network gives a measurable advantage. Google Cloud is also the better choice if the service needs tight integration with other Google services (Pub/Sub, Cloud Functions, etc.).
Downsides: More complex setup than UpCloud/Hetzner, fiddly billing model (easy to accidentally incur charges), and no generous trial credit for simple compute like UpCloud's €250/30 days.