They were definitely third to the party after Amazon and DO among the big boys (of the U.S.), but they are very large as well. Vultr and its parent, Choopa, have between 166,000 IPs and 439,000 IPs under their control, depending on whom you ask.
And yeah, the Vultr pricing is based off a 20% discount to DO, across the board, despite having many more node options (e.g., Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Miami) to choose from. For example, the 16 GB RAM and 8 CPU plan is $128 at Vultr and $160 at DO, for a savings of $32. After that point, of course, maybe you’re better off going with a dedicated server or even colocating.