TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    DigitalOcean Droplets

    Score9.7 out of 10
    N/ADigitalOcean's Droplets is designed to help the user spin up a virtual machine in just 55 seconds. Standard, General Purpose, CPU-Optimized, or Memory-Optimized configurations provide flexibility to build, test, and grow an app from startup to scale.

    $4

    per month

    Azure SQL Database

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAzure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).

    $0.50

    Per Hour

    Pricing
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Editions & Modules
    Basic
    $4
    per month
    CPU-Optimized
    $42
    per month
    General Purpose
    $63
    per month
    Memory-Optimized
    $84
    per month
    Storage-Optimized
    $131
    per month
    2 vCORE
    $0.5044
    Per Hour
    6 vCORE
    $1.5131
    Per Hour
    10 vCORE
    $2.52
    Per Hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPricing for DigitalOcean Droplets varies depending on the size of the virtual environment and the associated data needs.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Considered Both Products
    DigitalOcean
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    17 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of DigitalOcean Droplets and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    DigitalOcean Droplets
    8.8
    1 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring tools10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Operating system support10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security controls10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automation10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of DigitalOcean Droplets and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    DigitalOcean Droplets
    -
    Ratings
    Azure SQL Database
    7.2
    32 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Automatic software patching00 Ratings6.330 Ratings
    Database scalability00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Automated backups00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Database security provisions00 Ratings8.832 Ratings
    Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings6.831 Ratings
    Automatic host deployment00 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Small Businesses
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    DigitalOcean DropletsAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    DigitalOcean
    DigitalOcean Droplets are the best choice for developers teams that need reliable Linux servers to deploy their projects, the ability to create a droplet for testing purposes then destroy it, and only get charged for the few hours used makes the chances of messing up very slim. DigitalOcean Droplets is a great solution because the servers are scalable and the process of adding more resources like CPU or RAM to an existing droplet takes only a few minutes and once a server is scaled up it can also be scaled down if necessary which is perfect for supporting a temporary peak in traffic for example.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have found it's a great alternative for making older legacy applications work with online databases instead of only on-premises databases. We've converted over a dozen applications this way, and it has allowed our clients to have a distributed workforce using their applications without incurring the expense of a complete application rewrite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    DigitalOcean
    • Simplicity to scale services--the interface is very quick and effective to use
    • Reliability--this is key for us, as any downtime effects our reputation
    • Keeps the costs down--hosting our own equivalent infrastructure would cost a lot more
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
    • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
    • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    DigitalOcean
    • In terms of an availability zone, they have limitations not available in most of the geographical locations.
    • No live support is available which can cause problem if you have outage.
    • Number of service is quite limited.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
    • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
    • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
    • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
    • Sudden disconnects.
    • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
    • Only one Latin Collation choice.
    • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    DigitalOcean
    Other platforms dashboard console is more difficult to use. DigitalOcean's dashboard is clean, simple, and straightforward
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The interfaces are intuitive once you are familiar with all the functions. The ability to use different tools to interact with the platform, such as directly via a browser or code editors such as VS Code or Visual Studio is a great option and allows for integrating withn the project and other testing and developing tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    DigitalOcean
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    DigitalOcean
    DigitalOcean Droplets is continuously evolving to be more and more powerful. It has great features and has low cost options, which is really great for developers. Its CDN, Loadbalancer, etc. make it a good place to host a high-traffic application. Moroever, DigitalOcean Droplets has a nonprofit program that helps nonprofit sites to run their infrastructure, which is tremendous and no competitor of DigitalOcean Droplets does that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    DigitalOcean
    • Digital Ocean has been great helping us move web apps to the cloud
    • Digital Ocean has been really helpful when hiring contractors
    • The interface could use some work, but overall its not terrible
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
    • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
    • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots