TrustRadius Insights
DigitalOcean is a versatile platform that has been widely adopted for various use cases by different types of users. For web developers …
Starting at $5 Starting Price Per Month
View PricingOverview
What is DigitalOcean?
DigitalOcean is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform from the company of the same name headquartered in New York. It is known for its support of managed Kubernetes clusters and “droplets” feature.
Recent Reviews
Popular Features
- Pre-defined machine images (29)8.787%
- Dynamic scaling (28)8.282%
- Monitoring tools (30)7.777%
- Operating system support (29)7.777%
Pricing
1GB-16GB
$5.00
Cloud
Starting Price Per Month
8GB-160GB
$60.00
Cloud
Starting Price Per Month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Demo: Deploying Librarian to DigitalOcean's App Platform in 3 minutes
YouTube
Hands on with Redis Labs and DigitalOcean
YouTube
MICROWEBER TUTORIAL + DEMO + INSTALL + REVIEW
YouTube
DigitalOcean Swimmer Demo
YouTube
Features
Return to navigation
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is DigitalOcean?
DigitalOcean is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform from the company of the same name headquartered in New York. It is known for its support of managed Kubernetes clusters and “Droplets” feature.
Deployment
Create managed Kubernetes clusters just by specifying the size and location of worker nodes
Standard, general purpose, or CPU-optimized compute types
App marketplace
Global availability
Scalability
Scale up, scale down, or migrate between Droplets (virtual machines)
Distribute traffic across droplets
Redirect network traffic
Hourly billing
Storage
Managed MySQL, Redis, or PostgreSQL databases
Store and retrieve any amount of data (audio, video, etc.)
SSD-based storage support
Backups and snapshots
Security
Cloud firewalls
Private networking
Two-factor authorization and centralized billing
Monitoring
Native integration
Resource usage reports and graphs
Real-term alerts and notifications
DigitalOcean Video
Premium Droplets by DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
DigitalOcean is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform from the company of the same name headquartered in New York. It is known for its support of managed Kubernetes clusters and “droplets” feature.
Reviewers rate Pre-configured templates highest, with a score of 9.3.
The most common users of DigitalOcean are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(128)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
DigitalOcean is a versatile platform that has been widely adopted for various use cases by different types of users. For web developers and engineers, DigitalOcean offers a seamless hosting solution for websites and web applications, allowing them to easily set up and manage their own servers. This includes hosting personal and professional websites, managing documentation for migration and setup, as well as providing support throughout the process. Customers have praised DigitalOcean for its user-friendly interface and the ability to quickly spin up servers for testing new WordPress 'stacks' within minutes.
In addition to web hosting, DigitalOcean is also utilized by organizations for cloud computing needs. This includes hosting cloud instances, managing DNS records, utilizing floating IP addresses, deploying Kubernetes instances, and setting up load balancers. The flexibility and scalability of DigitalOcean's services allow organizations to easily adapt their infrastructure based on their specific requirements. Moreover, development teams appreciate the low-cost reliable servers and support provided by DigitalOcean when it comes to developing, testing, and deploying production infrastructure.
One notable use case is DustMoon, a media company that switched to DigitalOcean for hosting their website. They reported improved performance after moving to an entry-level VPS plan. Another use case involves customers using DigitalOcean to host custom scheduling software publicly, eliminating the need for VPN accounts or exposing servers to public access, thus enhancing security in the process.
DigitalOcean's simplicity, flexibility, and affordability make it an attractive option for both small client projects and larger organizations. Customers highly recommend DigitalOcean as a web hosting service due to its fantastic performance at a great price point. However, while users appreciate the features provided by DigitalOcean, some have suggested that the support could be more effective. Overall, DigitalOcean has proven to be a reliable solution for various cloud computing needs such as hosting websites and web apps, running microservices, and launching prototypes quickly and cost-effectively.
Developer-friendly tools and APIs: Users have expressed their appreciation for the developer-friendly tools and APIs provided by DigitalOcean, finding them useful and conducive to efficient development processes. Several reviewers have stated that these tools have made it easier for them to develop and manage their cloud resources effectively.
Great documentation: The comprehensive and well-structured documentation offered by DigitalOcean has been highly praised by users. Many reviewers have found the documentation to be helpful, particularly when setting up various configurations and services. They have highlighted its wide coverage of topics as a valuable resource for guidance.
Active and helpful community: The active and supportive community of DigitalOcean has garnered positive feedback from users. They have commended the community's responsiveness in providing assistance whenever needed. Reviewers also appreciate the availability of official help articles and public forums, which contribute to their positive experience with the platform.
Limited product offerings: Some users have mentioned that DigitalOcean offers a limited range of products compared to other cloud providers, specifically noting the absence of enterprise-level options such as Windows Server, MS SQL Server, and Oracle products. This may be a drawback for users who require a wider variety of services.
Limited number of regions: Users have expressed concern about the limited availability of data center regions in DigitalOcean. While the platform is expanding rapidly and introducing new data centers, some reviewers feel that having fewer options could be disadvantageous for those who require specific geographical locations.
Complex email server setup: Setting up email servers on DigitalOcean can be complex according to some users, leading them to recommend external services like Zoho instead. The intricate process may pose challenges for users who prefer a simpler email setup within the DigitalOcean platform.
Users have made several recommendations based on their experiences with DigitalOcean. The three most common recommendations are:
-
Users suggest DigitalOcean as a good choice for enterprise or small-medium businesses, but not for beginner individual developers. They appreciate the ease of setup compared to other cloud providers.
-
Use DigitalOcean for hosting projects with great support and functionalities. Users find DigitalOcean to be an excellent platform for hosting web applications, virtual machines, and VPS servers. They recommend using DigitalOcean for quick and affordable hosting needs, especially for small projects or users with limited server management experience.
-
Consider DigitalOcean as a reliable cloud provider for startups or new companies looking to quickly create a backend infrastructure or cloud-based computing. Users mention that DigitalOcean is easy to use, provides transparent monthly billing, and offers straightforward pricing. They also appreciate helpful documentation, interesting promotions, inbuilt monitoring, and consistent service without surprises at the end of the month.
Overall, users find DigitalOcean to be a competitive option in the market with flexible tariffs, easy setup, strong functionality, and affordability.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 30)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
June 28, 2021
Best Affordable and Inexpensive Virtual Servers
DigitalOcean is an inexpensive product as compared to other products available in the market. The UI is easy and the beginner can also understand the UI with the step by step guide. It provides a lot of custom features and the user needs to pay only for what they are using. Amazon has a complex UI and is on the expensive side. DigitalOcean is simple to use and is easily manageable and the servers can easily be set up without additional cost and such.
April 30, 2021
One of the best dedicated server platforms!
DigitalOcean is really one of the cheapest options out there for dedicated servers. Plus, their pay-per-use pricing helps companies to grow at their own pace without having to pay for a higher performance or service they don't need initially. Their platform is well built and easy to use, and they have one of the most efficient customer support services on the market.
April 30, 2021
DigitalOcean for the win
- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Google Compute Engine
DigitalOcean is an easier and cheaper way to [set up] new machines. The UX is really good and it's easy to find what you need. Competition offer[s] a complicated way to manage machines and the cost is sometimes more than [...] double of what DigitalOcean offer[s]. However[,] competition provides more customization[.]
March 12, 2021
Why DigitalOcean Dominates the VPS Market
- Vultr and Linode
Vultr is a new player in the game. They don't advertise their hardware model and for that reason, people may not trust them. I have run few benchmarks on Vultr, they performed slightly better than DigitalOcean but they aren't trustworthy. Their transparency index is very low and also they're inconsistent. Linode is the granddad of all. This is the oldest player in the game. Very stable and old. Their platform is a little buggy. People have complained about losing their data on Linode several times. Also, they're the only VPS provider to be hit by large scale DDoS attacks. Obviously, I don't want my site to go down, therefore Linode isn't my first preference.
November 19, 2019
Developer-friendly cloud provider
Digital Ocean is easier to start with and was a great choice for that project. On other projects, I may choose Google Cloud products because of their more complex product offerings and advanced features.
Products like Storage or Pub/Sub isn't available on Digital Ocean and the alternative to Cloud SQL wasn't available at the time we created the project, so product availability may be a deciding factor.
Products like Storage or Pub/Sub isn't available on Digital Ocean and the alternative to Cloud SQL wasn't available at the time we created the project, so product availability may be a deciding factor.
As I have said, DigitalOcean was slightly more expensive than something like HostGator, but the amount of customization and quality of service make it worth any difference. AWS was always a pain to set up and use, but DigitalOcean makes it cake.
DigitalOcean is not quite as simple as Heroku to get up and running, but it provides a better price point and more configurability. However, in my opinion it's much simpler to get up and running with than AWS OpsWorks and even Google App Engine. It also provides a better price point when compared with AWS or GCP. We've used all four services at my company so it wasn't a case of selecting DigitalOcean over the others. It currently serves a valuable niche in that it provides cheap configurable microservices. Had it been a little more mature when our company started I feel we likely would have selected DigitalOcean for our core app as well instead of AWS OpsWorks.
September 17, 2019
DigitalOcean - Great pricing with enterprise grade solutions and value
- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Heroku Platform and Google Compute Engine
September 04, 2019
Super easy to use and incredibly affordable. Sail away with DigitalOcean and be the captain of your voyage!
I've tried both AWS and Azure and, while they're both great solutions, they are much more challenging to setup and maintain. The idea that my billing could spike because of something unexpected leaves me a tad uneasy. For our solutions I'd rather pay the $10/mo with DigitalOcean and know that if something breaks, the server will be slow or stop and I can deal with that. Our customers can accept that easily whereas a large AWS bill my internal team could not.
AWS and Azure are built for hardcore devops teams whereas DigitalOcean has figured out how to serve those teams as well as others who are less technically sophisticated.
AWS and Azure are built for hardcore devops teams whereas DigitalOcean has figured out how to serve those teams as well as others who are less technically sophisticated.
September 04, 2019
DigitalOcean and the evolution of hosting
DigitalOcean and ServerPilot work extremely well together. As for other hosting solutions I feel like I have moved on to the best choice available with DigitalOcean. Times change, and DigitalOcean just feels like the next step in the evolution of hosting providers and I for one wouldn't want to go back.
August 26, 2019
A great basic virtualization provider
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
DigitalOcean can be seen more like a Rackspace or a similar provider. They aren't offering more extended services such as AWS Redshift of something on a larger scale. They are great for just vanilla virtualization and maintaining uptime for those resources across a large set of images that can be provisioned.
January 14, 2019
Super-intuitive, scalable, and affordable!
Amazon has a very complex UI and many products to offer. They haven't polished up their UI and it has a much greater learning curve compared to DigitalOcean. However, Amazon Web Services (AWS) does have more comprehensive cloud computing services, which forces some companies to migrate their backend and other services to AWS as they scale up.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Initially we started using DigitalOcean due to their pricing point as we were in development phase. Slowly when we used it, we starting liking it a lot as it is very fast & easy to get started, compared to the other Cloud Providers we've used. Also they have blogs and documentation for almost everything one needs for managing cloud services. Currently, DigitalOcean handles our production infrastructure with never noticed downtime yet.
- Site5
Site5's customer service and support have declined over the recent years. The last couple of tickets that I submitted in 2016 were never addressed by their help team. The only customer service agent seems to be on their Twitter account. Site5 does not allow any configuration of using free SSL services.
March 19, 2017
Dive in! As long as you've got the training and/or team
- HostGator and Liquid-Web
DigitalOcean has a much lower price point for VPS - but they are not fully managed as with other services. DigitalOcean VPSs are good for quick simple applications that we are comfortable and efficient at deploying ourselves. We do not generally recommend them for clients, as a more managed solution, such as LiquidWeb's VPS, is usually more appropriate for them.
Compared service to service, Digitalocean comes out on top usually, for smaller better spec servers. This is what they do, and specialty shops are always the best route, with no exception here. However, if you need more than a server, or are not comfortable doing more than starting up a Linux pre-installed image, then it isn't for you. Digitalocean can be VERY powerful in the hands of a very good Linux geek, because even though all they offer are servers and networking tools, that is all a physical network usually has, meaning you can make your own system, and pay a LOT less than with any other service, but if you need more, and don't have those skills, you just won't find it. I do tend to pass up Digitalocean at times when I think I MIGHT need an independent managed database and etc., so it is something you need to take into consideration. As I have said in most of my reviews, this a great place to get info from people that use the service, but EVERY project has a good way, a bad way, and an AWESOME way of doing things, and you need to design an compare and chose the right mix of services to make it work the AWESOME way. I really can not say if DigtalOcean is for you, but if they do match your required services, I say to go for it.
February 22, 2017
DigitalOcean is awesome
- Heroku and aws
Cheaper than Heroku which is prohibitively expensive for a small self-funded startup. We quickly outgrew their free tier and migrated to DigitalOcean. AWS is more feature complete however, we found its maintenance overly confusing and not as well thought out. For many use cases AWS would be more appropriate but for ours, DigitalOcean came out on top.
February 20, 2017
DigitalOcean vs. Others: Flexibility
- Google Cloud and ChunkHost
DigitalOcean isn't nearly as robust as Google Cloud. DigitalOcean provides VPSs, as does Google Cloud. However, Google Cloud offers many other products as well.
ChunkHost is very similar to DigitalOcean, but doesn't have the infrastructure that DigitalOcean has. Geographical regions aren't available with ChunkHost and they don't provide as many monitoring tools. Comparable service, just not as flexible.
ChunkHost is very similar to DigitalOcean, but doesn't have the infrastructure that DigitalOcean has. Geographical regions aren't available with ChunkHost and they don't provide as many monitoring tools. Comparable service, just not as flexible.
February 14, 2017
Top of the line features for the right price.
AWS: Too complex to set things up. Period.
Mediatemple: Great features, services and customer service. Prices are a bit high for what they offer.
Linode: Outstanding features and customer support. Difficult to start with for novice users.
inMotion Hosting: Used to be a really good provider but everything is on a down with them: poor scalability, frequent failures, poor customer support.
Mediatemple: Great features, services and customer service. Prices are a bit high for what they offer.
Linode: Outstanding features and customer support. Difficult to start with for novice users.
inMotion Hosting: Used to be a really good provider but everything is on a down with them: poor scalability, frequent failures, poor customer support.
February 14, 2017
A great catch in an ocean of options.
My cost savings were significant and I felt like I was much more in control of the hardware and processes. I also had issues with certain marketing decisions my former hosting company made, DigitalOcean was an easy choice!
February 14, 2017
DigitalOcean: a direct path to shipping your software product
- AWS and Heroku
DigitalOcean's dead simple pricing and solid but basic feature set combine for a no-nonsense way to get your product shipped. Its API makes it nicely scriptable/automate-able compared to traditional shared hosting providers like Dreamhost. I think it compares most closely with a provider like Linode. AWS and Google Cloud have a much richer catalog but also carry higher overhead and cost. Heroku and other PaaS products provide a nicer experience for people that don't want to deal with server setup.
February 14, 2017
If you can configure a server this is the right choice.
- Linode
Linode was my long time go-to and we still have several sites hosted and maintained on their servers. Initially, I was skeptical of DigitalOcean's pricing, but they've proven to be an excellent alternative. Linode is more mature in their toolset, but both are really great options. I suspect DigitalOcean's success impacted Linode quite a bit in terms of their current pricing structure which is great for the consumer.
February 14, 2017
DigitalOcean made it easy to enable automation
- Amazon Web Services and Linode
It was the right balance of cost, ease of use, and support.
February 13, 2017
Bobbing along on a DigitalOcean
I started with Linode, but switched to DigitalOcean. when it had a lower price point and used SSDs. Now the pricing is the same and both use SSDs.
February 13, 2017
Digital Ocean offers the best VPS, at the lowest prices.
DigitalOcean easily has the most flexibility, best pricing, and best ease of use, of the competitors we had used. Rackspace offers better engineer access and support, but this comes at a very significant cost. Heroku offers a cloud container system, which has less maintenance, but is much much more expensive for the same specifications. Linode offers mostly the same solution, but still at higher costs.