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DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean

Overview

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

DigitalOcean is a versatile platform that has been widely adopted for various use cases by different types of users. For web developers …
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TrustRadius Insights
TrustRadius Insights
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Popular Features

View all 9 features
  • Pre-defined machine images (29)
    8.7
    87%
  • Dynamic scaling (28)
    8.2
    82%
  • Monitoring tools (30)
    7.7
    77%
  • Operating system support (29)
    7.7
    77%
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Pricing

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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
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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
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Features

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

IaaS provides the basic building blocks for an IT infrastructure like servers, storage, and networking, in an on-demand model over the Internet

8.2
Avg 8.1
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Product Details

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 TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

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).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(127)

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!

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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 31)
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June 28, 2021

Best Affordable and Inexpensive Virtual Servers

Verified User
Consultant in Finance and Accounting
Accounting Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is a powerful tool with respect to the services and pricing that it offers. It is easier than other products and also provides servers that are inexpensive with great performance. DigitalOcean also offers additional add-ons such as additional IP addresses, scheduling of backups, etc. One of the best advantages is that it is efficient and is open source. Although, it is suited for a firm that is looking to cut down cost. Also, it is not suited for an organization where the dev/platform/DBA team is less experienced.
April 30, 2021

One of the best dedicated server platforms!

AS
Antoine St-Pierre
Digital Automation Manager
Techo-Bloc (Building Materials, 501-1000 employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are looking for a reliable platform to host your website and apps, DigitalOcean is one of the best out there. Since it's a pay-per-use and scalable platform, you will never have problems with having too many customers on your website at the same time. Since it's a dedicated servers platform, you need high volume to justify using it compared to shared servers.
March 12, 2021

Why DigitalOcean Dominates the VPS Market

Praneeth Karnena | TrustRadius Reviewer
Praneeth Karnena
Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief
DustMoon.Com (Computer & Network Security, 1-10 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is best suited for SMBs. For large enterprises, it's better to go for premium providers like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The reason being very simple, they don't offer products that other providers do offer. Products like Content Delivery Network, Web Application Firewalls, Scalable Databases, Infrastructure for running intensive applications like Machine Learning and Virtual Reality or so.
November 19, 2019

Developer-friendly cloud provider

Leonel Quinteros | TrustRadius Reviewer
Leonel Quinteros
Director of Technology
Global Brigades, Inc. (Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
For single developers/small agencies, quick prototypes or open source-based architectures, Digital Ocean is a great choice. They make it simple to start any project quickly without being afraid of hidden costs.

I wouldn't recommend it to anybody looking for enterprise-level solutions or trying to host proprietary software on the platform.
Big projects that require Global availability and replication may fall short in available regions as well.
Also, projects looking to use modern/advanced technologies, like AI, ML, Big Data, will not find packaged solutions like other cloud providers offer.
October 19, 2019

If DigitalOcean is good enough for Beyonce it's good enough for you.

Bobby Johnson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Bobby Johnson
Co-Founder / Full Stack Dev
Madness Labs (Computer Software, 1-10 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is well suited if you need to be able to create a server that scales and you want full control/responsibility of your tech stack. We recommend using some kind of serverless solution if you are smaller and don't want the management overhead.
October 16, 2019

DigitalOcean, great community, great features and startup friendly

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Marketing and Advertising Company, 11-50 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Scenarios where DigitalOcean is well suited:
- I would recommend DigitalOcean for any startup looking to get up and running quickly, but concerned about scalability and infrastructure costs
- DigitalOcean is also a powerful tool for running microservices; it can be useful for prototyping or quickly launching pre-configured services

Scenarios where DigitalOcean is less appropriate:
- DigitalOcean would be less appropriate for companies with limited devops experience in their teams (you need to be more on top of your infrastructure and may not get the automated infrastructure updates that you would from something like AWS).
September 04, 2019

Super easy to use and incredibly affordable. Sail away with DigitalOcean and be the captain of your voyage!

Chris Widner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Chris Widner
VP of Technology & Human Resources
Quality Ironworks, Inc. (Construction, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Unless you need on-prem solutions DigitalOcean is a no-brainer. It's far easier to use than Amazon Web Services and, from my experience, cheaper in smaller usage scenarios. If you're really locked in with AWS perhaps you wouldn't want to switch to DigitalOcean because of the time to migrate and integrate with the API, but otherwise I can't think of a good reason to choose anything other than DigitalOcean.
September 04, 2019

DigitalOcean and the evolution of hosting

Brandon Mullins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Brandon Mullins
CEO
Moon Books Publishing (Entertainment, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
We at Moon Books use Wordpress as our CMS of choice. DigitalOcean works amazingly well with Wordpress and is quicker than any other host I've ever used. We also use EasyEngine in addition to DigitalOcean, which makes rolling out new sites even quicker. The only scenario that I could think of in this case, if possibly using another CMS such as Drupal, but I've not tried it personally, the Drupal hosting could very easily be as polished as Wordpress, I'm just pulling Drupal out of my hat.
August 26, 2019

A great basic virtualization provider

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Consumer Goods Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
I would recommend DigitalOcean to a colleague that has started to look around for a virtual hosting provider but doesn't have an enterprise workload. It hits the sweet spot of a middle tier provider for a lot of the use cases that we were looking for from a support perspective.
January 14, 2019

Super-intuitive, scalable, and affordable!

Fedor Paretsky | TrustRadius Reviewer
Fedor Paretsky
Co-Founder/CEO
aspace, Inc. (Computer Software, 1-10 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is wonderful for startups that are looking to quickly create a backend, API, or cloud computing infrastructure. Most of the products that DigitalOcean offers makes it really easy to set this up. For companies that require more complex or advanced cloud computing resources, like Computer Vision, AI, etc... DigitalOcean doesn't offer these specific services, so a different cloud computing service may be better suited for this purpose.
July 26, 2018

DigitalOcean is the answer to the reliable and low-cost Cloud Providers.

Tarun Mangukiya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Tarun Mangukiya
Co-Founder
Iconscout (Design, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
In case of SaaS product, your cloud infrastructure is one of the most costly aspect. Thus having low cost of infrastructure allows us to provide high quality services at reasonable rates to our users. Along with it, it must be reliable enough that we can push our production data there. DigitalOcean is best suited for these scenarios. They provides reliable cloud services at reasonable pricing point. Plus they do have free support team, who guide and advise us starting from getting used to the platform to deciding the infrastructure for our production. The only pain point is that, they do have less number of services. But, they are adding them on monthly basis.
June 19, 2018

Flexible hosting with great customer service and documentation

Jeanine Schoessler | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jeanine Schoessler
Web Developer
satinflame design (Higher Education, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is ideal for web and system administrators who are comfortable with (or at least motivated to learn) using the command line for managing a server. Its setup requires a good grasp of general server understanding but it also allows for flexibility for installing SSL certificates, managing multiple domains in one droplet, and logging data.
March 19, 2017

Dive in! As long as you've got the training and/or team

Chris Putnam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Chris Putnam
Senior Web Developer
WebpageFX (Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
You should have the expertise in house to set up, manage and debug your server environment. In such a case, DigitalOcean can save you a lot of money over other services. If you don't have that expertise available, then you will want to look for a more managed solution. Also, if you want extremely high performance at all times, or if you want to pay for your hardware only as you use it, then DigitalOcean may not be a good fit.
March 14, 2017

Would you pass up a reliable, private server starting at $5/month? It really is better than you expect, and recommended if it's all you need.

Craig Nash | TrustRadius Reviewer
Craig Nash
Sr. Network Engineer
GodAmongGeeks.Com (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Digitalocean is perfect for any person or business on a budget, from students to start-ups, DigitalOcean is very affordable, literally at $5 a month, while offering very high-quality services that, while VERY limited, outrank the other cloud providers, in my opinion. Personally, I find DigitalOcean to be the perfect match for 75% of my clients, who have websites and other online services currently through budget hosting providers, like GoDaddy, but really want higher security, control, bandwidth and etc., without increasing the bill. Normally, that would be impossible but is EXACTLY what is offered by DigitalOcean. You literally have nothing to lose, as you can easily swing multiple servers for free by using a promo service every few months. Yes, AWS does also offer a tier of basic services for a year, and they can't compare to DigitalOcean.
February 22, 2017

DigitalOcean is awesome

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Well Suited:
  • Prototyping and MVP demos due to its simplicity and ease of use
  • Fast cloud server provisioning allows you to quickly spin up new instances
  • Cheap servers billed hourly allows you to scale up and down to match server load and maintain availability
Not Well Suited:
  • No DDOS protection which would be a nice feature to have
February 20, 2017

DigitalOcean vs. Others: Flexibility

Tyler Longren | TrustRadius Reviewer
Tyler Longren
IT Consultant
I-35 Spirits (Computer Software, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
You need to be flexible in your server infrastructure. If you're not sure what you need, DigitalOcean is a great option. If your needs change rapidly, DigitalOcean is a great option. Less appropriate if you need to have physical control over servers, DigitalOcean is not a colocation facility and simply provides virtual servers on their hardware.
February 14, 2017

Top of the line features for the right price.

Hernán Silva | TrustRadius Reviewer
Hernán Silva
Front-end developer
Velocity Partners (Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is a very good option for dedicated hosting of applications and sites with high traffic or high use volume. It's not as good of an option for small websites or novice users looking for a cheap hosting.
February 14, 2017

A great catch in an ocean of options.

Chris Gabriel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Chris Gabriel
Interactive Designer & Developer
Macy's.com (Design, 10,001+ employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Love the speed in which one can spin up a fresh machine, it literally takes only a few seconds. Why bother with virtual machines when you can just as easily do it in the cloud? The community is particularly responsive and helpful. I really like the improvement they've made to their administrative dashboard. While the selection of OS images is pretty good, their one-click apps are awesome though I haven't used them in production yet.
February 14, 2017

DigitalOcean: a direct path to shipping your software product

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
When you need to get something deployed quickly, DigitalOcean can be one of the fastest routes if you can't use a PaaS and have requirements that necessitate a VPS.

I would avoid DigitalOcean if you don't need a full-blown IaaS and can use something like Heroku to get your app out the door quickly. I would also use a more advanced provider like AWS if you need features beyond DigitalOcean's catalog.
February 14, 2017

If you can configure a server this is the right choice.

Joey Yax | TrustRadius Reviewer
Joey Yax
Web Developer
Grady Britton (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited for small and large sites. Less suitable for something you need to grow and shrink dynamically based on load. If you want to be 100% in charge of the management of your server this is the choice for you. If you want someone else to ensure the server is kept up to date and things are set up optimally you're better off elsewhere.
February 14, 2017

DigitalOcean made it easy to enable automation

Edward Larkey | TrustRadius Reviewer
Edward Larkey
Linux System Administrator
Cerner Corporation (Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Might be less appropriate in enterprise settings. But you can build a very robust architecture spread across different regions very easily. They might not have load balancing built in, but you can set that up pretty easily if you want to with a third or fourth node. Digitalocean gets out of your way to build what you need to quickly.
February 13, 2017

Digital Ocean offers the best VPS, at the lowest prices.

Cameron Banga | TrustRadius Reviewer
Cameron Banga
Project manager, designer and co-founder
9magnets, LLC (Computer Software, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It's great for startups that want a no-nonsense, simple solution. It's also great for young developers just getting started, as a good amount of value is provided at very little cost. Their flexibility, availability, and different pricing tiers also make Digital Ocean a great product for development teams of all size, as they can handle nearly any scale necessary.
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