Item: DigitalOcean
Rating: 10
Author: Chris Putnam

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use DigitalOcean primarily for a set of applications and automated functionalities. These include client solutions, public applications, and internal development tools. It's primarily used by our programming teams, with some use by other teams in the company.

I also use DigitalOcean for similar personal purposes, including some website hosting as well.

Pros and Cons

Price Point
Documentation
User Interface
Reliability

More hands-on support options
More pre-built server options (eg. pre-installed cPanel images)
Managed server options

Return on Investment

Reduced hosting cost
Have been some hardware issues that needed to be addressed with support
Ease of development environment setup

Alternatives Considered

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.

Other Software Used

Liquid-Web, HostGator, GoDaddy

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.

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

Overall Satisfaction with DigitalOcean