DigitalOcean vs Linode (Akamai): Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Overall Winner
DigitalOcean
- Wins in 3 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Price, Best Performance, Best for Beginners
- 4.2/5 overall rating
Category Winners
Best Price
DigitalOcean
$4.00/mo vs $5.00/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
DigitalOcean
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Linode (Akamai)
Live chat, Phone, 24/7
Best for WordPress
Tie
Similar WordPress features
Best for Developers
Tie
Similar developer features
Best for Beginners
DigitalOcean
Higher ease of use score (6.5/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | Cloud Infrastructure | Cloud Infrastructure |
| Monthly Price | $4.00/mo | $5.00/mo |
| Renewal Price | $4.00 | $5.00 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.0/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 2.0/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 2,140 | 202 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $48.00 | $60.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $48.00 | $60.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 7 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | 0 months | 0 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 25 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD/NVME | SSD/NVME |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | 1000 GB |
| Max Websites | — | — |
| Max Databases | — | — |
| PHP Versions | — | — |
| SSH Access | ||
| Git Deployment | ||
| Staging Environment | — | — |
| Cron Jobs | ||
| Redis Available | ||
| Programming Languages | ||
| Node.js Support | ||
| Python Support | ||
| Ruby Support | ||
| WordPress Features | ||
| WordPress Optimized | ||
| WordPress Auto-Install | ||
| WordPress Auto-Updates | ||
| WordPress Staging | ||
| WooCommerce Optimized | ||
| LiteSpeed Cache | ||
| Object Caching | ||
| WP Multisite | ||
| WP-CLI Access | ||
| Security | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| DDoS Protection Level | Standard DDoS protection included on all Droplets | Akamai-powered DDoS protection included on all plans |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Weekly (20% extra) or Daily (30% extra) or Usage-based | Daily automatic (paid add-on) |
| Backup Retention | 7 days | 7 days |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Ticket, Live Chat (paid plans), Knowledge Base, Community Forum, Tutorials | Phone, Ticket, Live Chat, Email, Knowledge Base, Community Forum, IRC |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7 (Standard $99/mo and Premium $999/mo plans) | 24/7 |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | — | 24/7 (US: 855-454-6633, Global: +1-609-380-7100) |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | — | — |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | 0 | 0 |
| Mailbox Size | — | — |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | DigitalOcean CDN (additional product, paid) | Akamai CDN (integration available, paid) |
| Server Locations | New York (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Toronto (TOR1), Amsterdam (AMS3), Frankfurt (FRA1), London (LON1), Bangalore (BLR1), Singapore (SGP1), Sydney (SYD1), Atlanta (ATL1) | Newark (US), Atlanta (US), Dallas (US), Fremont (US), Los Angeles (US), Chicago (US), Seattle (US), Miami (US), Washington DC (US), Toronto (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Paris (France), Milan (Italy), Stockholm (Sweden), Tokyo (Japan), Osaka (Japan), Singapore, Mumbai (India), Chennai (India), Sydney (Australia), Jakarta (Indonesia) |
| Server Location Count | 15 | 25 |
| Choose Server Location | ||
| HTTP/2 Support | ||
| Brotli Compression | — | — |
| Uptime SLA Credit | ||
| Platform Support | ||
| Drupal Support | ||
| Joomla Support | ||
| Magento Support | ||
| Laravel Support | ||
| Django Support | ||
| Next.js Support | ||
| Rails Support | ||
| Static Site Support | ||
| Control Panel | ||
| cPanel Included | ||
| Control Panel | DigitalOcean Control Panel | Linode Cloud Manager |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 0 | 0 |
| Migration Turnaround | — | — |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | — |
| Migration Quality | — | — |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 4.0/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Performance Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Support Quality | 3.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 2.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Outbound transfer included per plan (500GiB-11TB); $0.01/GiB overage; Inbound always free | Transfer pooled across all Linodes (1TB-20TB depending on plan); $0.005/GB additional egress |
| Storage Overage | Pay for additional Block Storage at $0.10/GiB/month | Pay for additional Block Storage volumes |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2012 | 2003 |
| Headquarters | United States | United States |
| Parent Company | Independent (publicly traded NYSE: DOCN since March 2021; major investors include Access Industries, BlackRock, Vanguard) | Akamai Technologies (acquired for $900M in March 2022; Akamai trades as NASDAQ: AKAM) |
| Green Hosting | — | — |
| Instant Activation | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Managed WP Available | ||
| Pricing Model | — | — |
| Monthly Visit Limit | — | — |
| Visit Overage Cost | — | — |
| PHP Workers | — | — |
| Plugin Restrictions | — | — |
| Dev Environment | — | — |
| Dev Env Name | — | — |
| Regional Info | ||
| Best Countries | United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Canada, Australia | United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, India, Australia, Brazil |
| Local Currencies | USD | USD |
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 |
| BBB Rating | D- | NR (Not Rated) |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available) | MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available) |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | — |
| PHP Switching | — | — |
| Subdomains | — | — |
| FTP Accounts | — | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | No money-back guarantee; Pay-as-you-go with per-second billing (60-second minimum); Can destroy resources anytime; Unused credits remain in account | 7-day unconditional refund guarantee for compute services; Hourly billing allows pay-as-you-go; Can cancel anytime |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or Load Balancer SSL | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or NodeBalancer SSL termination |
| Dedicated IP Cost | $4/mo | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | — | United States |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | — | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring percentage | Fixed per acquisition |
| Commission Amount | 10% recurring commission for 12 months per referred customer; 30-day cookie; No minimum payout; Via Impact Radius | $100 per new customer who stays active 90+ days; 90-day cookie; Referral program: $25 credit when referee spends $25 |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | $0.01 | $0.01 |
| Account Suspension Policy | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment after grace period; abuse reports | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment; abuse reports |
| Malware Removal Cost | — | — |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | Developers and startups wanting reliable cloud infrastructure; Teams valuing excellent documentation and tutorials; App Platform users wanting PaaS simplicity; Kubernetes users; Companies needing PCI compliance; Users wanting predictable transparent pricing; API-first automation workflows | Developers wanting reliable infrastructure with phone support; Teams needing Akamai edge network integration; Users valuing predictable flat-rate pricing; Kubernetes users (LKE); Users needing 24/7 phone support (rare for cloud providers); Long-term Linux users comfortable with unmanaged hosting |
| Avoid If | Need managed WordPress hosting; Want phone support; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included email hosting; Want cPanel included; Budget-constrained (free support limited); Need many global locations (only 15 vs Vultr's 32) | Need managed WordPress hosting; Want included cPanel; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included email hosting; Budget-sensitive (prices increased post-acquisition); Concerned about recent support quality decline; Need extensive global coverage (fewer locations than competitors) |
| Known Issues | No phone support; Free support tier limited (24hr+ response); No managed WordPress; Billing issues reported causing resource deletion without warning; Backups and support plans add significant cost; No cPanel/Plesk included; GPU droplets require commitments; Some report occasional hardware failures; Limited data center count (15) vs some competitors | Low Trustpilot rating (2.0/5) with many complaints about account verification/cancellation; Price increases post-Akamai acquisition; Some report worse support quality after acquisition; Aggressive fraud detection leads to false positives; No managed WordPress; Limited compared to hyperscalers for enterprise features; Some legacy features deprecated |
| Unique Selling Point | Best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach | Only major cloud provider with 24/7 phone support, backed by Akamai's global edge network and DDoS protection |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing | Developer or business wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with phone support and enterprise-grade DDoS protection |
| Best Alternative To | AWS Lightsail | DigitalOcean |
| Primary Competitors | Vultr, Linode, AWS Lightsail | DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS Lightsail |
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Our Verdict
Choose DigitalOcean if you...
- Want to save money ($4.00/mo vs $5.00/mo)
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
Choose Linode (Akamai) if you...
- Need phone support
- Require 24/7 live chat support
- Want more server locations (25 available)