DigitalOcean vs Rackspace Technology: 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 $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
DigitalOcean
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Rackspace Technology
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 | — |
| Renewal Price | $4.00 | — |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 3.0/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 100% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 1.2/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 2,140 | 286 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $48.00 | $2388.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $48.00 | $2388.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | — |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | 0 months | 1 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | — |
| Storage Type | SSD/NVME | SSD/HDD (VARIES BY PLAN) |
| Bandwidth | 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 | Enterprise DDoS mitigation included |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Weekly (20% extra) or Daily (30% extra) or Usage-based | Daily |
| 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, Chat, Knowledge Base |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7 (Standard $99/mo and Premium $999/mo plans) | 24/7 |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | — | 24/7/365 |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | — | — |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | 0 | — |
| Mailbox Size | — | 25 GB |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | DigitalOcean CDN (additional product, paid) | Akamai/CloudFlare (partner integrations) |
| 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) | Dallas (US), Chicago (US), Virginia (US), London (UK), Hong Kong, Sydney (Australia) |
| Server Location Count | 15 | 6 |
| 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 | MyRackspace Portal |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 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 1, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, PCI DSS Level 1, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, FedRAMP, FISMA, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, ITAR, FIPS 140-2 |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 4.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| Performance Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Support Quality | 3.5/10 | 2.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4.5/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.5/10 | 2.0/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 2.0/10 | 1.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 4.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 4.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 1.0/10 |
| 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 | Varies by contract; typically metered |
| Storage Overage | Pay for additional Block Storage at $0.10/GiB/month | Varies by contract |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2012 | 1998 |
| Headquarters | United States | United States |
| Parent Company | Independent (publicly traded NYSE: DOCN since March 2021; major investors include Access Industries, BlackRock, Vanguard) | Independent (publicly traded; owned by Apollo Global Management since 2016) |
| 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, United Kingdom, Australia |
| Local Currencies | USD | USD, GBP, AUD |
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS | GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2 |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.2/5 |
| BBB Rating | D- | A+ |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available) | MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Oracle |
| 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 | Enterprise contracts; no traditional refund policy |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay | Credit Card, Invoice, Wire Transfer, Enterprise Agreement |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or Load Balancer SSL | Let's Encrypt / Custom certificates |
| Dedicated IP Cost | $4/mo | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | — | United States, United Kingdom, Australia |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | — | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring percentage | — |
| Commission Amount | 10% recurring commission for 12 months per referred customer; 30-day cookie; No minimum payout; Via Impact Radius | — |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | $0.01 | — |
| Account Suspension Policy | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment after grace period; abuse reports | Violation of ToS; non-payment |
| Malware Removal Cost | — | $0.00 |
| 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 | Large enterprises needing multi-cloud management; Organizations requiring managed services across AWS/Azure/GCP; Companies needing 24/7 expert support; Compliance-heavy industries |
| 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) | Small business or startup; Need affordable hosting; Want simple self-service; Budget-conscious; Need quick support responses |
| 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 | Very poor Trustpilot rating (1.2) despite 'Fanatical Support' brand; Support quality reportedly declined after outsourcing; Expensive for what you get; Complex contracts; Slow response times reported; Not suitable for small businesses; Apollo acquisition led to cost-cutting |
| Unique Selling Point | Best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach | Multi-cloud managed services provider with 'Fanatical Support' across AWS, Azure, and GCP |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing | Enterprise needing managed multi-cloud services with 24/7 support and compliance requirements |
| Best Alternative To | AWS Lightsail | Self-managed multi-cloud |
| Primary Competitors | Vultr, Linode, AWS Lightsail | Cloudways, AWS Managed Services, Azure Managed |
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 higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
- Are new to web hosting
- Want more server locations (15 available)
Choose Rackspace Technology if you...
- Need phone support
- Require 24/7 live chat support
- Need free website migration