DigitalOcean vs Rackspace Technology: Complete 2026 Comparison
DigitalOcean and Rackspace Technology are both cloud infrastructure providers, but they suit different priorities. Across our 7-category breakdown, DigitalOcean comes out ahead, winning 3 of them — including Price, Performance and Beginners.
Data last updated June 2026
Overall Winner
DigitalOcean
- Wins in 3 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Price, Best Performance, Best for Beginners
- 4.2/5 overall rating
DigitalOcean vs Rackspace Technology: Overview
DigitalOcean starts at $4.00/mo.
DigitalOcean's standout is best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach — a natural fit for developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing. Rackspace Technology, by contrast, leans on multi-cloud managed services provider with 'Fanatical Support' across AWS, Azure, and GCP, ideal for enterprise needing managed multi-cloud services with 24/7 support and compliance requirements.
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 | 10 GB | — |
| Storage Type | SSD/NVME | SSD/HDD (VARIES BY PLAN) |
| Bandwidth | 500 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
DigitalOcean vs Rackspace Technology: Frequently Asked Questions
Does DigitalOcean or Rackspace Technology have better uptime?
DigitalOcean edges out Rackspace Technology on performance with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and a 4.2/5 overall rating. For uptime-sensitive sites, it's the more dependable choice.
Which has better customer support, DigitalOcean or Rackspace Technology?
Rackspace Technology has the edge on support offering 24/7 live chat, phone support and ticket support.
Is DigitalOcean or Rackspace Technology better for beginners?
DigitalOcean is friendlier for beginners, scoring higher on ease of use in our assessment. New users will generally find it quicker to get started.
Should I choose DigitalOcean or Rackspace Technology?
For most users, DigitalOcean is the better overall choice, winning 3 of our 7 categories (notably Price, Performance and Beginners). That said, the right host depends on your specific needs — check the category breakdown above for the factors that matter to you.