Linode (Akamai) vs OVHcloud: Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Overall Winner
Linode (Akamai)
- Wins in 3 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Performance, Best Support, Best for Beginners
- 4.0/5 overall rating
Category Winners
Best Price
OVHcloud
$1.04/mo vs $5.00/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Linode (Akamai)
99.99% uptime, 4.0/5 rating
Best Support
Linode (Akamai)
Live chat, Phone, 24/7
Best for WordPress
OVHcloud
Optimized, WooCommerce
Best for Developers
Tie
Similar developer features
Best for Beginners
Linode (Akamai)
Higher ease of use score (6.0/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | Cloud Infrastructure | Cloud Infrastructure |
| Monthly Price | $5.00/mo | $1.04/mo |
| Renewal Price | $5.00 | $1.04 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.0/5 | 3.7/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 2.0/5 | 3.8/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 202 | 5,747 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $60.00 | $12.48 |
| Second Year Cost | $60.00 | $12.48 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 7 days | 14 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | 0 months | 1 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 1 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD/NVME | SSD |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | Unlimited |
| Max Websites | — | 1 |
| Max Databases | — | 1 |
| PHP Versions | — | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 |
| 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 | Akamai-powered DDoS protection included on all plans | Included on all services (L7 for web hosting) |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Daily automatic (paid add-on) | Daily (30-day retention for web hosting) |
| Backup Retention | 7 days | 30 days |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Phone, Ticket, Live Chat, Email, Knowledge Base, Community Forum, IRC | Ticket, Live Chat, Phone, Knowledge Base, Community Forum, API |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7 | Mon-Fri 8:00-17:00 (local time) |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | 24/7 (US: 855-454-6633, Global: +1-609-380-7100) | Business hours (24/7 for Premium/Business tiers) |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | — | — |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | 0 | 2 |
| Mailbox Size | — | 1 GB |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | Akamai CDN (integration available, paid) | — |
| Server Locations | 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) | Roubaix (France), Gravelines (France), Strasbourg (France), Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Warsaw (Poland), London (UK), Milan (Italy), Beauharnois (Canada), Virginia (US), Oregon (US), Sydney (Australia), Singapore, Mumbai (India) |
| Server Location Count | 25 | 44 |
| 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 | Linode Cloud Manager | OVHcloud Control Panel |
| 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 | ISO 27001, SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II, HDS (Health Data Hosting), SecNumCloud |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Performance Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Support Quality | 3.5/10 | 2.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.0/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 2.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 4.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| 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 | Transfer pooled across all Linodes (1TB-20TB depending on plan); $0.005/GB additional egress | Unlimited traffic (throttled in APAC regions after quota) |
| Storage Overage | Pay for additional Block Storage volumes | Must upgrade plan; no automatic overages |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2003 | 1999 |
| Headquarters | United States | France |
| Parent Company | Akamai Technologies (acquired for $900M in March 2022; Akamai trades as NASDAQ: AKAM) | Independent (publicly traded on Euronext Paris as OVH since Oct 2021; Klaba family majority stake) |
| 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, Japan, Singapore, India, Australia, Brazil | France, Germany, Poland, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain |
| Local Currencies | USD | EUR, USD, GBP, CAD, PLN, AUD |
| Support Languages | English | English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS | GDPR, SecNumCloud, HDS |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.3/5 |
| BBB Rating | NR (Not Rated) | A- |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | 0.25 GB |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available) | MySQL/MariaDB |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | — |
| PHP Switching | — | |
| Subdomains | — | — |
| FTP Accounts | — | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | 12 months |
| Money Back Exclusions | 7-day unconditional refund guarantee for compute services; Hourly billing allows pay-as-you-go; Can cancel anytime | 14-day withdrawal right for EU private customers only; Custom services and domains excluded; Must not have opted out during order; VPS/dedicated servers typically non-refundable once delivered |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Bank Transfer, Direct Debit (SEPA) |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or NodeBalancer SSL termination | Let's Encrypt (unlimited free SSL) |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | France, Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Poland, Spain, Italy, Portugal |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | — | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Fixed per acquisition | Percentage (tiered by product) |
| Commission Amount | $100 per new customer who stays active 90+ days; 90-day cookie; Referral program: $25 credit when referee spends $25 | VPS: 9% new / 6.4% existing; Dedicated: 12.8% new / 9.6% existing; Hosting: $7.25 flat; Other: 3.2%; 45-day cookie |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | $0.01 | — |
| Account Suspension Policy | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment; abuse reports | Violation of ToS; non-payment; abuse reports investigated |
| Malware Removal Cost | — | — |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | 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 | Budget-conscious developers and businesses; European customers needing EU data sovereignty; VPS and dedicated server users wanting consistent pricing; Infrastructure-as-a-service needs; Users wanting to avoid renewal price increases; Large-scale cloud deployments; Users comfortable with self-management |
| Avoid If | 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) | Need hand-holding support; Require managed WordPress hosting; Want included website builder; Need staging environments; Prefer phone support 24/7; Want included CDN; Based in UK or Canada (poor regional ratings); Need included cPanel |
| Known Issues | 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 | Support response times criticized (slow outside business hours); Complex interface reported by some users; 2021 Strasbourg data center fire destroyed customer data; UK Trustpilot rating only 1.2/5; Canada Trustpilot 1.6/5; No managed migration service; No staging environment on shared hosting; cPanel/Plesk discontinued for VPS (must bring your own license); Documentation can be hard to navigate |
| Unique Selling Point | Only major cloud provider with 24/7 phone support, backed by Akamai's global edge network and DDoS protection | Europe's largest cloud provider with no renewal price increases and own infrastructure |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or business wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with phone support and enterprise-grade DDoS protection | Developer or business wanting affordable, consistent pricing with European data centers |
| Best Alternative To | DigitalOcean | Hetzner |
| Primary Competitors | DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS Lightsail | Hetzner, Contabo, DigitalOcean |
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 Linode (Akamai) if you...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.0/5)
- Require 24/7 live chat support
Choose OVHcloud if you...
- Want to save money ($1.04/mo vs $5.00/mo)
- Need WordPress-optimized hosting
- Want more server locations (44 available)
- Want a free domain included