Linode (Akamai) vs Vultr: 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
Vultr
$2.50/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
Tie
Similar WordPress features
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 | $2.50/mo |
| Renewal Price | $5.00 | $2.50 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.0/5 | 3.8/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 100% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 2.0/5 | 2.0/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 202 | 523 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $60.00 | $30.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $60.00 | $30.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 7 days | 0 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | 0 months | 0 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 10 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD/NVME | SSD/NVME |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | 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 | Akamai-powered DDoS protection included on all plans | Standard DDoS protection included; Advanced mitigation available |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Daily automatic (paid add-on) | Automatic (optional, 20% extra cost) |
| Backup Retention | 7 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, Knowledge Base, Community Forum, API Documentation |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 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 | 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) | New York (US), Los Angeles (US), Chicago (US), Seattle (US), Dallas (US), Atlanta (US), Miami (US), Silicon Valley (US), Honolulu (US), Toronto (Canada), Mexico City (Mexico), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), London (UK), Manchester (UK), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), Madrid (Spain), Stockholm (Sweden), Warsaw (Poland), Tel Aviv (Israel), Mumbai (India), Bangalore (India), Delhi (India), Singapore, Tokyo (Japan), Seoul (South Korea), Sydney (Australia), Melbourne (Australia), Johannesburg (South Africa) |
| Server Location Count | 25 | 32 |
| 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 | Vultr Dashboard |
| 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 |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Performance Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Support Quality | 3.5/10 | 2.0/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4.0/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 2.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| 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 | 1.0/10 |
| 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 | 2TB free egress pooled across all instances; $0.01/GB overage |
| Storage Overage | Pay for additional Block Storage volumes | Pay for additional block storage at $0.10/GB/month |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2003 | 2014 |
| Headquarters | United States | United States |
| Parent Company | Akamai Technologies (acquired for $900M in March 2022; Akamai trades as NASDAQ: AKAM) | The Constant Company (privately held; $333M funding in 2024 led by AMD; $3.5B valuation) |
| 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 | United States, India, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia |
| Local Currencies | USD | USD |
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS | GDPR, SOC 2 |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.3/5 |
| BBB Rating | NR (Not Rated) | 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 | 7-day unconditional refund guarantee for compute services; Hourly billing allows pay-as-you-go; Can cancel anytime | No money-back guarantee; Pay-as-you-go model with hourly billing; Can destroy instances anytime; Unused credit remains in account |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.), Wire Transfer, Alipay |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or NodeBalancer SSL termination | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt or commercial) |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | $3/mo |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | — |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | — | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Fixed per acquisition | CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) |
| Commission Amount | $100 per new customer who stays active 90+ days; 90-day cookie; Referral program: $25 credit when referee spends $25 | Up to $100 per referral (customer must be active 30+ days); 30-day cookie; Monthly PayPal payments |
| 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; abuse reports | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment; abuse complaints |
| 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 | Developers wanting affordable cloud compute; Startups needing flexible pay-as-you-go pricing; Users needing many global locations (32 regions); GPU compute and machine learning workloads; API-first infrastructure automation; Users comfortable with self-management; Cryptocurrency payment acceptance |
| 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 managed WordPress hosting; Want phone or chat support; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included email hosting; Want cPanel/Plesk included; Require money-back guarantee; Uncomfortable with unmanaged infrastructure |
| 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 | Low Trustpilot rating (2.0/5); No phone or live chat support (ticket only); Strict account verification causing frustration; Reports of account termination without warning; Billing department only available business hours; 20% extra for automatic backups; Snapshots limited to 10 per account; Support response times can be slow; Some users report load balancer outages |
| Unique Selling Point | Only major cloud provider with 24/7 phone support, backed by Akamai's global edge network and DDoS protection | Cheapest cloud compute ($2.50/mo) with 100% SLA and 32 global locations |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or business wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with phone support and enterprise-grade DDoS protection | Developer or startup wanting affordable, flexible cloud infrastructure with global reach |
| Best Alternative To | DigitalOcean | DigitalOcean |
| Primary Competitors | DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS Lightsail | DigitalOcean, Linode, Hetzner |
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)
- Need phone support
- Require 24/7 live chat support
- Are new to web hosting
Choose Vultr if you...
- Want to save money ($2.50/mo vs $5.00/mo)
- Want more server locations (32 available)