Cloud Infrastructure

DigitalOcean

Best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach

Founded 2012United StatesIndependent

Overall Rating

4.2

Trustpilot: 4.6/5 (2,140 reviews)

Starting Price

$4.00/month
0
Free SSL
Free Domain
Free Migration
24/7 Support

Pricing Plans

Compare DigitalOcean's hosting plans

VPS Hosting

$4.00/mo
  • 25 GB SSD/NVMe Storage
  • 1000 GB Bandwidth
  • Full SSH Access
  • Node.js Support
  • Live Chat Support

Cloud Hosting

$4.00/mo
  • 25 GB SSD/NVMe Storage
  • 1000 GB Bandwidth
  • Full SSH Access
  • Node.js Support
  • Live Chat Support

Dedicated Server

$42.00/mo
  • 25 GB SSD/NVMe Storage
  • 1000 GB Bandwidth
  • Full SSH Access
  • Node.js Support
  • Live Chat Support
0

Pros & Cons

What We Like

  • 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

What Could Be Better

  • Need managed WordPress hosting
  • Want phone support
  • Beginner requiring hand-holding
  • Need included email hosting
  • Want cPanel included
  • Budget-constrained (free support limited)

Rating Breakdown

Value for Money
4.0
Performance
4.5
Support Quality
3.5
Security
4.0
Features
4.5
Ease of Use
4.5
Transparency
4.5

Overall Rating

Weighted average of all categories

4.2/5

Technical Specifications

Complete feature breakdown across all 154 data points

Storage & Resources

Storage
25 GB SSD/NVMe
Storage Type
SSD/NVMe
Bandwidth
1000 GB
Websites
Not specified
Databases
Not specified

Performance

Uptime Guarantee
99.99%
Uptime SLA Credit
CDN Included
CDN Provider
DigitalOcean CDN (additional product, paid)
HTTP/2

Server Locations

Location Count
15 locations
Choose Location
Locations
New York (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Toronto (TOR1)

Security

Free SSL
Wildcard SSL
Dedicated IP
DDoS Protection
DDoS Level
Standard DDoS protection included on all Droplets
2FA

Backups & Malware

Malware Scanning
Malware Removal
Firewall
Backup Frequency
Weekly (20% extra) or Daily (30% extra) or Usage-based
Backup Retention
7 days
On-Demand Backup
Restore Fee
Free

Developer Tools

SSH Access
Git Deployment
Cron Jobs
Redis
WP-CLI

Language Support

Node.js
Python
Ruby

WordPress

WP Optimized
Auto Install
Auto Updates
WP Staging
WooCommerce
LiteSpeed Cache
Object Caching
Multisite

Support

Live Chat
Chat Hours
24/7 (Standard $99/mo and Premium $999/mo plans)
Phone Support
Ticket Support
Priority Support
KB Quality
5/5
Channels
Ticket, Live Chat (paid plans), Knowledge Base, Community Forum, Tutorials
Languages
English

Email

Email Included
Account Limit
0
Webmail
Spam Filter
Forwarding

Pricing Details

Monthly Price
$4/mo
Renewal Price
$4/mo
1st Year Cost
$48
2nd Year Cost
$48
Setup Fee
None
Monthly Billing

Free Inclusions

Free SSL
Free Domain
Free Migration
Free CDN

Migration

Free Migration

Control Panel

cPanel
Panel Name
DigitalOcean Control Panel
Softaculous
Site Builder

Compliance

GDPR
PCI
HIPAA
Certifications
SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS

CMS Platforms

Drupal
Joomla
Magento
Laravel
Django
Next.js
Rails
Static Sites

Content Policies

Adult Content
conditional
Gambling
Crypto Sites
Bandwidth Overage
Outbound transfer included per plan (500GiB-11TB); $0.01/GiB overage; Inbound always free
Storage Overage
Pay for additional Block Storage at $0.10/GiB/month

Business Features

API Access
Reseller Hosting
White Label

Best For (Score)

Beginners
2/5
Bloggers
2/5
Developers
5/5
eCommerce
4/5
Agencies
4/5
Enterprise
4/5

Company Info

Founded
2012
Headquarters
United States
Parent Company
Independent
Trustpilot
4.6/5 (2,140 reviews)

Our Ratings

Overall
4.2/5
Value
4/5
Performance
4.5/5
Support
3.5/5
Security
4/5
Features
4.5/5
Ease of Use
4.5/5
Transparency
4.5/5

Managed WordPress

Available

Regional Info

Best Countries
United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Canada, Australia
Currencies
USD
Support Languages
English
Data Sovereignty
GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS

External Ratings

Trustpilot
4.6/5
Reviews Count
2,140
G2 Rating
4.6/5
BBB Rating
D-

Advanced Technical

DB Type
MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available)
Elasticsearch

Access & Limits

SSH Tier
All plans (root access)
Instant Activation

Additional Pricing

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
Payment Methods
Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay
Auto Renewal
SSL Provider
Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or Load Balancer SSL
Dedicated IP Cost
$4/mo

Support Details

Priority Cost
$$24/mo Developer, $99/mo Standard, $999/mo Premium
Community Forum
Outsourced

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Available
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
Proxy/VPN
BW Overage Cost
$0.01
Suspension Policy
Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment after grace period; abuse reports
Downloadable Backups

Additional Platforms

PrestaShop
Ghost
Shopify Migration
Wix Migration
Squarespace Migration
Webflow Export

Editorial Notes

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
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)
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
USP
Best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach
Ideal Customer
Developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing

Competition

Competitors
Vultr, Linode, AWS Lightsail
Best Alternative To
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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is excellent for developers who want reliable cloud infrastructure with outstanding documentation. It has strong ratings on both G2 (4.6) and Trustpilot (4.6), making it a trusted choice.
DigitalOcean is publicly traded on NYSE (DOCN) since March 2021. Major institutional investors include Access Industries (28%), BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
DigitalOcean Droplets start at $4/month. Per-second billing (with 60-second minimum) ensures you only pay for usage. CPU-optimized and GPU droplets available for higher workloads.
Partially. While unmanaged, DigitalOcean has the best documentation and tutorials in the industry. Beginners with some technical interest can learn, but absolute beginners should consider managed hosting.
No, DigitalOcean does not include email hosting. You must set up your own mail server or use third-party email services like Mailgun, SendGrid, or Google Workspace.
Yes, with one-click WordPress installation available. However, it's unmanaged - you handle security updates, optimization, and maintenance yourself. App Platform offers more managed options.
DigitalOcean guarantees 99.99% uptime for Droplets with SLA credits if uptime falls below this. Some products like App Platform have 99.95% SLA.
Yes, DigitalOcean uses pay-as-you-go billing with per-second granularity (60-second minimum). You can destroy resources anytime with no contracts or cancellation fees.