DigitalOcean vs Google Cloud

Business organizations require high-performance and robust servers and databases to tackle the demands for building, deploying, and managing applications. Effective and reliable cloud services are essential for ensuring that all networking, storage, computing, and customer service needs are met.

DigitalOcean and Google Cloud are both well-respected and reliable companies when it comes to looking for cloud hosting options. Both are powerful hosting platforms with ample opportunities and resources for developers and site owners, making it overwhelming to select one over the other. Evaluating the standout features and advantages of DigitalOcean vs. Google Cloud will help you make the right choice.

Keep reading to get an idea of the full spectrum of services offered by these hosting platforms so that you can make your choice according to your specific requirements and budget. 

What is DigitalOcean?

DigitalOcean is a unique cloud hosting provider offering cloud computing services to help enterprises scale themselves by deploying DigitalOcean apps that run parallel across various cloud servers without impacting performance.

It offers IaaS (infrastructure as a service) platform to software developers, and DigitalOcean is extremely popular among open source developers. To deploy its IaaS environments, developers need to launch a private virtual machine instance called a droplet.

Developers have to select the size of the droplet, which Linux operating system it will use, and which data center and geographical region it will run in. 

DigitalOcean achieved the title of being the world’s 3rd largest hosting company in January 2018 in terms of web-facing computers. The New York-based hosting company has data centers prevalent in almost every corner of the world that provide seamless cloud services worldwide.

The cloud infrastructure provider also runs a month-long Hacktoberfest (1st to 31st October), a celebration of open-source software. This celebration is run in partnership with Twilio and Github.

Digital Ocean Pricing

DigitalOcean’s pricing works by the hour, and there isn’t any difference in price for long-term commitments. This means that the pro-rates hourly rate is the same as the monthly price.

For instance, an entire package consisting of an entry-level virtual machine, 1GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 1 TB bandwidth, and 25GB SSD disk will cost you $5/month. Even if you use less than 25GB SSD or 1 TB network, it will still cost you the same per month. 

In case you use more than 25GB or 1 TB, you will have to pay for additional storage and bandwidth. 

DigitalOcean Key Features

• DNS management 
• Global image transfer 
• Solid-state drives (SSD)
• 99.99% uptime SLA
• Easily scaling through versatile API
• Team accounts
• Simple control panel 
• Private networking 
• 55 second provisioning 
• Powerful Hex Core machines 
• KVM virtualization
• Multiple data center locations 
• Floating IPs
• Simple and easy to use control panel 
• Tier-1 bandwidth 

DigitalOcean Advantages

• Costs of data transfer are low, and the price is the same for all bandwidth volumes and all regions 
• The service offers an uptime guarantee of 99.99% for storage and Virtual Machines
• The UX and UI are clean, and the management panel can be used easily 
• A new Droplet can be deployed in less than a minute 

What is Google Cloud?

Google Cloud or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading provider of computing resources for building, deploying, and managing apps on the Web. Even though its cloud infrastructure serves as the host for apps like Google Workplace (formerly known as G Suite and before that as Google Apps), Google Cloud is primarily a service for building and maintaining original apps. The apps can then be published through the Web from its data center facilities. 

Offered by Google LLC, GCP’s suite of cloud computing services runs on the same infrastructure that Google utilizes internally for its end-user products like YouTube, file storage, Gmail, and Google Search. Along with a set of management tools, GCP offers a wide range of modular cloud services, including data storage, computing, machine learning, and data analytics.

GCP provides serverless computing, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS) environments. 

Google Cloud Pricing

The Google Cloud Platform offers free and paid pricing plans. Moreover, new customers can get free credits up to $300 to run, test and deploy their workloads. New and existing customers can use more than 20 products for free, up to monthly usage limits. 

Google Cloud has a pay-as-you-go pricing structure which means that you will only pay for the services that you use. There are no upfront fees or termination charges. 

Google Cloud Key Features

• Two hosting services are provided by the platform – Compute Engine (infrastructure as a service) and App Engine (platform as a service)
• Containers assist in the speedy deployment and scaling of apps 
• Big data solution is available, along with tools for big data analysis and processing 
• Andromeda – Google’s network virtualization stack 
• Load balancer to balance traffic of multiple compute instances across various geographic locations 
• Cloud debugger that helps developers to assess and also debug code in production 
• Cloud Trace and Cloud Save 

Google Cloud Advantages 

• The services of Google Cloud are offered at economical prices, and there are different packages according to specific app requirements 
• Extremely fast in its functioning and boasts of efficient performance 
• Ensures safety and security of users’ data 
• It has a private network for its functioning, and therefore, it can completely control its functioning and provide high-quality performance 

DigitalOcean vs. Google Cloud | Comparison Table

Conclusion 

Both of the cloud services, DigitalOcean and Google Cloud Platform, provide the services of storing data, efficient and reliable working of the applications, monitoring and maintaining them.

Generally speaking, Digital Ocean is less expensive, easier to use, and ideal for high bandwidth applications. On the other hand, Google Cloud provides broader coverage in terms of geographical regions, delivers a more diverse set of features, and is ideal for large enterprise applications.

They also offer the required security for web and mobile applications. The aforementioned detail offers a detailed overview of their functioning and features. By going through those details, you can select the cloud platform that perfectly suits your preferences and requirements. 

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