DigitalOcean vs. Linode

Many developers get overwhelmed while searching for the best cloud service provider in 2020. Since the options are many, it could be quite challenging to choose one. If you are still sitting on the fence, take a closer look at this DigitalOcean vs. Linode review. This article makes a comparative overview of the features and pricing structure of each cloud platform. A good understanding of each platform’s benefits and shortfalls would help you make an informed decision while selecting a cloud hosting provider.

What is DigitalOcean?

DigitalOcean is designed to help developers deploy and scale their apps on the cloud without hassles. This company gives users access to virtual private servers powered by KVM hypervisor. Apps hosted on Digital ocean servers can run on multiple client devices without glitches.

The user can manage servers hosted on Digital Ocean easily through a simple web interface. The servers are optimized to deliver applications fast. Some of the features that attract users to the platform include predictable pricing, team accounts, and user-friendly control panel.

The Price Structure of Digital Ocean

DigitalOcean offers simple plans with fixed resource caps that make the monthly cost predictable. 

The company calls its service plans “droplets,” they have various features and add-ons. The standard droplets are packed with substantial resources that are useful for scaling apps.  

• 1 core, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD, 1TB transfer costs $5 per month
• 1 core, 2GB RAM, 50GB SSD, 2TB transfer costs $10 per month
• 2 cores, 4GB RAM, ,80 GB SSD, 4TB transfer costs $20 per month

The Features of DigitalOcean

No matter the plan you choose, it would be expedient to get conversant with the unique features available on the platform. For instance, the Container Registry is an easy way to control storage, manage private images, and push pictures quickly.

Digital Ocean also offers Spaces SDN that provides unique caches fir a single URL. The platform sign-in has been redesigned to give quick access to announcements and make 2-Factor authentication easily accessible

The list of the features available on DigitalOCean are:

• Droplets
• Developer Tools
• Databases
• Object Storage
• Kubernetes
• Networking (VPC, Firewalls, Load Balancers, Floating IPS, DNS)

The Benefits of Digital Ocean

Below are the benefits that Digital Oceans offer developers using the platform.

• 99.99% uptime guaranteed
• Functional UX and user-friendly Console
• Developers can launch a droplet in just one minute.
• A single account can create multiple server instances.
• Load Balancers support backend connections making the platform resource-efficient and enhancing overall performance.
• DigitalOcean is an excellent choice for accessing managed hosting in a shared hosting platform.
• An integrated shop called Trust Platform allows users to download security certifications and also provides security-related resources.

What is Linode?

Christopher Aker, the founder of Linode, has been involved in the virtual hosting industry since 2003. Although Linode is easy to use, it is also powerful enough to deploy sophisticated systems. Linode offers about five different levels of cloud hosting solutions that align with the diverse requirements of users, such as a dedicated GPU or CPU. Linode provides an extensive list of products and services to its userbase.

The Price Structure of Linode

Linode does not lock-in users and offers a straightforward pricing structure, which is the same at every datacenter. The price starts at $5 per month for 1GB and can increase to $480/month for 96GB. If you need more resources, you can choose the Standard Plan that offers 192GB RAM on 3840 GB SSD and 32 cores.

The platform also offers more advanced plans for users that need dedicated GPU or RAM. The list of Linode pricing is as follows:

• 1 core, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD, 1TB transfer costs $5 per month
• 1 core, 2GB RAM, 50GB SSD, 2TB transfer costs $10 per month
• Two cores. 4GB RAM, ,80 GB SSD, 4TB transfer costs $20 per month

The Main Features of Linode

The goal of Linode is to provide its users with the best cloud Linux server has to offer. The users of Linode claims the platform is reliable, and the price for their services is reasonable.  

Linode’s pricing is simple and predictable. There are no hidden fees; the platform allows user to scale their plan up and down as the need requires without paying penalties.

The platform provides a useful control panel that is easy to navigate. Additional tools include APIs, a DNS management utility, and functions for scaling. You can expect excellent performance from Linode servers.

The primary products and features of the platform include:

• Standard Instances
• GPU Compute for AI
• Backups
• Load Balancers
• Managed Servers
• Object Storage
• Block Storage
• Kubernetes
• Dedicated CPU

The Benefits of Linode

Here are some reasons why developers prefer to use Linode cloud servers.

• Operates 11 datacenter locations across the globe
• Services are packaged into simple price plans
• Offers managed services
• Integrated backup functions allow users to create backups with a single click
• Linode uses load balancing features to optimize server performance.  
• Excellent support services.

DigitalOcean vs. Linode | Comparison

After taking an overview of the two cloud service providers, let’s compare and contrast the services they provide.

The Pricing Factor

Resource

The two companies offer a similar pricing structure, and the starter packages are both priced at $5. The resource available in the starter package of both platforms are also the same as seen below:

• 1 vCPU
• 1GB Memory
• 1TB Transfer
• 25GB SSD Disk

Storage

The pricing structure for data storage by both cloud service companies is tabulated below. You will notice that the price is the same as well. 

Backup

There is a slight difference in the cost assigned to backup service on the two platforms. As you can see in the table below, the entry-level price is cheaper with DigitalOcean.

Load Balancers

The cost of using the load balancers is the same for both Linode and DigitalOcean.:

Managed Services

The service that managed services cover differs on the two platforms. The managed service of Linode, which is priced at $100/mo, covers incident response, data protection, dashboard, 24/07 coverage, and a control panel. As for DigitalOcean, the managed services for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis are limited to end-to-end security, automated failover, daily backups, and reliable performance.

Data Center Locations

The two companies boast of their global presence, as listed in the table below. However, Linode seems to have an edge with 11 locations compared to DigitalOcean’s eight. Also, Linode has a more robust presence in Australia and Asia-Pacific. 

Server Uptime Guarantee

Linode recently improved the uptime guarantee and now delivers the same levels of Digital Ocean.

• DigitalOcean guarantees an uptime of 99.99%
• Linode guarantee 99.99%

Digital Ocean and Linode promise that the server would never be down more than 52 minutes in a year.

Comparison Table

A Final Note

There is a high level of similarity between the services of DigitalOcean and Linode. Both the services, SLAs and prices are also alike. The main difference lies in the superior global datacenter distribution of Linode.

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