DigitalOcean

Recommended

Cloud servers that spin up in under a minute, with pricing simple enough to actually understand.

“Cheap, predictable cloud servers with a control panel developers genuinely enjoy using.”

Try DigitalOcean→

4.3/ 5

BettrList score

Pricing: From $4/mo
Free plan: No

DigitalOcean

Recommended

Cloud servers that spin up in under a minute, with pricing simple enough to actually understand.

4.3/ 5

BettrList score

Pricing: From $4/mo
Free plan: No

Try DigitalOcean→

Starting price

$4/mo

Free trial

Uptime SLA

99.99%

Support

Free, paid plans from $24/mo

How we rated it

BettrList score

4.3/ 5

Based on practical use and value.

What we measured

Features4.5

Ease of use4.7

Value for money4.3

Support3.8

Compliance4.0

BettrList score

4.3/ 5

Based on practical use and value.

What we measured

Features4.5

Ease of use4.7

Value for money4.3

Support3.8

Compliance4.0

The verdict

“Cheap, predictable cloud servers with a control panel developers genuinely enjoy using.”

Read the full BettrList reviewOur detailed evaluation — verdict: Recommended with caveats

Pricing breakdown

Verify current pricing

Recommended

Basic Droplet

$4/mo

The cheapest way to get a real Linux server running. Good for small sites, side projects, and learning.

Starts at 512 MB RAM and scales up to 16 GB RAM / 8 vCPUs
Best price-per-dollar in DigitalOcean's lineup
500 GB to 6,000 GB of free outbound data transfer, depending on size
Regular or Premium (AMD/Intel) CPU options

CPU-Optimized Droplet

$42/mo

Built for jobs that need fast, steady CPU power, like video processing, gaming servers, or heavy data crunching.

Dedicated vCPUs running at 2.6GHz or faster
2:1 ratio of memory to CPU
Premium tier adds NVMe SSDs and up to 10Gbps network speed

General Purpose Droplet

$63/mo

A balanced mix of CPU and memory, built for everyday production apps and databases.

Even balance of memory to dedicated CPU
Good fit for most production workloads without over-paying for either resource
Premium tier adds NVMe SSDs and faster networking

Memory-Optimized Droplet

$84/mo

Extra RAM per core, made for apps that eat memory, like large databases or in-memory caches.

8 GB of RAM for every vCPU
NVMe SSDs standard for faster disk performance
Helps avoid out-of-memory crashes on data-heavy apps

Swipe for more plans

All features

Droplets (DigitalOcean's name for virtual servers) launch in under a minute, no long setup wizard

Per-second billing with a 60-second minimum, so short test jobs don't cost you a full hour

Six droplet types to match the job, from cheap basic boxes to memory-heavy setups for big databases

Free control plane for managed Kubernetes if you run containers

Built-in monitoring and alerts, so you find out about problems before your users do

One-click apps for WordPress, Docker, and dozens of other tools, no manual install needed

Spaces object storage comes with a content delivery network built in, so files load fast worldwide

A clean API and command-line tool for scripting and automating your whole setup

One of the largest libraries of free, plain-English tutorials in the hosting world

Data centers on multiple continents, so you can put your server close to your users

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Real use, not vendor demos.

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Verdict refreshed

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