DigitalOcean vs. Netlify Platform

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
DigitalOcean
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
DigitalOcean is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform from the company of the same name headquartered in New York. It is known for its support of managed Kubernetes clusters and “droplets” feature.
$5
Starting Price Per Month
Netlify Platform
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Netlify is a platform for developers from the company of the same name in San Francisco, used to build performant and dynamic web sites, e-commerce stores and applications. By uniting an ecosystem of technologies, services and APIs into one workflow.
$0
Pricing
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Editions & Modules
1GB-16GB
$5.00
Starting Price Per Month
8GB-160GB
$60.00
Starting Price Per Month
Starter
$0
Pro
$19
per month per user
Business
$99
per month per user
Enterprise
Custom Quote
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Considered Both Products
DigitalOcean
Chose DigitalOcean
The target segment of DigitalOcean is application developers and small teams working in startups for easily configuring and deploying infrastructure in the cloud. We selected DigitalOcean for some of our usecases as it is cost effective and easy to integrate with compared to …
Chose DigitalOcean
Simple, and quick setup, competitive pricing as well as geographically you can choose the location of the datacenter. The setup of the machine with RAM / CPU and SDD gives all options, it is just what we always needed and find our self very well with such type of service by …
Chose DigitalOcean
I chose DigitalOcean over Oracle Cloud because it's simpler, more cost-effective, and quicker to deploy. DigitalOcean’s intuitive interface allows me to manage servers easily, while Oracle Cloud is more complex and suited for larger enterprises. Also, DigitalOcean’s transparent …
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is an inexpensive product as compared to other products available in the market. The UI is easy and the beginner can also understand the UI with the step by step guide. It provides a lot of custom features and the user needs to pay only for what they are using. …
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is really one of the cheapest options out there for dedicated servers. Plus, their pay-per-use pricing helps companies to grow at their own pace without having to pay for a higher performance or service they don't need initially. Their platform is well built and …
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is an easier and cheaper way to [set up] new machines. The UX is really good and it's easy to find what you need. Competition offer[s] a complicated way to manage machines and the cost is sometimes more than [...] double of what DigitalOcean offer[s]. However[,] …
Chose DigitalOcean
As I have said, DigitalOcean was slightly more expensive than something like HostGator, but the amount of customization and quality of service make it worth any difference. AWS was always a pain to set up and use, but DigitalOcean makes it cake.
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is not quite as simple as Heroku to get up and running, but it provides a better price point and more configurability. However, in my opinion it's much simpler to get up and running with than AWS Opsworks and even Google App Engine. It also provides a better price …
Chose DigitalOcean
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Heroku Platform and Google Compute Engine
Chose DigitalOcean
Digital Ocean is easier to start with and was a great choice for that project. On other projects, I may choose Google Cloud products because of their more complex product offerings and advanced features.
Products like Storage or Pub/Sub isn't available on Digital Ocean and the …
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean can be seen more like a Rackspace or a similar provider. They aren't offering more extended services such as AWS Redshift of something on a larger scale. They are great for just vanilla virtualization and maintaining uptime for those resources across a large set of …
Chose DigitalOcean
Amazon has a very complex UI and many products to offer. They haven't polished up their UI and it has a much greater learning curve compared to DigitalOcean. However, Amazon Web Services (AWS) does have more comprehensive cloud computing services, which forces some companies to …
Chose DigitalOcean
Initially we started using DigitalOcean due to their pricing point as we were in development phase. Slowly when we used it, we starting liking it a lot as it is very fast & easy to get started, compared to the other Cloud Providers we've used. Also they have blogs and …
Chose DigitalOcean
Site5's customer service and support have declined over the recent years. The last couple of tickets that I submitted in 2016 were never addressed by their help team. The only customer service agent seems to be on their Twitter account. Site5 does not allow any configuration of …
Chose DigitalOcean
Vultr is a new player in the game. They don't advertise their hardware model and for that reason, people may not trust them. I have run few benchmarks on Vultr, they performed slightly better than DigitalOcean but they aren't trustworthy. Their transparency index is very low …
Chose DigitalOcean
Compared service to service, Digitalocean comes out on top usually, for smaller better spec servers. This is what they do, and specialty shops are always the best route, with no exception here. However, if you need more than a server, or are not comfortable doing more than …
Chose DigitalOcean
Cheaper than Heroku which is prohibitively expensive for a small self-funded startup. We quickly outgrew their free tier and migrated to DigitalOcean. AWS is more feature complete however, we found its maintenance overly confusing and not as well thought out. For many use cases …
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean has a much lower price point for VPS - but they are not fully managed as with other services. DigitalOcean VPSs are good for quick simple applications that we are comfortable and efficient at deploying ourselves. We do not generally recommend them for clients, as …
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean isn't nearly as robust as Google Cloud. DigitalOcean provides VPSs, as does Google Cloud. However, Google Cloud offers many other products as well.

ChunkHost is very similar to DigitalOcean, but doesn't have the infrastructure that DigitalOcean has. Geographical …
Chose DigitalOcean
AWS: Too complex to set things up. Period.
Mediatemple: Great features, services and customer service. Prices are a bit high for what they offer.
Linode: Outstanding features and customer support. Difficult to start with for novice users.
Chose DigitalOcean
My cost savings were significant and I felt like I was much more in control of the hardware and processes. I also had issues with certain marketing decisions my former hosting company made, DigitalOcean was an easy choice!
Chose DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean's dead simple pricing and solid but basic feature set combine for a no-nonsense way to get your product shipped. Its API makes it nicely scriptable/automate-able compared to traditional shared hosting providers like Dreamhost. I think it compares most closely with …
Chose DigitalOcean
Linode was my long time go-to and we still have several sites hosted and maintained on their servers. Initially, I was skeptical of DigitalOcean's pricing, but they've proven to be an excellent alternative. Linode is more mature in their toolset, but both are really great …
Netlify Platform
Chose Netlify Platform
Vercel is not accessible in China, but Netlify is. That was a huge selling point for our specific product. Additionally, while Vercel can do preview deployments, the way they want you to set up aliases is a bit of a hassle compared to Netlify. Pricing is pretty good as well.
Chose Netlify Platform
Personally, I found Netlify Platform to be significantly more user friendly than Cloudflare for hosting and deployment purposes. The UX was a big improvement over Cloudflare although the performance is generally comparable, if not slightly worse.
Chose Netlify Platform
Heroku provides backend server capabilities, meaning its configuration is slightly more complex and involved than Netlify Platform. Netlify Platform trades off ease off deployment for limited hosting capabilities
Chose Netlify Platform
To me, Netlify is the gold standard for static web hosting, but each alternative has specific situations where it might fit better. If building a Next.js site, then Vercel is the easiest solution for hosting. For Jekyll, GitHub Pages might make more sense. Other than that, I …
Chose Netlify Platform
Netlify Platform is the first choice that we are using in this organization continuously and it's been a very promising platform to use. It also maintains the things very well. it also giving a very good updates. It is very easy to use and very easy to learn. overall it is good.
Chose Netlify Platform
pantheon is WebOps oriented platform. it can basically be described as a super-set of Netlify Platform. it has incorporated many aspects of web development and efficiently brings them under a single umbrella. to do so also requires a similar level of effort and economic value. …
Chose Netlify Platform
Netlify is best for static websites (JAM stack websites) hosting. It supports continuous integration and continuous deployment out of the box which is not there in Firebase or Heroku. It uses CDN, which optimizes images, videos, and documents on the fly. In short, Netlify is …
Chose Netlify Platform
Heroku Platform and GoDaddy
Chose Netlify Platform
Netlify really streamlines the process of getting the latest builds out to QA or automated testing, as well as allowing developers to see their code being deployed to an environment where it can be used.
  1. Free Netlify domain with deployment in the free plan
  2. Easy to setup pipeline …
Features
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
DigitalOcean
8.3
Ratings
3% above category average
Netlify Platform
-
Ratings
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring tools10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Operating system support8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Security controls9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Small Businesses
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 8.7 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.5 out of 10
Bloomreach - The Agentic Platform for Personalization
Bloomreach - The Agentic Platform for Personalization
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.5 out of 10
Bloomreach - The Agentic Platform for Personalization
Bloomreach - The Agentic Platform for Personalization
Score 8.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
DigitalOceanNetlify Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
DigitalOcean is a powerful tool with respect to the services and pricing that it offers. It is easier than other products and also provides servers that are inexpensive with great performance. DigitalOcean also offers additional add-ons such as additional IP addresses, scheduling of backups, etc. One of the best advantages is that it is efficient and is open source. Although, it is suited for a firm that is looking to cut down cost. Also, it is not suited for an organization where the dev/platform/DBA team is less experienced.
Read full review
Any frontend hosting solution is just great. It's also available for users in China to access. I don't know if this will be a permanent fixture as it's more dependent on China, but our project requires access from China, and Vercel is not accessible there. Netlify is hugely CI-friendly, so I would also recommend it to anyone with a solid CI/CD workflow.
Read full review
Pros
  • Ease of use - You can get set up with a new server in a matter of minutes. It doesn't get any easier than that.
  • Support - The public forums are incredibly helpful as are the official help articles. I've never needed to contact the support team because of this. All of the information is at my fingertips.
  • Pricing - We're only paying $10/mo for a solution that gives our customers more confidence in us and is a selling point for us.
Read full review
  • Hosting multiple websites and having multiple projects
  • Updating the site by directly connecting to Github repository as new code is pushed
  • Temporary deployment to show preview on GitHub pull requests
Read full review
Cons
  • Some products/services available on other Cloud providers aren't available, but they seem to be catching up as they add new products like Managed SQL DBs.
  • While they have FreeBSD droplets (VMs), support for *BSD OSs is limited. I.e. the new monitoring agent only works on Linux.
  • There are no regions available on South America.
  • They don't seem to offer enterprise-level products, even basic ones as Windows Server, MS SQL Server, Oracle products, etc.
Read full review
  • it is not aimed at it but first party laravel support would be nice.
  • their free tier was so handy, i wish they start some similar efforts
  • incorporate more WebOps mindset
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
I've been very happy with it for my purposes and I plan to continue to use DigitalOcean for the foreseeable future!
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
With DigitalOcean it is very easy to start up a server/droplet. They have several templates and server images to select from, and they have good instructions on how to get a server set up and started. The monitoring tools in the dashboard look good and are easy to understand.
Read full review
Netlify is extremely user friendly while having several notable features including, but not limited to: - Managing deploys - Form integration - Domain management - Use of plugins From a user standpoint, they have made it incredibly easy to manage and review our websites deployment processes while incorporating the above optional features
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Have not found a single second of down time myself. Superior availability.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Performance
Very quick response and high performance, you have to fine tune configurations on your machines though.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
They have always been fast, and the process has been straight-forward. I haven't had to use it enough to be frustrated with it, to be honest, and when I have an issue they fix it. As with all support, I wish it felt more human, but they are doing aces.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I chose DigitalOcean over Oracle Cloud because it's simpler, more cost-effective, and quicker to deploy. DigitalOcean’s intuitive interface allows me to manage servers easily, while Oracle Cloud is more complex and suited for larger enterprises. Also, DigitalOcean’s transparent pricing helps control costs, unlike Oracle’s more intricate and complex pricing model.
Read full review
To me, Netlify is the gold standard for static web hosting, but each alternative has specific situations where it might fit better. If building a Next.js site, then Vercel is the easiest solution for hosting. For Jekyll, GitHub Pages might make more sense. Other than that, I would turn to Netlify as my first choice for any static site hosting.
Read full review
Scalability
Great scalability, you can start with small plans and move up to premium features at a very good price.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • DigitalOcean has very competitive egress pricing, which has been positive for reducing our costs when running services with a large amounts of data transfer
  • DigitalOcean templates have helped us quickly launch services that would otherwise require a lot of configuration (saving time)
  • We haven't had much in the way of negative ROI impacts using DigitalOcean as we don't use it extensively for our core product, but based on personal project experience it can require more engineering time to get up and running with than some other infrastructure services like Heroku. This has been one of the greatest barriers in pushing its adoption in our organization.
Read full review
  • Netlify Platform has reduced our cost of additional server capabilities for PoC projects
  • Netlify Platform has simplified CI CD pipelines for small standalone applications, thereby improving developer productivity
  • Junior developers mainly working on Netlify Platform are often unable to get a low level understanding of server configuration, which is a drawback
Read full review
ScreenShots

Netlify Platform Screenshots

Screenshot of Netlify: Build with anything, connect to everything.Screenshot of Gather feedback right from the browser with Netlify collaborative Deploy Previews. Share progress early and often with preview links created automatically for every deploy. Netlify automatically builds a new Deploy Preview as a unique permanent URL for each Pull/Merge Request. With no coding or setup, every preview enables reviewers to submit feedback complete with screenshots, videos, and annotations.Screenshot of Team overview in the Netlify platform helps you monitor your team's usage, showing you the number of team members and how much build capacity and bandwidth your team is using.Screenshot of Netlify Edge Functions help you run code at the edge, close to your users. Netlify Edge Functions use Deno and the powerful V8 JavaScript runtime to let you run globally distributed functions for the fastest possible response times.Screenshot of Discover, connect, and configure dev tools and APIs all within the Netlify Integrations Hub to extend the limits of web performance and team productivity.Screenshot of Build interactive and connected web applications faster with Netlify Graph. Start using API services without spending time writing glue code, learning every API’s unique structure, or composing endless API endpoints to get data into your app. Token management becomes a non-issue. Graph Authentication handles token refresh and scope management so your APIs stay connected over time.