We run our entire backend infrastructure on DigitalOcean and the cost savings over the big three clouds are significant. Spinning up a droplet or a managed database takes minutes and the control panel is clean. Only gripe is the managed Kubernetes offering still feels a step behind the larger providers.
Excellent price to performance
Managed k8s lags behind
I have hosted client projects on DigitalOcean for years and the droplets rarely go down. Where I feel torn is that when you need a more exotic managed service it simply is not there, so you end up self-hosting things the bigger clouds would handle for you. Good for the basics, less so for scale.
Stable infrastructure, simple UI
Fewer managed services
DigitalOcean nails the balance of power and simplicity. Our developers can provision infrastructure without a cloud certification, the billing is transparent with no surprise charges, and the community tutorials have answered nearly every question we have had. Easily the best fit for our small engineering team.
Transparent billing, simple to learn
DigitalOcean droplets are cheap and predictable which is great for a bootstrapped startup like ours. The flip side is that it is very much a do-it-yourself cloud, so if you are not comfortable on the command line you will struggle. Their tutorials are excellent but support tickets can be slow.
Predictable pricing, good tutorials
Steep for non-technical users
After our bill on a major provider got out of control we moved everything to DigitalOcean and have not regretted it for a second. Managed databases, load balancers and object storage all just work, and the support team actually resolved our migration question within hours. Fantastic infrastructure for the price.
Huge cost savings, helpful support