DigitalOcean offers lucrative plans for those who are willing to learn the skills to use it. After all, it is one of the most popular cloud hosting platforms out, but it is NOT for everyone. Yes, you read it right. Even when they offer unparalleled service, they still don’t cater to everyone out there. For example, it is built for developers only, and cannot run the Microsoft Windows platform.

In this post, we will be listing the top 5 alternatives for DigitalOcean. These alternatives will help you get a good grasp of what you want and decide accordingly. But, before we move to the actual list, let’s list the reasons why you should look for DigitalOcean alternatives.

Why we need DigitalOcean Alternatives? 3 Reasons to check

Despite the plethora of features that DigitalOcean offers, including fast speed, SSD, excellent uptime, it doesn’t cover everything that an “ideal” cloud service should provide. As a newbie, you can get started with your instance(droplet), but the major issue happens when you try to manage your website. To get a clear picture, let’s list the reasons below.

Developer-Friendly Only: If you are not a developer and want to use DigitalOcean, you might be out of luck. DigitalOcean is built for developers, and it can be verified from their marketing materials as well. As a simple user, you will not get any cPanel.
Support Channels: DigitalOcean has limited support channel. As an end user, you can only connect with them through support tickets. Also, the response is not instant and can lead to an issue if you need help for an urgent problem.
No Windows Support: Even though Windows is not that popular, this can still be an issue for some users out there.

Top 5 Alternatives to DigitalOcean

Now that we know the reasons why you should look for a different hosting provider let’s list the top 5 alternatives for DigitalOcean.

Alternative 1: DreamHost

DreamHost is an excellent alternative to DigitalOcean. They have good years of experience behind them and are currently serving 1.5 million websites. Just like DigitalOcean, they also provide SSD powered cloud service. Their plans are priced lower than DigitalOcean which not necessarily mean a bad thing.

Dreamhost Features

Many features make Dreamhost stand apart from its competitors. These features include:

Super easy to use thanks to their custom control panel
Fully featured – get all the tools that are required to manage a website properly
24/7 Expert Support – Offers support anytime you want. One of the best award-winning US-based experts
Fast and Reliable – Your website performs optimally and ensure high search engine rankings.

You can set up your server in just 30 mins with the help of SSH access. This gives flexibility to anyone who is looking for faster deployment. Not only that, you can take advantage of the OpenStack-compatible API which lets you create server via command line. In short, it has proper tools for both experienced developers and novice users. Moreover, you get a massive 100 GB of block storage on all of their plans. There is no limit of the bandwidth utilized.

Plans

When it comes to pricing, it does offer more value. The price of the most basic cloud server is just $4.50/month which comes with 512MB RAM, 1vCPU, 80 GB SSD, 100 GB Block Storage. Different plans with better RAM(2GB) will cost you $12/month, and so on. Also, they bill according to your use according to the pay-as-you-go model. That also means that you will not be charged when you start with the service. Below is the glimpse of the plans offered by DreamHost.

512 MB RAM Server – $4.50/mo., one vCPU, 100 GB block storage, 80GB SSD disk, and free bandwidth
2 GB RAM Server – 12$/mo., and everything that the 512 MB RAM server offers.
8 GB RAM Server – 48$/mo., 4 vCPU, 100 GB block storage, 80 GB GB SSD and unlimited bandwidth

Alternative 2: InMotion Hosting

If you don’t have a limited budget and is ready to spend more, then you can check out InMotion hosting. It offers unparalleled performance compared to other similar cloud hosting service providers. Also, it comes with SSD powered cloud hosting, unlocked CPU cores, high availability, and free cPanel and WHM. Overall, it offers an excellent package for those who want performance and user experience in one package. The cPanel used by InMotion hosting is one of the best control panels out there.

InMotion hosting features

cPanel – One of the best
High availability with real-time redundancy
Secure email
Scheduled snapshots
Root access allowed
eCommerce optimized
Free backups
90-days money back guarantee
Unlocked CPU Cores
Max Speed Zone

And much more!

The use of SSD cores provides you more than enough speed to operate efficiently. This also helps your website to rank higher on search engine due to the fast loading time. All of these are possible thanks to the cutting-edge technology used by InMotion Hosting, and that’s why they have slightly steep pricing compared to other similar cloud hosting services.

If you are starting first with InMotion hosting, you will be surprised how easy it is to get started. However, don’t get disappointed if you are jumping ships as it offers free-of-charge migration services. Other key features that InMotion offers include DDoS protection, SSL encryption, PCI compliance, firewall and much more!

Plans

So, how much does it cost? Before we discuss, you need to know that they offer a 97 days money back policy. Even though most of the users stick to the hosting, it is mainly to provide customers the confidence that they need to trust a hosting company. Currently, they have three plans for VPS cloud hosting.

1000HA-S: Comes with 4 GB RAM, 4 TB Monthly premium transfer, and 75 GB fault-tolerant disk space.
2000HA-S: Comes with 6 GB RAM, 5 TB Monthly premium transfer, and 150 GB fault-tolerant disk space.
3000HA-S: Comes with 8 GB RAM, 6 TB Monthly premium transfer, and 260 GB fault-tolerant disk space.

All of the plans come with snapshots, high-availability, resource monitoring dashboard, free SSL, email account, free launch assist and much more.

Alternative 3: Linode

Linode uses state-of-the-art high-performance SSD servers for your website. If you are looking for an alternative to DigitalOcean, Linode can be a great pick. It offers one of the fastest SSD performance which is what the customers need! For starters, Linode provides a simple, straightforward cloud hosting that is powerful enough to fit your needs. They have provided services to more than 800,000 customers out there and are growing at a rapid pace.

Linode key features

Linode has a variety of features that you would like as a consumer. They are as follows:
Extreme performance – thanks to 40Gbps network, native SSDs, and fast processing
Comprehensive guides to help set up and manage virtual servers
Tons of tools – powerful API, StackScripts, CLI
Backups
NodeBalancers
Linode Managed
Customer support

Plans

When it comes to planning, it offers excellent plans for everyone, starting from just $5/month. To give you a proper idea, let’s list the plans out there.

Standard plans: The standard plans start from (Nanode 1 GB)$5/mo. For 1 GB RAM, 1 CPU, 25 GB SSD Storage, 1 TB transfer. The most expensive standard plan is Linode 16GB which comes with 16 GB RAM, 6 CPU cores, 320 GB SSD Storage and 8 TB transfer.

Similarly Dedicated and High Memory Plans starts from $30/mo., and $60/mo., respectively. To get a better idea, we recommend checking their pricing page here.

The billing is done at the end of the month automatically. They charge hourly and keep at the track of your limits. The support system provided by Linode is also excellent as they utilize the ticketing system and replies within minutes of creating a ticket. Also, Linode is user-friendly and can be fixed by yourself if you know what you are doing.

Alternative 4: Vultr

Vultr is one of the most affordable cloud hosting provider out there. Considering that it started operating in 2014, it has multiplied in the past five years. The class of engineers working at Vultr is top-notch and ensure that they provide impressive services. The core philosophy behind is simplicity, reliability, and performance. Until now, they have served more than 100,000 customers, and that’s a significant achievement considering that they started just five years ago.

When it comes to hardware, they utilize the world-class SSD which ensures that you stable performance out of their servers. Not only that, but they also offer 99.99% uptime to ensure complete customer satisfaction. There are 16 data centers under the control of Vultr. This means that you can choose the data center according to your requirements and target audience.

Vultr Key Features

Vultr offers tons of features. Let’s list a few of them below.

High-performance edge services
Easily deployable
Cloud compute
Block storage
Bare metal
Dedicated cloud
100% SLA guaranteed
Hourly billing
Root administrator access

And much more!

Plans

Vultr pricing is one of the cheapest. If you are on a budget, you will surely like what Vultr has to offer. Their basic plans start from $2.50/mo., i.e., $0.004/hour. It comes with 10 GB SSD, 1 CPU, 512 MB, and 0.50 TB bandwidth. Other plans include the following

$5/mo. : 25 GB SSD, 1 CPU, 1GB RAM, 1TB transfer bandwidth.
$20/mo. 80 GB SSD, 2 CPU, 4 GB RAM, 3 TB transfer bandwidth.

Alternative 5: CloudWays

The last alternative to DigitalOcean that we are going to include is CloudWays. It is also a cloud hosting service just like others that we discussed throughout the article. CloudWays have some experience behind it as they are in the market for almost 8+ years now. They started their journey in 2011 and have grown into one of the best cloud hosting service providers. Their servers are well-managed, optimized and provide high-performance out of the box. Also, as a user, you are going to enjoy their ultra-fast installation process.

CloudWays Key Feature

Simplicity and choice
PHP apps supported
Innovative cloud panel
24/7 expert support
Managed backups and security
Optimized stack
Advanced caching
Cloudways CDN
Ideal for agile teams

And much more!

With CloudWays, there is no limitation on the number of apps that you are going to install. Also, it provides a free SSL certificate and fantastic customer support using live chat. Unlike other service providers, they offer live chat which is ideal for solving critical problems.

Plans

All their plans are pay-as-you-go. The monthly amount depends on your usage pattern, and that’s amazing. They also offer free migration for those who are changing their hosting plans.

$11/mo. – 1 GB RAM, 1 Core, 25 GB storage, and 1 TB bandwidth
$23/mo. – 2 GB RAM, 1 Core, 40 GB storage, and 2 TB bandwidth
$44/mo. – 4 GB RAM, 2 Core, 60 GB storage, and 3 TB bandwidth
$84/mo. – 8 GB RAM, 4 Core, 100 GB storage, and 4 TB bandwidth

Conclusion – which one should you choose? A quick overview.

When it comes to alternatives, you have plenty of options. We managed to list the top 5 alternatives for DigitalOcean; however, they do not provide an exhaustive list. There are many other alternatives including CloudSigma, BlueHost, HostGator Cloud and so on. In short, the choice depends on what you are looking for as there is no definite answer to your question.

If you are on a budget, we do recommend starting with Vultr, as they provide the cheapest plans out there. They are also ideal for webmasters and bloggers who are just beginning their journey. DreamHost is also comparatively less expensive and gives equivalent value to your money.

This leads us to the end of our alternative to DigitalOcean post. If you think that you find the post useful, don’t forget to comment below and let us know. Also, share the post with your peers and let them know that there are some excellent alternatives to DigitalOcean!