DigitalOcean vs AWS

The cloud is a great place to host your application. There are many cloud providers to choose from. So deciding on the right one can be hard.

Let’s meet John. John is thinking of hosting his web application on the cloud. He is looking at two options:
DigitalOcean and Amazon Web Services, also known as AWS.
He is trying to figure out which option will meet his needs.

AWS is the giant and the innovator in the cloud industry. With AWS, John can use Amazon EC2 for running his applications. He can use Amazon S3 for storing his data. If he wants to implement a complicated architecture, he has the option to use databases on Amazon RDS or Amazon DynamoDB.

AWS has more than 100 services available. And the number is increasing every year. It also has 60 Availability Zones across 20 regions around the world. So if John is building an enterprise-level application, AWS is a great choice.

However, the AWS cost structure is complicated. So John needs to be careful about what services he uses. Otherwise, he might get a large bill at the end of the month.

DigitalOcean takes a more simplified approach to cloud computing. They are NOT trying to compete with AWS. Rather, they are more interested to serve smaller developers.

On DigitalOcean, John doesn’t have to worry about complicated interfaces and deployment procedures. Even though DigitalOcean doesn't have as many options as AWS, it supports modern Linux distros like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and CentOS.

DigitalOcean uses the concept of Droplets to simplify the choices. Droplets are preset resources with certain CPU, memory and storage limitations. John can log into the web interface and choose the Droplet he needs and he is ready to go.

On Digital Ocean, there are no hidden charges. However, if John creates a Droplet, he has to pay for it until he deletes it. So in order to keep costs down, he should keep an eye out for unused resources and delete them as soon as possible.

So, what's the final verdict?

John’s cloud choice between AWS and DigitalOcean depends on what he wants to achieve. If he is building an enterprise-level application with worldwide coverage, AWS is the better choice. For smaller projects, DigitalOcean provides a more cost-effective and developer-friendly solution.

[sethm]

I have been using Digital Ocean exclusively for 3yrs and I love it. All of their servers are ran on SSD's and the droplet system is simple. My clients I build websites for typically pay around $5 a month. One bonus is the snapshot function which allows you to quickly backup your website and restore it in seconds.

[mayank_upadhyay_]

John got freaked out seeing his bill, *poor john....*

[mohitsingla]

Digital Ocean is easy for the user to select his machine, but in a aws even developer is confused 😕 for select the machine type. Upgradation is very easy as compared aws.

[MahmudulMithun]

I used ramnode before digittalOcean. The system automatically shutdown my vps several times in a week. I always had to keep an eye whether the vps is on or not. The customer service were terrible. He told me that he is not sitting on the office to solve why my sever taking too much resources. Just to test I deleted all installed app and just ran the ubuntu server itself and same result. Finally moved to DO. It's been almost 2 years with no problem at all.

[devmaster]

can u help me, what service o server I need, to web app where to enter a lot like 10, 000 in the morning 7:00-14:00 pm users to connect (the users are students )

[milkyway]

basically every sane person should turn video off as soon as he hear this music

[StudentSahayak]

Which software are you using to make this type of video??? Video quality is awesome. Thanks

[rishikantamangang]

digitalocean internet speed is more than 10 time faster than EC2.

[anilbhaskar]

actual video starts at 1:35, by the don't bother watch it's useless

[sidharthv]

I'm disliking this for the music.

[arcan]

Hate the annoying whistling music in the background...

[cgilleybsw]

This video just annoys the hell out of me... I have 1:53 remaining... and I want my time back. Gag.

[anmolrathi]

digital ocean is the worst cloud hosting service after builling 5$ locked by admin issue. No money refund and no good support, I recommend only 1 thing please don't use digitalocean, aws is expensive but excellent