DigitalOcean vs Linode

Both are developer-first VPS providers with similar entry pricing. The difference shows up in network reach and support depth.

Feature	DigitalOcean	Linode (Akamai)
Starting price	$3.39/mo	$1/mo
Best for	Developers Startups Kubernetes	Developers Startups GPU/AI workloads Small-to-mid production apps Kubernetes
Stated uptime SLA	99.99%	99.99%
Storage	SSD	SSD
Regions	15	20
Managed Kubernetes	Yes	Yes
Support channels	Ticket, Community forum, Docs	Ticket, Community forum, Docs, Phone (higher support tiers)
Compliance	SOC 2, GDPR	SOC 2, PCI DSS (for compatible services), GDPR, HIPAA (with BAA on eligible services)
Hidden costs to watch for	Bandwidth overages billed at $0.01/GB past pooled allowance	Outbound bandwidth billed at $0.005/GB (compute/storage) or $0.015/GB (NodeBalancer) once pooled network transfer allowance is exceeded Backups service is a separate add-on priced per instance (roughly 20-25% of the instance monthly price) HA control plane for LKE Kubernetes is a flat $60/mo add-on per cluster; LKE Enterprise clusters are $300/mo per cluster Managed Database HA (3-node) clusters cost roughly 2-3x the single-node price
Last reviewed	2026-07-01	2026-07-18