Digitalocean vs AWS – Difference Between Them

Key Difference between Digitalocean and AWS

  • DigitalOcean provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), whereas AWS provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
  • DigitalOcean is a simple cloud service provider, while Amazon Web Service(AWS) is a platform that offers flexible, reliable, scalable, easy-to-use, and cost-effective cloud computing solutions.
  • DigitelOcean offers Auto-scaling, reliable, and easy management, on the other hand, AWS offers a Simple dashboard, a Great Community, Easy Configuration, and many more.
  • DigitalOcean is more suitable for developers and small applications, while AWS is suitable for big scalable applications.

AWS vs DigitalOcean

AWS vs DigitalOcean

What is DigitalOcean?

DigitalOcean is a simple cloud service provider. It has a simple set-up and very affordable in price. It allows developers to accomplish a task like spinning up a server(droplet) in a fraction of time it takes on other platforms.

What is AWS?

Amazon Web Service(AWS) is a platform which offers flexible, reliable, scalable, easy-to-use, and cost-effective cloud computing solutions.

Amazon Web Services is a huge collection of cloud-computing services that build up a fully-fledged platform. It is known as a powerhouse of storage, databases, analytics, networking, and deployment/delivery options for developers. AWS Cloud is available in 16 different geographic regions.

DigitalOcean vs AWS

Difference between DigitalOcean and AWS

Parameters DigitalOcean Amazon
Focus area Developers andsmall applications Everybody who can afford bigscalable applications
Best feature Best pricing andquicker serverdeployments A high variety ofservices to integratewith the servers
Security DigitalOcean offers physical security in their data centers, which is a plus. Their centers are secured infrastructures protected from physical threat to prevent unauthorized entry. AWS has plenty of tools which helps you to secure your data. Like GuardDuty which is AWS service which allows you to detect threats. It also helps you to monitors unusual APIs and activity.
Type of Cloud DigitalOcean is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). It allows you to manage security, databases, and even operating system. AWS is Platform as a Service or PaaS. It helps you to support managed services. It controls everything on its own except applications.
Compatibility With Windows Operating System Digitalocean is not compatible with Microsoft Windows OS. It works only with predefined Linux installation. Amazon EC2 is fully compatible with any OS.
Who it for? If you want a MySQL instance, then you should opt for DigitalOcean. If you are a DevOps professional working for an enterprise, you don’t have spare time for installing patches and updates then Amazon is the right option for you.
Accepted forms of Payment Credit cards, Paypal. Only Credit Card
Mobile Friendly UI Yes No
Company using the Technology Airbnb, Medium, Pinterest,Reddit,etc.
Key Features Auto-scaling, reliable, easy management. Simple dashboard, Great community, Easy Configuration, etc.
Pricing Pricing starts from $5 to $640 per month for entry-level server Pricing starts from $14 to $2500 a month for entry-level server

Why DigitalOcean?

Here, are the most prominent advantages/benefits for using DigitalOcean:

  • Allows you to create multiple server instances using the same account
  • Offers great performing servers
  • Easy to set up and provides support of various operating systems
  • DigitalOcean is an ideal option for those people who provide managed hosting services for web applications or websites in shared environments
  • Great tool for tech-savvy start-ups
  • Works on What You See Is What You Pay model
  • User-friendly management interface
  • Pricing is very affordable and scalable
  • Offers well documented FAQ and tutorials

Why Amazon?

Google Trends Digital ocean vs. AWS
  • AWS Compute Cloud allows you to increase or decrease storage as per the requirement of your organization
  • AWS enables you to select an operating system, programming language, database of your choice.
  • Broad and deep service offerings
  • Robust partner ecosystem
  • Simple and transparent licensing method
  • High network reliability with low latency
  • Minimal information is lost during the process of server and storage transfer
  • Better DevOps support
  • Support for Business Intelligence and analytics

History of DigitalOcean

  • In 2003, Moisey Uretsky and Ben founded ServerStack, a managed web hosting business.
  • In 2011 the Uretskys founded DigitalOcean. This firm offered server provisioning and cloud hosting services.
  • In August 2012, the company got traction and launched around 10,000 cloud server instances.
  • By May 2015, DigitalOcean expanded further with a new data center in Toronto, Canada.
  • In May 2018, the DigitalOcean announced the launch of Kubernetes-based container service.

History of Amazon

  • 2002- A launch of AWS services
  • 2006- Launched its cloud products
  • 2015- Able to achieve revenues of $4.6 billion
  • 2016- Surpassed 10 billion dollar revenue target
  • 2016- Release snowball and snowmobile
  • 2019- Offers More than 100 cloud services

Disadvantages of DigitalOcean

Here, are cons/drawbacks of using DigitalOcean:

  • You can’t install the system by yourself or provide your ISO
  • Security issues may occur with SSH host keys.
  • Does not have a SAN but instead uses local storage in RAID
  • DigitalOcean has fewer regions, compared to AWS.
  • DigitalOcean does not offer any cloud computing instances that have GPUs. Useful for AI, machine learning, and Data sciences training.
  • Errors and bugs were not appropriately addressed.

Disadvantages of AWS

Here, are cons/drawbacks of using AWS services:

  • AWS is not an ideal option for start-ups that are not tech-savvy
  • Lots of hidden costs
  • AWS best suited for companies who want a datacentre, not a server
  • Less hybrid-cloud friendly. Incompatible and weak hybrid strategy
  • Unreliable deployment with no error description
  • Launching multiple app instances is not an easy process in AWS.
  • AWS is a less open private cloud. This makes it an unpopular storage option for sensitive industries like finance and banking.
  • Customer Support is expensive.

DigitalOcean vs AWS: Which Cloud Server is Better?

In reality, DigitalOcean can’t be considered a competitor of Amazon as its target market is a small development team who wants to stage up small high-performance instance quickly. Many select AWS because of its popularity.

However, If you are looking for a cost-effective cloud computing solution, then DigitalOcean is undoubtedly the best option for you. But, if you want multiple tools for your business, then you should opt for AWS services.