DigitalOcean is a better choice for small to medium-sized businesses and developers who need a simple, affordable, and easy-to-use cloud platform. GCP is a better choice for large enterprises and organizations that need a powerful, scalable, and feature-rich cloud platform.
| Attribute | DigitalOcean | Google Cloud Platform (GCP) |
|---|---|---|
| Compute Instance Pricing (per hour/month) | Basic VMs (Droplets) start at $4/month. Premium VMs start at $7/month. Hourly billing is available, capped at a monthly rate. Pricing is generally considered straightforward and predictable. | VMs often more expensive, charged hourly, pricing differs by region. E2 standard VM (2 vCPUs, 8GB RAM) ~$48.92/month (August 2023), excluding bandwidth. Continuous use discounts applied automatically. Preemptive instances offer up to 80% discounts. |
| Storage Options and Pricing (SSD, Object Storage) | SSD Storage: Included with Droplets, starting at 10GB for the basic plan. Object Storage (Spaces): Starts at $5/month for 250GB storage and 1TB outbound data transfer. Additional storage is $0.02/GB, and additional data transfer is $0.01/GB. | * Cloud Storage: Standard ($0.020/GB for first 1 TB/month), Nearline ($0.013/GB/month in London), Coldline ($0.007/GB/month in London), Archive ($0.0025/GB/month in London). Retrieval charges apply to Nearline, Coldline, and Archive. * Persistent Disk: Higher-performance storage, fees based on disk size. * Filestore: Pricing varies based on tier (Basic, Regional, Enterprise, Zonal). |
| Network Bandwidth and Data Transfer Costs | Droplets include a monthly outbound data transfer allowance, starting at 500 GiB. Overage is charged at $0.01/GiB for outbound data transfer. Inbound data transfer is free. DigitalOcean allows bandwidth pooling across Droplets within the same account. | VPC is free, ingress is free, egress is charged. Data transfer between zones in same region ~$0.01/GB, between regions ~$0.01/GB (US), ~$0.02/GB (Europe), to internet $0.045-$0.085/GB (from US, standard tier). |
| Global Data Center Locations | DigitalOcean has 13 data centers in 8 countries, located in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions. | 40+ data centers worldwide. |
| Managed Kubernetes Service (ease of use, pricing) | DigitalOcean offers a managed Kubernetes service (DOKS) that aims for simplicity. | Integrates with Google Cloud ecosystem, support tiers (Basic, Standard, Enhanced, Premium). |
| Serverless Computing Options (Functions as a Service) | DigitalOcean offers serverless computing options. | Cloud Functions, first 2 million invocations per month are free. |
| Database Offerings (Managed SQL, NoSQL) | Offers managed databases like MongoDB, MySQL, Redis, and PostgreSQL. Features include multi-node clustering, automated failover, and daily backups with Point in Time Recovery. | Cloud SQL (Managed MySQL), Cloud Bigtable (NoSQL), Firestore (NoSQL document database), AlloyDB (PostgreSQL-compatible). |
| Load Balancing and Autoscaling Capabilities | Load Balancers are available as a managed service to distribute traffic across Droplets. Offers auto-scaling features. | Advanced auto scaling features. |
| Developer Tools and APIs | Provides essential tools and APIs for smaller-scale projects. Offers a command-line interface (CLI) and API for managing resources. | Advanced tools, APIs, and integrations. |
| Marketplace of Pre-built Applications and Images | Offers a marketplace with pre-configured applications. | Available. |
| Customer Support Options and Response Times | Offers a tiered support system: Starter (Free): Email support with <24-hour response time; Developer ($24/month): <8-hour response time; Standard ($99/month): <2-hour response time, including live chat; Premium ($999/month): <30-minute response, dedicated Slack channel, live chat, and video calls. Community support is available. | Tiered support (Basic, Standard, Enhanced, Premium). Premium support offers 15-minute response for P1 cases. |
| Uptime SLA and Reliability | Offers a 99.99% uptime SLA for core services like Droplets and Volumes Block Storage. Provides service credits if the uptime commitment is not met. | 99.99% uptime. |