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Compare DigitalOcean and VMware ESXi 
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At a Glance
Market Segments
Small-Business (85.8% of reviews)
Mid-Market (47.1% of reviews)
Entry-Level Pricing
Starting at $4.00
No pricing available
DigitalOcean
Star Rating
(735)4.6 out of 5
Market Segments
Small-Business (85.8% of reviews)
Pros & Cons
Entry-Level Pricing
Starting at $4.00
Free Trial is available
Browse all 11 pricing plansVMware ESXi
Star Rating
(18)4.7 out of 5
Market Segments
Mid-Market (47.1% of reviews)
Pros & Cons
Entry-Level Pricing
No pricing available
Learn more about VMware ESXiDigitalOcean vs VMware ESXi
When assessing the two solutions, reviewers found DigitalOcean easier to use and administer. Reviewers also felt that DigitalOcean was easier to do business with overall. However, reviewers felt that the products are equally easy to set up.
- Reviewers felt that VMware ESXi meets the needs of their business better than DigitalOcean.
- When comparing quality of ongoing product support, reviewers felt that VMware ESXi is the preferred option.
- For feature updates and roadmaps, our reviewers preferred the direction of DigitalOcean over VMware ESXi.
Pricing
Entry-Level Pricing
DigitalOcean
Droplets
Starting at $4.00
Simple, affordable, fast virtual machines
- Deploys in seconds
- Scales up on demand
- Run any workload from mission critical apps to low traffic sites
VMware ESXi
No pricing availableFree Trial
DigitalOcean
Free Trial is available
VMware ESXi
No trial information availableRatings
Meets Requirements
9.1
639
9.5
17
Ease of Use
9.3
628
8.9
17
Ease of Setup
9.3
487
9.3
17
Ease of Admin
9.2
406
9.0
14
Quality of Support
8.7
522
9.1
16
Has the product been a good partner in doing business?
9.2
379
8.6
14
Product Direction (% positive)
9.0
628
7.3
17
Features by Category
Core Conversational Capabilities - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Interaction
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Task & Flow Management - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Learning
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Deployment & Embedding - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Content Generation
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Admin & Configuration - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
System
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Monitoring & Improvement - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
Reliability & Safety - AI Chatbots
Not enough data
Not enough data
Infrastructure Provision
9.1
144
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
7.4
77
Not enough data
8.3
120
Not enough data
9.3
151
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
8.9
131
Not enough data
Management
8.8
153
Not enough data
8.7
153
Not enough data
8.7
146
Not enough data
Functionality
8.4
81
Not enough data
Performance
Not enough data
9.4
15
Not enough data
8.9
15
Not enough data
8.7
15
Functionality
Not enough data
9.3
14
Not enough data
9.0
14
Not enough data
9.0
14
Not enough data
9.3
14
Agentic AI - Server Virtualization
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Integration - Machine Learning
Not enough data
Not enough data
Learning - Machine Learning
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Not enough data
Agentic AI - Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
7.5
21
Not enough data
7.3
20
Not enough data
7.5
20
Not enough data
Hosting Management
8.4
346
Not enough data
8.9
353
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
8.6
285
Not enough data
8.2
240
Not enough data
8.7
267
Not enough data
7.9
216
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
8.8
296
Not enough data
8.6
294
Not enough data
Development
8.9
73
Not enough data
Feature Not Available
Not enough data
8.3
73
Not enough data
8.8
68
Not enough data
7.9
68
Not enough data
Database
8.7
69
Not enough data
7.9
67
Not enough data
7.9
66
Not enough data
8.6
66
Not enough data
8.9
68
Not enough data
Infrastructure
8.8
69
Not enough data
9.0
70
Not enough data
8.3
68
Not enough data
Configuration
8.8
51
Not enough data
8.7
51
Not enough data
8.6
51
Not enough data
7.4
50
Not enough data
8.7
50
Not enough data
Database Administration
8.7
51
Not enough data
8.4
51
Not enough data
7.8
50
Not enough data
Availability
9.2
51
Not enough data
8.8
50
Not enough data
8.4
51
Not enough data
8.4
50
Not enough data
Security
7.7
47
Not enough data
8.0
48
Not enough data
7.7
46
Not enough data
Data Management
8.6
47
Not enough data
7.5
47
Not enough data
Management
9.3
38
Not enough data
9.1
37
Not enough data
8.5
36
Not enough data
Organization
8.9
37
Not enough data
9.0
37
Not enough data
8.9
36
Not enough data
Development
8.8
36
Not enough data
8.8
34
Not enough data
8.9
36
Not enough data
9.2
35
Not enough data
Categories
Categories
Shared Categories
DigitalOcean and VMware ESXi share no categories
Reviews
Reviewers' Company Size
DigitalOcean
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
VMware ESXi
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
Small-Business
(50 or fewer emp.)
Mid-Market
(51-1000 emp.)
Enterprise
(> 1000 emp.)
Reviewers' Industry
Computer Software
24.5%
Information Technology and Services
19.8%
Internet
6.9%
Marketing and Advertising
5.8%
Computer & Network Security
3.0%
Other
40.0%
Information Technology and Services
41.2%
Telecommunications
11.8%
Food Production
11.8%
Accounting
11.8%
Manufacturing
5.9%
Other
17.6%
Alternatives
Discussions
What are droplets in DigitalOcean?
7 Comments
JL
Companies like to rename existing concepts to make them seem more exclusive. A Droplet is what Digital Ocean has decided to name its virtual machines,...Read more
What's your primary use case for DigitalOcean?
2 Comments
TR
I use it for hosting my staging websites for my web dev business as well as hosting my own website. I'm not a big fan of web hosting companies, especially as...Read more
Are digital ocean droplets VPS?
2 Comments
JL
Yes, Droplets are what Digital Ocean calls their VPS's.Read more
VMware ESXi has no discussions with answers
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