I'm working on a startup together with a friend. We haven't gone live yet, but I feel compelled to give an honest review of DigitalOcean after having used their droplets for almost 4 months now.

Well, just like most startups, we have a tight budget yet need massive resources to run a video sharing MERN app.

We first tried AWS, but that was way out of out budget. After a lot of research, we came across DigitalOcean, tried their droplets for three months using their free trial and haven't looked back.

What I love most is how easy it is to manage our kubernetes cluster without worrying about how much we'll pay at the end of the month. All we needed to do is select how many droplets we needed based on number of vCPUs, RAM, and disk storage, and we're guaranteed to pay only for those droplets . The only other cost is space storage, persistent storage, and load balancer, all of which are also so easy to estimate and cheap.

Their customer service is also really good, and they'll respond even during weekends. But you have to be very clear on what you need help on so they can assist you with the fewest number of messages since they do not respond immediately. But they also offer premium customer service options if you need immediate responses.

Another option is BobCares, which they do promote on their site also. It's a third-party customer service for kubernetes which I've used before and didn't like it at all. First, they're pretty expensive - about $99 per hour - and you're not guaranteed they'll solve your issue. Second, you have to give them access to your kubernetes cluster, which could be a potential source of a security breach for your cluster.

For someone who didn't know how to spin up a kubernetes cluster from scratch for a MERN app, I'd say choosing DigitalOcean was my best decision ever. I have control over everything and have an amazing group of specialists waiting to help any time I get stuck.

Their online publications are also super helpful and very well documented. I can't talk much about their DigitalOcean managed kubernetes (DOKS), but if you're looking to spin up a kubernetes cluster from scratch inside droplets, you'll need their CSI driver, which is just as easy as copying and pasting it from their Github. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only negative experience I've had is in setting up firewall for my droplets using their firewall dashboard. I noticed that anytime I could add firewall rules, my site got really slow. I'm not sure why and didn't bother asking them so I can't blame it all on them. I went for the alternative of setting up firewall using iptables, which works fine now. I honestly can't think of any other negative experience.

Since I'm using Droplets rather than their managed kubernetes service (DOKS), most of the issues I come across are things I can solve since I have control over the entire kubernetes set up. That's why it's kind of difficult to address any negatives; I can't fault them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

we can deploy a web app in a few minutes Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

their databases high prices, they are really costly Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

DigitalOcean is the best option when you want to deploy your services without worrying about complex setups or obscure payment costs. App Platform is an excellent service with reliable performance and a straightforward cost structure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Maybe not the best option for large-scale applications or product-specific solutions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It strikes the best balance of provided services and low complexity for SMBs. We don't have dedicated SREs, we don't wanna spend countless hours setting up IAMs, dozens of configs just to do the simplest of things, or trying to figure out what services is the best.

If you're looking for simple to use and straightfoward servers, DBs, containers, DNS management, S3 buckets, etc, the Digital Ocean is a great solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We would like juuuust a tad more permission management, specifically giving people permissions on a project-based level, so that we can isolate between prod and dev.

But as I already mentioned, we appreciate the simplicity and straight forwardness of DO, so I'd rather use what they have right now. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Simplicity without loosing the functionality. Integration is also a standout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing really other than it would be helpful to have a footprint in South Africa. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I've been with DigitalOcean for almost 10 years and extremely happy with their services, which don't overwhelm you with options and are a great value. Customer support when needed is excellent and they have lots of self-help support in the form of how-to documents and examples. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

So far I have no complaints, they meet my needs perfectly. If I was with a larger Enterprise or government Institution they might be a harder sell as they don't have the same credibility as a Microsoft or Amazon, but for what most people need digital ocean is great. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really like they are predictable regarding the pricing and offers stable products that have zero downtime. I am a client over more than 10 years and only had positive interactions with their support team and product. Zero headaches and awesome performance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In the past they only offered droplets which was kinda limiting, but now they offer a wide array of services so I don't think there's anything that I dislike about it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The platform stands out for its simplicity of use and offers an adequate infrastructure for building agents. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

there could be regions in Brazil. In the northeast, there must be many incentives using renewable energies, such as solar and wind. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The value for the price, and their customer service. The control panel / UI is easy to navigate. I have Digital Ocea to manage some Docker packages, including my web hosting service. I more recently started to explore the deployment of some AI platforms, but I'd rather purchase my hardware to develop in-house, and then deploy to the Cloud when it is production ready. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Their offerings don't compare to something like AWS, but for small and medium-sized businesses they have a nice platform that keeps improving. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Good technical support when needed if you have any issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We use shared droplets, as the cost of the dedicated ones are too costly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.