A2 Hosting vs DigitalOcean

It’s the service that stores your website's files and makes them available for the world to see on the internet.

Yes. If you want a website, you need a place for it to live online. A hosting plan provides that secure space on our servers.

On a hosting plan your site sits in its own isolated container on a managed server, with dedicated CPU and RAM, and we run everything. A managed server of your own gives you the whole box: all the resources are yours, still fully managed by us. Most sites start on a plan and move up when they outgrow it, on the same platform, with the same team, and no re-platforming.

Yes — our plans are built to grow with you. You can upgrade easily and without downtime, all the way from shared hosting to a managed server of your own.

Yes, all plans come with our integrated email solution, so you can create professional addresses using your domain name.

No. The control panel is intuitive, and Orbi plus our in-house team are on hand 24/7. Developers can still reach advanced tools like SSH, Git integration and custom cron jobs.

Yes. All our plans include robust security features like SSL certificates, DDoS protection, and automated backups to keep your site safe.

Some of our plans do. Just check the features of each plan to see which one fits your needs. check plan specs for the site limit.

These are fully managed servers, which means we take care of all the patching, security updates and server management for you. You'll access everything through cPanel, so you can focus on running your site without worrying about what's happening behind the scenes. And if you ever decide you'd like full root access and direct OS control, our unmanaged dedicated or cloud options would be a perfect fit for that.

On shared hosting, resources are spread across many customers on the same server, so performance can vary depending on what everyone else is doing. With a Managed cPanel Server, all the RAM, CPU and NVMe storage are dedicated entirely to you. You'll still get the same familiar cPanel interface, but with the added benefit of full isolation, predictable performance and resources that are yours alone.

There's no limit on addon domains or websites within a single cPanel account, so you can host as many sites as you need. If you'd prefer separate cPanel logins for different clients or projects, whether that's for isolation, independent quotas or white labelling, you can easily add extra cPanel accounts through autoscale licensing. These are charged at the transparent cPanel pass through rate, so no markups or surprises.

We take care of everything on the server side for you, including initial provisioning and configuration, OS and software patching (cPanel, CloudLinux, Monarx and more), firewall setup and maintenance, 24/7 server level monitoring, daily backup configuration and website migrations. Essentially, we keep the engine running smoothly so you can focus on your sites. Things like application code, CMS plugin updates and content are yours to manage through cPanel, giving you full control over the stuff t

You can upgrade to a larger plan whenever you need to, and we'll handle the entire move for you. No migration headaches on your end.

A VPS is a virtual private server: a virtual machine with its own operating system and its own dedicated CPU, RAM and NVMe storage, running on shared physical hardware but isolated from every other server on it. Unmanaged means you run the software side yourself: the OS, updates, security and whatever you install. We run the hardware, power, network and data centre underneath it.

If you are looking for an easy upgrade from your Shared Hosting account and want to continue using an intuitive control panel like cPanel, we recommend that you select a Managed VPS account. Our expert support team can even seamlessly migrate your existing website into a Managed VPS for free! If, on the other hand, you are an experienced developer who is comfortable working with command line and want root access so you can fully customize your server, an Unmanaged VPS would be a better option fo

A DigitalOcean Droplet is a Linux-based virtual machine (VM) that runs on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet is a new server you can use, either as a standalone server or as part of a larger cloud infrastructure. They are designed to be simple, scalable, and developer-friendly.

A Droplet is DigitalOcean's brand name for a virtual private server (VPS). Essentially, they are the same thing. A VPS is a virtualized server that mimics a dedicated physical server, providing you with your own set of resources and a dedicated operating system.

DigitalOcean Droplets are a form of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). This means you are provided with the virtualized hardware (computing, storage, and networking) and you are responsible for managing the operating system, applications, and data.

You can choose from a variety of popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, and CoreOS. You can also use pre-configured 1-Click Apps for LAMP, Docker, WordPress, and more.

By default, each Droplet you create comes with its own public IPv4 address. You can also assign Floating IPs to your Droplets for high availability. For Bundled Plans, a public IPv4 is included at no extra cost. Public IPv4 addresses for Droplets with v5 configurations are billed separately from the v5 configuration and appear as their own line item on your invoice. The introductory line-item price is currently $0.00/hour, but is subject to change in accordance with the DigitalOcean Terms of Ser

All Droplets use high-performance Solid State Drives (SSDs) for storage. This ensures fast disk I/O, which is crucial for the performance of your applications. For additional storage, you can use DigitalOcean Volumes Block Storage.

Each Droplet includes a generous amount of free outbound data transfer. The specific amount depends on the Droplet plan you choose, starting from 500 GiB/month. Inbound bandwidth is always free.

DigitalOcean Droplets are available at a variety of price points. Bundled Plans start from as low as $4 per month, with pricing based on the amount of RAM, CPU, SSD storage, and bandwidth included in your plan. v5 Droplets are priced hourly based on the resources you configure.

Bundled Plan and v5 Droplets are both billed on a per-second basis, with a 60-second minimum. Bundled Plans have a monthly cap, so you'll never pay more than the flat monthly price for that plan. v5 Droplets are billed on actual hours used each month and are not capped at 672 hours. Learn more about v5 Droplet pricing.

DigitalOcean often provides promotional credits for new users, which can be used to try out Droplets and other services for free. Check the DigitalOcean website for the latest offers.

Droplets are incredibly versatile and can be used for a wide range of applications, including:Hosting websites and web applications (e.g., WordPress, Node.js, Python)Development and testing environmentsDatabases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB)CI/CD pipelinesVPN and proxy serversGame serversMachine Learning and AI applications (with GPU-optimized Droplets)

Yes, Droplets are a popular choice for hosting e-commerce websites. They provide the performance, scalability, and security needed to run online stores of all sizes.

DigitalOcean Droplets are often praised for their simplicity and developer-friendly interface, making them a great choice for individuals and small to medium-sized businesses. AWS EC2 offers a wider range of instance types and services, which can be more suitable for large enterprises with complex requirements. In terms of pricing, DigitalOcean is generally more affordable for comparable resources.

Similar to the comparison with AWS, Google Compute Engine (GCE) is a more enterprise-focused platform with a vast array of services. DigitalOcean Droplets are known for their straightforward pricing and ease of use, which makes them a popular choice for developers and startups.

Creating a Droplet is a quick and easy process. You can create a new Droplet from the DigitalOcean control panel in just a few clicks. Simply choose your operating system, Droplet plan, and datacenter region, and your new server will be up and running in under a minute.

You can connect to your Droplet using SSH (Secure Shell). You will need to use an SSH client and the root password or an SSH key to log in to your server.

DigitalOcean's core Droplet offering is unmanaged, which means you are responsible for managing the server. However, DigitalOcean offers a Managed Kubernetes service for containerized applications, and you can find managed hosting providers that specialize in managing DigitalOcean infrastructure.

DigitalOcean has data centers in multiple locations around the world, including San Francisco, Richmond, NYC, Kansas City, Atlanta, Toronto, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney. This allows you to choose a datacenter that is closest to your target audience for lower latency.

Yes, you can create a Droplet in the London (UK) datacenter. This is an excellent choice for businesses and developers who need to serve customers in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Yes, DigitalOcean has a datacenter in Bangalore, India. This is ideal for serving the rapidly growing Indian market and the surrounding regions.

v5 Droplets run on 5th Gen AMD EPYC™ processors with up to 30% higher per-core performance vs. prior-generation DigitalOcean Droplets (based on DigitalOcean internal testing). Configure vCPU, memory, and storage independently to match your workload, so you only pay for the resources you need. Bundled Plan Droplets offer fixed vCPU, memory, and storage ratios pre-configured for common workloads, like Basic, CPU-Optimized, or Memory-Optimized. Learn more about Droplet types.

As you configure a v5 Droplet, the Control Panel shows the per-increment price of vCPU, RAM, and boot disk for greater cost transparency. The resources still combine into a single line on your invoice for simplicity. Learn more about v5 Droplet pricing.

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. Apple pay requires a Safari browser. For additional payment options, including wire transfer, purchase orders, and ACH, please contact us. Note that when you add a card, we may send a temporary pre-authorization request to the issuing bank. This pre-authorization charge is immediately released by DigitalOcean but may take a few days to clear from your card depending on the bank.

DigitalOcean billing cycles are monthly. Typically, on the first day of each month we invoice and automatically charge your account's primary payment method for the previous month's usage. In some cases, we might charge if your usage exceeds a threshold. You can also login and self pay the balance at any time.

No. Your card is only charged at the end of the billing cycle or upon exceeding a usage threshold. Pre-authorization charge: When you add a card, we may send a preauthorization request to the issuing bank. This is to verify that the card being added has been issued by the bank and that they will authorize any charges in future. These temporary pre-authorizations are typically $1 but can vary in range and are immediately canceled by us. Depending on your bank, it might take a few days for the cha