DigitalOcean vs AWS Cloud Platform : Which One Will You Choose? - Web Hosting Blogs by MilesWeb

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On any cloud platform, like Digital Ocean vs. AWS, all the resources are shared among different servers, with security as a primary requirement. That means the resources like CPU, memory, disk space, etc which are considered during the hosting service are stored on a common physical architecture and are shared with all the cloud servers.So, whenever you are in need of any of the resources, you can pull them from your cloud server.

It works similar to the online shopping, where you find so many products. You put those products in your cart that you think will be needed. You can add and subtract the products from the cart as per your choice and finally, make the payment for those items that you want to purchase. Similarly, in a cloud platform, you need to pay as per your usage. There is no compulsion on your resource usage. You can add or remove the resource whenever you want.

Things to keep in mind while selecting the cloud partner :

When you give your data to the third party to keep it secure on the cloud you should be aware of their security. Here are a few tips that I think should be considered while selecting a cloud partner :

1) Certified team –

Every cloud provider should have certified experts for maintaining your data in the cloud. These experts know how to scale your data when you want. They also give you the expert advice for the selection of an appropriate plan based on your website requirement. This saves your cost and time both.

2) Your Budget –

The cloud platform doesn’t come up with any specific plan that you need to pay regardless of its use. So, most of the cloud platforms make it simple, by opting for the monthly billing system. That means you will have to pay for your used resources at the end of every month. Hence, make sure that you plan your monthly budget by considering the cloud platform expenses so as to enjoy the service without getting it cut from the midway.

3) Ease of use –

It is a common belief that whenever you take a service from the cloud partner then they should be responsible for its overall management. Your partner should manage the complete server and should help you to solve the issues associated with it.

DigitalOcean and AWS are considered as the two of the best cloud service providers. But, obviously, you need to select one from them.

DigitalOcean –

DigitalOcean is a cloud-based service provider that gives you reliable and easy to use virtual servers and data storage.

DigitalOcean was founded in 2011 by Uretskys with an aim to provide server provisioning and cloud hosting for software developers.DigitalOcean was declared as the third-largest hosting company in the world in terms of web-facing computers. It has also marked its position in Deloitte Technology Fast 500 List in 2018.

DigitalOcean offers virtual servers (VPS) or ‘droplets’ by using DigitalOcean terminology. It also uses the KVM terminology and is able to create droplets in different sizes.

AWS cloud –

AWS is a subordinate part of the Amazon that provides the individuals, organizations and government the cloud services as per their demands, on the subscription basis. AWS’s version of cloud including the virtual computer, has attributes like a real computer that has CPU, GPU for processing, local/ RAM memory, SSD storage, the choice of operating system, and some of the pre-loaded software. AWS came up with the wide range of cloud computing platforms and the most popular from them are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). As of 2017, AWS owns a huge share of cloud (IaaS, Paas) which comes around to 34%.

DigitalOcean Vs AWS cloud has always been a hot topic for debate. But, here I won’t debate on any of the platforms rather I’ll try to explain both of them. This cannot be a face-off as both DigitalOcean and AWS are built considering the needs of different audiences. Before going forward, I would like to answer a common question asked regarding these two cloud platforms :

Q) What operating system is perfect for your needs on the DigitalOcean vs. AWS cloud platform?

Ans) In the case of DigitalOcean vs. AWS cloud platform, I would say that if you’re using the Microsoft Windows operating system, then DigitalOcean may not be a suitable choice. This is because to deploy any servers of DigitalOcean, you need to install only Linux. This is not the case with the AWS cloud. Amazon EC2 is compatible with every operating system.

AWS vs. DigitalOcean: Advantages and Disadvantages

DigitalOcean has made an impact in the cloud computing sector by effortlessly merging cutting-edge technological features with affordable prices. This unconventional blend has been verified as an unbeatable choice for tech-savvy individuals and large enterprises. These features act as key factors when making the final choice.

On the other hand, AWS provides a variety of benefits to its user base. These features work as key convincing factors when making the final decision.

Let’s check out these essential features that show the difference between DigitalOcean and AWS and why they’re favorites among their users.

Advantages of DigitalOcean :

Following are some benefits of using DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is considered an ideal choice for sites that are requires managed hosting services but are hosted in a shared environment.
DigitalOcean allows creating multiple server instances under a single account.
DigitalOcean’s pricing is very affordable.
It is scalable.
It offers robust and great performing servers.
DigitalOcean can be easily setup and is supports the Linux operating system.
It has a user-friendly management interface.
DigitalOcean is a great cloud platform for tech-savvy start-ups.

Disadvantages of DigitalOcean :

Following are few cons of using DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean covers only fewer regions as compared to AWS.
Security issues may arise due to SSH host keys.
In DigitalOcean you are not allowed to install the system on your own or provide your ISO.
It does not consist of SAN but instead uses local storage in RAID
It does not offer any cloud computing instances that have dedicated servers with GPU, which could be useful for AI, machine learning, and Data sciences training.
DigitalOcean cannot address errors and bugs appropriately.

Advantages of AWS :

Following are some benefits of using AWS

AWS can easily support Business Intelligence and analytics.
AWS Compute Cloud storage can easily be increased or decreased as per the requirements of your organization.
It is considered having a robust partner ecosystem.
It offers broad and deep services.
AWS comes with a simple and transparent licensing method.
AWS provides high network reliability with low latency.
Not much risk of information loss during the server and storage transfer process.
AWS provides better DevOps support.
In AWS you get the authority to select any operating system, programming language, and database of your choice.

Disadvantages of AWS :

Following are few cons of using AWS

AWS cannot be considered as an ideal option for starts that are not tech-savvy.
AWS is costly as compared to DigitalOcean.
It is less hybrid-cloud friendly. AWS not highly compatible and works on a weak hybrid strategy.
Highly unreliable deployment and doesn’t come with error description.
It is a perfect suit for the companies those who want a datacenter and not a server.
In AWS launching multiple app instances is a tedious process.
It is a less open private cloud and thus is considered as an unpopular storage option for sensitive industries like finance and banking.
Customer support is expensive in AWS.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS: Comparison of Range of services offered

DigitalOcean focuses on selling the standard VPS servers with highly flexible provisioning and billing. The major part of their audience is developers who want to deploy ‘servers’ and applications to test it out. DigitalOcean focuses on selling cheap compute droplets, which belongs to one of AWS’s many products.

AWS is well known for its ‘everything for everyone’ approach and thus, sells multiple products under multiple categories. You get a wide range of storage, networking, database and compute to choose from.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS: Time Value Comparison

The time you invest and the value it generates depends on the type of product that you are working on.

Like if you are a developer and looking for a MySQL instance, then you should spin up a DigitalOcean droplet and setup MySQL yourself.

On the other side, if you are a professional senior DevOps working an enterprise and don’t have time to invest in Operating Systems, patches and updates then an obvious choice for you is Amazon RDS.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS: Data Centers and Product Listing Comparisons

AWS is one of the leading cloud platform service providers and has the biggest network of cloud data centers across the world. It continues to add new locations to fulfill the requirements of its international customers.

Presently, AWS has data centers located in the following regions:

Asia Pacific: Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo
Canada: Central
China: Beijing
Europe: Frankfurt, Ireland, and London
South America: São Paulo
US East: N. Virginia, Ohio
US West: N. California, Oregon

On the other hand, DigitalOcean, too, has a smaller number of data centers spanning across the world. Here are the regions it offers:

AMS2, AMS3: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
BLR1: Bangalore, India
FRA1: Frankfurt, Germany
LON1: London, United Kingdom
TOR1: Toronto, Canada
NYC1, NYC2, NYC3: New York City, United States
SFO1, SFO2: San Francisco, United States
SGP1: Singapore

A major difference between Digital Ocean and AWS here is that AWS presently provides servers in the China region – AWS China (Beijing) and AWS China (Ningxia), which, because of Chinese regulations, are provided by Chinese partners of AWS.

With respect to the services and products they offer, AWS has the most extensive suite of products and an 800-pound computing space. Competed by Microsoft Azure. On the other hand, DigitalOcean primarily focuses on developers and small businesses, therefore, they don’t have to provide the complete suite that AWS provides.

Here are some of the most commonly used AWS products, aside from all the others:

Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, AWS Lambda, Amazon Glacier, Amazon SNS, Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon VPC, and Amazon SQS.

Let’s have a look at some of DigitalOcean’s major products:

Droplets, DigitalOcean Kubernetes, Managed Databases, Spaces Block Storage, Volumes Block Storage, and Networking.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS: Cost and Performance Comparisons

DigitalOcean keeps its costs simple according to the significance of its project for smaller businesses. Even though Droplets is charged on an hourly basis, there’s still a simple monthly price, which makes it easier for business owners to plan and budget accordingly.

On the contrary, AWS strictly adheres to a pay-as-you-go approach for its 160+ products and services. Users can save money and make their AWS charges more reliable with the help of reserved capacity rather than pay-as-you-go.

An upfront payment for a virtual server is required for the reserved capacity, which helps in saving up to 75% as compared to a pay-as-you-go EC2 instance.

Both DigitalOcean and AWS offer clear pricing, whereas AWS has likely been incomprehensible and apparently mystifying previously. Therefore, pricing is a common question for those who are considering opting for AWS services.

The major difference between DigitalOcean and AWS is that AWS is more upfront and transparent about your monthly expenditure.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS: Scalability and Ease Of Use Comparison

Concerning application scalability, there’s the smallest difference between DigitalOcean and AWS. Both of them can scale any application without any issues. The major difference is in the size of their environments and additional services, indicating differing requirements for both platforms’ clients.

DigitalOcean vs. AWS: Enterprise Support Comparison

DigitalOcean has created an excellent reputation in this context, officially offering three tiers of support:

Developer Support: It provides free 24*7 tech support and clients can contact the company’s support team at any time to receive assistance.
Business Support: If you can spend up to $500 per month, you qualify for Business Support. It offers you access to DigtialOceans’ Customer Success Managers as well as additional support.
Premier Support: This type of support comes with a monthly fee for businesses that require a high-tech support setup with a guaranteed 30-minute response time and solutions engineering to optimize their setups.

On the other hand, AWS users also receive Basic Support for free. They also get the option to upgrade to a paid support plan, which comes in the following 3 levels:

Developer: This support plan comes with at least 12 hours of response time and costs $29 or 3% of the monthly AWS charges.
Business: This support plan comes with a 1 hour response time for system-down incidents, and costs $100 or 10% of AWS monthly charges.
Enterprise: This top-level support plan offers 15-minute response times for all important system-down incidents. This level of support costs $15,000 or approximately 10% of the monthly AWS cost.

Here are some categories to find the best fit for your project :

Set-up :
Both are easy and straight-forward to set-up. DigitalOcean and AWS have an API that you can configure so as to add/ launch/modify/destroy/delete your data for the project.

Parameters	DigitalOcean	AWS
Signup and Payment	DigitalOcean accepts both PayPal and debit card as the valid payment options. If you are using PayPal then you need to deposit $5 to verify your account. Once you verify the account then only you will be able to complete the sign-up process and only then, you can use a promo code.	The AWS has a bit long sign-up process for the new users, as it asks for both the phone verification and the credit card verification. If you insert the wrong pin for 2 times, then it automatically blocks the sign-up process for 12 hours.
Object Storage - Object storage is a very new concept introduced to host the static files in the Cloud, as we do it in Dropbox or Google Drive.	In DigitalOcean, it allows you to access the files through a standard portal and they can also be linked to your droplets. Object storage doesn’t have multiple packages instead has 1 package that can be used for free for the first 2 months. After that, you need to pay $5/month for the 250GB space and 1TB inbound traffic.	Amazon S3 gives you 99.999999999% durability. In AWS, data gets automatically distributed to the 3 physical servers that are separated by at least 10 kilometers within an AWS region. AWS is the most durable and scalable cloud platform. It has top-notch security and flexible data transfer management.
System Specification	DigitalOcean doesn’t have any packages that can match with the Amazon. The prices of DigitalOcean are affordable by small business and even by startups.	EC2 is based on “pay as you use” concept where you need to pay only for the resources that you have exactly used. AWS also has Lightsail option but that comes with the fixed rate and fixed hardware specifications. The lowest package of EC2 starts from 0.5GB memory, and 1 CPU core with EBS space, but, this EBS space is slower than SSD space. This is mostly used by the large corporate level businesses.
Static Content Hosting	Static content hosting is possible in DigitalOcean but, it doesn’t have any ready-made solution.	In AWS, the static content has a ready solution which is known as S3 service. This means any client-side script, HTML, CSS can be used with S3. This can be an added advantage for the static content developers.

Note :

(1) DigitalOcean provides you standard bandwidth at no additional cost. That means the plans offered are included with the bandwidth feature.

(2) Whereas with AWS EC2 instances, charges for bandwidth are additionally incurred apart from the EC2 cost.

Conclusion :

Is cloud infrastructure management your unfavourite hassle?
Then, it’s time to get rid of it and relax by allowing us to manage your cloud hosting and provide you with the required flexibility and scalability.

DigitalOcean and AWS services are non-comparable. As we have seen DigitalOcean targets the small companies whereas AWS is a massive service that serves everyone’s purpose. The difference in their audiences keeps the fight between them away and makes them a leader for their own audiences. It is up to you which one to select for your business.

FAQs

1) What is DigitalOcean?
DigitalOcean is a cloud-based service provider that offers you reliable and easy to use virtual servers and data storage.

2) What is AWS?
AWS is a subordinate partner of the Amazon that provides cloud services to individuals, organizations, and government as per their demands on the subscription basis.

3) Which operating system shall select while using DigitalOcean or AWS cloud platform?
For DigitalOcean Linux operating system is advisable.
Whereas, for AWS any operating system can be used.