Cloud · alternatives
Alternatives to DigitalOcean
24 cloud tools sit alongside DigitalOcean in this directory. Below is what separates each from DigitalOcean on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 24
- With a free tier
- 22
- Cheaper to start
- 4
- DigitalOcean starts at
- Free, then $4/month
Why people look past DigitalOcean
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. DigitalOcean has a free tier, and starts at $4/month against a category median of $12/month. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Composable observability platform
- Starts $15 a month dearer, at $19/month.
Serverless Postgres for modern developers
- Starts $4 a month cheaper, at Free.
The leading cloud computing platform
- Starts $4 a month cheaper, at Free.
Run code without thinking about servers
- Starts $4 a month cheaper, at Free.
Open source distributed block storage for Kubernetes, incubating at the CNCF
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
Kubernetes operator that deploys and manages Ceph storage clusters
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than usage-based.
Every DigitalOcean alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean (this page) | Free, then $4/month | Usage-based | - | |
| Grafana CloudComposable observability platform | Free, then $19/month | - | 3 | vs DigitalOcean |
| NeonServerless Postgres for modern developers | Free | - | 3 | vs DigitalOcean |
| AWS (Amazon Web Services)The leading cloud computing platform | Free | Usage-based | 2 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Lambda (AWS Serverless)Run code without thinking about servers | Free | Usage-based | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Longhorn | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Rook | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| OpenEBS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| CapRover | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Infracost | Free, then $250/month | Free open source tool, then per month by run volume | 4 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Dokku | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Coolify | Free, then $5/month | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Zipkin | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| HAProxy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Thanos | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Flux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Kustomize | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Rancher | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| VictoriaMetrics | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Caddy | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Cilium | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Jaeger | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Linkerd | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Portworx | $0.33/node hour | Per node hour | 2 | vs DigitalOcean |
| Qovery | On request | Quote | 3 | vs DigitalOcean |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the DigitalOcean badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (22)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- Grafana Cloud , Free, then $19/month
- Neon , Free
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) , Free
- Lambda (AWS Serverless) , Free
- Longhorn , Free
- Rook , Free
- OpenEBS , Free
- CapRover , Free
Cheaper than DigitalOcean (4)
Entry price under DigitalOcean's $4/month. The record does not say what unit that price is charged in, so confirm per-seat versus flat rate before comparing budgets.
- Neon , Free
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) , Free
- Lambda (AWS Serverless) , Free
- Portworx , $0.33/node hour
What you would be giving up
DigitalOcean is most often brought in for developers seeking affordable vps starting at $4/month for small applications, teams deploying containerised workloads with kubernetes starting at $12/month cluster cost, data scientists and ml engineers requiring nvidia gpu access at $1.91/gpu/hour (committed). Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If DigitalOcean is broadly right and the question is cost, the DigitalOcean pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Cloud category lists everything the directory holds, and best cloud tools ranks them.
DigitalOcean runs on linux, cloud (aws, gcp, azure backend). Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about DigitalOcean alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to DigitalOcean?
- 24 other cloud tools are listed in this directory, led by Grafana Cloud, Neon, AWS (Amazon Web Services), Lambda (AWS Serverless). They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to DigitalOcean?
- 22 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Grafana Cloud, Neon, AWS (Amazon Web Services), Lambda (AWS Serverless), Longhorn.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to DigitalOcean?
- Yes. 4 of the alternatives below start under DigitalOcean's $4/month: Neon at Free, AWS (Amazon Web Services) at Free, Lambda (AWS Serverless) at Free, Portworx at $0.33/node hour.
- Is there a reason to switch away from DigitalOcean?
- Nothing in the data flags one. DigitalOcean has a free tier, and starts at $4/month against a category median of $12/month. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from DigitalOcean?
- DigitalOcean is most often brought in for developers seeking affordable vps starting at $4/month for small applications, teams deploying containerised workloads with kubernetes starting at $12/month cluster cost, data scientists and ml engineers requiring nvidia gpu access at $1.91/gpu/hour (committed). Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to DigitalOcean?
- None of the cloud tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these DigitalOcean alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Cloud, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare DigitalOcean against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against DigitalOcean covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every cloud tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Cloud category, 24 tools beside DigitalOcean. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.