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Cloud · head to head

DigitalOcean vs Trilio

DigitalOcean logo

DigitalOcean

Cloud

The developer cloud

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Trilio logo

Trilio

Backup

Backup and recovery for OpenStack, Kubernetes and Red Hat Virtualization

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: DigitalOcean data transfer overage charged at $0.01 per GiB beyond included allowances; Trilio coverage is deliberately narrow, so a mixed estate with VMware and physical servers needs a second backup product and two sets of restore procedures.
  • They diverge on capability: DigitalOcean covers Droplets (VPS), Trilio covers OpenStack backup.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DigitalOcean and Trilio actually diverge.

Attributes where DigitalOcean and Trilio differ
AttributeDigitalOceanTrilio
Pricing modelusage-basedPer node per year
PlatformsLinux, Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure backend)Linux, Web
CategoryCloudBackup
Founded2011Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in DigitalOcean

  • Droplets (VPS)
  • Managed Kubernetes
  • App Platform
  • Managed Databases
  • Spaces (Object Storage)
  • Floating IPs
  • Load Balancers
  • Firewalls

Only in Trilio

  • OpenStack backup
  • Kubernetes backup
  • OpenShift Virtualization
  • Open format backups
  • Incremental forever
  • Self-service restore
  • Free basic edition

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

DigitalOcean

  • Developers seeking affordable VPS starting at $4/month for small applicationsnot Trilio
  • Teams deploying containerised workloads with Kubernetes starting at $12/month cluster costnot Trilio
  • Data scientists and ML engineers requiring NVIDIA GPU access at $1.91/GPU/hour (committed)not Trilio

Trilio

  • A telco running an OpenStack cloud whose incumbent backup vendor supports it only through generic agentsnot DigitalOcean
  • An organisation migrating virtual machines from VMware to OpenShift Virtualization and needing protection on the new platform from day onenot DigitalOcean
  • A research institution protecting tenant workloads where each tenant should restore its own data without a ticketnot DigitalOcean
  • A platform team wanting to evaluate Kubernetes backup properly on ten nodes before committing budgetnot DigitalOcean

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

DigitalOcean

  • Data transfer overage charged at $0.01 per GiB beyond included allowances
  • Free tier includes only 3 static sites; additional static sites require paid upgrade
  • Container registry free tier capped at 500 MiB storage; exceeding requires paid tier
  • Functions free tier allows 90,000 GiB-seconds monthly; overages billed on usage basis
  • GPU Droplets require minimum monthly commitment for lower hourly rates; on-demand significantly more expensive

Trilio

  • Coverage is deliberately narrow, so a mixed estate with VMware and physical servers needs a second backup product and two sets of restore procedures.
  • Trilio is a small vendor next to the backup incumbents, and buyers with ten year retention obligations should assess the risk of the company being acquired or wound down.
  • Enterprise pricing is per node or per virtual machine and is not published, which makes it hard to compare against per-terabyte competitors without going through sales.
  • The free basic edition stops at ten nodes with community support only, so the step from evaluation to production is a full commercial negotiation rather than a tier upgrade.
  • Restore performance depends on the object storage or NFS target you supply, and egress charges from a cloud object store during a large recovery sit outside the vendor quote entirely.

Pricing, plan by plan

DigitalOcean

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the DigitalOcean review.

Trilio

Free
  • Basic EditionFree
    • Up to ten nodes
    • No time limit
    • Community support only
  • Enterprise Edition$undefined/year
    • Priced per node or per virtual machine annually
    • No scale limits
    • OpenStack, Kubernetes, OpenShift and Red Hat Virtualization

Which should you pick?

Choose DigitalOcean if

  • You need droplets (vps).
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure backend).
  • You also want managed kubernetes.
DigitalOcean review

Choose Trilio if

  • You need openstack backup.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Web.
  • You also want kubernetes backup.
Trilio review

Questions people ask

Is DigitalOcean or Trilio better?
Neither clearly leads. DigitalOcean starts at Free and Trilio at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DigitalOcean or Trilio?
DigitalOcean starts at Free and Trilio at Free.
Does DigitalOcean or Trilio run on more platforms?
DigitalOcean runs on Linux, Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure backend). Trilio runs on Linux, Web.
Can I use DigitalOcean for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is DigitalOcean best used for?
DigitalOcean is most often used 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). Of those, developers seeking affordable vps starting at $4/month for small applications and teams deploying containerised workloads with kubernetes starting at $12/month cluster cost are not what Trilio is typically brought in for.
What can DigitalOcean do that Trilio cannot?
DigitalOcean covers Droplets (VPS), Managed Kubernetes, App Platform, Managed Databases. Trilio covers OpenStack backup, Kubernetes backup, OpenShift Virtualization, Open format backups.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

DigitalOcean: How much does a DigitalOcean Droplet cost?

The cheapest Basic Droplet is $4.00 per month, or $0.00595 per hour, and includes 1 vCPU, 512 MiB of memory, 10 GiB of SSD and 500 GiB of transfer. The next step up is $6.00 per month with 1 GiB of memory, 25 GiB of SSD and 1,000 GiB of transfer.

Source
Trilio: Is the free edition production usable?

It is functionally complete up to ten nodes with community support only. Use it to evaluate, but understand that production incidents have no vendor behind them at that tier.

DigitalOcean: How is DigitalOcean billed?

Droplets are billed hourly as well as monthly, and DigitalOcean states that Bundled Plan and v5 Droplets are billed on a per second basis with a 60 second minimum charge.

Source
Trilio: Does it support OpenShift Virtualization?

Yes, which is the main reason it appears on shortlists for organisations moving virtual machines off VMware.

DigitalOcean: What does the cheapest DigitalOcean plan include?

At $4.00 per month you get a single vCPU, 512 MiB of memory, 10 GiB of SSD storage and 500 GiB of outbound transfer. That is the smallest Basic Droplet DigitalOcean sells.

Source
Trilio: Where are backups stored?

On NFS or S3-compatible object storage you provide, in an open format rather than a proprietary vendor container.

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