DigitalOcean offers highly customizable solutions that are primarily technically-savvy users. Its pioneering Droplet system allows customers to assign precise resources and bill hourly, which makes it an affordable option for those who have a sharp idea of what they need from their hosting provider.
Introduction
Established in 2012, DigitalOcean has quickly ranked up to the position of a top web hosting company in the globe. The company's headquarters is at New York, and their other offices are strategically placed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Bangalore, India1.
The company takes the stance as open-source champions by hosting much of their customer-facing code on GitHub and sponsoring the popular one-month online open source festival Hacktoberfest every year. Their support for young developers and novel ideas is a matter of course in their community embrace.
What Does It Do
DigitalOcean is focused on providing cloud computing infrastructure so that businesses and developers can easily deploy, manage, and scale applications. Its flagship product is available in the form of "Droplets" – virtual private servers that give customers full control over their hosting environment.
These Droplets are scale-up, customizable computing resources in which one gets to choose the amount of memory, processing power, storage, and bandwidth that one wants to employ1. The extent of such granularity control is exactly the reason DigitalOcean is so attractive to developers who exactly know the specifications their projects require.
The interface is designed nearly solely for technical users, particularly those familiar with Linux systems. While beginners are certainly welcome to use the service, the interface and installation process does assume some amount of technical knowledge that will be off-putting to new users. DigitalOcean does provide extensive documentation that will guide users through such procedures as installing SSL certificates or configuring Apache virtual hosts.
Aside from merely offering server space, DigitalOcean has a healthy ecosystem for app deployment, including monitoring, security, and scaling tools. They approach it in a way where they give developers the building blocks they need rather than preconfigured solutions.
Pricing
Instead of traditional tiered plans with set feature sets, they have an hour-per-droplet metered price model.
Payment options are PayPal and credit/debit cards, offering reasonable flexibility for most users.
The sole potential drawback to note is their no-refund policy – after you pay for resources, that money's not coming back regardless of how content you are.
Product History
DigitalOcean entered the hosting scene in 2012, right away differentiating itself from others by virtue of its developer-oriented approach.
What has set DigitalOcean apart on its path to growth is its constant dedication to the developer community. Rather than building on an exclusively commercial trajectory, they've invested significant resources into building an ecosystem that is centered around engaging with and helping developers. This focus on community is exemplified by its founding of Hacktoberfest, which is now an internationally recognized holiday for open source software development celebration.
The company has also been dedicated to transparency and collaboration by making many of their customer-facing tools open source and available on GitHub. This is a sign of an overall culture belief that their success is tied into the success of the developer community they serve.
Summary
DigitalOcean has a strong, highly tunable cloud hosting offering that truly shines for users who have technical acumen and specific infrastructure requirements. Their game-changing Droplet architecture and per-hour billing model provide unprecedented flexibility, with total resource control and cost that no normal hosting offerings can offer.
The global network of platform data centers ensures global reliability of performance, and their commitment to the developer community through full documentation and open-source initiatives delivers value outside of the purview of mere hosting services.
However, the potential customers should be informed about some constraints. The technological nature of the platform provides a steeper learning curve for beginners, their no-refund policy increases the stakes in commitment, and their support channels are fewer than some of their rivals offer1. These render DigitalOcean better suited for developers and companies with some technical background but not complete novices.
For those with the right technical background or willingness to learn, DigitalOcean is a great value proposition. Their pricing based on precision makes sure you never spend money on idle resources, and their solid infrastructure delivers the dependability required for production usage.
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The product (Digital Ocean) starts at 4 USD.
