We know that it is difficult to choose a hosting plan when you have so many options available. Here in this article, we have brought down the choice to two of the most leading Cloud companies in the industry which are DigitalOcean and Vultr.
They have so many similar plans and products yet they are so different from each other in many other features and services.
Here we have tried covering the most essential factors that can help you make a wiser decision of choosing a service provider that will help in boosting your business and ranking your site higher.
Both the hosts have their specialties but when it comes to your choice you must only pick the ones which fit right on your requirement.
The selection might be difficult right now but after reading it through you will be able to make up your mind.
- About DigitalOcean
- About Vultr
- 1. Products Comparison [DO Vs Vultr]
- 2. DataCenter Comparison [DO Vs Vultr]
- 3. Pricing Comparison [DigitalOcean Vs Vultr]
- 4. Scalability Comparison [Vultr Vs DigitalOcean]
- 5. Knowledgebase and Tutorials Comparison
- 6. Speed Comparison
- 7. Uptime SLA Comparison
- 8. Cancellation and Money Back Policy Comparison
- 9. Ease of Migration
- 10. CMS
- 11. User Reviews: Which Is Ranked Better?
- Conclusion of DigitalOcean Vs Vultr Comparison
About DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is a cloud-based company that was established in the year 2012 by the uretskys. The main motive of founding and establishing this company was to help the developers get a better server. It is headquartered in the USA.
About Vultr
Vultr is also an SSD cloud-based version of hosting which provides high performance and server speed. It was founded in 2014 and it is also headquartered in the USA.
1. Products Comparison [DO Vs Vultr]
The first thing to look for while selecting a web hosting service is to check which products they offer. This is crucial for your website’s performance because with an abundance of products you can have a more optimized and user-friendly site. You can also see if the products that are along with your plans are useful to you or not. There is no point in paying for something that you will not be using. It would be even better if you can find your required products as freebies with your selected plan. Below we will discuss the products that each of these hosting offers and you may find out which one of them is right for you.
DigitalOcean Products
The list of products that DigitalOcean offers are
- Kubernetes
- Droplets
- Space
- App Platform
- Databases
Vultr Products
The list of products that Vultr offers are
- Cloud Compute
- Bare Metal
- Object Storage
- Block Storage
- Dedicated Cloud
- Load Balancers
Winner:
As we see both the web hosting provides great products which makes it difficult to choose one between both. So our take is to declare a tie between them and their excellence in the products.
2. DataCenter Comparison [DO Vs Vultr]
oth the hosting servers have enough data centers to back up their server proficiently. They are located in many prime locations which makes their network more effective. But here the Vultr has a better spread of data centers because of its location that is wisely selected. It has some of its centers in Asian countries as well.
DigitalOcean DataCenters
DigitalOcean has its data centers located in Germany, Canada, India, Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Vultr DataCenters
Vultr has its data centers located in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, South Korea, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Winner:
At this point we see that both the hosting companies have their data centers widely spread and cover most of the prime locations even in some major countries. But when we check deeply we observe that Vultr has a better selection of locations because it covers more Asian regions. But despite that
DigitalOcean has its data center located in India which can easily become a preference for them.
3. Pricing Comparison [DigitalOcean Vs Vultr]
Practically speaking whenever we are selecting any service we give high consideration to its pricing as well. This does change and affects many people’s decisions which are fair. Here as well I will compare both the web hosting services for you so that you can get a better understanding of both of their plans and get to a final decision.
| Price | SSD disk | CPU | Transfer | Per hour cost | |
| DigitalOcean | $5.00 | 25GB | 1 GB | 1 TB | $0.0074 |
| Vultr | $2.50 | 10 GB | 1 GB | 1 TB | $0.004 |
DigitalOcean Pricing
In this table, we have seen all the aspects and features of the entry-level pricing plan that both the web hosting provides. DigitalOcean has a bit higher price. But that is justified by the higher SSD disk.
Vultr Pricing
It is clearly seen that Vultr has a lower costing plan than that of DigitalOcean. It gives it an upper hand over the competitor. It also offers all the similar services in the same price range. Just one drawback is the lower SSD disk which can be found in upper pricing plans. In this price range, it surely offers the best deal.
Winner: Which one is the cheapest
If we are to find the cheapest one between these two opinions then there are no second thoughts, Vultr is clearly the winner. It offers almost similar services to DigitalOcean at a lower pricing plan.
Must check: Cheapest VPS.
4. Scalability Comparison [Vultr Vs DigitalOcean]
The scalability of a web hosting company is not a matter of the present but the future. Many times people tend to skip this checkpoint which they have to regret later when their site is growing and they want to improve the scale of their business. You can analyze their plans and then you will automatically understand their scaling as well. The plans of a company explain how diverse the scope and possibilities are.
DigitalOcean Scalability
DigitalOcean has diversity in its plan and even offers various plans which include the Basic, General Purpose, CPU-Optimised VMs or you can let the hosting company help you with the body of the host. In this, you will just have to create, locate and then pick which scaling you would prefer the hosting will take care of the rest.
Vultr Scalability
Vultr also offers an easy-to-use scaling process. They offer 10 different plans for different user requirements and most users would benefit from it. These diverse plans include dedicated server plans, dedicated cloud storage plans, and block storage. You can pick between desktop, tablet, or mobile interface.
Winner: Which one is easy to scale and build
If you are someone who would want to get a simpler process that you can understand instantly then you should definitely go for DigitalOcean but if you want to optimize your site by yourself then Vultr would be right for you.
5. Knowledgebase and Tutorials Comparison
Any new user of any service has to learn every aspect and feature of the company. For this, the company needs to have certain guidelines and tutorials that can help the newcomer. Learning a new technology is difficult for everyone because if your web hosting has insightful and informative articles and tutorials it is a cherry on the cake.
DigitalOcean’s Knowledgebase
DigitalOcean has 3000 tutorials on their website to help their users with every single issue or installation. This makes the task easier for anyone. Even when someone knows hosting it is difficult to understand a new platform but with tutorials, you can easily save time and energy.
Vultr’s Knowledge Base
Vultr also has many knowledgeable articles which they keep posting for their users. They have tutorials and guides as well on many essential topics.
Winner: Which one is better?
Looking at both web hosting services we see they both have provided articles and tutorials for their users to bring ease in their working, but still accessing the DigitalOcean tutorials is easier. You can easily find it on the main site with a few clicks.
6. Speed Comparison
Speed is an essential factor for any hosting company. Just a few seconds of delay in loading can make your visitor bounce back to another site which might affect your site’s performance.
If you have a website that attracts high traffic every day speed and loading time can become an even greater point of concern because the slow server can affect your impression on visitors as well as other contents of your site too. Here in this section, we have compared the entry-level plan of both Vultr and DigitalOcean on the basis of their speed.
DigitalOcean’s Speed of Entry Level Plan
When we tested the entry-level plan of 1GB 1 Core in DigitalOcean it provided us a high-performance speed of 74.0ms which is effective and competitive for an entry plan.
Vultr’s Speed of Entry Level Plan
During the speed test, we found out that the entry-level plan of Vultr which is VC21GB provides a speed of 77.0ms, not much far behind its competitor.
Winner: Which one is better?
We have compared the speed status of both the web hosting services at entry-level plan and their performance was quite good. It is obviously evident that they don’t have much difference in their speed in the basic plan. Even after having the least or almost negligible difference, DigitalOcean is the winner here because of the lead.
7. Uptime SLA Comparison
Uptime is necessary for any company picking a web hosting plan. This should be included in your major priority list to consider before finalizing the hosting company. Though there are many companies that provide 100% uptime which is almost impossible to maintain because of everyday simple problems. If you are checking the uptime of any hosting service check if it at least has a +99.95%. This is an industry-standard percentage and you can easily find many options with a 99.99% guarantee too.
DigitalOcean’s Uptime SLA
DigitalOcean in this aspect is quite honest and real. They have truly claimed their uptime to be 99.99% which is attainable but can drop or fluctuate at times.
Vultr’s Uptime SLA
On the other hand, Vultr claims 100% uptime which is a big step. They even guarantee their claim with SLA credits on the basis of hours which is a smart and daring move for any web hosting company.
Winner: Which one is better?
In this round of uptime both perform really well. It is hard to say one which has its performance totally over the other but the guarantee of Vultr makes them win this game. Also, they have a wider spread when compared with the digital ocean. This is why we will select Vultr for this round.
8. Cancellation and Money Back Policy Comparison
There could be many reasons for the cancellation of a web host’s service. You got bored of their features or annoyed by their customer support. Sometimes the user finds a better plan at the same cost which proves to be a major reason behind canceling or asking for a refund from a company.
DigitalOcean’s Cancellation Policy
The cancellation policy of DigitalOcean is simple. You can remove the droplets from your site then select the account and deactivate it. This is straightforward and won’t require much effort. But there is no money-back guarantee with DigitalOcean. First of all, they only charge you for your subscribed service that you will use which means that there is nothing to refund.
Vultr’s Cancellation Policy
Vultr makes it clear in its agreement itself that they do not provide refunds even if you did not use the service. Though you can cancel the service with them at any point in time as per your wish. The process of cancellation is simple: you log in to your account, remove the instances, click the trash icon after which you destroy your account, and ask for the ticket. Once you get the ticket confirmation you can finish the entire process.
Winner: Which one is better?
We have found out that both the web hosting companies do not offer any refund or money-back guarantee which can be a downside for both. But they do have a simple cancellation policy which is just a few steps. But I would prefer DigitalOcean because of fewer steps and you don’t even have to wait for the ticket to confirm the cancellation.
9. Ease of Migration
When your site grows and attracts more traffic you would want to migrate your server from shared to VPS to get better performance and uptime. It is necessary that you select a server that makes this task buttery smooth for you. It is because when you are migrating your site you don’t want to face any downtime or obstacles. This is why you should consider this point while selecting your host company.
DigitalOcean’s Migration Guidelines
When it comes to DigitalOcean they offer only live migration. They say that it saves your site from any downtime which is a good thought to put into their consideration. Though many hosts face disruption during upgrades and even suffer from hardware failures. But with DigitalOcean you don’t even have to reboot.
Vultr’s Migration Guidelines
When you are migrating your site to Vultr you would first have to cover the details like all the databases, themes, plugins, videos, or any other kind of content along with the DNS record point. After completing this step you get detailed instructions, step by step on Vultr’s site which will help you in easy migration.
Winner: Which one is better?
Both the hosting companies have detailed guidance over the migration facility and there is hardly any disruption but it would highly depend on you which one you want to choose.
Even though they offer great services during migration, they charge their users additionally for the process while cloudways and scala hosting offer this deal for free and even offer managed hosting service.
10. CMS
A Content Management System is software that helps to edit, build or upgrade the content on your website. It is essential for every web hosting company because it is the main feature that describes the performance and management of a website’s content. The content is the biggest treasure of a blogger, developer, or even a business owner.
DigitalOcean CMS Support
DigitalOcean has a great control management system that provides its users a great time on its website. There are many different content management tools that are helpful for every user and DigitalOcean offers CMS tools like WordPress, Joomla, Magento and Drupal.
Vultr CMS Support
Vultr as well has many CMS tools which it provides to its users for upgrading their experiences. The best of them has to be WordPress, Boltwire, Apostrophe, Grav and a few more.
Winner: Which one is better?
Looking at all the features and resources available we come to the conclusion that Vultr has a wider spectrum than DigitalOcean. But that is not much difference because DigitalOcean’s CMS is still more used.
11. User Reviews: Which Is Ranked Better?
No matter how many details you check about any products or service the real thing can be found by their users only. They are the ones who can actually guide you or explain to you about their experience with the software. In this section, we have analyzed all the reviews of the users of a particular web hosting company and help you find the real-time situation and hardships that they found or the features that they liked. Let’s get started.
DigitalOcean Customer Reviews
We can clearly see that the user is happily recommending the web hosting service to others as well. The scalability, pricing, and customer support of this hosting are impactful. The backup cost and console are a bit of a problem.
Vultr Customer Reviews
In the rating above for Vultr, we find that the hosting is great for small-sized businesses but not recommended for higher-scale businesses.
Winner: Which one is better?
When we analyze the reviews by users for both the web hosting companies we find that both have advantages and disadvantages over different matters. But customer support stays the most discussed matter. Even after all this, we find that DigitalOcean is more popular and more used among the users because of its services. There are a few issues with the pricing but users are managing because they like the features and service. And with Vultr it is considered right for small-sized businesses or users. So DigitalOcean is a clear winner here.
Conclusion of DigitalOcean Vs Vultr Comparison
You might have read the entire article thoroughly and might have come down to your choice. Both the web hosting services have great features and tools which makes it a hard choice to make. If you want to start with a low costing plan you might want to go with Vultr and if you want to scale down your server whenever you desire then the DigitalOcean might be right for you. Well, the choice is yours to make.
Check out more info on DigitalOcean Alternatives and DigitalOcean Vs AWS Comparison.
About Author: Vishesh Gupta
Seasoned Professional with 15 years of experience in Sales and Marketing. Entrepreneur, Consultant and Blogger helping people earn through jobs and blogging. Experienced Hosting Reviewer who likes to collect detailed info about existing players and share it with my audience. Previously worked with leading Banks and Telecom Companies.
I completed my Masters in Management with specialization in Finance and Marketing.
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