10 Best DigitalOcean Alternatives: Our Expert Picks in 2025

DigitalOcean isn’t the most user-friendly host out there – and if you’re struggling, the free support tier is very limited. There’s no live chat, phone, or ticketing system, only email support. This isn’t just bad for beginners, but it can also slow down the workflow of seasoned developers. On top of that, DigitalOcean’s pricing can run high, which means if you want responsive support, you’ll be paying even more every month.

Luckily, there are many alternatives to the powerful cloud hosting DigitalOcean offers – but not all of them provide a better experience. You don’t want to spend a lot of time and effort switching hosting providers only to end up running into the same problems.

I tested as many cloud hosts as I could in order to find out which ones offer better support systems and usability without compromising on overall performance.

I managed to cut it down to the best ten hosts. I discovered Kamatera to be the best option of the bunch. With comparable (or lower) pricing, optional managed services, and a global presence, it ticks all the right boxes. You can try Kamatara risk-free or continue reading for other great alternatives.

What We Look For in the Best Alternatives to DigitalOcean

When it comes to reliable plans and a vast data center network, DigitalOcean is tough to beat. In my search for the best DigitalOcean alternatives, I looked for hosts that could compete in these categories, plus a few more:

• Reliable uptime with a guarantee. DigitalOcean often has periods of downtime. I chose hosts that provide much more reliable uptime and an uptime guarantee that ensures a refund for any downtime experienced.
• Better support. Since DigitalOcean is aimed at developers and advanced users, it provides very limited support. There’s no live chat support (unless you can afford the Standard Support plan), so all you get is ticket support, which can be slow. Many of the hosts below include much better support with their hosting plans for free.
• Usability. DigitalOcean takes a fully hands-off approach and lacks many features that make hosting easier – something as simple as creating a WordPress site involves accessing your server through Secure Shell (SSH). Lots of alternatives on my list are more user-friendly.
• Managed services. Managed hosting can be a fantastic time-saver for developers, so I’ve included hosts that offer partial or fully managed hosting.
• Free trial or money-back guarantee. DigitalOcean offers a generous 60-day free trial and $200 credit. My top DigitalOcean alternatives also let you try out their services completely risk-free. Some will even let you trial any range of services, not just shared Basic Droplets like DigitalOcean.

1. Kamatera: Best Affordable DigitalOcean Alternative

Kamatera offers powerful cloud-based solutions, including fully scalable and customizable cloud VPS hosting. Whereas many similar hosts, including DigitalOcean, offer rigid plans with different VPS configurations, Kamatera allows you to create a VPS that’s perfect for your needs by specifying exactly what resources you want. Despite offering dedicated resources, this setup is also cheaper than DigitalOcean’s dedicated Droplets and billable by the hour.

To do this, Kamatera offers you custom server packages rather than pre-configured plans. For example, you can buy a package consisting of 1vCPU, 20 GB SSD storage, 5 TB of traffic, and 1024 MB RAM for less than the price of a fancy coffee. That’s more than enough to set up a small business or personal site. Kamatera isn’t for beginners, though. There’s a lot of tech know-how needed. But for the low price and high performance, it’s a techie’s dream host.

When it came to testing Kamatera’s overall performance and reliability, I came away impressed. With an average page loading speed of just over one second, Kamatera’s results are on par with DigitalOcean. While technical support is limited, Kamatera offers much more customizability and reliability than DigitalOcean. Plus, you can add managed services for one flat fee per month, regardless of your setup’s complexity.

Features

• Preinstalled cPanel. If you’re looking to get a site up quickly, you can add a cPanel license. It’ll come preinstalled on your server and from there, you can use the Softaculous app installer to install any CMS or script that you need.
• Automatic daily backups. When creating your Cloud VPS, you can pay a small monthly fee to have your server’s data backed up daily to an external storage array. You can restore previous versions whenever needed.
• Premium firewall service. While it’d be nice if more security features were included for free, Kamatera offers a strong optional firewall for your server at a low monthly fee. It can be fully managed and customized for your particular needs.
• 30-day free trial. Kamatera’s long trial period includes access to one fully customizable cloud VPS and $100 credit for the month. You even get a designated account manager for the duration of the trial. Keep in mind that if you go over your credit, you’ll have to pay the difference.

For more on Kamatera’s performance, read our expert review.

2. ScalaHosting: Best DigitalOcean Alternative for Beginners

While VPS hosting isn’t exactly for beginners, any host who can make server management easier is a host worth considering. Is this the cheapest hosting provider on my list? No – but ScalaHosting’s managed VPS plans are only 30% more than its self-managed ones. That means if you find yourself overwhelmed with server management, you’ll have little to fear (and little to lose investment-wise) by going with this DigitalOcean competitor.

SPanel, ScalaHosting’s proprietary control panel, is intuitive and its easy-to-use design makes server and site admin easy and efficient. It includes Softaculous and all its 400+ readily-available apps. ScalaHosting’s managed VPS hosting also offers SShield (its proprietary security solution), e-commerce management, and free site migration.

Starting at $22.46/month, ScalaHosting’s entry-level Build 1 plan includes 2 CPU cores, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe storage, and unmetered bandwidth. You can choose from four preconfigured servers or build your own based on your CPU, RAM, and storage needs.

Features

• Unlimited bandwidth with all plans. While other hosts limit the amount of traffic your VPS can handle or only offer unlimited bandwidth on higher-tier plans, ScalaHosting starts everyone off with unlimited bandwidth.
• Reliable email hosting. Unlike DigitalOcean, ScalaHosting offers a reliable email hosting service. You don’t get free email with cloud VPS plans, but you can add this onto your plan for an extra fee.
• Free SSL certificates. You receive a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for every domain you host on your ScalaHost VPS server.
• Remote daily backups. ScalaHosting backs up your site’s data to a server in a different data center from yours, ensuring you never lose an email, file, or database.
• Cloudflare and caching to improve performance. Increase your site’s loading speeds with free Cloudflare integration via your SPanel control board. You can also choose OpenLiteSpeed and SPanel caching options for better user experiences.

To discover more features, check out our expert ScalaHosting review.

3. Liquid Web: Better Support for Enterprises and Large Businesses

If you’re looking for more streamlined, user-friendly hosting than what DigitalOcean offers, Liquid Web could be the host for you. Its range of cloud hosting, which includes both cloud VPS and dedicated cloud plans, is particularly ideal for demanding e-commerce and enterprise sites. Liquid Web is also one of the few hosts that offer custom enterprise solutions.

The host also has fully managed plans, which means that Liquid Web will handle the installation of your server’s core software, keep your OS updated and patched, provide security enhancements, and more. A managed VPS provides you with more security and full control panel support, too. You can also opt for a core managed plan for the basics or a self-managed plan.

Notably, Liquid Web guarantees an amazing 100% uptime rate and has extremely helpful support. It even guarantees fast initial responses to support requests so critical issues are resolved swiftly. While prices are quite high, Liquid Web’s commitment to providing you with easy and reliable hosting will easily cure any lingering headaches that remain from DigitalOcean.

Features

• Managed WordPress plans. If you’re looking to take the hassle out of managing your WordPress website, Liquid Web also offers managed WordPress hosting through its subsidiary company, Nexcess.
• Great control panel options. Liquid Web gives you the option of managing your server via Plesk, InterWorx, cPanel, WHM, and WHMCS. You’ll have to buy your own license, but it’s nice to have the option to use the control panel of your choice.
• Impressive global performance. With great loading speeds and near-perfect uptime, Liquid Web has no problems when it comes to performance.
• Robust security. For an extra monthly fee, you can equip your Liquid Web servers with the powerful security solutions Server Secure Plus (Windows) or Imunify360 PLUS (Linux). This automatically hardens your server and optimizes your security settings for the best protection.

To learn more about pricing, read our expert Liquid Web review.

4. Cloudways: Managed DigitalOcean and Cloud Plans for Busy Customers

Cloudways isn’t a traditional web host. It’s a third-party hosting management service that allows even complete beginners to benefit from the top-tier performance of cloud hosting.

Choose your hosting service from some of the top cloud platforms in the world – DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Google Cloud, and AWS (Amazon Web Services) – and Cloudways will do the rest. You’ll never need to contact your actual host as Cloudways will manage your hosting and provide security patches and updates, 24/7 server monitoring, and automatic backups.

You could even choose to host your site with DigitalOcean through Cloudways, allowing you to combine DigitalOcean’s powerful infrastructure with good management and support. Just keep in mind that Cloudways’ pricing comes at a premium for its white-glove services.

Features

• Staging environments. Every plan includes access to staging environments for free. These can be set up with a single click, allowing you to test changes without affecting your live site.
• Unlimited website migration. DigitalOcean lacks a site migration service, but Cloudways will migrate your first site for free. You can also transfer an unlimited number of WordPress sites with the free WordPress migrator plugin.
• Guaranteed support response times. Even the free tier of support guarantees a response time of 12 hours for normal priority issues and three hours for high priority issues. If this guarantee isn’t fulfilled, you may be eligible for service credits.
• Free 3-day trial. Cloudways allows you to try out its service without risk for three days, so you can see for yourself whether it improves your experience of DigitalOcean.

Read our full Cloudways review for more pros and cons.

5. Amazon Web Services: Great Unmanaged Option for Technical Users

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the biggest cloud hosting providers available today, serving megacorporations like Netflix and offering some of the best performance and reliability out there. However, you don’t have to be a multi-billion-dollar company to benefit from its powerful infrastructure, as AWS does have some affordable cloud VPS plans that are perfect for hosting sites or apps.

Amazon Lightsail is its budget option, providing scalable cloud VPS hosting at cheap prices. This comes with some nice benefits, such as the automatic configuration of your server’s network and security, plus the availability of pre-configured development stacks such as LAMP, NGINX, and Node.

On the other hand, this host probably isn’t the best choice if you’re a beginner. While there’s plenty of documentation available to help you along, the free ticketing support is slow and, like DigitalOcean, you should expect to pay a premium if you need advanced technical help.

Features

• Static IP and DNS management. Included in all Lightsail plans are a static IP and DNS management, at no extra charge.
• AWS Trusted Advisor. All AWS services have access to the Trusted Advisor tool, which tests your server for any basic security and performance flaws. It will then help guide you on how to best rectify them.
• One-click installations. The Lightsail plans also include the ability to install various OSs, CMSs, and development stacks with one click. These all come preconfigured and ready to use.
• Extensive free trial. AWS offers you a three-month trial of its Lightsail service, which empowers you to test the cloud VPS for a maximum of 750 hours of runtime per month. Furthermore, you gain 12 months of access to AWS’s Free Tier, giving you the opportunity to dive into several of its powerful cloud solutions.

For more Free Tier features, see our comprehensive AWS review.

6. IONOS: Top DigitalOcean Alternative for App Deployment and Static Sites

For developers, IONOS is one of the best DigitalOcean alternatives. Its range of unmanaged cloud and VPS plans offers a lot of flexibility alongside wallet-friendly pricing.

It’s no secret that DigitalOcean is very focused on app deployment and hosting and offers the managed App Platform for fast app deployment. However, it’s not the only host with such a service. IONOS has developed its Deploy Now solution for app and static site development – and it has a free tier. You can build up to three basic projects for free and upgrade to a cheap paid plan for more demanding deployments.

From my experience, IONOS’ support isn’t the most helpful. If you’re less technical and just looking for a more beginner-friendly or user-friendly solution than DigitalOcean, ScalaHosting and Liquid Web’s managed solutions might be a better fit.

Features

• Full root access. If you’re looking for full control, all IONOS cloud and VPS plans come unmanaged with full root access.
• Per-use or per-hour billing. With IONOS, you can benefit from per-use billing for short-term deployments, testing, and other unique development projects. Just note that per-hour billing is only available for IONOS Cloud Cubes plans.
• On-demand scalability. Cloud Cubes plans allow you to add extra memory, storage, or CPU processing power without experiencing any service interruptions. You can scale down these resources when you no longer need them.
• Per-hour Windows licenses. Windows servers can be expensive to run. IONOS takes the commitment out of the equation with pay-as-you-go Windows licenses.

Is IONOS right for your app? Read our full IONOS review for more.

Other Notable DigitalOcean Alternatives

7. Oracle Cloud

With its forever-free VM plan, Oracle Cloud is an excellent free DigitalOcean alternative. Just be sure to follow the free plan limits (AMD VM, 1/8thOCPU, and 1 GB RAM), as breaking them will result in your forever-free tier turning into a free trial. Once the free trial credits are depleted, you’ll need to sign up for a paid service or risk losing your setup.

Like AWS, Google Cloud, and some of the other bigger players, Oracle Cloud also has quite a vast data center network. If you want to go for a paid plan, you’re treated to the full spectrum of cloud hosting solutions, like load balancers, VPNs, and block/object storage. But Oracle isn’t for the faint of heart, so you should be quite familiar with server management to unlock its full potential.

8. Google Cloud

Google Cloud’s setup can be equally as complex as DigitalOcean and some other big-name alternatives, like AWS and Oracle Cloud. You really do need to know what you’re doing and billing can be confusing, especially given that storage, databases, and other central services are billed separately.

But if you’re fine with this, Google Cloud is probably the best global cloud provider thanks to its vast data center network, with at least one data center on almost every continent (and 12+ in Europe and North America). Many top cloud hosts, like SiteGround and Kinsta, use its infrastructure. With lots of free trials and complementary free and paid cloud services on offer, developers and techies will get a lot out of Google Cloud’s VMs.

9. Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is another big contender on the cloud computing scene, and it has some unique offerings that stand out from DigitalOcean. You have a choice of Linux or Windows with a ton of different configurations. Sadly, my tests revealed performance to be a little disappointing, with Azure being slower than DigitalOcean. It’s also not easy to use if you’re just getting started with hosting, as it can be quite confusing to navigate its backend.

However, Microsoft Azure shines when it comes to security. It offers a wide range of free security features, including server monitoring, a web application firewall, and the Azure Security Center, which assists you with preventing, detecting, and responding to threats. If you’re looking for a more secure solution than DigitalOcean, Microsoft Azure could be the host for you.

10. Render

If you’re a developer, Render may be a good choice for you. You can deploy changes to your site directly through GitHub/GitLab. Render also provides support for popular development frameworks, as well as Dockerfiles, APIs, background workers, and more. Additionally, Render offers fully managed PostgreSQL databases for less than DigitalOcean and a free plan for one project with 100 GB bandwidth per month.

However, while Render has a great knowledge base and free community forum to help you get started with the platform, my experiences with email support involved long waits or no response at all. Render does offer advanced support with paid plans that may be better (I didn’t test this out personally). Overall, Render provides a developer-oriented cloud environment that’s much easier to work with than DigitalOcean.

Choose the Right DigitalOcean Alternative for You

The best DigitalOcean alternative depends on your particular needs. If you’re looking for complete customizability in your hosting environment, I’d recommend Kamatera. Its performance is on par with DigitalOcean, and through its Express service, you can deploy preconfigured servers in minutes.

If you’re just getting started with VPS hosting, ScalaHosting is the host for you. Its beginner-friendly SPanel, along with low prices for managed plans, means it has all the VPS hosting a novice needs.

However, if you prefer to have a more hands-off approach to hosting, Liquid Web’s core-managed plans will save you the time you’d normally spend on maintaining your server. And if you ever run into any hiccups, Liquid Web’s responsive customer support is available around the clock to help out.

FAQ

Can I host anything on a cloud or VPS?

You can host almost any type of website on a cloud or VPS setup. Cloud and VPS hosting is more customizable than most other types of hosting, guarantees resources, and offers better reliability, security, and performance than shared hosting. You generally get full root access to your server, allowing you to install any software you want.

What’s the difference between a fully managed and core managed cloud or VPS plan?

With a managed setup, the hosting provider’s tech team handles all server-related tasks and any configuration requests you might make. Liquid Web also offers a semi-managed core option where the tech team typically only acts if you either make a request or if an issue comes up, such as a server failure. You are responsible for much more of your server’s administration.

How secure are cloud and VPS hosting?

Reliable cloud VPS hosting providers like Kamatera go to great lengths to keep your server secure and your data private. Kamatera’s cloud firewalls protect against malware, viruses, DDoS attacks, spyware, and more. However, some cloud and VPS plans come with fewer free security tools than shared plans. This is especially true with self-managed or unmanaged plans, which require you to configure software yourself.

Are there any disadvantages to cloud and VPS hosting?

Yes, a few. Cloud and VPS hosting are more expensive than shared hosting. Unless you opt for a fully managed VPS hosting provider, it can be quite technically challenging to manage these setups, too. Your site’s increased security, greater available resources, and improved performance, however, make it worthwhile.

Are there any cheaper DigitalOcean alternatives?

Kamatera offers comparable plans for dedicated setups, not shared VMs like DigitalOcean’s entry-level Basic Droplets. IONOS, Liquid Web, and AWS are other low-cost options. However, if you’re looking for cheaper managed plans, you probably won’t find many decent options. ScalaHosting offers the best managed value, but you’ll still end up paying a premium for these services.

Which DigitalOcean alternatives offer app deployment?

If your main interest in DigitalOcean is deploying apps with the App Platform, not any old DigitalOcean cloud hosting alternative will do. It’s hard to beat, but IONOS did it with its Deploy Now solution, which even has a forever-free tier for up to 3 basic projects.