Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs DigitalOcean Comparison
Compare Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs DigitalOcean features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
7.6/10
Amazon's public cloud platform, with over 200 pay-as-you-go services for compute, storage, databases, networking and AI, used by startups through large enterprises and governments.
DigitalOcean
7.1/10
DigitalOcean is a developer-focused cloud platform offering Droplet VMs, managed Kubernetes, databases, object storage, App Platform and GPU compute for startups and small businesses.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.6/10 | 7.1/10 |
| Integration | 10/10 | 7/10 |
| Analytics | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 10/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4/10 | 9/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 5/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 10/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $4/mo Basic Droplet 512 MiB |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free plan | $4/mo Basic Droplet 512 MiB |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Managed Databases | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Uptime SLA | ||
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs DigitalOcean cost by team size
Amazon Web Services (AWS) costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree plan | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB |
| 5 users | FreeFree plan | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB |
| 10 users | FreeFree plan | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB |
| 25 users | FreeFree plan | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB |
| 50 users | FreeFree plan | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Has a free plan (DigitalOcean does not)
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $4/mo
- Higher Integration score (10/10 vs 7/10)
- Higher Customization score (10/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (10/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose DigitalOcean
- Higher Ease of Use score (9/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for small business (7/10 vs 5/10)
Pros & Cons
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Pros
- The service catalogue is unusually broad, with over 200 services across 38 regions, so most infrastructure needs can be met on one platform.
- EC2 has a 99.99% region-level SLA with credits of up to 100%, and instances unavailable for more than six minutes in an hour are not billed for that hour.
- The free plan gives up to $200 in credits, and more than 30 always-free services let new teams experiment at low cost.
- Support scales from a $29 minimum up to dedicated Enterprise and Unified Operations tiers for mission-critical workloads.
- G2 rates it 4.4 across more than 17,000 reviews, and reviewers praise its scalability and global reach.
Cons
- Reviewers widely cite a steep learning curve across the console and services.
- Usage pricing is complex and can produce unexpected bills unless spend is monitored closely.
- Paid support is billed as a percentage of total AWS spend, so support costs rise with usage.
- A July 2025 billing console bug showed customers estimated charges in the billions, which hurt trust in its cost tooling.
DigitalOcean
Pros
- Flat, published hourly and monthly rates with no promotional first-term pricing or renewal price jumps.
- A $4 per month entry Droplet and per-second billing make it cheap to test and run small workloads.
- One account covers a full set of managed services, including Kubernetes, databases, Spaces with CDN, load balancers, App Platform and Functions.
- Developers can automate everything through the API, the doctl CLI and a Terraform provider, and the tutorials are widely used.
Cons
- Free support is ticket-only with a target response under 24 hours, chat starts at $99 per month, and no plan includes phone support.
- Outbound SMTP ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked on new Droplets, so you cannot self-host email.
- Raw compute costs noticeably more than budget providers such as Hetzner.
- No refunds, and Droplets on suspended accounts are deleted after a grace period.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Amazon Web Services (AWS) scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 7.6/10 against 7.1/10 for DigitalOcean. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 4/10 for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and 9/10 for DigitalOcean.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) costs less for 10 users: free on its Free plan, against about $4/mo on its Basic Droplet 512 MiB plan for DigitalOcean, billed monthly.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a free plan; DigitalOcean does not list one.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 10/10 for them, against 5/10 for DigitalOcean.
