DigitalOcean vs Netlify Comparison
Compare DigitalOcean vs Netlify features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
DigitalOcean
6.8/10
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.
Netlify
6.9/10
Netlify is a web platform for building, deploying and hosting frontend sites and web apps from Git, with serverless functions, a global CDN and preview deploys.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.8/10 | 6.9/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 9/10 | 9/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $4/mo Basic Droplet 512 MiB | $9/mo Personal |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $4/mo Basic Droplet 512 MiB | Free Free |
| Features | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Git Deployments | ||
| Managed Databases | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Uptime SLA | ||
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| Cloud Compute | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
DigitalOcean vs Netlify cost by team size
Netlify costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | DigitalOcean | Netlify |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | FreeFree |
| 5 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | FreeFree |
| 10 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | FreeFree |
| 25 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | FreeFree |
| 50 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | FreeFree |
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 DigitalOcean
- Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Customization score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Includes Managed Kubernetes, which Netlify lacks
- Includes VPS Hosting, which Netlify lacks
Why choose Netlify
- Has a free plan (DigitalOcean does not)
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $4/mo
- Higher Integration score (8/10 vs 7/10)
- Higher Reliability score (8/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (7/10 vs 5/10)
Pros & Cons
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.
Netlify
Pros
- Every pull request gets a deploy preview URL at no credit cost, which makes reviewing changes easy.
- Git push-to-deploy with instant rollbacks keeps releases low-risk.
- The free plan allows commercial use and includes functions, a database and Blob storage.
- The Pro plan includes unlimited team members for $20 a month.
- Broad compliance audits (SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA) plus built-in DDoS protection and a WAF.
Cons
- Credit-based pricing is hard to predict, and Free-plan sites are paused when credits run out.
- Bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB, so the Pro plan's 3,000 credits cover only about 150 GB if spent on bandwidth alone.
- 300 free credits cover only about 20 production deploys a month.
- SSO, the SLA and 24/7 support are limited to the custom-priced Enterprise plan.
- Reviewers say it lags Vercel for Next.js and complain about AI agent credit costs.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Netlify scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 6.9/10 against 6.8/10 for DigitalOcean. The largest gap is in Cost: 7/10 for DigitalOcean and 6/10 for Netlify.
Netlify 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.
Netlify has a free plan; DigitalOcean does not list one.
Netlify is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 7/10 for them, against 5/10 for DigitalOcean.
DigitalOcean has Managed Kubernetes and VPS Hosting, which Netlify lacks.
