DigitalOcean vs Public Cloud Comparison
Compare DigitalOcean vs Public Cloud 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.
Public Cloud
6.1/10
OpenStack-based pay-as-you-go IaaS from Swiss host Infomaniak. It offers instances, block and S3-compatible object storage, and Kubernetes, all hosted in Swiss data centers.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.8/10 | 6.1/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 5/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 9/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 3/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $4/mo Basic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $4/mo Basic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Managed Kubernetes | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
DigitalOcean vs Public Cloud cost by team size
| Team size | DigitalOcean | Public Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | $4/moBasic Droplet 512 MiB | Contact for pricing |
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 Ease of Use score (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 3/10)
- Better fit for startups (9/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose Public Cloud
- Higher Cost score (8/10 vs 7/10)
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.
Public Cloud
Pros
- Owned data centers located only in Switzerland, which supports data-sovereignty requirements
- Built on standard OpenStack, so existing tooling works and moving to another provider is easier
- Hourly billing that excludes most charges for stopped instances
- CHF 300 of free credit for the first 3 months
- S3-compatible object storage, encrypted block storage and DDoS protection
Cons
- All regions are in Switzerland, so there is no wider geographic footprint
- Invoices can only be paid by credit card
- Third-party benchmarks note missing monitoring charts and reverse DNS
- Very few independent user reviews on G2 or Capterra
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
DigitalOcean scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 6.8/10 against 6.1/10 for Public Cloud. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 9/10 for DigitalOcean and 5/10 for Public Cloud.
No, neither DigitalOcean nor Public Cloud lists a free plan.
DigitalOcean is the better fit for startups: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 6/10 for Public Cloud.
