Amazon AWS vs DigitalOcean comparison

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Amazon AWS

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

Amazon AWS and DigitalOcean compete in the cloud services category. Amazon AWS appears to have the upper hand due to its extensive feature set and comprehensive tools, making it ideal for a wide range of applications and business models.

Features: Amazon AWS offers services like EC2, S3, and RDS, providing elastic compute, scalable storage, and flexible networking capabilities. These features are suited for diverse computing needs and support various applications. DigitalOcean focuses on simplicity and ease of use with straightforward deployment processes, appealing to developers and small to medium-sized businesses.

Room for Improvement: AWS users often mention its complex cost structure and steep learning curve. Occasional outages are a concern that can disrupt business processes. DigitalOcean could enhance its security features and improve droplet configuration consistency, integration options, and latency for better performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both AWS and DigitalOcean provide reliable public cloud services. AWS offers additional private and hybrid cloud setups and is recognized for its technical support, although the service levels vary. DigitalOcean excels in ease of deployment for simpler applications, yet its technical support doesn't match AWS's depth.

Pricing and ROI: AWS utilizes a pay-as-you-go model beneficial for scalable needs but potentially expensive if mismanaged. Its pricing models, including reserved instances, are complex but can offer usage predictability. AWS delivers positive ROI when fully leveraging its scalable infrastructure. DigitalOcean is budget-friendly with transparent pricing, appealing to developers and smaller enterprises that seek cost-effective solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon AWS vs. DigitalOcean Report (Updated: June 2026).

Amazon AWS vs. DigitalOcean

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.6

Amazon AWS provides cost-efficient, scalable solutions with flexible usage, enhancing service agility and offering free trials to explore benefits.

Sentiment score

6.1

Users generally found DigitalOcean cost-effective, noticing initial savings, though some lacked details to quantify exact financial impact.

No quotes available

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No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the DigitalOcean report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.7

Amazon AWS support is generally praised but some users report slower responses, especially for smaller clients or basic plans.

Sentiment score

6.5

DigitalOcean's customer service is responsive yet inconsistent, needing improved technical support and quicker resolutions compared to AWS.

Reaching out to them and talking is different from receiving a complete solution to your problem.

Principal Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

We have a direct line to Amazon AWS, with premium support and AWS members located within the company.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon AWS report

Senior Machine Learning Engineer at sportsbet

My impressions of Amazon AWS technical support are that they are quite knowledgeable and professional.

Alexander Latyshev

Senior QA Automation Engineer at HireRight

DigitalOcean support is rated lower than AWS's because we encounter issues more frequently.

For more quotes and insights, download the DigitalOcean report

Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.8

Amazon AWS excels in scalability, providing seamless expansion for businesses of all sizes with its flexible cloud-based platform.

Sentiment score

7.2

DigitalOcean is highly rated for scalability, offering tools to manage increased loads and easily add resources like RAM or CPUs.

The scalability of Amazon AWS is excellent.

Principal Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Amazon AWS provides strong scalability features, but the scaling process could be made more straightforward.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon AWS report

Cloud Technical Program Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

When setting up resources, the maximum limit can go high or low, at which time instances are increased, which helps maintain latency standards.

KhaderNawaz

Architect at ebzss

I have not tried vertical scaling yet, but from the documentation, it seems very easy to scale the system.

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Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.1

Amazon AWS offers high stability and reliability with 99.99% uptime, making it ideal for critical business operations.

Sentiment score

7.8

DigitalOcean offers reliable stability, though some users note occasional downtimes and performance fluctuations based on extended use.

If I am spinning up any managed service from the console, sometimes it fails to start up, and there will be no information about why it failed.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon AWS report

Senior Machine Learning Engineer at sportsbet

DigitalOcean is quite stable, and I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

It is approximately 50 to 60% stable, reaching 60 to 70% depending on usage levels.

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Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Room For Improvement

AWS needs enhanced flexibility, integration, usability, cost management, scalability, AI functionality, and better support to meet user demands.

DigitalOcean struggles with performance, customer dissatisfaction, and service issues, prompting calls for improved features and better support.

Amazon AWS could improve its user interface to make it more user-friendly, especially for people who are not highly technical.

Cloud Technical Program Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

When using scripts for APIs to fetch data, they don't match the data exactly with the request.

Principal Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

If I create a Glue job, that will create S3 buckets and other resources that have cost implications, but once I clean up a Glue job, it does not delete the other accessory resources.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon AWS report

Senior Machine Learning Engineer at sportsbet

DigitalOcean could offer a pay-as-you-go model similar to AWS, where I would pay for what I use rather than having fixed payments.

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

There are issues where even with 8 GB RAM, the performance doesn't meet expectations.

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Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The lack of a proper service provider model ultimately led us to cease operations with DigitalOcean.

MohamedHamed

Commercial Manager at Uranium For IT Solutions

Setup Cost

Amazon AWS pricing is flexible and transparent but can be complex; careful management prevents unexpected costs for long-term use.

DigitalOcean's pricing ranges from $5 to $50 monthly, with costs depending on configuration and perceived as competitive by some.

After three to four years, if you are not managing it correctly, you will be paying more than an on-premise solution, which applies to all cloud providers, so you must regularly maintain and manage for efficiency.

Principal Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Currently, Amazon AWS is known to be on the higher price range because popular and in-demand services often come at a premium.

For more quotes and insights, download the Amazon AWS report

Cloud Technical Program Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

DigitalOcean offers affordable pricing, especially for startups.

For more quotes and insights, download the DigitalOcean report

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

Valuable Features

Amazon AWS provides scalable, flexible cloud solutions with user-friendly features, global reliability, cost-efficiency, and strong support.

DigitalOcean provides reliable, cost-effective servers with an intuitive interface, database management, flexible hosting, and easy installation.

Amazon AWS provides IAM features for user access management as well as KMS through key management service with private and public key encryption methodology.

KhaderNawaz

Architect at ebzss

The most important feature that I rely on most is S3. It serves as a centralized and highly scalable storage solution for datasets.

Manojchekkilla Manojchekkilla

Data Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Amazon AWS offers flexibility and scalability.

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Cloud Technical Program Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

The droplet feature is valuable for hosting my applications as it is particularly cost-effective and serves my needs well.

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

The most significant aspect is that we can connect directly to the system from anywhere.

For more quotes and insights, download the DigitalOcean report

Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

The team was particularly satisfied with the flexibility of the service and the rules for managing virtual machines on DigitalOcean.

MohamedHamed

Commercial Manager at Uranium For IT Solutions

Categories and Ranking

Amazon AWS

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

260

Ranking in other categories

PaaS Clouds (2nd)

DigitalOcean

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS is 15.1%, up from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DigitalOcean is 2.0%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Amazon AWS	15.1%
DigitalOcean	2.0%
Other	82.9%

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Featured Reviews

Managed cloud services have helped accelerate experiments with flexible configuration options

Senior Machine Learning Engineer at sportsbet

Sometimes the costs associated with spinning up a service, especially managed services, have implications. For example, if I create a Glue job, that will create S3 buckets and other resources that have cost implications, but once I clean up a Glue job, it does not delete the other accessory resources. Sometimes, I have to go hunting for what resources Amazon AWS might have provisioned and how it is costing behind the scenes. It can be complex depending on your level of expertise. It is not as easy to get started, especially when it comes to secure practices. Amazon AWS is more hands-on than other platforms.

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Enjoy cost-effective hosting with flexible deployment and room for payment model improvement

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

I use only one feature, which is the droplet, and it has been satisfactory. The droplet feature is valuable for hosting my applications as it is particularly cost-effective and serves my needs well. I also have total freedom over what I use, and I have a better user interface and documentation compared to Oracle.

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See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) solutions are best for your needs.

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900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user8586

Engineer at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Aug 14, 2013

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

Outsourcing Company

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	131
Midsize Enterprise	48
Large Enterprise	120

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

How does OpenShift compare with Amazon AWS?

Open Shift makes managing infrastructure easy because of self-healing and automatic scaling. There is also a wonderful dashboard mechanism to alert us in case the application is over-committing or ...

How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS?

How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS? Amazon AWS offers options both in terms of upgrading and expanding capabilities as well as acquiring greater storage space. These upgrades can ...

Looking to compare Google Firebase, Amazon AWS, and Microsoft Azure

We like Google Firebase hosting and authentication and also the excellent cloud functionality. Our team found the flexibility of handling and dealing with the database through EDL to be very useful...

What needs improvement with DigitalOcean?

There are disadvantages, such as machines getting stuck or disconnected, requiring restarts. Sometimes we lose connection and need to check with the IT service provider from the DigitalOcean servic...

What is your primary use case for DigitalOcean?

We use DigitalOcean mostly for RDS services and cloud-related systems where we want to deploy codes and run them using nginx or other services where it is cheaper to use, and we use it to extract d...

What advice do you have for others considering DigitalOcean?

I am a lead developer, currently working in that role. We are a customer of DigitalOcean. They can reach me via email to confirm anything regarding my review. I am willing to be a reference for Dig...

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Amazon AWS

Comparisons

Compared 26% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Amazon AWS

Compared 6% of the time

SAP Business Technology Platform vs Amazon AWS

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Amazon AWS

Compared 4% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs Amazon AWS

Compared 4% of the time

More Amazon AWS Competitors

Google Firebase vs DigitalOcean

Compared 10% of the time

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs DigitalOcean

Compared 8% of the time

Utho vs DigitalOcean

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs DigitalOcean

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs DigitalOcean

Compared 5% of the time

More DigitalOcean Competitors

Product Reports

Amazon AWS

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Also Known As

Amazon Web Services, AWS

Digital Ocean

Overview

Amazon AWS offers cloud services known for ease of use, scalability, and diverse services such as EC2, S3, and Lambda. Its pay-as-you-go pricing and robust security features make it a preferred choice for businesses managing growing demands efficiently.

Amazon AWS provides a comprehensive ecosystem with services like EC2 for computing, S3 for storage, and Lambda for serverless computing. It emphasizes scalability and quick resource provisioning, allowing businesses to handle IT workloads, host websites, and manage analytics seamlessly. AWS integrates a wide range of services, enhancing flexibility and reliability while offering robust security and automated management to streamline operations.

What are the most important features of Amazon AWS?

EC2: Offers scalable computing capacity in the cloud to manage business applications efficiently.
S3: Provides highly secure, durable, and scalable cloud storage solutions for data archiving and backup.
Lambda: Enables running code without provisioning or managing servers, improving application deployment.
Pricing: Employs a pay-as-you-go model, allowing cost-effective resource usage.
Security: Implements comprehensive security protocols to ensure data protection across services.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Scalability: Supports business growth by easily scaling resources according to demand.
Integration: Offers seamless integration capabilities with numerous services, enhancing operational flexibility.
Performance: Provides stable and reliable performance for critical IT workloads and applications.
Management: Features automated management tools that reduce overhead and improve deployment efficiency.

Amazon AWS is widely implemented across industries for cloud computing, infrastructure hosting, and data storage. Businesses in finance, healthcare, and technology sectors leverage AWS for running applications, hosting analytics databases, and deploying scalable solutions. By utilizing tools like EC2, S3, and Lambda, they ensure flexibility and security in infrastructure management and data applications, meeting diverse operational needs effectively.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

DigitalOcean provides fast, reliable Linux servers with a user-friendly platform. It simplifies database management and offers cost-effective solutions through managed services and virtual machines, making it popular for DNS management and app development.

DigitalOcean stands out for its easy-to-use platform, supporting app development with reliable hardware and virtual machines. Managed database services simplify infrastructure, while Kubernetes integration and a marketplace offer flexibility and direct access. Despite these strengths, customer feedback highlights areas like support, reliability, and security needing enhancement. Users seek growth in backup restoration, custom kernels, and GitHub integration. Concerns about network latency and performance may impact its appeal, yet many continue to prefer DigitalOcean for handling tasks efficiently.

What are DigitalOcean's key features?

Linux Servers: Fast, reliable, enhancing software hosting and development.
Managed Databases: Streamlines database infrastructure with cost benefits.
Kubernetes Integration: Offers flexibility in cloud management.
Droplets: Provides cost-effective virtual machine hosting.
Marketplace Access: Facilitates easy access to software and services.

What benefits should users seek in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Proven savings in cloud and development operations.
Stability: Reliable performance in DNS management and hosting.
Ease of Use: Intuitive design streamlining management processes.
Scalability: Supports business growth with flexible resources.

In industries, DigitalOcean supports app deployment, utilizing frameworks like React and Node. Its services aid DNS management, serving software development and CI/CD implementations. Droplets and Kubernetes are integral to achieving infrastructure efficiency, appealing to businesses managing cloud services.

Sample Customers

Pinterest, General Electric, Pfizer, Netflix, and Nasdaq.

jQuery Foundation, Pertino, TaskRabbit, Compose, InfluxDB, The Able Few

Amazon AWS vs. DigitalOcean