🗻DIGITAL OCEAN🗻Review → Inexpensive Cloud VPS Service For Developers Since 2011 — Is It The *BEST* Ruby On Rails Hosting?…
DigitalOcean Is Popularly Considered The “Crucible” Of Inexpensive Modern “Cloud” VPS Hosting. It Was The FIRST To Introduce MONTHLY pricing (Rather Than AWS’ Hourly)… We Observe The TRUTH About This MASSIVE Hosting Provider…
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As we’ve used DigitalOcean for the past 2️⃣ years → absolutely amazing platform with very little downtime, high performance and a robust support infrastructure. We have no complaints about their service.
If you’re looking at developing on top of their platform, and are looking at the various companies who are able to offer such functionality, this review aims to give an insight into how DigitalOcean works — and whether it’s the best option for you…
To give you a brief synopsis of the DigitalOcean proposition, they operate their own infrastructure and deliver an on-demand “cloud” VPS server provision service for software developers, engineers and everyone inbetween.
For affordable prices (starting at $5/mo), they give you access to a
💻 1Core/512mb/20GB VPS running in one of their 🌍 12+ locations ↴
They also offer a TON of other services (beyond base VPS provision) —
💿 volumes (block storage), 🚦 load balancers, ⛔️ DNS, 💾 spaces etc…
With generally high ratings, the service is one of the few able to provide Rails developers (and — indeed — anyone else) with the ability to spin up “cloud” VPS servers at the click of a button.
Since this is committed to 💎 Ruby on Rails development 💎, our review is going to be skewed around the Rails ecosystem / framework. If you’re interested in using it for other programming setups, the underlying infrastructure will work the same; BIG difference comes from how you manage the software layer…
Now, we need to state emphatically that we have *NOT* been paid or recompensed by DigitalOcean for this review…
I don’t care whether DigitalOcean stay in business. They provide an effective service which does what we need. They’re budget, which means you get no “toppings” with the infrastructure (hence the “poor support” reviews below).
Everything written in this tutorial is objective (meaning that we’ve attempted to remain as dispassionate as possible). Whilst I respect every successful business, it makes no difference to me/us whether this review is favorable or not → the key is that the infrastructure works and we’ve used it for several years (on several projects).
We have written this to help promote 🏆 RailsHosting.com 🏆 → our Ruby on Rails educational platform, which also handles cloud deployment across the large providers:
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❗️ Important Note About “Cloud” VPS Provision ❗️
The **MOST** important thing to remember about “cloud” is that it’s ALL the same. AWS, Google, Azure, DigitalOcean, Vultr → they ALL use VPS servers to provide developers with compute resources which can be used as web/application hosting servers…
The big problem for the majority of users is they simply don’t understand what it actually is. If you consider that “web” servers are simply a set of Internet-connected computers running web hosting software, you’ll be able to see the nature of how the “web hosting” industry has grown:
There are 3️⃣ (now 4️⃣) “grades” of web hosting → shared, VPS, dedicated. “Cloud” takes the VPS element and multiplies across 1,000’s of servers…
🚀 Shared
This is where a web hosting company will buy/rent a HUGE powerful web server, install the likes of WHM/cPanel and then allow people to sign up to host their websites. Each server may have 100’s or potentially 1,000’s of websites on it — all managed by the likes of Apache/NGinx etc.
The most important thing to realize is that ALL the sites are tied to a physical box. There is literally nothing to split them (at the hardware level), and it’s often the case that if any website receives a surge of traffic, it will deny service to the others on the server…
The “shared” hosting model is one of the most popular. If you’ve ever signed up with the likes of GoDaddy, Hostgator or another massive hosting provider — the backbone of their underlying service is “shared”.
🗼 VPS
VPS (Virtual Private Servers) are basically where a hosting provider will “split” a physical server into a number of smaller ones. These are all virtualized — meaning they will be running within an application (if you’ve ever used VMWare before, you’ve operated your own virtual private server)…
VPS servers were always the bridge between “shared” and “dedicated”…
If you end up receiving 10,000+ visitors per day, you’d be prompted to upgrade your provision to that of a VPS. The reason for this was that it would give your account more resources (each VPS was traditionally hosted on a single server).
The big problem with this system is that it was still tied to physical server resource. If you had a server with many different VPS instances running, you’d still experience similar inhibiting factors as you would with shared.
🌋 Dedicated
Finally, the last “rung” of the traditional hosting tree comes in the form of a “dedicated” server. This is simply a physical box completely committed to your website — it often costs upwards of $150/mo to maintain, and may require significant investment up front (to get the hardware sorted)…
Whilst this has been the mainstay of the hosting market for a long time, the simple fact is that it’s still tied to the physical constraints of a single box.
If your server is under-powered, suffers hardware-level problems, or has any sort of persistent issue, it’s going to show through in your service provision…
Thus, when considering whether buying a “dedicated” server is “worth it” — you have to understand that it’s *entirely* dependent on the hardware you’re getting. If the hardware sucks, the server will likely follow suit.
☁️ Cloud
Finally, the new contender on the block is “cloud” hosting.
As mentioned, “cloud” was mainly pioneered by AWS in the mid 2000’s. As AWS’ business grew, others started to get in on the game, with Microsoft, Google and a number of other major providers creating their own “cloud” services as late as 2010…
The most important thing about “cloud” is that it uses hypervisor technology (or, in some cases, containerized technology). This allows providers to run virtual machines across 100’s or 1,000’s of physical servers.
This has a number of immediate benefits:
- ✔️ Cloud VPS Hosting Allows *COMPLETE* Control Over The Infrastructure Layer (Server / Software etc)
- ✔️ Cloud VPS Hosting Provides *CHEAPER PRICES* Due To Economies of Scale → More Servers = More Customers = Lower Prices
- ❌ Cloud VPS Hosting Does *NOT* Protect Users Against DDOS Attacks, Hacking or Other High-Risk Security Breaches
- ❌ Cloud VPS Hosting Providers Do *NOT* Provide Live Chat Support → You’ll Generally Receive Timely Email Responses; Not Much More
- ❌ Cloud VPS Hosting **ONLY** Provides UnManaged Infrastructure — Bare Metal and Other
The part DigitalOcean plays in this opera is that it was the first to provide mass-market budget-friendly cloud hosting provision. Whilst AWS/Azure etc are “great” products… their pricing structures are woefully complicated.
DigitalOcean’s monthly pricing structure, and underlying developer-focused service allowed it to lead the charge of an “entry” level market. This market gave single developers, teams or even large scale corporations a single — simple — way to deploy resource-independent infrastructure.
🔒 Overview 🔒
⚙️ Features ⚙️
🚨 Performance 🚨
📜 Server Setup 📜
💻 Application Provision 💻
⚠️ Support ⚠️
✔️ Conclusion ✔️
🔒 Overview 🔒
Founded in New York in 2011, DigitalOcean was one of the first “cloud” hosting providers. Though now a mainstay of the “hosting” landscape, in 2011, the idea of “cloud” was relatively new.
Pioneered by AWS (Amazon), the idea is that rather than relying on a single (or several) highly powered boxes → users are able to run VPS (virtual private servers) running across a whole data-center of 1,000’s of physical boxes ↴
By spreading the cost, resource, maintenance and network connectivity across a large number of servers → the price of “VPS” hosting comes down to as little as $5/mo (in the case of DigitalOcean).
Without going into any more detail about the “cloud” market (we’ve covered that extensively above), the point is that DigitalOcean sits at the head of the “budget” / “entry-level” segment.
The service is entirely designed around providing the most effective delivery of cloud VPS servers at the most affordable cost. Obviously, the way this is done depends on the hardware, service, design and back-end operation.
This one uses a simple interface through which you’re able to sign up using either your email or Google account…
After signup, you need to confirm your email…
After this, you will then have to provide a payment method:
This is used to provide identity verification for the service
(you may also be required to provide scanned ID documents).
This is important because some people could use their VPS instances to perform DDOS attacks and other things → they need a verifiable way to contact you and determine what your real identity is (not afraid to close you down if they suspect you’re up to no good):
This might seem draconian, but it’s true → the big problem for all “cloud”
VPS providers lies in the way through which their services can be abused.
If they end up in difficulty, it’s not just the immediate service that may suffer.
Their brand, reputation and other assets could come under scrutiny → other Internet service providers may end up blocking them, and their overall service provision may be impacted (which is going to affect other customers).
It’s good that the company are continually providing users with the ability to maximize their digital infrastructure, but you need to appreciate that it’s at *THEIR* discretion as to whether to provide you with service or not.
After inputting your payment info (you WON’T be charged up front), you’ll be able to start using the service to provision servers and manage other aspects of your infrastructure:
As mentioned, the interface is clean, simple and effective.
Their main focus (originally) was to create a versatile platform which gave standardized pricing, and was extremely simple to get working.
Compare this to the likes of AWS, Azure and others, you’ll find that it did give a very simple and — dare it be said — enjoyable method through which to provision cloud VPS compute resource…
Whilst their interface / underlying offer has expanded & evolved over time, the premise is still the same → compare AWS/Azure prices to DigitalOcean and you’ll see the difference that its SIMPLICITY brings…
DigitalOcean don’t pretend to be something they’re not. You’re paying for simplicity that scales — and it’s our opinion that they do it better than anyone…
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Obviously, this does not mean they have the best hardware, or are even able to compete with the likes of Azure.
It doesn’t matter → DigitalOcean is designed to help developers get web-based services launched without having to worry about scalability, resource management or security.
How well they deliver that determines how effective the service is…
⚙️ Features ⚙️// ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Obviously, the most discernible element of DigitalOcean are its features.
Unlike many other cloud providers, whilst primarily an infrastructure company, their core focus is on making “cloud” as effective, efficient and accessible as possible (especially for developers)…
One of the main reasons we have maintained an account for so long is their continued investment into their underlying feature-set.
With everything from 🚦 load balancing, ⛔️ DNS, 💾 multiple storage facilities and 🔥 security features → they are *light years* ahead of their entry-level competitors and often provide a much simpler interface than their larger counterparts…
If it’s not obvious, the point I’m trying to make is that DigitalOcean is *MORE* than just a simple VPS provider. They’re an infrastructure layer, providing a generally seamless, effective and scalable way to deploy web centric services to the Internet.
The way they deliver this service is obviously up for conjecture. However, the system is designed to provide users with the ability to spin up, scale and manage compute resource as smoothly as possible.
What you get…
✈️ Locations ✈️
Like many other “cloud” providers, DigitalOcean operates a number of data-centers around the world. Whilst these locations are leased from larger businesses, it’s all of DigitalOcean’s own hardware within them…
At the time of writing, there are 🌍12 locations available to deploy compute resource to. Each use the same hardware, making it negligible which you use:
- 3️⃣ x 🗽 New York (US)
- 2️⃣ x 🌉 San Francisco (US)
- 2️⃣ x ⛵️ Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- 1️⃣ x 💂 London (England)
- 1️⃣ x 🏰 Frankfurt (Germany)
- 1️⃣ x 🎡 Singapore (Singapore)
- 1️⃣ x 🍁Toronto (Canada)
- 1️⃣ x 👳🏾 Bangalore (India)
There’s a lot of speculation about how their data-centers are maintained.
The general consensus is that DigitalOcean rent space from larger companies (who are able to provide effective networking & security). For example, their NY2 DC is based in the Google Telx building in New York...
The above should give you some idea as to the scale and level of the hardware provision of DigitalOcean (it’s *NOT* some back-room operation)…
Match that with the same level of service provision from its 🌍 11+ other locations, and you can begin to see why it’s widely considered the third-largest web hosting provider in the world (by public facing computers).
In terms of speeds etc from the locations, they’re all built with “best-in-class” 40GbE connectivity, have on-site support and are all operated by world-class engineers.
Not much more to say than that → if you’re considering which locations to deploy your droplets, you need to focus on the closest locality to the majority of your traffic…
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What’s important to note is that whilst we put DigitalOcean firmly at the top of the “entry”/”budget” level cloud market, they’re NOT the best for localized traffic.
If you serve European banks, for example, a local provider such as Exoscale, Hetzner or Scaleway would be more appropriate.
💧 Droplets (Compute Resource) 💧
The “droplet” is the mainstay of the DigitalOcean offering…
They’re the equivalent of an EC2 instance, a Heroku “app” or another vague reference to a VPS. Ultimately, they are VPS server instances running across 1,000’s of physical servers in the location you allocated them to.
The big point with a droplet is that it is allocated a particular amount of compute resource (CPU/RAM/SSD & bandwidth), is then given an IP address and you’re then able to access it to manage its software.
Without droplets, DigitalOcean wouldn’t exist as a service:
Droplets are the core element of the offering — designed to provide users with the ability to manage their infrastructure by installing software onto a Linux box virtual machine.
Unlike a number of their competitors (most notably Vultr), DigitalOcean only support Linux distributions → *NO* Windows…
Windows requires extra licensing, which (it seems) is something DigitalOcean are reticent to provide. If you’re looking at developing a Windows-based stack, you’ll be better using Vultr.
⚠️ DNS (Domain Management) ⚠️
Next, DigitalOcean provide DNS (Domain Name System) management for any domains you wish to import into the system. It’s the method through which a .com name is routed to an IP address…
There are basically 2️⃣ ways through which domains are handled by hosting companies → either by providing “name servers” through which they are able to manage the domain’s zone file directly on their servers, or by managing the DNS “zone file” on the registrar’s system directly.
There’s no real difference between the two, except that if you’re reliant on the name server option — it generally means that if you want to change hosts in the future, you need to ensure they can replicate the set up you had previously.
All the DNS does is manage the way through which you’re able to point different domains & sub-domains to various IP addresses…
We use our domain registrar (Namecheap) to do this — mainly because we prefer to keep our system as granular as possible (if you rely on a single service too much, and get kicked off it, you’ll lose everything).
We use DigitalOcean as the hosting provider. We have a separate email provider, and are able to manage various other layers of infrastructure from directly within our domain registrar’s control panel.
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The DNS provision from DigitalOcean is very simple:
It simply provides a way to direct your domain’s A & AAAA records to your droplet (or load balancer) IP address. That’s really it. Any extra records can be added as required…
To access the DNS area, simply click on Networking from the left menu and then on the domain you wish to manage from the list that’s presented.
🔥 Firewalls (Security) 🔥
Firewalls is a *FREE* service developed by DigitalOcean to manage the ports on the various droplets (VPS instances) that you’re running. The service is aimed at blocking inbound / outbound traffic you don’t want…
Whilst not super intricate, they *do* give you some ability to manage the type of traffic you’re letting into your web based services.
If you left yourself exposed, it could result in the likes of DDOS attacks and other hacking activity.
It’s FREE, and basically provides an unobtrusive way to manage the various levels of infrastructure you may have.
To get the Firewalls working in your account, you need to click on the “Networking” tab in your control panel, an then select “Firewalls”:
Whilst this isn’t a replacement for many of the higher-level firewalls, it’s a simple way to block port-access on the infrastructure layer. Simple.
🚦 Load Balancers (Traffic Routing) 🚦
If you don’t know, load balancers are servers designed to provide a “routing” mechanism for inbound traffic. They’re used primarily for larger websites, which require multiple servers to process requests:
Like almost everything in the hosting stack, load balancing is handled with software. All you’re really doing is creating a “pseudo” web server, which forwards the request onto other servers you have set up.
Whilst load balancing is obviously a very important element of the infrastructure layer, it can be difficult to set up — and you would need to get another server specifically for the purpose.
Fortunately, DigitalOcean has taken away 99% of the headaches associated with them…
DigitalOcean’s load balancers are a simple way to provision a load-balancing server without have to set up any fiddly settings in the background…
Stipulations…
- Costs $20/mo (flat)
- You cannot add new droplets to existing load balancers
- You can only route to DigitalOcean droplets (no custom routing)
- There is no way to customize the deployment of the load balancer
- SSL certificates are handled by the web control panel (including LetsEncrypt)
If you’re happy sacrificing flexibility for the ability to manage the LB unobtrusively, you’ll likely benefit from their use.
We currently don’t have the need for one, so can’t provide much more insight than that…
Again, whilst setting up the server is relatively easy, I’d suggest that DigitalOcean don’t have a huge amount of investment in their support.
A recurring pattern with the company has been they will rigorously support infrastructure, but any application-layer issues are not really their concern.
💻 Networking Functionality (IPv6 / Private IP etc) 💻
Next, you’re able to provision each droplet with a number of different networking features. Most specifically, the introduction of IPv6, Private IP’s and floating IP’s…
For many, this stuff isn’t really that important.
However, if you’re looking to run IPv6-supported services, or are interested in using the likes of DigitalOcean’s load balancers → having access to their private networking functionality is crucial.
To access it, you’re able to either set it up when the Droplet is created, or manually later-on. Floating IP’s (IP addresses you can purchase and assign to any droplet you own) are available for purchase as well:
The IPv6 + private networking features can also be managed from the droplet creation screen…
Whilst there are a number of ways to customize the way the system works, the point is that all of the most recent networking systems are supported.
Some may argue not as well as others, but it’s still effective.
📦 Spaces (Object + Volume Storage) 📦
Finally, Spaces…
Spaces — and its counterpart Volumes — allows you to store assets, manage uploads and extend the capacity of your droplets without having to rely on the likes of Amazon S3 or another provider…
Whilst these are often considered an extension to the core offering provided by an infrastructure provider, they allow you to limit the strain on your central processing systems (Droplets, in this case).
As such, if you’re at a level whereby you have the requirement to split your assets from your main app — or are looking to handle uploads separately — you’ll need to look at Spaces (object) & Volumes (block)…
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→ 🚀 Spaces
Spaces is used (primarily) to serve static assets & ‘versioned’ data…
With what’s known as “object storage”, the Spaces functionality is designed around providing users with the ability to upload data which is managed through its various attributes and metadata.
For example, if you have assets that are attached to a web app — the version of the files contained within the app are the major defining factor as to whether they should be accessed.
Volume/block storage works in a much more linear fashion — allowing users to upload specific files (PDF’s etc) and have them accessible through their DigitalOcean account.
To this end, the “Spaces” system within DigitalOcean is quite interesting.
Based around S3, the primary reason you’d use it is proximity to your server infrastructure. The speed of file/asset delivery is highly dependent on how close the file’s host is to your main web server.
By using DigitalOcean’s own infrastructure, you’re able to take advantage of the same data-center setup being used for each of your systems…
We haven’t used Spaces yet, so cannot give any further insight.
The key thing to remember is that it seems that Spaces is used more as a CDN, whilst Volumes is the S3 equivalent.
This is important, as many developers make the mistake of thinking that S3 can be used for everything from file uploads to serving static assets. In reality, S3 is only really meant as a means to hold uploaded/static files. Asset delivery is best handled by a CDN.
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→ 🔈 Volumes
Volumes is a system through which you’re able to store files through a block-centric system. In simple terms, it means you’re able to store files uploaded through the system on a server other than your web server…
We haven’t used this ourselves → by all accounts, the system works well.
Still built on the same infrastructure, the system allows developers to integrate storage into their management structure.
🚨 Performance 🚨 // ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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📜 Setting Up A Server 📜 // ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As mentioned above, the “server” side of DigitalOcean comes in the form of 💧 Droplets 💧 → VPS instances running across 1000’s of physical servers…
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The process of setting one of these up is extremely simple. Not only this, but keeping it running, cycling its power, provisioning a different OS image and all the other faculties associated with maintaining a server… very simple.
Thus, to ensure that you’re able to manage the underlying process of the VPS, the following is how you’re able to spin up a server. Obviously, this process is relatively similar to the majority of other “cloud” systems…
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As with ALL VPS servers,
💻 Provisioning Applications 💻 // ⭐️⭐️
Like most “cloud” providers, DigitalOcean’s Achilles Heel comes from its (lack of) application provision.
Applications are the tools which you use through the Internet (Wordpress etc), and are required
⚠️ Support ⚠️ // ⭐⭐️⭐️
Along with the majority of other cloud hosting providers, DigitalOcean do
*NOT* support the platform layer (only hardware).
This is evident in the way they generally are very polite — but terse — with their support responses.
They do, however, provide a central support service through which you’re able to access their extensive knowledgebase (which is continually updated), as well as ticketing system (provided by ZenDesk I believe) ↴
The most important thing to note is that (whilst they take some time to reply), the *QUALITY* of their responses is extremely high. Native English speakers, with what I believe are bilingual Spanish speakers too, delivering technically-proficient replies.
Again, they don’t give you much help with application-level questions… but will do everything possible to ensure your VPS instances are running as smoothly, effectively and securely as possible. They will also elevate issues to their higher-level technical support group (tier 2 support) if required…
On top of this, they also have one of the largest & most extensive support knowledge-bases I’ve ever seen:
Overall, the level of support provided by the company is adequate.
It’s nothing special; they’ll typically try and get the tickets closed if they provide references to other resources, and will generally
✔️ Conclusion ✔️ // ⭐⭐⭐⭐️️
Having used DigitalOcean to host a number of production services, if
you’re looking at using the platform as a means to deploy web-centric applications, services or infrastructure → it’s second-to-none…
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Honestly — and I write this as a fan of all technology — DigitalOcean is pretty much the “only” solution you need for base-level cloud computing provision.
Whilst it may not have the most powerful hardware (you have to respect the likes of Azure, AWS and Google have HUGE budgets), as a budget supplier of VPS functionality — DigitalOcean is unmatched.
As mentioned, it’s the 👑 of “budget” cloud hosting companies, with provision for a range of services that you would only really expect from the larger businesses.
It doesn’t have any of the location advantages associated with the local providers (Scaleway, Hetzner, Exoscale) → but in terms of being a good, general purpose, provider of compute resource — it’s unsurpassed.
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If you receive *ANY* US/general Internet traffic (as opposed to geographic-dependent), you should definitely consider DigitalOcean.
It’s the leader of the “entry” / “budget” level “cloud” market, with many people using the service to host everything from Wordpress websites to eCommerce operations to Ruby on Rails apps to crypto mining systems.
The obvious drawbacks of the service come from its support. If you need help setting up your server, or are in need of any level of technical assistance — you’ll need a DevOps support partner.
Simply, DigitalOcean are not equipped to deal with the volume and depth of inquiries they receive. This is not really their issue; they are an infrastructure company, and that’s what they deliver… very well as it happens! 😄
☎️ Further Support ☎️
If you need further support, please feel free to contact us → we’re in the UK so please consider the ⌚ difference!
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We have a 👾PCFixes.com👾 live chat support channel at https://www.pcfixes.com/ → available 24/7…
Live support is recommend IF you use your system for business or work.
If you need the help right now, getting an expert on screen gives you the ability to at least get a second opinion (and perhaps someone to help guide you through the fix). Live support is the only way to do this.
⚠️ Do NOT use live services that charge up front. ONLY use companies who provide live support without ANY up-front commitments…⚠️
✔️ PCFixes.com is the only recognized online system repair service
✔️ PCFixes.com is operated from the UK by veteran PC repair technicians
✔️ PCFixes.com gives 24/7 support to anyone needing system repairs
📴 PCFixes.com also resolves issues with Android & iPhone
⭐️⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️
PCFixes.com is FREE to talk to anyone and you’re welcome to stay on the line for as long as you require to get things fixed.
The real benefit of PCFixes.com lies in its contributor network → if you cannot get your system fixed directly, you can use their local network (call an out an expert to come and solve the issue for you)…
👾 PCFixes.com 👾 provides 24/7 LIVE support which gives you the ability to connect with real people to get specific solutions for your system.
If you need any help identifying or solving the problem you’re experiencing, it’s worth using the service to gain a second opinion. If you want to keep them on the line whilst you try and fix it, you’re very welcome to do that…
📥 Thanks For Reading! 📥
If you need further help, please feel free to ask below…
