Comparison: Linode vs DigitalOcean - best VPS in 2023
In this article we will search for the best VPS provider in 2023. We will compare two of the most popular names in the VPS area:
- DigitalOcean - get $200 for 60 days to test DO
- Linode - get $100 to test Linode in 60 days
My personal choice of VPS for 2023 is Linode. Read the rest of the article to find why. In short - better performance, pricing, scalability, Revolut cards and support.
Previous article: Comparison: DigitalOcean Vs. Linode 2020 which helped many people to make the right choice.
How to find the best VPS provider in 2023?
There are many different VPS providers to choose from, and the best one depends on specific needs and requirements. Some factors to consider when selecting a VPS provider include(according to my experience):
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Performance: Find a provider that offers high-performance servers with fast processors and plenty of RAM. This is extremely important for web hosting to get better results in SEO.
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Pricing: Consider the overall cost of the VPS, including the price of the server itself, any additional features or services, and any fees for data transfer or bandwidth usage. Check if there is taxation applied for your country.
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Scalability: Choose a provider that allows you to easily scale up or down as your needs change. Quick scale up and down will save you time, money, stress and efforts.
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Support: Look for a provider that offers reliable customer support, including 24/7 support and a range of resources such as documentation, tutorials, and forums. Even if support is needed once per year it might fail your business for a single day.
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Security: Choose a provider that takes security seriously and offers features such as firewalls, encryption, and backup options.
Some popular VPS providers include DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, and AWS. It's a good idea to compare the features and pricing of multiple providers to find the best fit for your needs.
If you have doubts for two providers then the best option is to test both of them. This is what I did with:
and the rest of the article is based on my experience in the last 5 years.
Performance
There are different ways to measure performance for VPS. In my case I'm hosting multiple Ghost blogs + MySQL server.
Overall performance is close with slight advantage on the Linode servers. There is better CPU and RAM usage on Linode in comparison to DigitalOcean.
I've used DO as a main VPS for the last 6 years. I switched to Linode in 2022 due to performance issues in DO. There were several periods of performance degradations which caused drop in site loading times from 3s to 60s.
I've tried to change the plans, experiment with CPU-Optimized plans but nothing helped. For me the performance winner in 2023 is Linode.
Pricing
DO and Linode offer a range of plans with different purposes.
DigitalOcean droplet pricing in 2023 has 5 main plans:
- Basic
- General Purpose
- CPU-Optimized
- Memory-Optimized
- Storage-Optimized
DigitalOcean offers 3 types: Regular, Premium Intel and Premium AMD. From my experience Premium AMD was the best choice.
Linode has 5 main pricing plans too:
- Dedicated CPU
- Shared CPU
- High Memory
- GPU
- Kubernetes
Let's compare the basic pricing below.
DigitalOcean basic droplets
Below you can find :
| Memory | vCPUs | Transfer | SSD | $/HR | $/MO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 512 MiB | 1 vCPU | 500 GiB | 10 GiB | $0.00595 | $4.00 |
| 1 GiB | 1 vCPU | 1,000 GiB | 25 GiB | $0.00893 | $6.00 |
| 2 GiB | 1 vCPU | 2,000 GiB | 50 GiB | $0.01786 | $12.00 |
| 2 GiB | 2 vCPUs | 3,000 GiB | 60 GiB | $0.02679 | $18.00 |
| 4 GiB | 2 vCPUs | 4,000 GiB | 80 GiB | $0.03571 | $24.00 |
| 8 GiB | 4 vCPUs | 5,000 GiB | 160 GiB | $0.07143 | $48.00 |
| 16 GiB | 8 vCPUs | 6,000 GiB | 320 GiB | $0.14286 | $96.00 |
Linode shared CPU plans
| Plan | $/Mo | $/Hr | RAM | CPUs | Storage | Transfer | Network In/Out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nanode 1 GB | $5 | $0.0075 | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB | 1 TB | 40/1 Gbps |
| Linode 2 GB | $10 | $0.015 | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB | 2 TB | 40/2 Gbps |
| Linode 4 GB | $20 | $0.03 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB | 40/4 Gbps |
| Linode 8 GB | $40 | $0.06 | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB | 5 TB | 40/5 Gbps |
| Linode 16 GB | $80 | $0.12 | 16 GB | 6 | 320 GB | 8 TB | 40/6 Gbps |
| Linode 32 GB | $160 | $0.24 | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB | 16 TB | 40/7 Gbps |
| Linode 64 GB | $320 | $0.48 | 64 GB | 16 | 1280 GB | 20 TB | 40/9 Gbps |
| Linode 96 GB | $480 | $0.72 | 96 GB | 20 | 1920 GB | 20 TB | 40/10 Gbps |
| Linode 128 GB | $640 | $0.96 | 128 GB | 24 | 2560 GB | 20 TB | 40/11 Gbps |
| Linode 192 GB | $960 | $1.44 | 192 GB | 32 | 3840 GB | 20 TB | 40/12 Gbps |
Best VPS pricing
In general the providers are pretty close in pricing. For my needs Linode offers better prices - in sectionDedicated CPU Plans
Linode
| Plan | $/Mo | $/Hr | RAM | CPUs | Storage | Transfer | Network In/Out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated 4 GB | $30 | $0.045 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB | 40/4 Gbps |
| Dedicated 8 GB | $60 | $0.09 | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB | 5 TB | 40/5 Gbps |
DigitalOcean
| Memory | vCPUs | Transfer | SSD Variant | SSD | $/HR | $/MO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 GiB | 2 vCPUs | 4,000 GiB | 1x | 25 GiB | $0.06250 | $42.00 |
| 4 GiB | 2 vCPUs | 4,000 GiB | 2x | 50 GiB | $0.06994 | $47.00 |
Support
For me it's easier to open a ticket to Linode in comparison to DO. DO was making it hard to open tickets in the past.
In general I think that both can work on the support - especially on the performance issue like:
- downtime
- speed
- time to load
DigitalOcean support
For 6 years of active usage of DigitalOcean I had to use support 3 times. First time was long ago and it was quite OK.
But the last 2 times were recent experiences. A problem with DNS settings on their side - solved for 2 days. And the final one was related to performance issues.
For the performance issue they didn't take it seriously. I've explained my problem on which I got generic email explaining basics of performance with few links. My original question and issue were not addressed. I tried to send a reply but the reply disappeared. So the issue was closed - so I've closed my droplets too.
Linode support
Only once I had to use support for Linode. It was related to payment for a stopped server. At that time I didn't know that you are still paying if the server is not running.
So in the end I had to pay for the servers even if I'm not running them. So be careful with that.
Scalability
Scale down and up is much easier with Linode. Also DO doesn't allow scale down for some plans. Which means that once the droplet is increased you can' go back.
Sometimes you may need to scale up for a small period of time or just for tests. In this case Linode is the better option. One downside of the Linode is the longer times for boot of the server - it might take 2 - 3 minutes sometimes.
Linode offers an easier way to switch between different plans and more transparent server characteristics.
Security
So far no security issues related to both VPS providers. I think that both take security seriously. I'm reading newsletters from both - there I can find articles related to security and new features.
DigitalOcean vs Linode pros & cons
DigitalOcean
pros
- better marketplace - more apps available
- good community and tutorials
cons
- doesn't work with Revolut cards
- bad support experience
- performance issue
- export of local backups
Linode
pros
- better pricing and plans
- stable performance
- better scalability
cons
- export of local backups