Introduction
On this page, we explain the features, functions, and pricing of DigitalOcean.
Official Information
- Official Website
- Official Twitter
- Official Blog
- Official YouTube Channel
- API Documentation
- User Management Dashboard
Free Coupons
By creating an account through this link, you can receive a $200 coupon for your first registration. The coupon is valid for 60 days.
Features of DigitalOcean
Summary of Use Cases
– No problem with only overseas data centers
– Prioritizing the richness of cloud functions and the ease of use of the control panel
In such cases, the major overseas VPS provider DigitalOcean will be a strong candidate.
When you want to avoid the high cost of AWS but still need robust cloud functions, DigitalOcean is chosen.
For users in Japan, the Singapore DC is recommended due to its proximity.
General Features
DigitalOcean meets the three major cloud conditions:
1. Volatility (ability to create and discard servers on an hourly billing basis)
2. Redundancy (ability to continue service even if one server goes down, requiring load balancers and local connections)
3. Scalability (ability to upgrade specs while maintaining data)
It is an advanced cloud-based VPS that goes beyond the scope of a typical VPS. It has a long history and is the first name mentioned among overseas VPS providers.
The main features are:
– Managed Database
– K8s
– Serverless Functions
DigitalOcean offers the most advanced cloud features among VPS providers. It also provides container-based services such as App Platform, Managed DB, Managed Kubernetes (k8s), and Container Registry. Additionally, the inclusion of free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on the load balancer, automatic updates, and wildcard support are significant operational advantages.
DigitalOcean is chosen by those who do not want to use the high-priced AWS but want to enjoy cloud features as cheaply as possible.
However, as of now, all data centers are overseas, so it may not be the best choice for services targeting Japan. Both the interface and support are available only in English.
List of DigitalOcean Server Plans
Using overseas hosting from Japan will incur an additional 10% consumption tax.
There are over 100 plans available. Narrow down the conditions and find the one that suits you best.
Shared CPU
Basic
Basic Droplets provide the most efficient CPU usage at low cost for workloads with low dedicated thread usage. They are ideal for bursty applications that can handle varying levels of CPU.
Regular Disk type: SSD
Premium Intel Disk: NVMe SSD
Premium AMD Disk: NVMe SSD
Dedicated CPU
General Purpose
General Purpose Droplets offer a balanced ratio of memory to dedicated CPU and are suitable for various production workloads. They are ideal for general-purpose workloads that require dedicated compute power. The premium version of General Purpose Droplets also offers up to 10Gbps outbound network speed and NVMe SSD.
Regular Intel Disk type: SSD / Network: Up to 2 Gbps
Premium Intel Disk: NVMe SSD / Network: Up to 10 Gbps
CPU-Optimized
CPU-Optimized Droplets have a 2:1 memory to CPU ratio. This configuration, with high-speed (2.6GHz or higher) dedicated vCPUs, is ideal for applications that require fast and consistent performance, such as media streaming, gaming, and data analysis. The premium version of CPU-Optimized Droplets also offers up to 10Gbps outbound network speed and NVMe SSD.
Regular Intel Disk type: SSD / Network: Up to 2 Gbps
Premium Intel Disk: NVMe SSD / Network: Up to 10 Gbps
Memory-Optimized
Memory-Optimized Droplets offer 8GiB of RAM per vCPU. Adding more memory helps avoid excessive swapping to disk and memory shortage errors, both of which significantly impact application performance and stability. Memory-Optimized Droplets use NVMe SSDs to improve disk performance for workloads with a high number of transactions.
Regular Intel Disk type: SSD / Network: Up to 2 Gbps
Premium Intel Disk: NVMe SSD / Network: Up to 10 Gbps
Storage-Optimized
Storage-Optimized Droplets use NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), an interface protocol explicitly built for the latest SSDs. Utilizing parallelism, they achieve significantly faster disk performance than regular SSDs.
Regular Intel Disk type: SSD / Network: Up to 2 Gbps
Premium Intel Disk: NVMe SSD / Network: Up to 10 Gbps
App Platform
The aim is for engineers to only worry about the source code, while the infrastructure setup and operation are handled by DigitalOcean. This PaaS (Platform as a Service) type cloud service aims to reduce the setup and operation burden on infrastructure engineers and automate infrastructure operations.
Similarly, for infrastructure operation automation services, using Managed Kubernetes allows for more detailed control, but for those who find it too complex (not wanting to deal with intricate infrastructure management), this service will be a perfect fit.
Here’s a demo video showing how you can publish a site by simply selecting a GitHub repository and clicking a few buttons.
Some features include:
- When you push the source code to the GitHub Master branch, it will be reflected on the site without downtime, triggering the deployment automatically.
- Both scaling up the server specs or increasing the number of servers can be easily done from the management screen, without the system going down (the Load Balancer is built-in and will handle load distribution accordingly).
- Up to 3 static file-based sites are free.
- You can combine it with Managed DB to handle the database part.
There are three plans: Starter (free), Basic, and Professional, with the following differences:
The Starter plan is limited to static sites, while Basic and above allow for dynamic sites using PHP, etc. The Professional plan offers dedicated CPU usage (albeit at a higher price).
Starter (for static file-based sites only) is free for up to 3 sites (beyond that, $3/site per month). The Basic and Professional plans’ pricing varies depending on the server specs.
Basic
Professional
Serverless Functions
Pricing is based on the amount of memory used x the number of seconds during the request.
A free tier of 90,000 GB-seconds = 25 GB-hours is available.
Beyond the free tier, the cost is $0.0000185/GB-second ($0.0666/GB-hour).
Supported languages:
Go
Node.js
PHP
Python
Here is what “Hello World” looks like in each language:
Since Go language isn’t particularly fast in serverless (according to AWS), other simpler languages can be used without issues.
Go
package main
import (
"fmt"
)
type Request struct {
Name string `json:"name"`
}
type Response struct {
StatusCode int `json:"statusCode,omitempty"`
Headers map[string]string `json:"headers,omitempty"`
Body string `json:"body,omitempty"`
}
func Main(in Request) (*Response, error) {
if in.Name == "" {
in.Name = "stranger"
}
return &Response{
Body: fmt.Sprintf("Hello %s", in.Name),
}, nil
}
Node.js
function main(args) {
let name = args.name || 'stranger'
let greeting = 'Hello ' + name + '!'
console.log(greeting)
return {"body": greeting}
}
exports.main = main
PHP
<?php
function main(array $args) : array
{
$name = $args["name"] ?? "stranger";
$greeting = "Hello {$name}!";
echo $greeting;
return [
'body' => $greeting,
];
}
Python
def main(args):
name = args.get("name", "stranger")
greeting = "Hello " + name + "!"
print(greeting)
return {"body": greeting}
Managed Database Service (DBaaS)
A typical DataBase as a Service managed DB.
Features:
– No configuration/management required
– Daily free backup & recovery to that point
– Automatic recovery with standby server in case of failure
– Scalable
– Choose from Kafka, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Redis
To ensure system redundancy, at least one standby server is necessary.
The backend server can be chosen from Basic, General Purpose, or Storage Optimized categories, similar to the server.
Basic
General
Storage Optimized
Managed Kubernetes (k8s)
Managed Kubernetes itself does not incur additional charges, but you will be charged for the servers used.
Due to the configuration, it requires at least 3 servers, so if each server costs $10, the minimum cost would be $10 x 3 = $30.
Container Registry
Allows registration and management of Docker Images within DigitalOcean’s infrastructure.
Block Storage
$10 per month for 100GB.
Expandable up to 16TB.
Object Storage
$5 per month for 250GB.
Includes a free transfer tier of 1TB per month.
Beyond that, the cost is $0.02/GB for storage and $0.01/GB for transfer.
Fixed IP Address
If not linked to a server instance, it costs $5/month, but it is free if linked.
Load Balancer
For $12, it supports up to 10,000 simultaneous accesses per second, 10,000 concurrent connections, and 250 SSL concurrent connections.
Capacity can be horizontally scaled by adding more Load Balancers.
Up to 100 Load Balancers can be deployed, supporting a maximum of 25,000 SSL concurrent connections per second.
It is a significant advantage to utilize free SSL certificates on Load Balancers and automatic SSL certificate renewal.
Wildcard certificates are also supported.
Sticky sessions can be used.
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
Available for free.
Allows the creation of a closed network within your managed server group.
Makes security management easier.
Even across VPCs, communication is free within the same DC.
Response Time Across DigitalOcean Data Centers
| DC | Ping Time from Vultr’s Tokyo DC |
|---|---|
| Amsterdam | 0.264 seconds |
| Bangalore | 0.115 seconds |
| Frankfurt | 0.255 seconds |
| London | 0.211 seconds |
| New York | 0.160 seconds |
| San Francisco | 0.110 seconds |
| Singapore | 0.071 seconds |
| Toronto | 0.209 seconds |
Since DigitalOcean does not have a data center in Japan, you need to be aware of the network response time to each data center from Japan when choosing a data center.
For users primarily accessing from Japan, the Singapore DC, with the shortest ping (network response time), is the best option.
On the other hand, if location doesn’t matter and you choose based on features, New York DC is a good choice as new features are likely to be provided there first.
DigitalOcean’s Easy Install Software
1Password SCIM bridge Acra Akaunting Alf.io Ant Media Server Community Edition Ant Media Server Enterprise Edition apnscp Argo CD AzuraCast bcoin Bitwarden Botpress Buddy Bugfender Caddy CapRover Chamilo CloudBees Jenkins Distribution Cloudron code-server Countly Analytics cPanel & WHM® CyberPanel CyberScore Deadletter - Facial Identification Tool Directus Discourse Django Docker Dokku Dokos ERPNext FastNetMon FASTPANEL Fathom Analytics Flashphoner Web Call Server Flexify.IO Ghost Gitea Grafana Grafana Loki GrandNode Hasura GraphQL Helpy HoneyDB Agent InfluxDB TICK Stack Invoice Ninja IOTA Hornet Node Izenda Jaeger Jelastic PaaS kube-state-metrics KubeMQ Kubernetes Metrics Server Kubernetes Monitoring Stack LAMP LEMP Linkerd LogDNA Mastodon Mattermost Mattermost Operator Meltano MemCachier Memgraph Metabase Microweber MongoDB Moon MySQL Nakama Netdata NetFoundry Cloud Gateway NGINX Ingress Controller Nimbella Lite Ninjam NKN Full Node Node.js Quickstart NodeGame NodeJS Okteto Onion Routed Cloud Onjection Jenkins ONLYOFFICE Open Source Social Network Open Unlight OpenCart OpenEBS OpenFaaS OpenFaaS Kubernetes OpenLiteSpeed Django OpenLiteSpeed NodeJS OpenLiteSpeed WordPress OpenVPN + Pihole OpenVPN Access Server PacVim Passbolt CE PDFShift PhpMyAdmin Plesk Plesk (CentOS) Prometheus Prometheus Kubernetes QCObjects Red Sky Ops Redash Restyaboard Restyaboard (CentOS) RethinkDB RethinkDB (Fantasia) Rocket.Chat RStudio RStudio + H2O RStudio + PkgDev Ruby on Rails Scout Selenoid Shopware Skaffolder Enterprise Snapt Aria Snapt Nova SolidInvoice Spotipo StorageOS Strapi ThingsBoard Community Edition ThingsBoard Professional Edition titra Varbase VitalPBX vitalpointz IoT Core Lite WeconexPBX Wiki.js WordPress WordPress Kubernetes Workarea WorkflowServer X-Cart Zabbix Zeromon Zabbix ZoomAdmin Zulip
Are there good and bad CPUs?
There are differences in CPUs, and you can check if you got a good or bad one by looking at the CPU information. If you got a bad one, discard the server and create a new one.
This is similar to the concept of “reset marathon” (creating and deleting accounts until you get a good character in a mobile game), applied to VPS (VPS reset marathon).
When new CPUs are released, it’s a good idea to take a snapshot and create a new instance.
In the inexpensive Basic plan, Regular has a higher randomness in CPU type, but choosing Premium Intel/AMD offers relatively stable and high performance.
DigitalOcean Cloud Function List
DDoS protection and High Availability are not provided for individual server instances but are available with App Platform.
Reviews and Reputation of DigitalOcean
The primary users are overseas, and it is often chosen as a cost-effective solution for those who find AWS and other public clouds too expensive.
Unfortunately, it does not provide services in Japan, so its use in Japan is moderate. However, it is one of the largest VPS providers overseas.
DigitalOcean Benchmark Results