DO's kubernetes release is an an example of why I am a big fan. As a sole developer, I can't afford high technical debt, but DO packages tech in a way I can manage. I hope they keep on and wish other services (here's looking at you AWS) would package their services as well.
I am a mechanical engineer who dabbles in web development from time to time. I am forever indebted to DigitalOcean for creating a super easy platform for someone who has no clue about VPS starting out. I know how to operate a linux machine but not the slightest idea about how to host a website myself until I came across DigitalOcean and their LAMP/LEMP tutorials.
Once I was comfortable with DigitalOcean, I tried launching a VPS on AWS and holycrap it was so insanely complicated. Within 10 mins of creating an AWS account, I was out. I understand that there is nothing wrong with AWS - it is not for me, but DigitalOcean has fullfilled my needs in the most perfect way with a huge knowledge base and detailed tutorials.
Hi! I'm a member of the Community team at DigitalOcean. I wanted to thank you for your kind words about our tutorials. This kind of feedback means a lot to us. We're glad we could help you get your web site set up.
Thanks for the tutorials and for keeping them up to date. I’m probably not their target audience for the most part, but when I need to do something in an unfamiliar stack, [stack name] + digitalocean is usually my first search. Wish you guys had a little more of a professional oriented products (think AWS/GCP) and no ‘max 10 servers’ kind of rules so I could use it.
You can contact their Support to get that increased. Just guessing at the reason, but if there was no limit, what happens if someone hacks your account and spins up a 100,000 node cryptocurrency mining farm?
The same thing applies to AWS, and AWS doesn't have '10 servers maximum' limit.
Beyond anything, it tells people about their target audience, which is indie development. That's fine, and it's a great market to be in. But in the case I have to spin up 17 servers in 24 hours in three continents, I can't really afford to deal with DigitalOcean's support under that kind of stress. This doesn't happen often, but when it happens, it absolutely breaks you.
AWS most definitely has service limits that apply to all products including ec2 for this exact (and other abusive) reasons. In fact, the aws limits are even more convoluted and can hit at random if not tracked. More details here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#How_many_instances_can_I_ru...
Yeah, as I was building out some apps over the past year it was a game of ‘which account limit will I hit next’. Most of them require a support ticket to be raised, and justification.
Hey Rolleiflex - Thanks so much for being a DigitalOcean customer! We would be happy to increase your Droplet limit if you get in touch. Just visit the support link from your Cloud control panel to make the request or drop me a line directly (first name @).
For what it's worth, my account has a limit of 25 and I've never requested an increase. So I guess after some period of use and payment they trust you and increase your limit automatically?
I've been a DO customer for 5 years but I'm not sure when my droplet limit was increased.
FWIW, I find AWS limits confusing and seemingly random. Also, the fact that you can't limit total spending is _very_ unfriendly to (at least indie, as you point out) developers. I have no experience with DO though, maybe that will change with this offering.
Have you actually dealt with their support though? Your example of going from (seemingly) zero servers to 17 across 3 continents in 24 hours (indicating unforeseen absolutely incredible traction and growth) seems significantly less likely than getting a response from their support team increasing usage limits within the same timeframe.
As a Linux SysAdmin I love coming across a tutorial from DigitalOcean when Im searching for a howto because I can always be sure that they will be updated, well written and very complete. A big thank you to you and the rest of the team!
AWS is much more structured to treat infrastructure like cattle rather than pets. DO blends the line a bit, but in spinning up a ‘droplet’ you’re leaning more on the ‘pet’ type of thinking. I’m super bullish on DO - they have the API to act like AWS (to a degree) but the UI to support small/individual teams.
Agreed. DO's knowledge base changed the game for me. I went from never getting anything to work out when trying to build projects to having a plethora of tutorials on a wide range of topics that seem to always work out. DO's server service is awesome as well, but man I'm really really thankful for all their tutorials!
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I am also a fan and a customer, but did you notice how many times their tutorials appear in search results ? Their SEO game is strong! That's how they got me.
AWS used to be easy, but over the last decade it's become a specialization. Every time I wander back to it, there's another layer of complexity in the way towards doing something simple.
I agree. It seems like a deliberate strategy. Amazon is trying to create a breed of highly paid AWS experts who will be keenly interested in promoting AWS, because their valued knowledge is provider-specific and not transferable. Similar to how Microsoft created all those MCPs who tried to push Microsoft tech everywhere regardless of how well it fit the task.
I’m a partner in a company in Puerto Rico. Last year immediately after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, I wrote all of our off-island service providers asking for any help they could provide. DO was one of the most generous responses. They donated 3 months of services based on our average billing.
We greatly appreciated it, and the nice note they sent me showed they’re not only great at providing a good product, but they’re eminently human as well.
I believe it’s small things like this that separate the under dogs from the Giants. The giants are good if you are a huge Corp like Apple, for the little guys DO is amazing.
Yep, you can find cheaper VPS out there but for reliability and ease of use it's hard to beat. As for AWS, it's hard to beat AWS for the scope of services they offer, but at the scale of a handful of DO droplets, it's just not worth the effort it takes in AWS.
I ran into some limitations with Terraform and at the time it didn't support Vultr, so I ended up writing my own provisioner. It goes a bit further with setting up DNS records as well and I rolled in some of my own Docker deploy stuff into it; although in retrospect I should have made that a different project.
Pointing this out... I've gotten a bit of basics working with vultr + terraform but it's not the most straightforward. I'm not the author, but an interested observer.
In my searches for vultr + terraform, your project never came up, but there seems to be some overlap or room for collaboration.
I don't see why, I switched from DO to Vultr and then to Hetzner because the price was 4-5 times higher. Maybe it is a bit more reliable, but when I can get five servers for the price of one, I can add a lot of redundancy...
This I don't understand, there's a million cheaper VPS providers. I can understand choosing DO cause it's hip and they have great tutorials, but price? Nope.
That and as a user of 12 different LowEndBox-style providers, DigitalOcean is only marginally more expensive, with way less downtime, faster support response, an easy to use API, integrations with everything, and even planned maintenance windows which are clearly communicated.
Most of the lower priced options are run on a more shoestring budget and get uptime measured in the 98s. Also, I find a lot more noisy neighbors with many LEB-style providers.
Huh, I haven't had this issue on any of their brands. They tend to catch and fix most issues before I become aware on the dedicated machines I have with them.
FYI OVH is a key contributor to OpenStack, they've made quite a few contributions to Ceph, sponsored LetsEncrypt, and host most game servers (and even Wikileaks!).
Adding to this, I once bought their hosted container service, and when I contacted them they told me they no longer supported this product. How?! Why was I able to order it in the first place?!
I am a long time user of OVH. I don't care about fancy UI; I have hardly used it to get anything done except pay bills. I just wish they open a data center in India. That's the reason I was looking at DO; they have a DC in Bangalore.
Bandwidth and power are too expensive in most of Asia, OVH's business model is founded on building DCs next to cheap, plentiful power, then peering at the surrounding IXes for bandwidth. Most of the local IXes in Asia do not have local incumbent carriers participating, and those incumbents want hellish rates to peer.
Routing in Asia will remain crappy due to these peering problems, and volume wholesalers will be few and far between so long as power is spendy.
