DigitalOcean and Linode have been the default first VPS for small teams for more than a decade, and the two have converged more than their marketing suggests. DigitalOcean's Droplet page lists a 512 MiB Regular Droplet at $4.00 a month, a 1 GiB Droplet at $6.00 and a 2 GiB Droplet at $12.00, each with its own SSD and transfer allowance. Linode, now sold as Akamai Cloud since Akamai bought it in 2022, starts at the 1 GB Nanode for $5 a month and only goes up from there: $12 for 2 GB, $24 for 4 GB, $48 for 8 GB, $96 for 16 GB and $192 for 32 GB on the shared-CPU line.
TL;DR
Both sell simple hourly-billed virtual machines, and the gap is smaller than the brand fight suggests. DigitalOcean's cheapest Regular Droplet is 512 MiB at $4.00 a month ($0.00595/hour) but ships 10 GiB of SSD and 500 GiB of transfer; Linode's floor is the 1 GB Nanode at $5 a month ($0.0075/hour) with 25 GB SSD and 1 TB of transfer, and Linode's plan ladder runs to 192 GB of RAM through a public API. Buy DigitalOcean when you want per-second billing and a wider managed-service catalogue, buy Linode when you want more disk and traffic per dollar at the entry size.
The billing models differ in a way that shows up on a real invoice. DigitalOcean moved Droplets to per-second billing on January 1, 2026, with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher, so a droplet you destroy after an hour costs cents rather than a full day. Linode bills hourly with the published monthly figure as the cap, which works the same way in practice: you never pay more than the monthly rate for a month of uptime. The bigger structural difference is transfer. Linode pools outbound transfer across the account per region and bills $0.005 per GB above the pool in most regions, with inbound unmetered, while DigitalOcean's allowance sits on each Droplet — the $4.00 plan carries 500 GiB and the $5-equivalent sizes carry 1,000 to 2,000 GiB.
Beyond the raw machine, both sell the surrounding services. DigitalOcean lists optimized Droplet families with published rates — CPU-Optimized at $42 a month for 4 GiB and 2 dedicated vCPUs, General Purpose at $63 for 8 GiB and 2 vCPUs, Memory-Optimized at $84 for 16 GiB and 2 vCPUs — plus managed databases, Kubernetes and a marketplace, with backups charged either as a percentage of the Droplet cost (20% weekly, 30% daily) or usage-based from $0.01/GiB a month, and snapshots at $0.06/GB a month. Linode counters with a Dedicated CPU line from $36 a month for 2 cores and 4 GB, High Memory from $60 a month for 24 GB, managed databases from $15 a month, object storage from $6.99 a month and NodeBalancer from $10 a month, with backups as a $2 to $40 add-on depending on plan size.
| Feature | DigitalOcean | Linode |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest instance | 512 MiB Regular Droplet: 1 vCPU, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer, $4.00/month ($0.00595/hour) | Nanode 1 GB: 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer, $5/month ($0.0075/hour) |
| Next sizes | 1 GiB $6.00/month (25 GiB SSD, 1,000 GiB transfer); 2 GiB $12.00/month (50 GiB, 2,000 GiB) | 2 GB $12/month (50 GB, 2 TB); 4 GB $24/month (80 GB, 4 TB); 8 GB $48/month (160 GB, 5 TB) |
| Billing granularity | Per second from January 1, 2026, with a 60-second or $0.01 minimum charge | Hourly, with the published monthly price as the cap |
| Dedicated CPU line | General Purpose Droplets from $63/month (8 GiB, 2 vCPU, 25 GiB SSD) | Dedicated CPU from $36/month (4 GB, 2 cores); G7 and G8 generations priced above it |
| Memory-heavy line | Memory-Optimized from $84/month (16 GiB, 2 vCPU, 50 GiB SSD) | High Memory from $60/month (24 GB on 2 dedicated cores) |
| Backups | 20% weekly or 30% daily of Droplet cost, or usage-based from $0.01/GiB per month; snapshots $0.06/GB per month | Add-on: $2 on Nanode, $2.50 on 2 GB, $5 on 4 GB, scaling with plan size |
| Network transfer | Per-Droplet allowance, 500 GiB on the $4.00 plan up to 2,000 GiB at 2 GiB | Pooled per account, inbound free, $0.005/GB above the pool in most regions |
| Regional pricing | US regions listed at the base rate | Base rate in most regions; Jakarta and São Paulo list the Nanode at $6 and $7 |
| Company | Independent public cloud company (NYSE: DOCN) | Acquired by Akamai in 2022 and sold as Akamai Cloud |
| Signup economics | Promotional credits for new users; no permanent free Droplet plan | Time-limited trial credit for new accounts; no permanent free plan |
Pick DigitalOcean if
At $4.00 a month for 512 MiB with per-second billing, DigitalOcean is the cheaper way to keep a small machine alive, and its optimized families, managed databases and marketplace mean fewer things to assemble yourself. Budget for the smaller disk: 10 GiB and 500 GiB of transfer is what the cheapest plan actually carries, and percentage-based backups add 20 to 30% on top.
Pick Linode if
The $5 Nanode gives you 25 GB of SSD and 1 TB of transfer, double the disk and double the traffic of the cheapest Droplet for one dollar more, and the ladder to 192 GB is published through an open API you can read before you sign up. Dedicated cores start at $36 and High Memory at $60, both below the equivalent DigitalOcean optimized sizes — the trade is a shorter list of managed services and paid backups.
This page uses only figures published on digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets, Linode's plan documentation and the Linode plan API, plus vendor pages captured in October 2026. We did not collect or verify independent user reviews, ratings or forums for either provider, so no third-party sentiment is quoted here.
At the very bottom, DigitalOcean is cheaper in dollars: $4.00 for 512 MiB against $5 for 1 GB. At the same memory, the gap reverses. Linode's 4 GB plan is $24 a month with 80 GB of SSD and 4 TB of transfer, while DigitalOcean's General Purpose 8 GiB with 2 dedicated vCPUs is $63 a month, and its Memory-Optimized 16 GiB is $84. Compare like with like on disk and transfer, not on the headline price.
DigitalOcean charges per second since January 1, 2026 with a minimum of 60 seconds or $0.01. Linode charges hourly and caps the month at the published monthly rate. For any machine that lives longer than an hour the two behave the same; for very short-lived jobs, the per-second model has the finer granularity.
Linode. The $5 Nanode carries 25 GB of SSD and 1 TB of transfer, while DigitalOcean's $4.00 Droplet carries 10 GiB and 500 GiB. DigitalOcean's $6.00 1 GiB Droplet matches the Nanode's 25 GiB of SSD but still lists 1,000 GiB of transfer against Linode's 1 TB, so the traffic allowance is comparable and the disk is the deciding difference.
Neither lists a permanent free plan. DigitalOcean's Droplet FAQ points new users at promotional credits, and Linode gives new accounts time-limited trial credit. If you need a machine that stays up at zero cost, neither is the answer.
On Linode, 4 GB is $24 a month with 80 GB of storage and 4 TB of transfer. On DigitalOcean, 4 GiB sits in the Regular Droplet range above the $12.00 plan, and if you need dedicated cores the General Purpose 8 GiB with 2 vCPUs is $63 a month. Entry-to-production pricing is where the two lists diverge most.
Linode pools outbound transfer across the account per region, bills $0.005 per GB above the pool in most regions, and keeps inbound free; distributed compute regions are the exception and are not pooled. DigitalOcean publishes a transfer allowance per Droplet, starting at 500 GiB on the $4.00 plan, so each machine carries its own budget.
Spot an outdated price or feature? Let us know and we'll verify it.