Update: check out the newer comparison for current prices!
I’ve been a longtime DigitalOcean customer and I can honestly say their service is excellent. But when you’re on a tight budget, you may have to compromise. I’m running a Dedicated KF2 Linux Server and 512 MB just won’t cut it, not even with a swapfile.
So first I moved to Linode but their Frankfurt datacenter had a serious outage just when I did this. Sporadic latency spikes didn’t seem to have disappeared even after it’s been marked resolved, so I ended up moving my VM to the London datacenter. Guess what: you need to open a ticket for that and after hours of exchanging mails with a helpdesk agent, you’ll finally get it done. Ouch.
Then came the KF2 Halloween Horrors update and I had storage issues, so again, I was looking for a better deal. Then did I stumble upon Vultr. For the same money, they offer +5G disk space and their website is also pretty convenient to use. Their default CentOS instance is severely customized though, so much that the SELinux config file is actually nonexistent. Then I checked and realized I could use my own ISO file for installing my VM – that’s right, folks, you have absolute control.
It’s been a smooth ride with Vultr so far, I’m yet to face any serious problem. Time will tell, I guess. In the meanwhile, check out my comparison table – it’s up to you to decide. To me, Vultr seems to be the clear winner for my personal purposes. (but I’d like to mention that we’re staying with DO for our company services, because, like I said, their quality of service is excellent)
| DigitalOcean | Linode | Vultr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $5 | $5 | $5 |
| Storage | 20 GB | 20 GB | 25 GB |
| RAM | 512 MB | 1024 MB | 1024 MB |
| vCPU | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Monthly Transfer | 1 TB | 1 TB | 1 TB |
| Block Storage / GB | $0.1 | $2 * | $0.1 |
| Unattended Datacenter Move | yes (snapshots) | no | yes (snapshots) |
| Custom ISO Install | no | yes | yes |
| Official App | no | yes | no |
* based on anecdotal evidence, no public pricing on block storage