DigitalOcean
Small servers with the clearest panel and the best tutorials. A little dearer.
Use it if
- It is your first server and you want a panel that explains itself
- You will lean on written tutorials when something goes wrong
- You want data centres on several continents
Skip it if
- Price is everything, where Hetzner is cheaper
- You want managed hosting where someone else runs the server
- You need a GPU
DigitalOcean rents the same small Linux servers as everyone else. What it is known for is the stuff around them: a control panel that does not assume you know what you are doing, and a library of tutorials that half the internet links to when a command goes wrong.
Where it fits
Your first VPS. When you are learning, a panel you can read and documentation that answers the exact error you just got is worth more than chasing the absolute cheapest listed price, at least until you no longer need the hand-holding.
What you are buying
A slice of a machine, an address, Ubuntu, a predictable monthly bill, and data centres in enough places to pick one near you. The Hermes guide runs on it unchanged.
Honest limitations
I have not run anything here; Vultr is what I used, and this is orientation. It is not the cheapest; Hetzner undercuts it clearly. Backups cost extra. And a server you forget about is a server you keep paying for, wherever it is.
Next step
Pick the one with a data centre nearest you among these three. If you expect to need the tutorials, this one. The guides on this site work the same on all of them.
Related reading
Learn
What is a VPS?
