DigitalOcean vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)
A comparison of DigitalOcean and Linode (Akamai Cloud) built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
- Pick DigitalOcean if
- Teams that want plain Linux virtual machines with predictable per-second billing from $4 a month, and the option of managed databases beside them. App Platform adds Git and Docker deploys on top.
- Pick Linode (Akamai Cloud) if
- Akamai Cloud virtual machines from $5 a month in North America, with 1 TB of transfer included and egress at half a cent per gigabyte in core data centres.
9 sourced criteria separate them:
- Entry paid plan
- DigitalOcean: $4.00
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): $5.00/month (Nanode 1 GB shared CPU plan, North America pricing)
- Pricing model
- DigitalOcean: billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Hybrid hourly billing, invoiced monthly, with hourly usage capped at each service's monthly rate
- Egress over allowance
- DigitalOcean: $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); $0.02 per GiB (App Platform)
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): $0.005/GB in most core data centers ($0.015/GB Jakarta, $0.007/GB Sao Paulo, $0.01/GB distributed data centers)
- When you exceed a cap
- DigitalOcean: Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Billed automatically — transfer above the monthly pool starts at $0.005/GB ($5/TB) and varies by region ($0.015/GB Jakarta, $0.007/GB São Paulo, $0.01/GB all distributed data centers), charged at the end of the billing period
- Storage (entry plan)
- DigitalOcean: 10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb)
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 25 GB on the Nanode 1 GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/mo in North America regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fremont, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.)
- Memory (entry plan)
- DigitalOcean: 512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb)
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 1 GB on the Nanode 1 GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/mo in North America regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fremont, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.)
- Included bandwidth
- DigitalOcean: 500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb); this is an included allowance, not a hard cap — see overage_behaviour
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 1 TB per month included with the entry-level Nanode 1 GB plan (larger shared CPU plans include more)
- File or inode limit
- DigitalOcean: Up to 5000 Block Storage volumes per account
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): 250 Block Storage volumes per account across all regions (default global quota; increases can be requested)
- Autoscaling
- DigitalOcean: Supported
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Limited
At a glance.
| Criterion | DigitalOcean | Linode (Akamai Cloud) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Entry paid plan | $4.00 | $5.00/month (Nanode 1 GB shared CPU plan, North America pricing) |
| Pricing model | billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher | Hybrid hourly billing, invoiced monthly, with hourly usage capped at each service's monthly rate |
| Egress over allowance | $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); $0.02 per GiB (App Platform) | $0.005/GB in most core data centers ($0.015/GB Jakarta, $0.007/GB Sao Paulo, $0.01/GB distributed data centers) |
| When you exceed a cap | Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free | Billed automatically — transfer above the monthly pool starts at $0.005/GB ($5/TB) and varies by region ($0.015/GB Jakarta, $0.007/GB São Paulo, $0.01/GB all distributed data centers), charged at the end of the billing period |
| Limits | ||
| Storage (entry plan) | 10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb) | 25 GB on the Nanode 1 GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/mo in North America regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fremont, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.) |
| Memory (entry plan) | 512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb) | 1 GB on the Nanode 1 GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/mo in North America regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fremont, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.) |
| Included bandwidth | 500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb); this is an included allowance, not a hard cap — see overage_behaviour | 1 TB per month included with the entry-level Nanode 1 GB plan (larger shared CPU plans include more) |
| File or inode limit | Up to 5000 Block Storage volumes per account | 250 Block Storage volumes per account across all regions (default global quota; increases can be requested) |
| Execution | ||
| Managed connection pooling | Supported | Supported |
| Deployment | ||
| Containers | Supported | Supported |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Persistent storage | Supported | Supported |
| Managed databases | Supported | Supported |
| Autoscaling | Supported | Limited |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- DigitalOcean
- $4.00
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- $5.00/month (Nanode 1 GB shared CPU plan, North America pricing)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean ↗
“512 MiB / 1 vCPU / 500 GiB transfer / 10 GiB SSD — $0.00595 /hr, $4.00 /mo”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- North America Cloud Computing Costs and Pricing | Akamai ↗
“Nanode 1 GB $5.00 $0.0075 1 GB 1 25 GB 1 TB 40/1 Gbps”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
Pricing model
- DigitalOcean
- billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Hybrid hourly billing, invoiced monthly, with hourly usage capped at each service's monthly rate
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“billed per second with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Billing ↗
“Akamai uses a hybrid hourly billing model that's simple and flexible. You can continuously add, modify, and remove services throughout the month. Once the month ends, you receive an invoice for the hourly usage of each service up to the monthly cap.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Egress over allowance
- DigitalOcean
- $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); $0.02 per GiB (App Platform)
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- $0.005/GB in most core data centers ($0.015/GB Jakarta, $0.007/GB Sao Paulo, $0.01/GB distributed data centers)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Bandwidth Billing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“Droplets: Additional outbound transfer is billed at $0.01 per GiB. App Platform: Additional outbound transfer is billed at $0.02 per GiB.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- Network transfer usage and costs ↗
“Any transfer usage that exceeds the monthly allotment starts at $0.005/GB (or $5/TB) depending on the service's region (see the table below). If no transfer is included, all transfer is billed at the following rates.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
When you exceed a cap
- DigitalOcean
- Billed automatically — outbound transfer beyond the pooled plan allowance is charged at $0.01 per GiB; inbound transfer is free
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Billed automatically — transfer above the monthly pool starts at $0.005/GB ($5/TB) and varies by region ($0.015/GB Jakarta, $0.007/GB São Paulo, $0.01/GB all distributed data centers), charged at the end of the billing period
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“Each Droplet plan includes an amount of free outbound data transfer. Additional outbound transfer is billed at $0.01 per GiB. Inbound transfer to Droplets is free.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Network transfer usage and costs ↗
“Any transfer usage that exceeds the monthly allotment starts at $0.005/GB (or $5/TB) depending on the service’s region (see the table below). If no transfer is included, all transfer is billed at the following rates. Transfer usage is charged at the end of the billing period.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Storage (entry plan)
10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb)
25 GB on the Nanode 1 GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/mo in North America regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fremont, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean ↗
“Memory | vCPU | Transfer | SSD | $/hr | $/mo — 512 MiB | 1 vCPU | 500 GiB | 10 GiB | $0.00595 | $4.00”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- North America Cloud Computing Costs and Pricing | Akamai ↗
“Plan | $/Mo | $/Hr | RAM | CPUs | Storage | Transfer | Network In/Out — Nanode 1 GB | $5.00 | $0.0075 | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB | 1 TB | 40/1 Gbps”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
Memory (entry plan)
512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo, size slug s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb)
1 GB on the Nanode 1 GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/mo in North America regions (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Fremont, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Seattle, Toronto, Washington D.C.)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean ↗
“Memory | vCPU | Transfer | SSD | $/hr | $/mo — 512 MiB | 1 vCPU | 500 GiB | 10 GiB | $0.00595 | $4.00”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- North America Cloud Computing Costs and Pricing | Akamai ↗
“Plan | $/Mo | $/Hr | RAM | CPUs | Storage | Transfer | Network In/Out — Nanode 1 GB | $5.00 | $0.0075 | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB | 1 TB | 40/1 Gbps”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
Included bandwidth
500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb); this is an included allowance, not a hard cap — see overage_behaviour
1 TB per month included with the entry-level Nanode 1 GB plan (larger shared CPU plans include more)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing | DigitalOcean ↗
“Memory | vCPU | Transfer | SSD | $/hr | $/mo — 512 MiB | 1 vCPU | 500 GiB | 10 GiB | $0.00595 | $4.00”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
- North America Cloud Computing Costs and Pricing | Akamai ↗
“Plan $/Mo $/Hr RAM CPUs Storage Transfer Network In/Out Nanode 1 GB $5.00 $0.0075 1 GB 1 25 GB 1 TB 40/1 Gbps”
Read 2026-09-05 · official pricing
File or inode limit
Up to 5000 Block Storage volumes per account
250 Block Storage volumes per account across all regions (default global quota; increases can be requested)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Volume Limits | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“You can create up to 5000 volumes per account. If your workload requires more volumes, contact support.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Block Storage quotas ↗
“Quota: Total number of volumes per account across all regions | Account Quota Value: 250”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Autoscaling
- DigitalOcean
- Supported
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Limited
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- How to Scale Apps | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“Autoscaling automatically adds or removes containers based on workload. [...] Request-based autoscaling monitors HTTP traffic metrics, such as requests per second or P95 request duration, and works with both shared and dedicated CPU plans.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Manage nodes and node pools ↗
“While autoscaling can be applied to any cluster using tools like Cluster Autoscaler, LKE has built-in autoscaling. When this feature is enabled, nodes can automatically be added or removed from a pool when the following conditions are met:”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Which should you choose?
Choose DigitalOcean if…
Teams that want plain Linux virtual machines with predictable per-second billing from $4 a month, and the option of managed databases beside them. App Platform adds Git and Docker deploys on top.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Linode (Akamai Cloud) if…
Akamai Cloud virtual machines from $5 a month in North America, with 1 TB of transfer included and egress at half a cent per gigabyte in core data centres.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- DigitalOcean: You want a platform that manages the runtime for you rather than a server you administer.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud): Pricing varies by region, so the North American rate is not what you will pay everywhere, and stopped instances continue to bill.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.