DigitalOcean vs Linode (Akamai Cloud)
SEPT 2026 auditA 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.
Adoption share
BuiltWith counts — how much more of the web runs DigitalOcean than Linode (Akamai Cloud), among the sites BuiltWith actually detects. Measured . Source: BuiltWith.
The short answer
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.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: DigitalOcean alternatives · Linode alternatives
20 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
DigitalOcean 0
Linode (Akamai Cloud) 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | DigitalOcean | Linode (Akamai Cloud) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes — App Platform static sites only: up to three static-site-only apps, 1 GiB outbound data each | No — Only free offer published is a US$100 credit for new customers, not an ongoing free plan. |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free credit |
| Entry paid plan | $4.00 | $5.00/month for g6-nanode-1, the Nanode 1GB shared-CPU plan. Two regions are priced above it: $6.00 in Jakarta and $7.00 in São Paulo. |
| 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); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team. | 0.005 for Network Transfer, with regional overrides of 0.015 in Jakarta and 0.007 in São Paulo, and 0.01 for Distributed Network Transfer. Published in Linode's API rather than in documentation: the techdocs page carried these as per-GB rates until it was edited on 14 September 2026 to remove them and point at a pricing page that refuses this checker. The API's price field is named "hourly", which transfer is not billed by, so no unit is asserted here. |
| 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 and by region: transfer over the monthly allotment is charged at the service region's rate, all transfer is billed where no allowance is included, and the charge lands at the end of the billing period. The rates themselves left this page on 14 September 2026 — see egress_overage_price for where they are now. |
| Limits | ||
| Storage (entry plan) | 10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo). | 25 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "disk": 25600. |
| Memory (entry plan) | 512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo). | 1 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "memory": 1024. |
| Included bandwidth | 500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU). | 1 TB per month on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode; larger shared-CPU plans include more. |
| File, inode or volume 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 |
| Scales to zero | Not supported | Not supported |
| Autoscaling | Supported — App Platform autoscales on CPU or on request metrics; containers are added and removed by workload. | Limited |
| Regions | Thirteen regions holding 16 datacenters: New York City (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), Amsterdam (AMS3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Bangalore, Sydney, Atlanta, Richmond, Kansas City and Memphis. | 33 regions listed by the Linode API v4 /regions endpoint on 2026-09-13 (every entry returned has site_type core) |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 Type II certifications issued by independent auditor Schellman & Company; reports via the Security Reports & Certifications Center. | Akamai cites its information security compliance with standards such as SOC 2 in the Akamai Cloud disk encryption documentation. Stated in passing in product docs; Akamai's Trust Center requires requesting access to see reports. |
| HIPAA | Annual third-party HIPAA/HITECH attestation; BAA offered through sales; ePHI allowed only on listed HIPAA Eligible products such as Droplets, Kubernetes, Spaces. | Akamai lists Compute (Dedicated/Shared CPU, High Memory, GPU, LKE), Storage, NodeBalancers and Cloud Manager among the services in scope for HIPAA/HITECH. Read from a failover copy of the compliance-programs page on 13 September 2026. As of 15 September both that copy and www.akamai.com/legal/compliance answer 403 to this checker, so neither can be re-read. |
| GDPR / data residency | Customer selects the datacenter location at account creation; EU/UK residency available via the Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London datacenters. | Workloads can be placed in specific geographies, across core and distributed sites, to meet data residency and regulatory requirements. Page describes region placement for residency; it does not mention GDPR. |
| Encryption at rest | Volumes block storage is encrypted with LUKS; the storage cluster is fully encrypted at rest and snapshots inherit that encryption. | Local disk encryption is enabled by default on all Linodes, with the platform managing encryption and decryption. Same page notes backups are not encrypted even when taken from an encrypted disk. |
| Customer-managed keys | Spaces object storage supports SSE-C (server-side encryption with customer-provided keys); bucket-level encryption settings are not supported. Spaces object storage only; read from the Spaces S3-compatible API reference. | Platform-managed only; docs state the platform manages disk and Block Storage volume encryption and decryption, and document no customer-supplied key option. No mention of BYOK, KMS, SSE-C or customer-managed keys in any of the 394 Akamai Cloud guides. |
| Role-based access control | Teams have six predefined roles, plus custom roles containing only the permissions you choose. | Identity and Access uses an RBAC model: fine-grained per-endpoint permissions combined into predefined roles assigned to users. Natively enabled for Linodes, Cloud Firewall, NodeBalancer, Volume, Image and VPC. |
| Private networking / VPC | VPC networks are private interfaces inaccessible from the public internet; traffic within a VPC or between peered VPCs in the same datacenter is free. | VPC traffic is walled off from the public internet and from other services in the same data center; VPCs cost nothing extra. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Four of the five bundled Droplet plans use dedicated CPUs with guaranteed full hyper-thread access; only the Basic plan shares hyper-threads. | Dedicated CPU plans reserve each assigned vCPU core exclusively for your instance, with no contention from neighboring users. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- DigitalOcean
- Yes — App Platform static sites only: up to three static-site-only apps, 1 GiB outbound data each
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- No — Only free offer published is a US$100 credit for new customers, not an ongoing free plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- App Platform Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“App Platform offers a free tier for static sites [...] Deploying up to three apps that use only static site components [...] Each additional app containing static website components costs $3.00 per month.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Akamai Cloud | Akamai ↗
“Try Akamai Cloud with US$100 in credits [...] Sign up for an account and start using your credits today. Explore Akamai Cloud and try out our products and services — on us. Offer valid for new customers only.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Kind of free offer
- DigitalOcean
- Free tier
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Free credit
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- App Platform Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“App Platform offers a free tier for static sites [...] Deploying up to three apps that use only static site components [...] Each additional app containing static website components costs $3.00 per month.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Akamai Cloud | Akamai ↗
“Try Akamai Cloud with US$100 in credits [...] Sign up for an account and start using your credits today. Explore Akamai Cloud and try out our products and services — on us. Offer valid for new customers only.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Entry paid plan
- DigitalOcean
- $4.00
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- $5.00/month for g6-nanode-1, the Nanode 1GB shared-CPU plan. Two regions are priced above it: $6.00 in Jakarta and $7.00 in São Paulo.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Droplet Pricing — DigitalOcean ↗
“Memory vCPU Transfer SSD $/hr $/mo 512 MiB 1 vCPU 500 GiB 10 GiB $0.00595 $ 4.00 1 GiB 1 vCPU 1,000 GiB 25 GiB $0.00893 $ 6.00”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- List Types — Linode API v4 ↗
“{"id": "g6-nanode-1", "label": "Nanode 1GB", "price": {"hourly": 0.0075, "monthly": 5.0}, "region_prices": [{"id": "id-cgk", "hourly": 0.009, "monthly": 6.0}, {"id": "br-gru", "hourly": 0.0105, "monthly": 7.0}]”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
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 · Report a correction
- 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 · Report a correction
Egress over allowance
- DigitalOcean
- $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- 0.005 for Network Transfer, with regional overrides of 0.015 in Jakarta and 0.007 in São Paulo, and 0.01 for Distributed Network Transfer. Published in Linode's API rather than in documentation: the techdocs page carried these as per-GB rates until it was edited on 14 September 2026 to remove them and point at a pricing page that refuses this checker. The API's price field is named "hourly", which transfer is not billed by, so no unit is asserted here.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Bandwidth billing — DigitalOcean Docs ↗
“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. Transfer allowance and usage is pooled cumulatively across all Droplets at the team level, not individually per Droplet.”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
- Network Transfer Prices — Linode API v4 ↗
“{"id": "network_transfer", "label": "Network Transfer", "price": {"hourly": 0.005, "monthly": null}, "region_prices": [{"id": "id-cgk", "hourly": 0.015, "monthly": null}, {"id": "br-gru", "hourly": 0.007, "monthly": null}]”
Read 2026-09-15 · official docs · Report a correction
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 and by region: transfer over the monthly allotment is charged at the service region's rate, all transfer is billed where no allowance is included, and the charge lands at the end of the billing period. The rates themselves left this page on 14 September 2026 — see egress_overage_price for where they are now.
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 · Report a correction
- Network transfer usage and costs — Akamai TechDocs ↗
“Any transfer usage that exceeds your monthly allotment is billed based on the service region (see the Pricing page). If no transfer is included, all transfer is billed. Transfer usage is charged at the end of the billing period.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official docs · Report a correction
Storage (entry plan)
10 GiB SSD on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo).
25 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "disk": 25600.
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 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- List Types — Linode API v4 ↗
“"memory": 1024, "disk": 25600, "transfer": 1000, "vcpus": 1, "gpus": 0, "network_out": 1000, "class": "nanode", "successor": null, "capabilities": [], "accelerated_devices": 0}”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
Memory (entry plan)
512 MiB on the cheapest Basic Droplet (Regular CPU, 1 vCPU, $4.00/mo).
1 GB on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode at $5.00/month. The types API reports it as "memory": 1024.
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 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- List Types — Linode API v4 ↗
“"memory": 1024, "disk": 25600, "transfer": 1000, "vcpus": 1, "gpus": 0, "network_out": 1000, "class": "nanode", "successor": null, "capabilities": []”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
Included bandwidth
500 GiB of included outbound transfer on the cheapest Basic Droplet ($4.00/mo, 512 MiB / 1 vCPU).
1 TB per month on the Nanode 1GB plan, the cheapest Linode; 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 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- List Types — Linode API v4 ↗
“"memory": 1024, "disk": 25600, "transfer": 1000, "vcpus": 1, "gpus": 0, "network_out": 1000, "class": "nanode", "successor": null, "capabilities": [], "accelerated_devices": 0}, {"id": "g6-standard-1", "label": "Linode 2GB"”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
File, inode or volume 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 · Report a correction
- Block Storage quotas — Akamai TechDocs ↗
“Total number of volumes per account across all regions NOTE: Any account with more than 250 volumes deployed prior to September 22, 2026 will receive a 25% buffer to the existing volume”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Autoscaling
- DigitalOcean
- Supported — App Platform autoscales on CPU or on request metrics; containers are added and removed by workload.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Limited
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Scale Apps — DigitalOcean Docs ↗
“Autoscaling automatically adds or removes containers based on workload. This is useful for apps with high but inconsistent traffic. App Platform supports two categories of autoscaling metrics:”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
- 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 · Report a correction
Regions
Thirteen regions holding 16 datacenters: New York City (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), Amsterdam (AMS3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Bangalore, Sydney, Atlanta, Richmond, Kansas City and Memphis.
33 regions listed by the Linode API v4 /regions endpoint on 2026-09-13 (every entry returned has site_type core)
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Regional Availability — DigitalOcean Docs ↗
“DigitalOcean has 16 datacenters across 13 regions. [...] Datacenter Region Slug NYC1 New York City, United States nyc1 NYC2 New York City, United States nyc2 NYC3 New York City, United States nyc3 AMS3 Amsterdam, the Netherlands ams3 SFO2 San Francisco, United States sfo2 SFO3 San Francisco, United States sfo3 SGP1 Singapore sgp1 LON1 London, United Kingdom lon1 FRA1 Frankfurt, Germany fra1 TOR1 Toronto, Canada tor1 BLR1 Bangalore, India blr1 SYD1 Sydney, Australia syd1 ATL1 Atlanta, United States atl1 RIC1 Richmond, United States ric1 MKC1 Kansas City, United States mkc1 MEM1 Memphis, United States mem1”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
- Linode API v4 - List Regions ↗
“"page": 1, "pages": 1, "results": 33”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
SOC 2
- DigitalOcean
- SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 Type II certifications issued by independent auditor Schellman & Company; reports via the Security Reports & Certifications Center.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Akamai cites its information security compliance with standards such as SOC 2 in the Akamai Cloud disk encryption documentation. Stated in passing in product docs; Akamai's Trust Center requires requesting access to see reports.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Trust Platform Certification Reports and Resources | DigitalOcean ↗
“DigitalOcean maintains a SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 Type II certification, issued by our independent auditor, Schellman & Company.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Disk encryption | Akamai Cloud TechDocs ↗
“In addition to Akamai's information security compliance with standards such as SOC 2, disk encryption provides further protections by keeping data encrypted”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
HIPAA
- DigitalOcean
- Annual third-party HIPAA/HITECH attestation; BAA offered through sales; ePHI allowed only on listed HIPAA Eligible products such as Droplets, Kubernetes, Spaces.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Akamai lists Compute (Dedicated/Shared CPU, High Memory, GPU, LKE), Storage, NodeBalancers and Cloud Manager among the services in scope for HIPAA/HITECH. Read from a failover copy of the compliance-programs page on 13 September 2026. As of 15 September both that copy and www.akamai.com/legal/compliance answer 403 to this checker, so neither can be re-read.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- HIPAA at DO | DigitalOcean Trust Platform ↗
“The Company undergoes an annual risk assessment, performed by our external auditors, to attest to our adherence to HIPAA, the HIPAA Security Rule, and the HITECH Breach Notification Requirements. [...] Please contact your DigitalOcean sales representative to execute a BAA. [...] HIPAA Eligible Products”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Akamai Information Security Compliance Programs ↗
“Compute Dedicated CPU Plans Shared CPU Plans High Memory Plans GPU Plans Linode Kubernetes Engine”
Read 2026-09-15 · official site · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- DigitalOcean
- Customer selects the datacenter location at account creation; EU/UK residency available via the Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London datacenters.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Workloads can be placed in specific geographies, across core and distributed sites, to meet data residency and regulatory requirements. Page describes region placement for residency; it does not mention GDPR.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- GDPR at DO | DigitalOcean Trust Platform ↗
“We support customers' data sovereignty rights by offering data centers in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London. [...] Customers are responsible for selecting the data center location that best meets their compliance needs when they open their accounts.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Akamai Global Infrastructure | Akamai ↗
“Teams start in core sites for full-stack scale and centralized control, then extend into distributed sites when they need to place workloads closer to users for lower latency, or within specific geographies to meet data residency and regulatory requirements.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- DigitalOcean
- Volumes block storage is encrypted with LUKS; the storage cluster is fully encrypted at rest and snapshots inherit that encryption.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Local disk encryption is enabled by default on all Linodes, with the platform managing encryption and decryption. Same page notes backups are not encrypted even when taken from an encrypted disk.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Volumes Block Storage Features | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“All DigitalOcean Volumes are encrypted with LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup). The storage cluster is fully encrypted at rest, and any snapshots you create inherit this encryption.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Disk encryption | Akamai Cloud TechDocs ↗
“Disk encryption ensures that your data stored on Linodes is secured. [...] By default, disk encryption is enabled on all Linodes.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Customer-managed keys
- DigitalOcean
- Spaces object storage supports SSE-C (server-side encryption with customer-provided keys); bucket-level encryption settings are not supported. Spaces object storage only; read from the Spaces S3-compatible API reference.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Platform-managed only; docs state the platform manages disk and Block Storage volume encryption and decryption, and document no customer-supplied key option. No mention of BYOK, KMS, SSE-C or customer-managed keys in any of the 394 Akamai Cloud guides.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Spaces S3 Compatibility | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“Object Encryption [...] Supported with SSE-C (server-side encryption with customer-provided keys). Bucket-level encryption settings are not supported.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Disk encryption - Akamai Cloud Documentation ↗
“The platform manages the encryption and decryption for you.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Role-based access control
- DigitalOcean
- Teams have six predefined roles, plus custom roles containing only the permissions you choose.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Identity and Access uses an RBAC model: fine-grained per-endpoint permissions combined into predefined roles assigned to users. Natively enabled for Linodes, Cloud Firewall, NodeBalancer, Volume, Image and VPC.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Team Roles | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“Teams come with six predefined roles which cover common use cases for levels of access. [...] For more granular control, you can create custom roles with only the permissions you choose.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Identity and Access in Akamai Cloud | Akamai Cloud TechDocs ↗
“Identity and Access uses the role-based access control (RBAC) model to authorize operations on entities. [...] each service has a set of fine-grained permissions that control access to a specific service API endpoint. These permissions are then combined into predefined, functional roles that can be assigned to users.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Private networking / VPC
- DigitalOcean
- VPC networks are private interfaces inaccessible from the public internet; traffic within a VPC or between peered VPCs in the same datacenter is free.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- VPC traffic is walled off from the public internet and from other services in the same data center; VPCs cost nothing extra.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- VPC Pricing | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“VPC networks are inaccessible from the public internet and other VPC networks [...] Network traffic is free within a VPC network or between peered VPC networks in the same datacenter.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- VPC | Akamai Cloud TechDocs ↗
“Networking packets sent over a VPC are walled off from the public internet as well as from other services within the same data center that don't belong to the same VPC. [...] VPCs are provided at no additional cost.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Dedicated infrastructure
- DigitalOcean
- Four of the five bundled Droplet plans use dedicated CPUs with guaranteed full hyper-thread access; only the Basic plan shares hyper-threads.
- Linode (Akamai Cloud)
- Dedicated CPU plans reserve each assigned vCPU core exclusively for your instance, with no contention from neighboring users.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Choosing the Right CPU Droplet Plan | DigitalOcean Documentation ↗
“There are five bundled Droplet plans: one shared CPU plan and four dedicated CPU plans. [...] Dedicated CPU Droplets have guaranteed access to the full hyper-thread at all times.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Dedicated CPU Linodes | Akamai Cloud TechDocs ↗
“Dedicated CPU Linodes are virtual machines that deliver guaranteed, competition-free CPU resources for consistently high performance. Each vCPU core assigned to your instances is reserved exclusively for your workloads”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
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 — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: DigitalOcean or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?
DigitalOcean: $4.00
Linode (Akamai Cloud): $5.00/month for g6-nanode-1, the Nanode 1GB shared-CPU plan. Two regions are priced above it: $6.00 in Jakarta and $7.00 in São Paulo.
Free tier: DigitalOcean or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?
DigitalOcean: Yes — App Platform static sites only: up to three static-site-only apps, 1 GiB outbound data each
Linode (Akamai Cloud): No — Only free offer published is a US$100 credit for new customers, not an ongoing free plan.
Egress over allowance: DigitalOcean or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?
DigitalOcean: $0.01 per GiB (Droplets); inbound transfer is free and allowances pool across the team.
Linode (Akamai Cloud): 0.005 for Network Transfer, with regional overrides of 0.015 in Jakarta and 0.007 in São Paulo, and 0.01 for Distributed Network Transfer. Published in Linode's API rather than in documentation: the techdocs page carried these as per-GB rates until it was edited on 14 September 2026 to remove them and point at a pricing page that refuses this checker. The API's price field is named "hourly", which transfer is not billed by, so no unit is asserted here.
Should I choose DigitalOcean or Linode (Akamai Cloud)?
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.
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