# Google Cloud Load Balancing vs DigitalOcean Load Balancers

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/google-cloud-load-balancing-vs-digitalocean-load-balancer/

Every value below is read from Google Cloud Load Balancing's and DigitalOcean Load Balancers's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Google Cloud Load Balancing | DigitalOcean Load Balancers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Entry paid plan | $0.025 per hour for each of the first five forwarding rules, then $0.01 an hour for every rule after that — so the sixth rule costs 60% less than the fifth. Regional data processing is charged on top. | $12 a month for a regional load balancer with one node. The only member of this category priced monthly rather than hourly, and the only one where the entry price is a round number rather than a fraction of a cent. |
| Pricing model | Per forwarding rule per hour, with an inverted volume curve: the first five rules are the expensive ones at $0.025 an hour and everything beyond is $0.01. Data processing is charged by the region that handles the traffic, and there are no global data processing charges. | Per node, added and removed as you go, up to 100 of them. Each node is a fixed quantum of capacity rather than a meter, so the bill steps rather than tracking traffic — which makes it forecastable in a way per-hour and per-GB pricing is not, and wasteful if a node sits half-used. |
| Regions | 47 regions are named individually on the pricing page, from Iowa (us-central1) to us-west8, each carrying its own forwarding-rule and data-processing rates. The rates themselves are not in the served page — they load behind a region selector — so the region list is sourceable here and the per-region price is not. | 16 datacentres carry Load Balancers: NYC1, NYC2, NYC3, AMS3, SFO2, SFO3, SGP1, LON1, FRA1, TOR1, BLR1, SYD1, ATL1, RIC1, MKC1 and MEM1. Availability is published per product per datacentre rather than assumed from the region list. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Google Cloud Load Balancing: $0.025 per hour for each of the first five forwarding rules, then $0.01 an hour for every rule after that — so the sixth rule costs 60% less than the fifth. Regional data processing is charged on top. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/pricing))
- DigitalOcean Load Balancers: $12 a month for a regional load balancer with one node. The only member of this category priced monthly rather than hourly, and the only one where the entry price is a round number rather than a fraction of a cent. ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/load-balancers))

### Pricing model

- Google Cloud Load Balancing: Per forwarding rule per hour, with an inverted volume curve: the first five rules are the expensive ones at $0.025 an hour and everything beyond is $0.01. Data processing is charged by the region that handles the traffic, and there are no global data processing charges. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/pricing))
- DigitalOcean Load Balancers: Per node, added and removed as you go, up to 100 of them. Each node is a fixed quantum of capacity rather than a meter, so the bill steps rather than tracking traffic — which makes it forecastable in a way per-hour and per-GB pricing is not, and wasteful if a node sits half-used. ([source](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/load-balancers))

### Regions

- Google Cloud Load Balancing: 47 regions are named individually on the pricing page, from Iowa (us-central1) to us-west8, each carrying its own forwarding-rule and data-processing rates. The rates themselves are not in the served page — they load behind a region selector — so the region list is sourceable here and the per-region price is not. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/pricing))
- DigitalOcean Load Balancers: 16 datacentres carry Load Balancers: NYC1, NYC2, NYC3, AMS3, SFO2, SFO3, SGP1, LON1, FRA1, TOR1, BLR1, SYD1, ATL1, RIC1, MKC1 and MEM1. Availability is published per product per datacentre rather than assumed from the region list. ([source](https://docs.digitalocean.com/platform/regional-availability/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Google Cloud Load Balancing if More than five forwarding rules. The price curve inverts at that point: the first five cost $0.025 an hour each and every rule after is $0.01, so the sixth is 60% cheaper than the fifth and the marginal cost keeps falling.

Pick DigitalOcean Load Balancers if Knowing the bill in advance. $12 a month buys one node and a node is a fixed 10,000 requests per second — capacity that steps rather than meters, which is the only genuinely forecastable pricing in this category.

Consider something else: Google Cloud Load Balancing — You have one or two rules and want a floor. Five rules cost $0.125 an hour before any traffic is processed, and regional data processing is charged on top by whichever region handles the request.

Consider something else: DigitalOcean Load Balancers — Your traffic is spiky or small. A node is bought whole, so half a node of traffic costs a whole node, and the ceiling is 100 nodes rather than an elastic limit.

## Documented by only one

- Uptime SLA: Google Cloud Load Balancing: 99.99% monthly uptime. The load balancing commitment lives inside the Compute Engine SLA rather than on a page of its own — cloud.google.com/load-balancing/sla redirects there.
- Rate limits: DigitalOcean Load Balancers: 10,000 requests per second per node, alongside 10,000 simultaneous connections and 250 SSL connections per second. Capacity is bought in these blocks, so the way to more throughput is another node rather than a larger bill for the same one.
- Multi-region replication: DigitalOcean Load Balancers: Three types are offered — Regional, Global and Network — with the $12 entry price attached to the Regional one. The page names the three but prices only Regional here.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Google Cloud Load Balancing or DigitalOcean Load Balancers?**

Google Cloud Load Balancing: $0.025 per hour for each of the first five forwarding rules, then $0.01 an hour for every rule after that — so the sixth rule costs 60% less than the fifth. Regional data processing is charged on top.
DigitalOcean Load Balancers: $12 a month for a regional load balancer with one node. The only member of this category priced monthly rather than hourly, and the only one where the entry price is a round number rather than a fraction of a cent.

**Should I choose Google Cloud Load Balancing or DigitalOcean Load Balancers?**

Pick Google Cloud Load Balancing if More than five forwarding rules. The price curve inverts at that point: the first five cost $0.025 an hour each and every rule after is $0.01, so the sixth is 60% cheaper than the fifth and the marginal cost keeps falling.
Pick DigitalOcean Load Balancers if Knowing the bill in advance. $12 a month buys one node and a node is a fixed 10,000 requests per second — capacity that steps rather than meters, which is the only genuinely forecastable pricing in this category.