Which Cloud Infrastructure Provider Do I Have to Choose?

You should conduct a cost-benefit analysis based on your budget and the pricing offered by the various providers. Simply, head on to our pricing page and carefully examine pricing for the different providers.

After pricing, it is essential to factor in performance. We have listed down feature sets below for your convenience. However, these providers are continuously improving their infrastructure. The best way to assess performance would be to deploy your applications on several providers and compare speed.

Reliability, the speed of backups/restores, high availability, the speed of scaling are other factors that we will cover (providers here are listed alphabetically so the order doesn’t imply any preference from our side).

Amazon
On the expensive side (especially for smaller servers). Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Most recognizable cloud brand with the biggest customer base.
Extremely reliable infrastructure.
Fast scaling up and scaling down processes (typically under five minutes). Scaling processes involve downtime.
Quick backup/restore processes (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Availability of snapshot backups.
When a server is stopped, We just charge for disk usage.
Expensive bandwidth (so if your application uses a lot of it, the invoice will go up).
The highest number of locations (14). USA-Northern Virginia, USA-Northern California, USA-Oregon, Europe-Ireland, Europe-Frankfurt, Asia Pacific-Singapore, Asia Pacific-Sydney, Asia Pacific-Tokyo, Asia Pacific-Seoul, Asia-Mumbai, South America-Sao Paula, Canada-Montreal, United Kingdom-London, USA-Ohio.
Goal to be powered by 50% renewable energy by the end of 2017.

DigitalOcean
Most affordable cloud provider. Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Relatively new but very fast growing cloud provider.
Reliable infrastructure.
Scaling up process is slower than with Amazon / Google (typically under ten minutes). Scaling down is not possible (you need to use our clone feature to clone existing server to a smaller one). Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are a bit slower than Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Snapshot backups not available.
When a server is stopped, we will charge for the whole server as if started (DigitalOcean policy).
Cheap bandwidth. Good solution if your applications use lots of it.
A good number of locations (8). New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Singapore, Banglore.

Google
Cheaper than Amazon (especially for bigger servers). Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Relatively new (in the cloud of course) but already biggest and most powerful contender to Amazon.
Very reliable infrastructure.
Fast scaling up and scaling down processes (typically under five minutes). Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are a bit slower than with Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Availability of snapshot backups.
When a server is stopped, we just charge for disk usage.
Most expensive bandwidth (so if your application uses a lot, the invoice will go up).
A good number of locations (11). USA – Iowa, USA- South Carolina, USA – North Virginia, USA – Oregon, Europe – London, Europe – Frankfurt, Europe – Belgium, Asia Pacific – Singapore, Asia Pacific – Sydney, Asia Pacific – Taiwan, Asia Pacific – Tokyo.
Goal to be 100% powered by renewable energy by the end of 2017.

Linode
Cost effective, when compared to AWS/GCE. Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Popular in the mid-price hosting category.
Reliable infrastructure.
Scaling up process is slower than with Amazon / Google (typically under ten minutes). Scaling down is not possible (you need to use our clone feature to clone existing server to a smaller one).  Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are a bit slower than Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Snapshot backups not available.
When a server is stopped, we will charge for the whole server as if started (Linode’s policy).
Cheap bandwidth. Good solution if your applications use lots of it.
A good number of locations (8). US East, US South, US Central, US West, Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Tokyo.

Vultr
Cheaper than Amazon/Google (especially for smaller servers). Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Very new but getting traction quickly.
Reliable infrastructure.
Scaling up process is slower than with Amazon / Google (typically under ten minutes). Scaling down is not possible (you need to use our clone feature to clone existing server to a smaller one).  Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are a bit slower than Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Snapshot backups not available.
When a server is stopped, we will charge for the whole server as if started from scratch (Vultr policy).
Cheap bandwidth. Good solution if your applications use lots of it.
A very good number of locations (12). USA – Seattle, USA – USA-Silicon Valley, USA – Los Angeles, USA – Chicago, USA – Miami, USA – New York, UK – London, Europe – Amsterdam, Europe – Paris, Europe – Frankfurt, Asia Pacific – Tokyo, Asia Pacific – Sydney.