I had been hosting my websites on a dedicated server at Softlayer for the last couple of years. Softlayer provides a reliable service, and I had been happy with their customer service over the years.
The reason for the migration was about price. I had been paying $209 for a dedicated server but was not using the server capacity entirely. So I started to look for an alternative. It is not easy to find a high quality dedicated server under $100 range. A good VPS also starts from $50-$60.
A friend of mine recommended the cloud hosting. But the server cost for cloud hosting was not any cheaper than the cost of the dedicated servers. But I found a new kid on the block that had many good reviews, which was also pretty cheap compared to other cloud hosting companies.
Digital Ocean
I moved the hosting last month to this new cloud hosting company. So far, the DigitalOcean looks like a reliable hosting service. I had a couple of issues while migrating, and customer service was very fast in responding to my queries.
I am on a $20 hosting plan, and it includes 2GB RAM, 2 Cores, 40 GB SSD disk and 3TB monthly transfer.
I started with $10 hosting plan but upgraded to a better hosting package to test if the problems that I encountered was related to the server capacity. $10 plan would probably be enough for the current needs, but I choose to stay with the $20 plan for the time being.
Any Disadvantages?
DigitalOcean doesn’t provide multiple IPs for each droplet you get. So if you need multiple IPs for your server, keep this in mind.
I don’t see any other negative issues at the moment but will review and report back here if I experience anything in future.
Test It for $5
DigitalOcean has a very inexpensive $5 hosting plan. You get 512MB RAM, 1 Core, 20GB SSD Disk and 1TB monthly traffic. From my experience, they provide a very cheap but a reliable and affordable cloud hosting service.
You can test out their hosting service for $5 and upgrade to a higher plan if you need in future.