# hosting review · digitalocean

DigitalOcean App Platform review 2026: PaaS for Node, Next.js, and Docker.

DigitalOcean has two products worth reviewing: Droplets (raw VPS from $6/mo, roughly £5/mo) and App Platform (a PaaS for Node, Next.js, Astro, Python, and Docker containers). This review covers both, with a focus on when App Platform is the right call for JavaScript developers and when raw Droplets are still cheaper.

affiliate disclosure: this post contains affiliate links to DigitalOcean. If you sign up through one, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Verdicts are based on our own testing; see /affiliate-disclosure/.

# who this suits

Who DigitalOcean is the right choice for.

JavaScript and Node developers who want a PaaS that is cheaper than Vercel and simpler than raw AWS. Teams shipping Next.js SSR apps who do not want to marry Vercel’s pricing curve. Anyone building a Dockerised side project on a $6/mo Droplet who does not want to pay $20/mo for the same on Heroku.

Not the right pick for WordPress hosting managed for you (use Cloudways or Kinsta for that; DigitalOcean is where Cloudways runs its infrastructure). Not the right pick for a team that wants the polish of Vercel’s dashboard.

# what it does well

What DigitalOcean does well.

Price. $6/mo Droplets remain the cheapest way to run a real VPS with 1 GB RAM and 25 GB SSD. Perfect for side projects, staging environments, or a shared Docker box for four services.
App Platform for Node / Next.js: git-push deploys, autoscaling, managed HTTPS, and a per-app pricing model that is materially cheaper than Vercel at team scale. Static sites on App Platform are free (up to three per account).
London data centre (LON1) is available for both Droplets and App Platform. Latency to UK visitors is good.
The API and CLI (doctl) are excellent. Everything you can do in the dashboard, you can do from a script or Terraform.
DigitalOcean Spaces (S3-compatible object storage) is included and priced at $5/mo for 250 GB, which is fair for JavaScript builds shipping user uploads.

# where it falls short

Where DigitalOcean falls short.

App Platform builds can be slow. Not Vercel-slow; not Vercel-fast either. Expect 2-4 minute deploys on a typical Next.js app, which is fine for scheduled work and irritating for hotfixes.
App Platform edge deploys are limited compared to Vercel and Cloudflare. If your workload needs “run this function in Sydney and London and São Paulo”, pick Vercel or Cloudflare Workers, not App Platform.
Raw Droplet management is on you. Firewall rules, unattended-upgrades, fail2ban, weekly image backups, log rotation, none of it is done for you. This is a feature if you know your way around Linux; a bug if you do not.
WordPress on Droplets is possible but is not really the point of the product. Use Cloudways (which runs on DigitalOcean anyway) or Kinsta for WordPress. Use raw Droplets only if you enjoy configuring Nginx + PHP-FPM + MariaDB by hand.
App Platform sleeps small apps on inactivity (“cold starts”). Not a huge deal in practice; noticeable on a personal side project that gets one visit a day.

# pricing

DigitalOcean pricing (2026 rates).

Prices in USD. Full price list on digitalocean.com/pricing.

App Platform charges per app per hour, plus bandwidth. Static sites (up to three) are free. Dev databases are $15/mo; production Postgres is $19/mo and up.

# london latency

London latency: what to expect.

DigitalOcean’s London region (LON1) is the fastest option for UK-audience sites. Both Droplets and App Platform are available there. UK ISP to LON1 latency is typically low; hosting analytics vendors like UptimeRobot and independent benchmarks corroborate this.

For a live latency read against LON1, DigitalOcean publishes a public speedtest. Cross-check against Cloudflare Radar UK ISP performance and WebPageTest from a London test agent. We will publish our own attributed benchmarks with methodology before the end of the quarter.

# migration

Migration and onboarding.

For App Platform: connect your GitHub or GitLab repo, pick a branch, App Platform detects the framework (Next.js, Astro, Node, Python, Docker) and provisions accordingly. First deploy takes 3-6 minutes; subsequent deploys are faster.

For Droplets: pick a distribution (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS recommended), SSH in with your key, and set up as you would any Linux server. DigitalOcean’s community tutorials are among the best sysadmin content on the open web. Use their “Initial Server Setup” guide as your day-one checklist.

For WordPress: strongly consider Cloudways instead of raw Droplets. Same underlying infrastructure, plus a managed dashboard, for ~£4-9/mo extra. Use raw Droplets for WordPress only if you enjoy the Nginx + PHP-FPM + MariaDB setup itself.

# support

Support.

Free-tier support is ticket-only and can take a while (24 hours on standard, faster on paid plans). Paid support plans start at $29/mo for Business support (target response under 4 hours). For most solo developers, the free tier plus DigitalOcean’s community forum is enough.

Community support is genuinely strong: the DigitalOcean tutorials cover almost every Linux server task you will run into, and Stack Overflow answers usually reference their guides. Compare this to Vercel, where “how do I do X” often lands you in Discord.

# compared to

DigitalOcean vs Vercel, Cloudways, and AWS.

DigitalOcean vs Vercel: Vercel is easier to deploy Next.js to and materially more expensive at team scale (Vercel Pro is $20/user/mo before app costs; App Platform is $5-12 per app). If your app is a single Next.js SSR site with a small team, App Platform is often the better economics.
DigitalOcean vs Cloudways: Cloudways runs on DigitalOcean anyway. Cloudways adds ~£4-9/mo on top for the managed WordPress dashboard. If your workload is WordPress, use Cloudways. If your workload is Node / Docker / static, use App Platform directly.
DigitalOcean vs AWS EC2 or Lightsail: DigitalOcean is significantly simpler and about the same price for equivalent instance sizes. AWS wins on breadth of adjacent services (S3, RDS, Route53, IAM). DigitalOcean wins on developer experience.

# the verdict

The verdict.

Recommended for JavaScript / Node developers on App Platform (Next.js SSR, Astro, Docker containers). Recommended for anyone who wants a $6/mo VPS for side projects, staging, or a shared Docker box. Not recommended for WordPress hosting managed for you (use Cloudways or Kinsta), or for a team that wants Vercel’s deploy speed and dashboard polish.

Try DigitalOcean on their site. New accounts often get $200 in credit for the first 60 days, which is enough to run a Droplet + App Platform + Postgres for two months at no cost. Signing up through this link supports the site; the verdict above is unchanged.

More hosting reviews on the hub. If you are choosing between App Platform and Vercel for a Next.js app, we are shipping a dedicated comparison in wave 1c. For WordPress-specific hosting, see Kinsta, WP Engine, and Cloudways.

affiliate disclosure: Web Dev Blog carries affiliate links to Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways, DigitalOcean, and Vercel. If you sign up via a link on this site we may receive a commission at no cost to you. This does not influence editorial verdicts, which are based on real tests from a London server. Full policy on /affiliate-disclosure/.

Plan	Price (GBP est.)	Monthly visits	Sites	Storage
Droplet 1 GB	$6 (~£5)/mo	unmetered	raw VPS	25 GB SSD
Droplet 2 GB Premium	$18 (~£14)/mo	unmetered	raw VPS	80 GB NVMe
App Platform Basic	$5-$12 (~£4-£10)/mo	per-app	PaaS, 1 app	1 GB RAM per instance