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Many things can influence your choice of infrastructure provider.
You should conduct a cost-benefit analysis based on your budget and the pricing offered by the various providers. Then, 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. Therefore, 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 Web Server (AWS)
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 charge for disk usage.
Expensive bandwidth (so if your application uses a lot of it, the invoice will go up).
Goal to be powered by 50% renewable energy by the end of 2017.
AWS has 15+ data centers located around the world.
Northern Virginia, United States
Northern California, United States
Ohio, United States
Oregon, United States
Montreal, Canada
Sao Paulo, South America
London, United Kingdom
Paris, France
Milan, Italy
Frankfurt, Germany
Stockholm, Sweden
Ireland, Europe
Cape Town, South Africa
Bahrain, Middle East
Mumbai, India
Singapore, Asia
Hong Kong, Asia
Tokyo, Japan
Seoul, South Korea
Sydney, Australia
DigitalOcean
Most affordable cloud provider. Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Relatively new but very fast-growing cloud provider.
Reliable infrastructure.
The 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 the existing server to a smaller one). Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are slower than Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Snapshot backups are 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.
DigitalOcean is headquartered in New York City, with data centers available in the following locations.
New York City, United States
San Francisco, United States
Toronto, Canada
London, United Kingdom
Frankfurt, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Singapore, Asia
Bangalore, India
Sydney, Australia
Google Compute Engine (GCE)
Cheaper than Amazon (especially for bigger servers). Compare with other cloud providers on our pricing page.
Relatively new but already the 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 slower than with Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Availability of snapshot backups.
Google Cloud Hosting is charged for disk usage when a server is stopped.
Most expensive bandwidth (so if your application uses a lot, the invoice will go up).
The goal is to be 100% powered by renewable energy by the end of 2017.
You can choose from 14 Google data centers located worldwide to host your applications.
North Virginia, United States
North Carolina, United States
Iowa, United States
Oregon, United States
Las Vegas, United States
Montreal, Canada
Sao Paulo, South America
London, United Kingdom
Frankfurt, Germany
Netherlands, Europe
Belgium, Europe
Finland, Europe
Mumbai, India
Singapore, Asia
Taiwan, Asia
Hong Kong, Asia
Tokyo, Japan
Sydney, Australia
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.
The 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 the existing server to a smaller one). Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are slower than Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Snapshot backups are 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.
Linode has 11 data centers located around the globe.
Newark, United States
Dallas, United States
Freemont, United States
Atlanta, United States
Toronto, Canada
London, United Kingdom
Frankfurt, Germany
Singapore, Asia
Mumbai, India
Tokyo, Japan
Sydney, Australia
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.
The 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 the existing server to a smaller one). Scaling processes involve downtime.
Backup/restore processes are slower than Amazon (as we store backups on Amazon infrastructure). Snapshot backups are not available.
When a server is stopped, we will charge for the whole server as if started (Vultr policy).
Cheap bandwidth. Good solution if your applications use lots of it.
Vultr is a fast-growing cloud infrastructure provider with 17 data centers worldwide.
Seattle, United States
Los Angeles, United States
Chicago, United States
Miami, United States
Silicon Valley, United States
Dallas, United States
Atlanta, United States
New York, United States
Toronto, Canada
London, United Kingdom
Paris, France
Stockholm, Sweden
Frankfurt, Germany
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Seoul, South Korea
Singapore, Asia
Mexico City, Mexico
Tokyo, Japan
Sydney, Australia
That’s it! We hope this article was helpful. If you need any help, then feel free to search your query on Cloudways Support Center or contact us via chat (Need a Hand > Send us a Message). Alternatively, you can also create a support ticket.
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