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Which Infrastructure Provider Do I Have to Choose?
Which Infrastructure Provider Do I Have to Choose?

Can’t decide what infrastructure provider to choose at Cloudways? Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you out.

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Written by Cloudways Product
Updated over a week ago

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Important

Effective 2nd May 2023, Vultr and Linode cloud services are no longer available for new customers on our platform.

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.

  1. Northern Virginia, United States

  2. Northern California, United States

  3. Ohio, United States

  4. Oregon, United States

  5. Montreal, Canada

  6. Sao Paulo, South America

  7. London, United Kingdom

  8. Paris, France

  9. Milan, Italy

  10. Frankfurt, Germany

  11. Stockholm, Sweden

  12. Ireland, Europe

  13. Cape Town, South Africa

  14. Bahrain, Middle East

  15. Mumbai, India

  16. Singapore, Asia

  17. Hong Kong, Asia

  18. Tokyo, Japan

  19. Seoul, South Korea

  20. 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.

  1. New York City, United States

  2. San Francisco, United States

  3. Toronto, Canada

  4. London, United Kingdom

  5. Frankfurt, Germany

  6. Amsterdam, Netherlands

  7. Singapore, Asia

  8. Bangalore, India

  9. 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.

  • When a server is stopped, we charge for disk usage.

  • Most expensive bandwidth (so if your application uses a lot, the invoice will go up).

  • Goal 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.

  1. North Virginia, United States

  2. North Carolina, United States

  3. Iowa, United States

  4. Oregon, United States

  5. Las Vegas, United States

  6. Montreal, Canada

  7. Sao Paulo, South America

  8. London, United Kingdom

  9. Frankfurt, Germany

  10. Netherlands, Europe

  11. Belgium, Europe

  12. Finland, Europe

  13. Mumbai, India

  14. Singapore, Asia

  15. Taiwan, Asia

  16. Hong Kong, Asia

  17. Tokyo, Japan

  18. 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.

  1. Newark, United States

  2. Dallas, United States

  3. Freemont, United States

  4. Atlanta, United States

  5. Toronto, Canada

  6. London, United Kingdom

  7. Frankfurt, Germany

  8. Singapore, Asia

  9. Mumbai, India

  10. Tokyo, Japan

  11. 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.

  1. Seattle, United States

  2. Los Angeles, United States

  3. Chicago, United States

  4. Miami, United States

  5. Silicon Valley, United States

  6. Dallas, United States

  7. Atlanta, United States

  8. New York, United States

  9. Toronto, Canada

  10. London, United Kingdom

  11. Paris, France

  12. Stockholm, Sweden

  13. Frankfurt, Germany

  14. Amsterdam, Netherlands

  15. Seoul, South Korea

  16. Singapore, Asia

  17. Mexico City, Mexico

  18. Tokyo, Japan

  19. 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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