I have used both slicehost in the past and linode and can't complain about either as both were great experiences.

However, last month I moved several of my websites from LayerShift, NearlyFreeSpeech and WebFaction to DO (over the years I had collected family websites and side projects on different hosts). It took just over an hour to configure the droplet and transfer everything. I'm using a $10pm instance, saving me literally $100s a year compared to what I was previously paying. Admittedly most of the websites receive little traffic, however, I also have planet-tolkien.com on the drop which receives 20-60,000 uniques a day – the droplet barely notices. Thumbs up for DO.

I have to agree that they're both great. I moved from Linode to DO when DO was significantly cheaper, but since Linode has lowered their prices to compensate, there would be no reason not to recommend them, and they have the best reputation for reliability for a VPs.

Since I haven't used Linode in a while, I'm not sure if they have some of the extras DO has, like simple snapshot and backup of nodes or free data transfers between servers within a zone. It's also very easy to resize a node and takes only a minute. You would have to ask someone using Linode if they have similar services.

Hi dawson, Thanks for recommending "DO" and sharing in-depth analysis. Thumbs up to your comment!

Unless there's a huge difference in price/offerings (not the case here), I recommend picking a host provider not by comparing "numbers" (technical differences in CPU/RAM/disk space/bandwidth/data transfer etc) but for more critical meta-stuff like how's their support and how fast do they reply? what's their uptime/reliability? how do they communicate issues?

I've not tried DO, I've been with Linode for years. I can literally not tell the difference in performance from my local machine. They rarely if ever have downtime from my experience. They don't oversell their VPS's so performance is always high. They can't be beaten, I've tried many, not DO, and Linode is top of the heap by far.

They are pretty similar. My startup tracks data on both of them and they are a couple % different in what people think of them. http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/101/digitalocean/ http://reviewsignal.com/webhosting/company/24/linode/

To me it looks like Linode has better support, DO has better prices (although they are about equal now, DO has lower barrier to entry @ $5).

They both have had their issues. Digital Ocean is definitely going through some growing pains. Linode had some major security issues not that long ago. Nobody is perfect.

Hardware are not the same. Even though they appeared to be. Linode has both faster CPU and SSD.

Linode's plan offer more SSD space* and Transfer. And Linode is based on Xen, while DO is based on KVM.

Linode has a much wider selection of OS images.

In Most cases, Linode offer better stability, and higher quality network.

Linode has IPv6, while DO is only just started rolling out in selected DC.

Linode offers pooled bandwidth.

Linode has Add on like managed instance and NodeBalancer.

Linode will automatically setup your instance in different server hardware. DO has the features planned for a long time, not sure if it has been implemented yet.

DO listed they have private networking, much like their Ipv6 is only available in certain location. I am pretty sure Linode has it as well, but i could not find any concrete info.

DO accept Paypal, while Linode dont.

I've been a Linode (and brief DO) user in the past, just went through this comparison process again recently, and again chose Linode.

There seems to be a lack of awareness that Linode's base plan is now $10/mo., not $20, as this point is often raised in comparisons (and even here). And they don't seem to be standing still in any area. (They haven't prettied up their admin tool yet, but I imagine this will happen eventually.)

Several reviews cited reliability problems with DO, which makes sense as this is a new and rapidly expanding service. And I never expected to see "Digital Ocean" and "Beyonce" in the same sentence!

But from my own limited perspective, either should work fine for most purposes.

Hello Folks, Thanks for sharing your opinion about Linode and DigitalOcean. After reading each comment, I have decided to stay up with DigitalOcean and if faced any problems at linode, I won't wait a hour. Instantly migrate to Linode. So then I can find out the best. After Migration to Linode, If I thought, I again choose the wrong path, then just simply will change the domain DNS to DigitalOcean. Hope This will help me to compare them in the table without losing a single byte of data. Thanks again for joining this discussion.....!

I was previously a Linode customer but switched to DO because of price about a year ago. Now that Linode dropped their prices, I am looking to move back.

I never had the network problems with Linode as I do with DO. Seems like every few weeks I have a 5 - 10 minute network outage at some point during the day or night. Some are unexplained, others have been documented by DO. Thank God I have a CDN fronting my sites.

I have used both. When I used Linode, I never experienced a downtime. Ever. On DigitalOcean, I experience many (includes timeouts, and slow response).

For something serious, I recommend Linode. But the cheapest setup is $20/month. For testing, or to spawn many machines, real fast, cheaply, DigitalOcean. Can't beat $5/month or fractions for hourly use!

Linode has a $10/mo plan as of June 2014.

Linode also turned their billing system hourly basis. Just find this at their blog page.

I prefer Linode. DO often has network issues and nodes take a little while to boot. Linode seems to offer a much more consistent product because they have been around whereas DO grew very quickly and I don't think they have gotten everything stable yet. I would also imagine the performance on the Linode are better with their new hardware.

Thanks for replying back on this thread and sharing your recommendation. Anyway, Can you explain, How to migrate from DigitalOcean to Linode? Sorry for asking you again :(

>How to migrate from DigitalOcean to Linode?

Did you try this article? It is a tutorial for moving a wordpress blog from a Linode VPS to a DO VPS (the opposite of what you're asking), but contains many steps and general tips that you will find useful. https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/migrate-you...

In general terms, you'll be looking at something like this: boot a fresh VM at Linode, apply updates, and install all your needed packages. Stop services on both hosts. Copy the necessary data/config files to the destination host, using a tool such as scp or rsync. Set permissions/ownership on destination files if needed. Start services on the destination host, test everything, reconfigure dns, and you're all set.

FWIW, I've been a happy linode user for 5+ years. I have nothing against DO, I've just never had cause to use them yet.

Incidentally, you mentioned in your blog that you tried a range of shared-hosting providers (HostGator, Bluehost, iPage...) finding them all unsatisfactory, before deciding to move to a dedicated VPS. You may or may not be aware that all three of those providers (and many more) are actually owned by one parent company, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group (i.e.: by trying a set of commonly-owned companies you may not have ended up surveying a particularly diverse cross-section of the market).

Hmm, That's why all of these shared hosting provider works on the same way. Great insight and thanks a lot for replying on this thread.

And the article on digital ocean covering WordPress moving tutorials is great, hope this will work when finally come up with the situation to switch Linode.

Thanks again for valuable comment :)

DO is very "pay as you go" and takes Paypal. No risk, great documentation. I have spun out legacy WP instances here for $5 month instead of EC2 micro. Snapshots only from stopped instances though.

Might revisit my 1st love, Linode, after these comments but ec2-consistent-snapshot by Alestic is a huge draw.

> Snapshots only from stopped instances though.

To be fair, you should be using the "reboot" option when you snapshot in AWS to ensure a consistent filesystem.

Linode is tried and true. They've overcome the growing pains that DO has, is and will experience. I've been a very satisfied Linode customer since 2008.

This isn't the time to compare spec to spec (outbound network speed, for example). If you're #1 priority is stability, I'd go with Linode.

Thanks for your feedback about Linode.

I've used both Linode and DO. Both are great, particularly at DOs $5 price point. Biggest complaint is the lack of support for FreeBSD & CoreOS.

I'm about to try Vultr as they claim to support both CoreOS and FreeBSD.

I don't have experience with DigitalOcean but I can say that Linode's stability is quite remarkable. I only had one brief issue in 6 years and they were very responsive and communicated well.

Thanks for give your hand on this thread!

Huge fan of Digital Ocean here. Much has been said already about both, but love their content / howtos. DO has superb customers support and is always available on Twitter as well.

I have used both and think they are both good. If you need cheaper just pick digital ocean. But both companies are good I think. And I would recommend and use either still today.

Linode has probably the worst security track record in the industry. Hacked (iirc) 4 times now.

DO has had some free speech issues censoring bloggers.

http://vpsexperience.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/digital-ocean-...