DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Learn about their Differences

Are you planning to consider cloud hosting, then you must consider DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround. DigitalOcean is more into cloud hosting than SiteGround. Yet, the specialized option cannot be the best option at all times.  Anyway, as both offer cloud hosting, read on here to know what makes one better over the other choice. 

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Introduction

DigitalOcean is a cloud hosting, New York City-based provider, helping developers in millions to test, build, scale, and manage websites and applications faster, regardless of their website size. It also deploys and installs WordPress, but there is a need for technical knowledge, though it is the cheapest and fastest cloud hosting service.

SiteGround is from Sofia, Bulgaria. They are known for their unmatched security and top speed, besides fast 24/7 expert support. It is the well-known and best hosting company featuring automatic upgrades, GIT version control, one-click staging CDN, and built-in WP caching.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround – pricing

DigitalOcean provides flexible packages with different storage, memory, SSD Disk, and VCPUS. The DigitalOcean packages are:

• 1GB Memory, SSD 25GB, transfer 1Tb, 1vCPU, and $5/month.
• 2GB Memory, SSD 50GB, transfer 2Tb, 1vCPU, and $20/month
• 4GB Memory, SSD 80GB, transfer 4Tb, 2vCPU, and $20/month
• 8GB Memory, SSD 160GB, transfer 5Tb, 4vCPU, and $40/month
• 16GB Memory, SSD 320GB, transfer 6Tb, 6vCPU, and $80/month

Pricing is the key factor to consider, and the pricing plan of the web hosts plays a vital role. 

SiteGround offers three packages:

• Startup- Storage 10GB, 1 domain, monthly $3.95 -$9.95, and 10000 visitors are allowed a month.
• Grow Big- Storage 20GB, unlimited domains, visitors 25,000 a month, and pricing is $6.45 to $17.95.
• Go Geek- Storage 30GB, unlimited domains, visitors 100,000 a month, and pricing is $11.95 to $29.95.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Main Features

• DigitalOcean has its main features matching closely. It offers customizable virtual machines, flexible pay-as-you-go method, prices starting from $5 a month, auto-scaling, 13 data centers, dozens of droplets to pick from, besides first-time customers get up to $100 free credits and instant provisioning.
• SiteGround is not much behind DigitalOcean. It also offers main features like free SSL certificate, fully managed service, daily backups, money-back guarantee within 14 days, 6 data centers, free dedicated IP, advanced priority support, free migration of website, and multiple hosting types.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround -Ease of Use

DigitalOcean is contradictory when it comes to the ease of use of SiteGround. At DigitalOcean, you have to realize the service is not for beginners. The dashboard is different. To configure your server parts, you must rely on a command line and install the applications. Installing something like WordPress involves multiple steps, and it causes headaches for people who are not tech-savvy or are newbies.

SiteGround charges more and also give its focuses on the ease of use factor. This site is user-friendly. The cloud hosting charges are heavy, and they do all the work for you as they are fully managed services. It includes configuring and managing the server, besides the updates and security.

SiteGround is willing to migrate at no extra cost, and if you know shared hosting, you know that you can expect. Though it does not have the traditional cPanel, the dashboard allows you to manage things almost similar to cPanel. 

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Security

DigitalOcean has plenty to offer as security features, and there is a need to configure everything, including firewalls. It is a daunting task for an amateur or a newbie. It is also time-consuming as it is done manually. It means performing various updates.

It also implies an experienced system administrator can benefit from Digital Ocean’s flexibility and build a robust security system. However, doing so much is not less challenging for a newbie or a beginner. They do not provide DDoS protection, but you can buy it with WordPress plugins or with Cloudflare.

SiteGround offers the best monitoring and security as their standard. They have a team to keep track of the server and software vulnerabilities. In addition, they offer access to cPanel and provide DDoS protection for website security.

They prevent website attacks by writing enhancements and security patches. This cloud hosting service assures spam, malware, and hackers, besides offering a free SSL certificate.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Customer Support

Customer support is not given more focus by the cloud hosting providers. A majority of their clients are developers, and the web host believes they know to find their way around the servers. DigitalOcean offers customer support only through ticket support to its regular customers.

It means you cannot contact a tech agent if you need it in urgency. However, live support is available on paying for it separately. In addition, they have third-tier support for people spending a month $500 on hosting.

SiteGround has nothing to worry about giving customer support, and it does not ask for any extra amounts. It offers customer support 24/7, through live chat and tickets, no matter your hosting plan. It applies to all cloud hosting and also to other hosting services.

The agents here have a fair knowledge and are fast with their responses to the inquiries but lack the technical expertise of DigitalOcean agents.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround -Data Centers

It is crucial to know about the Datacenters of  DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround. Without data centers, the website function and its performance is hard to measure or analyze. Experience and speed are important factors.

• DigitalOcean has in 4 continents the data centers, and it is in 8 locations such as 2 in the USA, 2 in Asia, 3 in Europe, and 1 in Canada.
• SiteGround has in 3 continents, data centers, and it is in 5 locations as 2 in Europe, 2 in the USA, and 1 in Asia.

The number of data centers with DigitalOcean is more, but SiteGround covers a lot of basic needs. 

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround – Key features

DigitalOcean has unmanaged web hosting. Its SSD space begins from 25GB for all the web hosting plans, and it offers four copies of weekly backups. The data transfer is from 1Tb for its hosting plans and includes compatible CloudFare, but does not give setup or website migration. The private domain name is included in manually configured plans.

SiteGround has managed web hosting. Its SSD space begins for cloud web hosting from 40GB and for other hosting plans up to 30GB. It offers seven off-site copies daily. The data transfer starts from 5Tb for its cloud hosting plans. It includes CloudFare CDN in all the plans, and it also provides free migration of websites. The private domain name system is also available in all the hosting plans. 

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Performance

One of the crucial aspects is load performance. First, it is to know the speed of a site. Second, it is a must to get the best performance. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the performance of web hosts, DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround, on the WordPress site. In the same continent or elsewhere, you must understand their performance. The two websites are prominent in web hosting, and they have:

• Affiliate Coupons, Yoast SEO, WP Rocket configuration without CDN and image lazy load, Convert Pro, ThirstyAffiliatesa, SocialShare, Astra Theme, etc.

The DigitalOcean does offer great performance, and there is a 15$ instance with the installation of EasyEngine and plugins, posts, and images. The performance was RAM of 2GB, 2 CPUs, and SSD 60GB. Adding the latest EasyEngine version with caching and WordPress is helpful.

The speed and usability allow fast checks of deployments and infrastructure, running testing, without the need for EC2 sets. It is ideal for development, fast, and a boon to the developer.

With GoGeek, SiteGround is also doing a good job. After creating and using the same themes and plugins, the result is that SiteGround performance looks good. By installing appropriate themes and plugins, you get good speeds. The test with LoadImpact offers a good response with an image.

WP rocket and SiteGround cache plugin keep the site speed and are excellent with performance even without CDN.  The support is helpful, very best, and it is available within turnaround time. SiteGround goes over, and the call of duty should be above helping customers.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround- Complicated cPanel

DigitalOcean is certainly not for starters, newbies, or fresh beginners. The cPanel is complicated that building your website requires you to be good with programming languages. In addition, DigitalOcean requires setting up Droplet as your choice as with DigitalOcean servers.

It needs you to install cPanel to follow a guide involving a few code commands. It is a must for users to have some basic coding knowledge as it helps to install the execution file, registering the account, etc.

Moreover, there is a need to buy from a third party the right to use cPanel. If the users have no experience of coding, to develop a website, you must either hire a good developer or stay away from DigitalOcean. Look for suitable solutions that do not ask for more skills. The cPanel usability is relatively intuitive, learning curve and is not for beginners.

The cPanel of SiteGround is site tools. You must access it, visit websites, pick a preferred website, and select Site Tools. If not, you can use a direct link for the tools. In 2019 August, SiteGround got its new dashboard for custom hosting.

However, the new dashboard does not apply to hosting existing accounts, but the new users are sure to benefit from the experience of using the dashboard now. Thus, the existing and new customers can be comfortable with the new cPanel.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround – Plans offer

DigitalOcean is a new platform offering the latest and trendy plans such as:

• You can run newly launched apps on the web and mobile with smoothness.
• It offers reliably and quickly to host your website.
• Gaming development is fast and ensures nonstop entertainment.
• The video streaming hosting upgrade is an available service.
• It assists in running big data workloads and with more efficiency and speed.
• Cloud VPN access is fast, quick, and easy.
• Various solutions that on visiting the website you will find incredible plans.

SiteGround Plans are equally good, and they are for everyone to use with ease. Their plans offer:

• It manages your WordPress sites offering liberty.
• It is a fast and secure hosting service suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
• It is auto-scalable for high-performing sites and are managed by cloud hosting.
• It is designed to promote business and to give high performance with optimization.
• Here are a few pros and cons of both web hosters which you should aware of.

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround – Pros and Cons

DigitalOcean pros include fast setup, free static Ip address, high benchmark scores, SSD servers only, and the cons are tech-skills are a must to handle and are not suitable for beginners.

SiteGround pros include Optimized plans, better uptime guarantee, incredible customer support, free premium features, and the cons are no windows hosting, limited resources, and slow website migration. 

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround-Final verdict 

DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround here offers a clear comparison. Users can conclude their choice as per the features, security, pricing, packages, and lot more factors. The choice is entirely dependent on what you want and is looking for your business or individual purpose. DigitalOcean is better in results, and there is no problem reported about load impact as they were from the same continent.

On SiteGround, you can vouch for security, and the email accounts lack flexibility. DigitalOcean offers flexibility in pricing and better performance, but the user must be skilled to handle the configurations.

Both services excel in function and performance, so there is a need for careful decisions while going through the details of the web hosts. It is a must to go through each point and factor before arriving at a decision. It is because both the web hosts are good and are doing well with their clients.

You must choose an ideal web host among DigitalOcean vs. SiteGround to ensure you enjoy a good performance and no downtimes.