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DigitalOcean vs Akamai Cloud (Linode)

A sourced, side-by-side comparison for vps hosting. Akamai Cloud (Linode) has the lower entry price. Every figure links to the public page it was captured from — the vendor's own wherever the vendor publishes the number, otherwise the named public source — with the date we captured it.

Akamai Cloud (Linode) has the lower entry price — DigitalOcean starts at $6/mo, Akamai Cloud (Linode) at $5/mo. Free tier: DigitalOcean No, Akamai Cloud (Linode) No. HIPAA: DigitalOcean Yes, Akamai Cloud (Linode) —.

As of 2026-09-05 · figures link to their source below

Side by side

DigitalOcean

$6/mo entry
Entry price$6/mo (Basic Droplet — 1 GB)
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)Yes
SOC 2Yes
GDPRNo
Best forSMB SaaS builders

Akamai Cloud (Linode)

$5/mo entry
Entry price$5/mo (Nanode 1 GB)
Free tierNo
HIPAA (BAA)
SOC 2
GDPR
Best fordevelopers needing edge-adjacent compute

Sources — DigitalOcean: digitalocean.com (verified 2026-09-03) · Akamai Cloud (Linode): akamai.com (verified 2026-09-05)

Key features

DigitalOcean: SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3 Type II, HIPAA-eligible workloads, PCI-DSS SAQ-A, ISO 27001 (data centers), Global PRP, and CSA STAR Level 1; 99.99% uptime SLA on Droplets with per-second billing (60s minimum); DORA-eligible workloads; One-click app marketplace; GPU Droplets for AI/ML

Akamai Cloud (Linode): $100 promotional credit for new users (not a forever-free tier; payment method required); Akamai edge network integration for low-latency delivery; Managed databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), GPU instances, Kubernetes (LKE); S3-compatible object storage; multiple global regions for data sovereignty

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