Digital Ocean vs Atlantic.net: Final verdict
Looking over DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net, it’s clear why both hosts are so popular. They have both hosted millions of
websites that run on WordPress for decades, building up a loyal customer base.
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Atlantic.Net (Overall grade: 8.2)
stands out with its 100% uptime SLA backed by a money-back guarantee and impressive data center certifications. For those seeking VPS hosting and managed private clouds, Atlantic.Net provides excellent security and compliance features, including multi-factor authentication and HIPAA-compliant hosting. Their 24/7/365 support via phone and email is a big plus for users who prefer immediate assistance. However, their starting plans are more expensive, and some features like auto-scaling transparency could be improved. -
DigitalOcean (Overall grade: 8.3)
excels with its comprehensive feature set, including SSD storage, built-in CDN, and various caching mechanisms that enhance speed and performance. With 14 globally distributed data centers, DigitalOcean ensures low latency and high accessibility. Their transparent pricing, starting at $4 per month, and versatile security features make it a solid choice for developers and businesses alike. While they lack phone support and built-in email hosting, their self-service resources and community-driven support compensate well, making DigitalOcean highly suitable for those looking for flexible and scalable cloud solutions.
 Overall grade:8.3 |
 Overall grade:8.2 |
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|---|---|---|
| Uptime and Availability | 9.2 | 9.5 |
| Hosting Performance | 8.8 | 7.6 |
| Hosting Security | 9.1 | 8.9 |
| Price | 8.7 | 8.3 |
| Hosting Features | 6.9 | 6.5 |
| Ease Of Setup | 8.2 | 8.0 |
| User Management | 8.0 | 8.4 |
| Customer Support | 7.8 | 8.3 |
| User feedback | 4.6/5 | 4.9/5 |
Hosting types offered
Both platforms provide a variety of hosting types, each designed to meet the different needs of users.
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| Shared hosting | ||
| Cloud hosting | ||
| WordPress hosting | ||
| Ecommerce hosting | ||
| VPS hosting | ||
| Dedicated hosting |
Although both offer a variety of hosting plans tailored to different needs, in
certain cases, one platform may prove to be more suitable.
Detailed comparison
Uptime and availability
Evaluates the average uptime statistics, uptime guarantee and overall availability of the hosting
provider
Score Components:
- Uptime percentage (30%): evaluates the uptime statistics in given period of time
- Uptime guarantee (20%): Assesses if the platform offers an uptime guarantee and
whether the actual uptime matches the promised guarantee. - General performance (25%): Evaluates how fast is the average response time and overall
it’s stability. - Responsiveness (10%): Adaptability to different devices and screen sizes.
- Availability (25%): Reflects the total downtime and number of outages.
9.2
9.5
🏆 Winner Atlantic.Net: Offering a stronger commitment to uptime and performance with their 100% uptime SLA.
DigitalOcean delivers a 99.99% uptime SLA and a comprehensive suite of features that ensure high availability and performance. Their real-time monitoring, global checks, and customizable alerts make it a solid choice for developers looking for reliable hosting services. Automated backups, high-quality infrastructure, and flexible hosting options enhance its appeal to a wide range of users.
Atlantic.Net stands out with a 100% uptime SLA, backed by a money-back guarantee, and impressive data center certifications. Their cloud VPS hosting and managed private cloud options offer robust security and compliance features. With 24/7/365 support via phone and email, Atlantic.Net assures consistent service and support to maintain your online presence efficiently.
Which one has better hosting performance?
Score Components:
- Hosting speed (30%): This includes SSD quality, Load times, PageSpeed score ranges,
additional information on website speed, built-in plugins for performance enhancement, available caching
methods, and CPU/RAM options - CDN (20%): Considers whether CDN is available or not, whether it’s free or paid, and
the quality of the CDN service - Available data centers (30%): Evaluates the number of data centers and their locations
globally. - Scalibility (20%): Looks at whether elastic scaling is available, the process required
to scale (manual upgrade vs. automatic scaling), the presence of dedicated servers, and the costs
associated with scaling.
8.8
7.6
🏆 Winner: DigitalOcean: A Reliable and Efficient Hosting Provider
When it comes to general performance, both DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net offer competitive hosting solutions. DigitalOcean boasts 14 globally distributed data centers, helping reduce latency and ensuring website accessibility worldwide. Their use of SSD storage, CDN, and a variety of caching mechanisms including page and object caching all contribute to faster load times. Atlantic.Net also provides SSD storage, RAID-10 architecture, and boasts large storage and memory-optimized plans, offering speed and redundancy. They have data centers in multiple global regions but the exact number and locations are less detailed compared to DigitalOcean.
Website Speed
DigitalOcean stands out with SSD storage, a built-in CDN, and multiple caching mechanisms that enhance page load times and performance. Their App Platform ensures efficient delivery without requiring hands-on management, which streamlines speed optimizations. Atlantic.Net also offers competitive performance, especially with their large memory plans and robust VPS hosting solutions like optimized configurations for WordPress, but lacks some of the automated performance features that DigitalOcean provides.
Scalability
Scalability is a significant factor for both hosting services. DigitalOcean’s Droplets allow seamless horizontal scaling, and their load balancing features ensure high availability during peak periods. They also provide several customizable plans to fit varying needs. Atlantic.Net offers elastic scaling with live migrations available for scaling up without downtime, and their dedicated hosts provide compliance-ready solutions. The cost details for scaling in Atlantic.Net are not fully disclosed, whereas DigitalOcean offers transparent and predictable pricing that starts at $4 per month, making it easier to manage costs while scaling.
Which one has better security features?
and regulatory requirements
Score Components:
- Technical security measures (40%): This includes encryption, firewalls, DDoS
protection, secure configurations, server monitoring, access control and availability of security addons
(e.g Sitelock security). - Operational security measures (30%): Encompasses data privacy, backups and data
redundancy. - Compliance and certifications (20%): Adherence to legal and regulatory requirements
(e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and possession of certifications (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC 2). - Business and reliability (10%): Factors in the provider’s reputation, uptime
guarantees, and customer support.
9.1
8.9
🏆 Winner
DigitalOcean: DigitalOcean secures data with extensive compliance certifications and versatile security features, making it top-notch for enterprise-level protection.
Technical security measures:
DigitalOcean shines with its robust DDoS protection, web application firewall (WAF), and advanced data encryption, ensuring high security against cyber threats. In comparison, Atlantic.Net also offers strong measures, such as encrypted VPN and automatic AES-256 encrypted backups. Both providers feature SSL certificates and managed firewalls, though DigitalOcean adds SSH access and a load balancer to distribute traffic efficiently. While Atlantic.Net uses intrusion prevention services (IPS) to monitor network traffic, DigitalOcean provides a broader suite of security tools.
Operational security measures:
Operationally, DigitalOcean supports two-factor authentication (2FA) and automated backups, ensuring secure access and data integrity. Atlantic.Net incorporates multi-factor authentication and comprehensive log management systems, securing user identity and monitoring activity more closely. DigitalOcean’s VPC and managed databases provide extra layers of security, while Atlantic.Net emphasizes HIPAA compliance with features like file integrity monitoring.
Compliance and certifications:
DigitalOcean meets multiple compliance standards, including GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, and CSA STAR Level 1. Atlantic.Net complies with GDPR, PCI-DSS, and additional HIPAA requirements, offering HIPAA-compliant hosting with business associate agreements (BAA) and vulnerability scans.
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SSL certificate |
Yes |
Yes |
Additional security features |
Web application firewall, DDoS protection, SSH access, load balancers |
Intrusion prevention service, encrypted VPN, encrypted backups |
PHP versions |
Various |
Not specified |
GDPR compliance |
Yes |
Yes |
HIPAA compliance |
Not specified |
Yes |
PCI compliance |
Yes |
Yes |
Hosting features
Score Components:
- Domains (20%): Assesses the availability of a free domain, domain purchase options, and
pricing - Email (15%): Considers if the provider offers full email hosting, or is reselling
third-party service, and if the email is only transactional or not - Website builder (15%): Checks if website builder is available, and it’s user
friendliness and overall the level of customization allowed. - Staging environment (20%): Determines if a staging environment is available, allowing
for testing changes before going live. - FTP & SFTP accounts (10%): Evaluates if and how easily users can access FTP and
SFTP accounts - Git and SSH access (20%): Assess whether Git is integrated into the hosting service and
if SSH access is provided
6.9
6.5
🏆 Winner DigitalOcean: A versatile and feature-rich hosting provider with robust security and performance guarantees.
DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net both offer extensive features that cater to different hosting requirements. DigitalOcean provides a wide variety of hosting types including VPS, dedicated, shared, and managed WordPress hosting, among others. Its comprehensive security measures like DDoS protection, automatic backups, and two-factor authentication make it a reliable choice. In terms of user-friendliness, DigitalOcean does not explicitly mention a website builder, but it offers a range of managed services that facilitate complex customization and robust performance with a 99.99% uptime SLA and globally distributed data centers.
Atlantic.Net focuses significantly on its one-click WordPress VPS hosting, ensuring that users can launch their websites in less than 30 seconds with root access. This provider also supports a variety of operating systems and offers extensive services for server management, which may be attractive to users needing flexibility and control. The optional load balancing, HIPAA-compliant hosting, and comprehensive web server support add to its appeal, although it doesn’t mention a built-in website builder. A noteworthy point is the assistance Atlantic.Net provides for server migrations, which can be a deciding factor for users transitioning from another hosting provider.
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Free domain |
No |
No |
Free SSL |
Yes |
Yes |
Email hosting |
No |
Yes |
Website builder |
No |
No |
Staging environment |
No |
No |
FTP & SFTP account |
Yes |
Yes |
Git and SSH access |
Yes |
Yes |
Free backup |
No |
No |
Money back guarantee |
No |
No |
a location.
As a result in rare cases the features mentioned here can differ from the ones you see on their websites.
Both providers support a range of users from beginners to experts with user-friendly website builders and WordPress staging areas. However, in terms of developer tools, both DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net offer robust options including SSH access, support for multiple programming languages, and Git for version control, thus appealing to developers looking for advanced capabilities.
Email services:
Email services at DigitalOcean do not provide native email hosting services, focusing more on infrastructure and server management. Users typically rely on third-party email solutions. Atlantic.Net, on the other hand, offers robust email hosting capabilities and supports a variety of applications such as Google Workspace and Outlook, making it suitable for users needing integrated email solutions. Both providers offer sufficient transactional email capabilities, though the specifics of any limits or restrictions should be checked based on user requirements.
Price
Score Components:
- Plan value (40%): What each pricing tier offers.
- Transparency and clarity (30%): Clearness of pricing structures.
- Flexibility of plans (20%): Range of options to suit different budgets.
- Hidden costs (10%): Additional expenses not included in the plan.
8.7
8.3
🏆 Winner DigitalOcean:Offers versatile and competitively priced hosting plans suitable for various needs and budgets.
Evaluating the pricing of plans among various hosting providers can be complex due to their differing pricing and renewal strategies. Additionally, certain plans require annual commitments, which adds to the difficulty of making comparisons. The prices listed are based on monthly commitments; plans requiring annual commitments are indicated. Additionally, although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.
DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net offer a variety of pricing plans catering to different hosting needs. DigitalOcean starts at $4/month for basic plans, emphasizing transparent pricing and features like DDoS protection and automatic backups. On the other hand, Atlantic.Net offers starting plans at $17/month, providing features like full root access and RAID-10 Cloud Storage. Each provider offers multiple plans across categories such as WordPress hosting, shared hosting, and cloud hosting. DigitalOcean’s plans suit various budgets, whereas Atlantic.Net focuses on high-performance options.
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Basic Droplet$4/month
1-click WordPress installation, DDoS protection, SSL Certificate, automatic backups Value for price:8.7
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G3.4GB$17/month
One-Click WordPress VPS Hosting, 50GB SSD storage, daily cloud backup, 3TB data transfer Value for price:8.0
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Website Hosting$4/month
Simple & reliable cloud hosting, 1-click apps for WordPress, 99.99% uptime SLA Value for price:8.7
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N/A |
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General Purpose Droplets$4/month
Shared CPU, 25GB SSD storage, scalable Value for price:8.7
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General Purpose VPS$17/month
2GB Memory, 3TB data transfer, user-friendly control panel, full root access Value for price:8.3
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Enterprise plans
For enterprise use, DigitalOcean offers higher-end dedicated and storage-optimized droplets, starting at $42/month and up to $131/month respectively. These plans feature enhanced performance, significant storage, and data transfer capacities. Atlantic.Net’s dedicated server plans start at $247/month, providing extensive customization options, managed services, and high data transfer limits, suitable for large-scale deployments. DigitalOcean caters to enterprises looking for scalable and cost-effective solutions, whereas Atlantic.Net focuses on providing extensive managed services and customizable configurations.
Digital Ocean vs Atlantic.net: Ease of setup
platform.
Score Components:
- Site migration (25%): Assesses whether the provider offers tools for site migration,
either automated or manual, and whether these services are free or require a fee. - Admin panel usability (35%): Evaluates the type of admin panel provided, such as the
standard cPanel or a custom solution, focusing on its accessibility and user-friendliness for both
technical and non-technical users. - Setup features (20%): Examines the availability and ease of use of various setup
features, including FTP accounts, file managers, email account setup, PHPMyAdmin, and easy CDN
configuration. - Help center quality (20%): Measures the quality and accessibility of the provider’s
help center resources, including articles and tutorials.
8.2
8.0
🏆 Winner
DigitalOcean: Offers a highly flexible and scalable hosting environment with various tools to simplify setup and management.
DigitalOcean offers a custom admin panel tailored to their 1-Click Apps, Droplets, and App Platform, designed to provide a streamlined user experience. This approach simplifies the tasks for both technical and non-technical users, enabling easy deployment, scaling, and management of applications and websites. The platform’s customization options cater well to developers seeking a high degree of control. Meanwhile, Cloudways adds another layer of ease, providing a managed hosting solution with a user-friendly interface.
Atlantic.Net, on the other hand, employs a straightforward control panel for their VPS hosting, specifically designed for ease of use. Their admin panel simplifies creating new servers and applications, making it accessible for users of varying technical expertise. The process of setting up a WordPress VPS server, for example, is detailed and user-friendly, primarily aimed at users who prefer a clean and straightforward interface to configure their hosting environments.
Regarding migration tools, DigitalOcean provides various resources through its documentation and community support to aid in manual site migrations. They offer step-by-step guides and have an engaging community where users can get help from experienced developers. However, they do not have an automated migration tool, meaning users might need some technical knowledge or assistance for the process. Atlantic.Net’s support services include personalized assistance for server migrations, patching, and updates, but these services may require a fee, depending on the complexity and extent of the migration.
DigitalOcean’s help center is extensive, with a vast collection of articles, tutorials, and community-driven discussions. This comprehensive resource library makes it easier for users to manage their hosting needs and resolve any issues they might face. Besides this, users can benefit from 24/7/365 support through Cloudways, ensuring round-the-clock assistance. Atlantic.Net’s help center, while offering 24/7/365 support and a well-experienced support team, provides adequate, albeit less extensive, documentation and resources. The quality of support is high, given their team’s expertise, but it’s more focused on direct problem resolution via contact channels rather than a large volume of self-serve resources.
User management
accessibility.
Score Components:
- Role customization (40%): Flexibility in creating and defining user roles and
permissions. - Ease of management (30%): User interface and tools for managing users.
- Access control (20%): Effectiveness of access control measures for different user
levels. - Scalability (10%): Ability to manage a growing number of users efficiently.
8.0
8.4
🏆 Winner: Atlantic.Net: Delivers comprehensive and efficient user management with advanced security protocols.
When comparing DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net in terms of user roles, permissions, and accessibility, Atlantic.Net has a slight edge due to its highly detailed and guidance-based access controls that cater to PCI and HIPAA compliance. DigitalOcean provides straightforward, unlimited team membership with three roles: Owner, Biller, and Member, allowing full or restricted access depending on the role. Atlantic.Net, on the other hand, integrates more specific access controls and specific roles related to maintaining compliance standards, making it suitable for organizations with stringent security requirements.
DigitalOcean offers a user-friendly interface where team owners can manage roles, invite members, and view detailed info about member sign-ins. The membership table is intuitive, facilitating easy viewing and management of team roles and statuses. Atlantic.Net offers robust tools, including multi-factor authentication and policy enforcement, which ensure secure and straightforward management of users. Its interface can handle bulk user imports and provide advanced admin capabilities, which might be more demanding but ultimately secure.
For access control measures, Atlantic.Net excels with its Zero Trust model and detailed authentication methods required for PCI and HIPAA compliance. It features device hygiene monitoring, endpoint access analysis, and attack prevention mechanisms that are crucial for larger organizations handling sensitive data. While DigitalOcean is effective for managing large teams with ease, providing clear access levels and roles, its access control measures are not as extensive or sophisticated as Atlantic.Net’s, making it slightly less suitable for highly regulated environments.
DigitalOcean User Roles Table
| Role | Description | Access Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Full control over team settings and billing information | Full access to shared resources, billing info, team settings |
| Biller | Billing oversight | Full access to billing info, no access to resources/settings |
| Member | Access to shared resources | Full access to shared resources, no access to billing/settings |
Atlantic.Net User Roles Table
| Role | Description | Access Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Managed Services Team | Processes and creates users to meet security parameters | Full control over user creation, security policies, and automated alerts of inactivity |
Customer support
hosting provider.
Score Components:
- Support communication channels (30%): Measures the variety of customer support types
provided (live chat, chatbot, email, phone, etc.) - Availability (20%): Assesses the availability hours for each channel, including 24/7
support options. - Technical support quality (30%): Assesses whether the provider offers comprehensive
technical support, including hardware upgrades (e.g., HDD to SSD), software installations, and web
server configuration changes. - Enterprise support (20%): Checks if there are dedicated or priority support services
for enterprise-level customers.
7.8
8.3
🏆 Winner
Atlantic.Net: Offering a wealth of support options and decades of experience, Atlantic.Net stands out in customer service.
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Phone support |
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Live chat support |
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Chatbot |
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Email/ticket support |
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Enterprise support (dedicated agent, priority support) |
DigitalOcean and Atlantic.Net both offer extensive customer support options, making them reliable choices for hosting needs. DigitalOcean provides 24/7 support via an online ticketing system, with additional email support for general queries, and live chat available for premium users. DigitalOcean also has a comprehensive community forum and documentation center, enhancing the self-service experience for users. Tutorials covering various technical topics further contribute to its user-friendly nature.
Atlantic.Net distinguishes itself with a more hands-on approach to customer service. It offers 24/7 phone and email support, along with a knowledge base and a dedicated blog and tutorial page for self-help resources. Atlantic.Net’s support system includes specific email addresses for various types of issues, ensuring tailored assistance. The company’s long-standing experience and availability of a dedicated support team emphasize its commitment to customer service, which is a significant advantage.
Digital Ocean vs Atlantic.net: User feedback
User reviews for this hosting provider highlight its ease of use, affordability, and robust customer support. Users appreciate the simple and intuitive user interface, which simplifies the setup and management of virtual servers (droplets) and other cloud infrastructure. Many commend the company for its transparent pricing model and lack of hidden costs. However, some users mention limitations in higher-scale configurations and occasional slow customer support response times. Overall, it is highly recommended for small to medium-sized businesses and developers due to its reliable performance and reasonable pricing.
Users generally praise the hosting provider for its strong reliability, great value for cost, and high performance, particularly in maintaining uptime and fast network speeds. The customer portal and service tools are appreciated for their ease of use, although some customers find navigation to help pages cumbersome and suggest improvements in the console’s functionality. Support is often noted as responsive and helpful, although a few users desire faster response times and multilingual support. Some users also wish for expanded backup options and additional features in specific data centers but overall, find the service robust and dependable for their needs.
Digital Ocean vs Atlantic.net: FAQ
Which platform is better suited for hosting WordPress websites?
DigitalOcean offers fully managed solutions with built-in security, 24/7 support, and scalability for WordPress hosting. Atlantic.Net also provides one-click WordPress VPS hosting with 50GB SSD storage and daily backups. Both platforms are well-equipped for WordPress, but DigitalOcean’s broader feature set makes it a more versatile option.
Which hosting service offers better security features?
DigitalOcean excels with DDoS protection, web application firewall (WAF), and advanced data encryption, enhancing cybersecurity. Atlantic.Net offers strong security measures, including encrypted VPN, automatic AES-256 encrypted backups, and intrusion prevention. While both have robust security features, DigitalOcean’s additional tools like SSH access and load balancers offer broader protection.
What are the major differences in pricing and value between digitalocean and atlanticnet?
DigitalOcean offers transparent pricing starting at $4/month, emphasizing features like DDoS protection and automatic backups. Atlantic.Net’s plans start at $17/month, focusing on high-performance options with features like full root access and RAID-10 Cloud Storage. DigitalOcean’s lower entry cost and various budget-friendly plans make it more suitable for cost-conscious users.
Which platform offers better customer support?
DigitalOcean provides 24/7 support via an online ticketing system and live chat for premium users, with extensive community resources and documentation. Atlantic.Net offers 24/7 phone and email support, along with a well-documented knowledge base and tutorial resources. Atlantic.Net’s more direct and personalized support options give it an edge for immediate assistance.
Which hosting service offers more scalability options for growing websites?
DigitalOcean’s Droplets allow seamless horizontal scaling with load balancing features ensuring high availability. Atlantic.Net offers elastic scaling with live migrations and dedicated hosts for compliance-ready solutions. DigitalOcean’s flexible, transparent pricing and simplified scaling make it a more practical choice for growing websites.
The making of this blog
We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.
