Final verdict
Comparing DigitalOcean and Nexcess reveals two strong contenders in web hosting, each excelling in different areas.
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DigitalOcean (Overall grade: 8.3)
stands out for its superior uptime and customizable solutions, featuring a 99.99% uptime SLA, global monitoring, and flexible droplets. Users appreciate DigitalOcean for its transparency, competitive pricing, and developer-friendly environment, complete with robust security features like DDoS protection, firewalls, and SSL certificates. However, it lacks dedicated ecommerce tools and managed user support, making it less suitable for non-technical users or those seeking specialized hosting services.
Nexcess (Overall grade: 8.2)
specializes in managed hosting for platforms like WordPress and Magento, offering comprehensive support with features like plugin performance tracking and automatic updates. It excels in ecommerce hosting with tools tailored to long-term business growth. Despite some performance issues, users favor Nexcess for its easy setup, extensive support, and free email hosting. While its pricing can be higher, the added features and specialized focus make Nexcess appealing for those needing targeted solutions for ecommerce and agency projects.
 Overall grade:8.3 |
 Overall grade:8.2 |
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|---|---|---|
| Uptime and Availability | 9.2 | 7.8 |
| Hosting Performance | 8.8 | 8.6 |
| Hosting Security | 9.1 | 9.2 |
| Price | 8.7 | 7.4 |
| Hosting Features | 6.9 | 5.7 |
| Ease Of Setup | 8.2 | 9.1 |
| User Management | 8.0 | 8.6 |
| Customer Support | 7.8 | 8.8 |
| User feedback | 4.6/5 | 3.5/5 |
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
7.8
Winner
🏆 Winner:
DigitalOcean: Provides superior uptime and availability features.
DigitalOcean stands out with its impressive features such as a 99.99% uptime SLA, global monitoring, and customizable alerts. It offers real-time alerts for latency, downtime, and SSL expiry, ensuring high availability for your services. With automated monitoring and multiple data centers, DigitalOcean delivers consistent and reliable performance.
Nexcess holds a 99.88% uptime, with an average load time of 1.56 seconds and a performance grade of 70/100. It provides detailed system status transparency and daily backups stored for 30 days. Despite its reliability, Nexcess has room for improvement in performance grade and load time compared to DigitalOcean.
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
8.6
🏆 Winner DigitalOcean: Highly customizable and developer-friendly with top-notch uptime.
DigitalOcean excels with its 99.99% uptime guarantee and 14 globally distributed data centers, ensuring consistent accessibility. Its Droplets provide scalable virtual machines with SSD storage, enhancing speed and reliability. Built-in caching mechanisms and an integrated CDN further improve performance. Nexcess also boasts enviable uptime at 99.998% and offers superior WordPress performance with Nginx and Redis-powered caching. Their Global CDN, powered by Cloudflare, ensures quick content delivery. Both hostings provide ample data center coverage, though DigitalOcean’s transparent pricing model is more budget-friendly.
Website Speed
DigitalOcean leverages SSD storage and strong caching technologies for efficient content retrieval and faster page load times. Its infrastructure supports high-speed applications through flexible, scalable Droplets. Nexcess focuses on lightning-fast WordPress hosting, using a combination of automatic caching, free autoscaled PHP workers, and Nginx. While DigitalOcean offers a more generalized high-speed solution, Nexcess excels specifically in optimized WordPress environments.
Scalability
DigitalOcean offers robust load balancing and horizontal scaling, allowing traffic to be distributed efficiently without requiring manual upgrades. Scaling happens seamlessly thanks to their flexible droplets. Nexcess also provides automatic autoscaling for PHP resources, automatically deploying extra resources during traffic surges. Pricing for both services varies as you scale up, but DigitalOcean provides more granular control over scaling costs. Neither platform offers specific details on dedicated servers.
Hosting security
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
9.2
🏆 Winner Nexcess: Their robust compliance measures and diverse SSL offerings make them a top choice for secure hosting solutions.
Both DigitalOcean and Nexcess, have notable differences in their approaches to technical and operational
security, as well as in their compliance with regulations.
Technical security measures:
DigitalOcean provides SSL certificates, DDoS protection, firewalls, SSH access, two-factor authentication, automatic backups, and a web application firewall. Nexcess, on the other hand, offers types of SSL certificates including Extended Validation and Wildcard SSL, advanced security hardening, proactive monitoring, daily malware scans, and enterprise server monitoring. Both offer solid support for PHP versions 7 and 8+. DigitalOcean also includes data encryption both at rest and in transit, and VPC for secure networking.
Operational security measures:
DigitalOcean ensures secure server management through SSH access and automatic backups with snapshots. It also includes web application firewalls, DDoS protection, and two-factor authentication for enhanced user account security. Nexcess offers daily server backups stored for 30 days, proactive security measures such as automatic OS updates and threat detection. Additionally, they provide a developer-friendly environment with features like Object Cache Pro and Cloud Accelerator.
Compliance and certifications:
DigitalOcean complies with GDPR and PCI-DSS, holding several certifications including SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, CSA STAR Level 1, and APEC CBPR PRP. Nexcess is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and helps merchants maintain compliance. It is also GDPR compliant and undergoes annual SSAE-18 assessments, maintaining SOC-1 type II and SOC-2 type II compliance.
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|---|---|---|
SSL certificate |
SSL certificates |
Various types including EV and Wildcard |
Additional security features |
DDoS protection, firewalls, VPC, data encryption |
Proactive monitoring, threat detection, daily malware scans |
PHP versions |
7 and 8+ |
7 and 8+ |
GDPR compliance |
Yes |
Yes |
HIPAA compliance |
Not specified |
Not specified |
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
5.7
🏆 Winner: DigitalOcean: DigitalOcean offers a well-rounded suite of hosting services with high performance for a variety of user needs.
Both DigitalOcean and Nexcess provide comprehensive hosting solutions, yet they cater to different user preferences and business requirements. DigitalOcean shines with its strong security features like DDoS protection, firewalls, and SSH access. Its 99.99% uptime SLA and 14 globally distributed data centers ensure robust performance. Although it does not explicitly offer a website builder, the provider’s array of hosting types, including dedicated, shared, and managed WordPress hosting, covers diverse needs from simple websites to complex applications. DigitalOcean’s focus on additional services such as VPC, load balancers, and object storage appeals to developers seeking flexible, high-performance infrastructure.
Nexcess, on the other hand, specializes in managed solutions tailored for specific platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, and Magento. It offers unique features like plugin performance monitoring, PHP compatibility checker, and WooCommerce automated testing. Nexcess provides a user-friendly environment with free migrations, free SSLs, and daily backups, making it appealing to users seeking ease of setup and maintenance. While Nexcess does offer FTP/SFTP and SSH access, its standout feature is the comprehensive support for ecommerce solutions, including free smart monitoring alerts and proactive support. This focus on specific platforms is ideal for businesses requiring dedicated resources for their WordPress or Magento stores.
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| Free domain | No | No |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Email hosting | No | Yes |
| Website builder | No | Yes |
| Staging environment | Yes | Yes |
| FTP & SFTP accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Git and SSH access | Yes | Yes |
| Free backup | Yes | Yes |
| Money back guarantee | No | Yes, 30 days |
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 Example hosting one and Example hosting two 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:
DigitalOcean does not offer email hosting services directly, focusing more on infrastructure and security features. Nexcess, however, provides free unlimited email with certain plans, enabling users to manage their own email campaigns effectively. This makes Nexcess a viable option for businesses needing built-in email solutions alongside their hosting services.
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
7.4
🏆 Winner DigitalOcean: Offering a range of versatile hosting solutions with competitive pricing and strong features.
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. Although some providers offer identical plans for WordPress and shared hosting, we have created separate tables for each to enhance clarity.
When comparing the two hosting providers, DigitalOcean provides a variety of affordable options with plans starting as low as $4/month, especially appealing for WordPress and basic website hosting. In contrast, Nexcess offers higher-end cloud hosting solutions with prices beginning at $21 for managed plans and extending upwards, with features like PHP workers, extensive storage, and bandwidth options. Both providers offer specialized plans for different needs, making it crucial to understand each one’s unique offerings to find the best fit for your requirements.
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Basic Droplet $4
1 website, storage not specified, bandwidth not specified, VPS hosting, free SSL certificate, automatic backups, 1-click installation. Value for price:8.7
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Spark Plan $21
1 website, 15GB storage, 2TB bandwidth, 24/7/365 support, disaster recovery assistance, automatic updates, marketing tools. Value for price:7.4
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Cloudways Managed $100 in free credits
Managed infrastructure, no site limits, no visitor caps, built-in DDoS protection, automatic backups, free SSL certificate. Value for price:8.7
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Spark+ Plan $43
3 websites, 25GB storage, 2.5TB bandwidth, includes same features as Spark Plan. Value for price:7.4
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| N/A |
Producer Plan $147.60 for 3 months then $328
50 websites, 300GB storage, 5TB bandwidth, plugin monitoring, WooCommerce testing, 24/7/365 support. Value for price:7.4
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Basic Droplet $4
1 website, storage not specified, bandwidth not specified, VPS hosting, free SSL certificate, automatic backups, 1-click installation. Value for price:8.7
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N/A |
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Simple & Reliable Cloud Hosting $4/month
1-click apps for CMS, 99.99% uptime, 14 globally distributed data centers, transparent pricing. Value for price:8.7
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N/A |
|
Premium Shared CPU Droplets $7/month
Shared processing power, enhanced memory performance, NVMe SSDs. Value for price:8.7
|
N/A |
| N/A | N/A |
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|---|---|
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Regular Shared CPU Droplets $4
Shared CPU, storage and bandwidth not specified, 24/7 support, automatic backups. Value for price:8.7
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XS Plan $52
11 websites, 50GB storage, 1TB bandwidth, 24/7/365 support, daily backups, cloud accelerator, SSL certificates. Value for price:7.4
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Premium Shared CPU Droplets $7
Enhanced memory performance, NVMe SSDs, shared processing power, storage and bandwidth not specified. Value for price:8.7
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S Plan $104
16 websites, 75GB storage, 2TB bandwidth, includes same features as XS Plan. Value for price:7.4
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Dedicated CPU Droplets $42
4GB memory, 25GB SSD, 4TB transfer, dedicated CPU. Value for price:8.7
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M Plan $184
21 websites, 125GB storage, 3TB bandwidth, includes same features as XS Plan. Value for price:7.4
|
As a result in rare cases the prices displayed here can differ from the ones you see on their websites.
Enterprise plans
DigitalOcean’s VPS hosting provides memory-optimized droplets starting at $84/month and storage-optimized droplets starting at $131/month, offering considerable resources and scalability. Nexcess offers enterprise-grade plans with extensive features, starting at $492.75 for the first three months, expanding to accommodate up to 250 websites with 800GB storage and 10TB bandwidth. Each provider caters to large-scale businesses effectively, with DigitalOcean focusing on versatile infrastructure and Nexcess delivering high-capacity solutions with comprehensive support.
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
9.1
🏆 Winner Nexcess: Provides a seamless website setup experience with managed migrations and powerful support tools.
When comparing the admin panels of DigitalOcean and Nexcess, DigitalOcean offers a custom solution through its Droplets and App Platform. The interface is crafted to cater to experienced developers, making it highly customizable but steeped in technicality for beginners. Its dashboard is clean and straightforward but requires some learning curve for non-technical users. Nexcess, on the other hand, employs a more user-friendly approach, offering pre-installed software such as WooCommerce and a drag-and-drop builder for effortless website creation. This makes it accessible and intuitive for both technical and non-technical users, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for those new to website management.
Nexcess excels with its free managed migrations, handled by seasoned professionals to ensure a smooth transition from another host. This service stands out, especially for users who lack the technical know-how to migrate their sites manually. DigitalOcean does not provide managed migrations but offers extensive documentation and community support to guide users through the process. While DigitalOcean’s self-service migration options might suit developers, Nexcess’s free managed migration service will appeal to users seeking a hassle-free experience.
In terms of help center resources, DigitalOcean offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and community support to assist users with various aspects of hosting. This comprehensive library is designed to help users resolve issues autonomously. Nexcess, by contrast, provides expert support available 24/7/365 through phone, chat, and email, along with a thorough knowledge base and additional resources like webinars and white papers. Both platforms offer valuable support, but Nexcess’s combination of comprehensive resources and immediate live support tips the scale in its favor.
The platforms provide extensive knowledge bases filled with guides, how-to articles, and instructional content. DigitalOcean offers a wide range of resources alongside 24/7 chat and phone support. Nexcess also boasts a detailed help center with an intuitive search function and around-the-clock support via live chat, phone, and ticketing, ensuring comprehensive user support.
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
8.6
🏆 Winner
Nexcess: A versatile hosting provider offering customizable user roles and permissions for varied team needs.
DigitalOcean and Nexcess both provide comprehensive solutions for managing user roles, permissions, and accessibility. DigitalOcean categorizes users into Owners, Billers, and Members, ensuring straightforward role assignment and clear division of access levels. Nexcess, on the other hand, offers Superusers, Billing roles, Technical roles, and the flexibility to create custom teams with tailored permissions. This customizability gives Nexcess an edge for organizations with specific requirements, allowing precise control over user roles and permissions.
Managing users on both platforms is user-friendly, thanks to intuitive interfaces. DigitalOcean provides clear options and steps for inviting and managing team members, with easy viewing of membership and role status. Nexcess offers a more dynamic interface, allowing users to create, edit, and assign team members efficiently. Both platforms are accessible via their respective portals, with Nexcess providing additional support for users facing login issues. Overall, Nexcess’s customization capabilities in its management tools stand out.
DigitalOcean’s access control measures are effective, allowing owners full oversight of the team’s activities and resource usage. There are no limitations on the number of members in a team, making it suitable for growing teams. Nexcess excels in offering flexible permissions and roles, catering to expanding teams without restrictions. This ability to scale user management efficiently enhances its appeal for larger organizations or those anticipating significant growth, making Nexcess a preferred choice for complex user management.
DigitalOcean user roles table:
| Role | Description | Access highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Full access to resources and billing. | Can manage shared resources, billing info, and team settings. |
| Biller | Access to billing information only. | Limited to managing billing-related information. |
| Member | Full access to shared resources. | Cannot access billing information or team settings. |
Nexcess user roles table:
| Role | Description | Access highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Superuser | Full administrator access. | Can access all functionalities within the Nexcess Client Portal. |
| Billing | Focused on account management and invoicing. | Manages billing and account-related tasks. |
| Technical | Access to technical functions. | Limited access to account management and billing. |
| Custom Teams | Customizable based on team requirements. | Permissions configured as per team members’ expertise. |
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
8.8
🏆 Winner Nexcess: Nexcess stands out with its comprehensive customer support and added features to facilitate web hosting.
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Phone support |
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Live chat support |
(premium) |
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Chatbot |
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Email/ticket support |
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Enterprise support (dedicated agent, priority support) |
DigitalOcean and Nexcess both provide diverse customer support options, but Nexcess offers more comprehensive support. DigitalOcean offers email support, online ticketing, and a premium live chat option. They also have an extensive community and robust documentation with tutorials. These options ensure users have multiple avenues for resolving issues, but the lack of phone support and dedicated enterprise support might be limiting for some users.
On the other hand, Nexcess ensures 24/7/365 support through phone, live chat, and email. Their customer portal is adept at handling support tickets, migrations, and offering detailed guides. Nexcess also provides added features like daily backups, proactive monitoring, and free managed migrations. The 30-day money-back guarantee offers a risk-free trial, and their in-house experts specialize in PHP-based applications like WordPress and Magento, making it more favorable for users seeking thorough and reliable support.
User feedback
DigitalOcean consistently garners praise for its simplicity, user-friendly interface, and transparent pricing, making it ideal for both beginners and experienced developers. Users appreciate the straightforward setup, reliable performance, and excellent customer support, highlighting features like one-click deployment and robust documentation. However, there are some minor criticisms, including a limited variety of server configurations compared to larger providers and occasional slow customer support response times. Despite these drawbacks, DigitalOcean is highly regarded for its cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and overall reliability, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses and startups.
User feedback on Nexcess hosting is highly polarized. Positive reviews frequently commend the platform’s knowledgeable and responsive customer support, emphasizing swift issue resolution and a user-friendly interface. However, negative reviews highlight significant issues with the backup system, slow migration processes, and unreliable server performance, causing operational disruptions and reputational damage. Many users note the decline in service quality following the company’s acquisition, culminating in mixed recommendations.
FAQ
Which platform is better suited for hosting WordPress websites?
Nexcess is better suited for hosting WordPress websites because it offers specialized tools like plugin performance tracking, automatic updates, and built-in SEO features. DigitalOcean also supports WordPress, but it lacks the specialized management features that Nexcess provides. This makes Nexcess a more optimized choice for WordPress hosting.
Are both platforms suitable for beginners?
Nexcess is more suitable for beginners due to its user-friendly approach, offering pre-installed software, a drag-and-drop website builder, and comprehensive support. DigitalOcean, while offering extensive documentation and community support, tends to be more developer-friendly and technical, which might be challenging for beginners.
Which hosting service offers better security features?
Both platforms offer robust security features, but DigitalOcean stands out with its superior DDoS protection, firewalls, VPC, and data encryption at rest and in transit. Nexcess offers various types of SSL certificates, proactive monitoring, and daily malware scans. Overall, DigitalOcean provides a more well-rounded suite of security features.
Which hosting service offers more scalability options for growing websites?
DigitalOcean offers robust scalability options with load balancing, horizontal scaling, and flexible droplets that allow traffic to be distributed efficiently. Nexcess also provides automatic autoscaling for PHP resources, but DigitalOcean’s granular control over scaling costs and flexible infrastructure give it an edge in scalability.
How do the providers handle email hosting and what features are included?
DigitalOcean does not offer email hosting services directly, focusing more on infrastructure and security features. In contrast, Nexcess provides free unlimited email with certain plans, enabling users to manage their own email campaigns effectively. This makes Nexcess a better option for businesses needing built-in email solutions alongside their hosting services.
The making of this blog
We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.
