I should have said me not you 
But yeah a good server admin that has the right systems in place can deal with the hardware issues with minimal downtime. As I said I have bad luck with hardware so I will take the cushy self healing infrastructure anyday for a production site.
For gameservers, seedboxes, stuff like that a dedi I will go though.
Yep I agree for limited and short time use it is ok but if continual swapping is going on thats gonna be pretty bad. For installs such as Discourse where it is a spike in Ram for compiling something it is perfect.
I se both Digital ocean and Linode with my preference being Linode. Linode has gotten better over the years. Digital ocean seems to be marketing more to people with less experience. Iām often asked by clients about managed servers and Iām planning on giving clowdways a try. They manages on top of a digitalocean or amazon vps. Thereās also a new company in the same market Vultr which currently has better performance than either Linode or DigitalOcean. I tried to do a comparison of them over at my blog if youāre interested in checking it out. Linode vs. DigitalOcean vs. Vultr vs. RamNode - Odin SQL
I too have Vultr and theyāve been the best so far. Granted, I havenāt deployed discourse on it yet since itās my production server. Iām getting my game plan going and testing Discourse out completely and offer feature suggestions and see if thereās any bugs for if I want to stick around and give it my all. Since I am rebuilding a nearly ten year old community, I want to make sure I pick the best.
But so far, excellent uptime, speed and the ticket response is swift. I also like the fact they block the most common mail port on default to deter spammers and other nefarious individuals from ruining the integrity and possible speed of the nodes, as well as the IP addresses associated. Hefty fines are imposed for any spam sent out. Itās a VPS thatās definitly not for resellers. Whatever your clients under you do will affect your entire account. Example. If you plan on being the sole sysadmin and only you control the mail, then Vultr is an asset.
And yes, all it takes is a simple support ticket to have the mail port opened. Took at most an hour.
EDIT: Yes, I tried DO and I was experiencing some slowness. Not to mention all the talk about customer service problems. That and I get a few more GiGs and RAM for my buck. Iāve got 7 dollars credit sitting on my DO account. Donāt know how to take it off.
For those that are interested, Linodeās basic $10 pm plan now has 2GB of memory, as opposed to the 1GB offered by DO for the same price point.
Iād imagine that would be beneficial to Discourse at scale, if youāve experimented with Linode, do you mind sharing your experience?
https://www.linode.com/pricing
DO
$ 10 / mo
1GBMemory
1 CoreProcessor
30GBSSD Disk
2TBTransfer
I couldnāt find network perf info
Linode
$ 10 / mo
2 GB RAM
1 CPU Core
24 GB SSD Storage
2 TB Transfer
40 Gbps Network In
125 Mbps Network Out
Just wondering, how many go with DO or Linode?
0 voters
Linode, although the kind of person using linode has different support needs than those on DO.
I suppose you mean that one provides different kind of support than the other? Could you say what kind?
Basically there is no suppprt with linode, so you need to be pretty proficient.
Here are gazzillion topics with references to Digital Ocean.
Iāll use this one to announce that Digital Ocean has finally upgraded their plans with better resources, thus the 5$ option is now suitable for Discourse - it has now 1GB of RAM.
Stonkin deal.
I tested OVHās lowest option and while CPU and RAM are OK, the disk space makes is impractical to use Iāve found. It will run well, but rebuilds are, well flaky. Thereās just not enough space on the drive.
Well, not really.
DO is finally matching what everyone else has been offering for quite some time (LeaseWeb, Linode, Vultr, Hetzner, ScaleWayā¦). They are huge and reputable operator with excellent track record. On the other hand, they offer you the slowest single core performance (Exception: ScaleWay is slower, cheaper, has largest RAM and disk).
Many of the ones you listed, I donāt view as reputable. Linode in particular has massive red flags from every skilled security person I know, who flat out say ānever use Linode, I canāt say why in public, but donāt.ā
Iāve been using Vultr for nearly a year, granted it is only a sandbox running Discourse, thus no traffic, no real users, but it gets the job done and hasnāt had any issues what-so-ever (apart from running low on disk space from time to time).
To my knowledge, it hasnāt gone down once, not that I would care though.
For those waiting live sites they can depend on, I canāt say I wouldnāt recommend Vultr, but I also have not put it through any real tests, so take it for what you will. I will however say, DO gets a lot of love from the people who depend on it, and I mean, they depend on it. It isnāt just a sandbox for them, it is their live system.
I will add one to NEVER EVER USE, CloudAtCost. Donāt bother, not even for a sandbox. I attempted them for a short while, just curiousity more than anything, and I spent more time tearing down the server and rebuilding it, so I could bring it back online than I spent actually using it for a sandbox. Needless to say, I didnāt stick with it for very long.
As someone using Linode, that sounds concerning but at the same time it doesnāt really say anything.
As I donāt know their reasons, it appears you donāt know their reasons and I donāt even know who these āskilled securityā people are.
Not to dismiss the concerns of you or the people you know but from a regular userās perspective like mine, that doesnāt really help.
I canāt verify how correct the red flags are when I donāt know what those red flags even are so it doesnāt make sense to stop using Linode due to that.
Iāve independently seen statements, so this is again third-hand information.
But: Thatās how nondisclosure agreements & confidential information work. Theyāre only allowed to make extremely vague statements for fear of violating the law.
Yes, Linode has been making more security related headlines than your average service provider (Google it) I was merely commenting on the price and performance. Then again I know a reputable eCommerce SaaS provider that makes their business on Linode.
Size is usually a good thing with a hosting partner and DO is huge. You are usually the weakest link and unless you are running a nuclear power plant, you are most likely fine with most of the providers that have some level reputation and track record.
That said, DO has been very reliable through the years I have been using them. Their dashboard is one of the most pleasant ones around and the very few tickets I have made have responded quickly. So if you are not struggling with the budget/performance equation, they are a good choice.
Pro-tip for those running on a tight budget:
Many VPS providers offer an affiliate program (UpCloud.com, DigitalOcean.com, etc.). If your community attracts nerds, these programs may actually convert. You can write up some tutorials and articles that include using a VPS for some clever purpose. I also run a small tech/IT community where I utilize the Battle Axe Theme in-house ads mod along with some tutorial content that includes the affiliate links.
These ads convert so well that I have funding for the next 2-3 years from affiliate hosting credits, without spending a dime.
For what itās worth, I also give then credit for their exceptional treatment of their Greek customers during the crisis back in 2015:
https://insidedigitalocean.com/showing-love-to-greece-b15aa9e98275
