Alibaba Cloud logo DigitalOcean logo

Alibaba Cloud vs DigitalOcean

Jump to: What's good Pricing Services Company details Alternatives

What's good about...

Alibaba Cloud logo Alibaba Cloud

  • Strong presence in Asia and over 3,000 points of presence (POPs) around the world
  • Extensive range of managed services and server configurations
  • Offers a solid range of GPU servers

DigitalOcean logo DigitalOcean

  • Simple, developer-first cloud
  • Predictable pricing & monthly caps
  • AI platform powered by Paperspace GPUs
  • Vast library of tutorials & 1-click apps

Price comparison

How do Alibaba Cloud's prices compare against DigitalOcean?

VM Small

Closest config to 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$15.21 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.xn4.small)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$6.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic)

VM Medium

Closest config to 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$89.79 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.c7.xlarge)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$48.00 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic)

VM Large

Closest config to 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (dedicated preferred).
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$170.49 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c7.2xlarge)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$168.00 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized)

Block Storage

Closest config to 100+ GB SSD, 3,000+ IOPS, 100+ MB/s throughput, no snapshots.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$11.20 / mo 100 GB (Enhanced SSD PL0)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$10.00 / mo 100 GB

Object Storage

Closest config to 1 TB stored, 100 GB in / 250 GB out, 1M GET, 100k PUT/POST.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$43.84 / mo 1 TB, 250 GB reads, 100 GB writes
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$20.00 / mo 1 TiB

Load Balancer

Closest config to TCP, 1 node (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM), 200+ Mbps, 1,000 conn/sec, 1 TB processed/mo.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$16.56 / mo Small I (slb.s1.small)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$12.00 / mo

Managed PostgreSQL

Closest config to 1 node, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50+ GB storage, 10 GB read / 5 GB write per month.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$114.92 / mo 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (general-purpose)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$60.00 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage

Managed Redis®*

Closest config to 1 node, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 req/s, 1 KB avg request size.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$43.09 / mo 1 GB Performance-enhanced (HA)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$15.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM

Serverless 25M Executions

Closest config to 25M invocations, 150ms execution time, 512 MB memory.
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$34.69 / mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration

Free egress allowance

Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
10 GB / mo
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
100 GB - 10 TB / mo per instance

1 TB of egress beyond allowance

Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$74.00 $0.074 / GB
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$10.00 $0.01 / GB

GPU Fleet Overview

Starting Price

Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
$0.62/hr
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$0.76/hr

Billing Options

Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
On-DemandReserved (12mo)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
On-DemandReserved (12mo)

Available Models

Alibaba Cloud offers 4 GPU models, while DigitalOcean offers 8.

Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
V100(14) A10(26) T4(12) P100(12)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
H100(3) H200(2) L40S(1) RTX 6000 Ada(1) B300(1) MI300X(3) RTX 4000 Ada(1) MI325X(1)

Heads up: We do our best to keep these prices accurate. However, cloud costs may fluctuate based on region, usage, and other factors not listed here. These are estimates based on common setups and are for informational purposes only. Always verify current rates with the provider before provisioning.

GPUhub Logo
GPUhub
Our sponsor
Fully Dedicated GPU Servers
No Virtualization. No Shared GPUs
Stable Performance for AI Training & Inference
Full Control for Production Workloads
Learn more

Which services do they offer

Here are some managed services that Alibaba Cloud and DigitalOcean offer:

Service Alibaba Cloud DigitalOcean
Block Storage
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Container Registry
GPU-powered Servers
Load Balancer
Managed Containers
Managed Kubernetes
Managed MySQL
Managed PostgreSQL
Managed Redis®*
Object Storage
Serverless Cron Jobs
Serverless Functions
Static Sites
Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Company details

Website
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
www.alibabacloud.com
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com
Headquarters
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
Singapore
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
United States of America
Founded
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
2009
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
2011
Data Center Locations
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
30
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
14
Example Customers
Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud
Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai

Alternatives to consider

Compare Alibaba Cloud and DigitalOcean against other cloud providers.

View all comparisons

Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on June 10, 2026, and for DigitalOcean on June 10, 2026.

GPUhub Logo
GPUhub
Our sponsor
Fully Dedicated GPU Servers
No Virtualization. No Shared GPUs
Stable Performance for AI Training & Inference
Full Control for Production Workloads
Learn more