Alibaba Cloud
vs
DigitalOcean
What's good about each
- 30+ regions, most in mainland China and Asia-Pacific
- 3,200+ CDN nodes in 70+ countries
- Qwen models served through Model Studio
- PolarDB, its own MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible database
- Monthly price caps on bundled Droplet plans
- Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, plus bare metal
- Outbound traffic allowance shared across the whole account
- Large tutorial library and 1-click app marketplace
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | 6% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | 20% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | 11% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | 24% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | 28% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $60.90 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | |
| Redis | -- Not listed | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | $12.00 /mo Regional HTTP, 1 node | 38% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | 41% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | 86% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Alibaba Cloud offers 4 GPU models, while DigitalOcean offers 10. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs
|
$1.51 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
T4
12 configs
|
$0.62 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
A10
26 configs
|
$0.71 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
P100
12 configs
|
$0.87 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
H100
3 configs
|
-- | $3.26 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
B300
2 configs
|
-- | $7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
H200
3 configs
|
-- | $3.40 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
MI300X
3 configs
|
-- | $1.91 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI355X
1 config
|
-- | $4.50 /GPU/hr Spot | DigitalOcean only |
|
L40S
1 config
|
-- | $1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | DigitalOcean only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Alibaba Cloud | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Data centers only |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | SAQ-A |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Alibaba Cloud | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 16 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | digitalocean.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and DigitalOcean against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Sept. 18, 2026, and for DigitalOcean on Sept. 18, 2026.