Comparing DigitalOcean vs. Upcloud as VPS hosting providers (2025)

DigitalOcean is an American cloud service provider headquartered in New York City. The company operates 15 globally distributed data centers and offers cloud infrastructure services primarily to developers, startups, and small to medium-sized businesses. It is known for its VPS offerings, Kubernetes-based container services, and serverless computing solutions.

Founded in 2012, DigitalOcean emerged from the TechStars startup accelerator and grew rapidly, becoming one of the first cloud-hosting providers to offer SSD-based virtual machines in 2013. The company expanded internationally, opened multiple data centers, and acquired several companies, including Nimbella, CSS-Tricks, and Cloudways. DigitalOcean went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and continues to expand its infrastructure and product offerings, including GPU-based computing for AI workloads.

UpCloud is an European cloud service provider with a global cloud platform spanning four continents. Their cloud-native product portfolio available from 13 different data centers.

Formed in 2012, UpCloud is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland with an international team working across the globe.