DigitalOcean vs Linode
DigitalOcean and Linode both rent plain Linux VMs that you set up and keep running yourself, at the same price for a 4 vCPU / 8 GB machine. DigitalOcean bills by the second but caps a new team at 3 Droplets, while Linode bills by the full hour and runs in more than twice as many regions.
The companies and products
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is a general-purpose cloud, and Droplets are its Linux virtual machines.
A Droplet is a Linux VM you rent by size, with root, a public IP, local SSD and a monthly transfer allowance. You pick an image, then install and run your own software on it, next to DigitalOcean products like Kubernetes, managed databases, load balancers and cloud firewalls. It is a server host, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine. DigitalOcean also sells two separate products in preview, Harness Runtime for agents and MicroVMs, which are not Droplets.
Linode
Linode is a general-purpose cloud, now sold as Akamai Cloud, and a Linode is one of its Linux virtual machines.
A Linode is a Linux VM you rent by size, with root, a public IP, local disk and, on older plans, a monthly transfer allowance. You pick a distribution, then install and run your own software on it, next to Akamai Cloud products like Kubernetes, block storage, NodeBalancers, VPCs and cloud firewalls. It is a server host, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine.
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “39th cheapest of 368” means 38 of the other 367 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | DigitalOcean: price rank | Linode: price rank | bochka: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month | 134th of 367, with limits $1,187 a month | 145th of 367, with limits $1,292 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB DigitalOcean ranks 35th and Linode 164th for an always-on assistant, but on both you build the agent setup, the HTTPS link and the backups yourself; bochka ranks 5th with them built in. | 35th of 366, with limits $1,429 a month | 164th of 366, with limits $1,200 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month DigitalOcean fits short runs far better than Linode: it bills per second with a 60 second minimum, while Linode bills every run as at least a full hour. | 63rd of 345, with limits $60 a month | 174th of 345, with limits $1,200 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month A new DigitalOcean team can run 3 Droplets at once and Linode bills each 10-minute session as a full hour, so neither suits user sandboxes out of the box; bochka ranks 1st. | 54th of 361, with limits $421 a month | 114th of 361, with limits $1,090 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month DigitalOcean ranks 31st and Linode 186th, because many short rollouts are billed by the second on DigitalOcean and by the full hour on Linode. | 31st of 360, with limits $1,786 a month | 186th of 360, with limits $24,000 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month Linode is a full match here and DigitalOcean a compromise, since a new DigitalOcean team needs a higher tier before it can run many machines at once. | 106th of 364, with limits $357 a month | 55th cheapest of 364 $1,080 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month | 146th of 377, with limits $171 a month | 137th cheapest of 377 $4,320 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB DigitalOcean and Linode are nearly tied for a 24/7 dev box, at the same monthly price; bochka ranks 18th and keeps the disk with snapshots every minute. | 39th cheapest of 368 $48 a month | 40th cheapest of 368 $48 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Neither DigitalOcean nor Linode ships a desktop, so you install one and reach it through VNC or the Glish console; bochka streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium. | 117th of 369, with limits $263 a month | 272nd of 369, with limits $1,440 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 56th of 367, with limits $147 a month | 311th of 367, with limits $1,080 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 88th of 346, with limits $175 a month | 190th of 346, with limits $108 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 69th of 338, with limits $1,786 a month | 89th of 338, with limits $2,160 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 22nd of 360, with limits $199 a month | 189th of 360, with limits $182 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month Only Linode has a priced fit in this table, with Nvidia GPU instances by the hour; DigitalOcean also rents Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, and bochka has no GPUs. | Can't run it | 78th of 98, with limits $1,500 a month | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | DigitalOcean | Linode | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A general Linux server (Droplet) you set up and run yourself | A general Linux server (Linode) you set up and run yourself | A sandbox API for agents, on full VMs |
| Isolation | Every Droplet is a full VM with its own kernel | Every Linode is a full VM with its own kernel | Every sandbox is a full VM with its own kernel |
| CPU | Basic plans share hyper-threads; dedicated CPU plans cost more; no comparable measurement | Shared CPU plans, or Dedicated CPU plans for a higher price; no comparable measurement | Dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts; 26.69 runs/s at 4 vCPU / 8 GB |
| Billing unit | Per second, 60 second minimum, capped at 672 hours a month | Per hour, rounded up to the next hour; most plans have a monthly cap | Per second from a monthly plan that becomes usage credit |
| Machines at once on a new account | 3 Droplets on Tier 1; up to 100 on Tier 5 through prepayment or history | No fixed published limit; raised by support ticket | 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Root and Docker; nested VMs are mentioned in the live migration docs but not listed as a feature | Root and Docker; Linode staff say nested virtualization is not supported | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine, documented |
| Stopping | A powered-off Droplet is billed in full; destroy it to stop paying | A powered-off Linode is still billed; delete it to stop paying | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk |
| Snapshots | On-demand disk snapshots billed by size; paid scheduled backups | Paid Backups add-on: scheduled backups plus one manual snapshot | Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop |
| Fork | Live snapshot, then new Droplets from it (disk, no memory) | Clone copies all disks; the docs say to power off first | Fork a running sandbox in one call (disk, no memory) |
| Reaching the machine | Public IP on any port; HTTPS needs your own certificates or a load balancer | Public IP on any port; HTTPS needs your own certificates or a NodeBalancer | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; own IP |
| Desktop and coding agents | Headless; agents only in the separate Harness Runtime preview | Headless; StackScripts and Marketplace apps install general software | 60fps desktop with Chromium and computer use; Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode preinstalled |
| Keeping keys out of the machine | No credentials proxy; you put secrets on the server | No credentials proxy; secrets arrive through user data or files | AI credentials proxy for model providers and any HTTPS API you register |
| Outbound rules | Free cloud firewalls with outbound rules by IP range, Droplet or tag | Free Cloud Firewall with outbound rules by protocol, port and IP range | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| GPUs and regions | Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets; 13 regions | Nvidia GPU instances; 33 regions in 15 countries | No GPUs; EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | DigitalOcean | Linode | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | No | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | No | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No | No |
| GPU | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows | No | No | No |
| Arm64 | No | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Spend limits | No | No | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audit logs | Not published | Yes | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for DigitalOcean or Linode: neither was part of the public StarSling benchmark run where bochka did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. Both sell shared and dedicated CPU plans, so their results would depend on which plan you pick.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. DigitalOcean and Linode have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | DigitalOcean, a month | Linode, a month | bochka, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $13 · Pay as you go | $13 · Usage account | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $48 · Pay as you go | $48 · Usage account | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $629 · Pay as you go · with limits | $634 · Usage account | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $179 · Pay as you go · with limits | $1,080 · Usage account | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $357 · Pay as you go · with limits | $7,200 · Usage account · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
DigitalOcean: Each Droplet size has an hourly price, billed per second with a 60 second minimum and capped at 672 hours a month. Billing runs from create to destroy, including while the Droplet is powered off, and snapshots and backups cost extra.
Linode: Each Linode size has an hourly price, rounded up to the next full hour, and billing runs from create to delete, including while it is powered off. Older plans stop at a monthly cap; G8 dedicated and GPU plans have no cap since July 2026.
Linode: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
A new DigitalOcean team can run 3 Droplets at once, so 50 agents in parallel and sandboxes for your users do not fit until the team reaches a higher tier. Linode has no fixed published limit, but it rounds every instance up to a full hour, so 30,000 user sessions of 10 minutes come to $1,080 a month against $179 on DigitalOcean. For 1,000 short jobs at once, both run on shared vCPUs that other tenants can slow, and bochka queues the starts, so none of the three fits as priced.
| Scenario | DigitalOcean | Linode | bochka |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite | None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops | None that bite | None that bite | None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use DigitalOcean when
your jobs are short and you want to pay by the second, or you need AMD as well as Nvidia GPUs.
- Billing by the second. Useful for short or bursty jobs: Droplets bill per second with a 60 second minimum, so a few minutes costs a few minutes.
- Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Useful if you want AMD Instinct cards as well as Nvidia H100, H200 and B300, on demand, reserved or spot.
- Live snapshots to copy a machine. Useful when you copy a busy server: you can snapshot a running Droplet and create new ones from it.
Use Linode when
you need more regions around the world or many machines on a new account, and your servers run for hours at a time.
- Regions around the world. Useful if your users are spread out: Linodes run in 33 regions in 15 countries, against 13 regions for DigitalOcean.
- No small starting cap. Useful for running many machines early: Linode publishes no fixed instance limit, while a new DigitalOcean team gets 3 Droplets.
- Part of Akamai. Useful if the server must sit next to Kubernetes, block storage and NodeBalancers in a cloud run by Akamai.
Where bochka fits
DigitalOcean and Linode are general clouds, so this only matters if what you are really running is agents. If each agent needs its own Linux machine that is ready to work, stops for free and can be copied while it runs, bochka gives you that without building it on top of a plain server.
Idle time stays free, and nothing is lost
A powered-off Droplet or Linode is billed in full, so an idle agent keeps costing money. The workaround is to snapshot, destroy and rebuild, which you script yourself and which loses anything since the last snapshot. bochka saves the disk every minute and stops for free.
Nested VMs and fork while running
Linode does not support nested virtualization and says to power off before cloning; DigitalOcean only mentions nested VMs in its migration docs. bochka documents /dev/kvm on every machine and forks a running sandbox in one call.
Agents, desktop and HTTPS built in
Both start as empty servers: you install each agent, a desktop and VNC, and set up certificates or a load balancer for HTTPS. bochka has coding agents you drive from outside, a 60fps desktop, HTTPS on 50 ports and a credentials proxy.
Use bochka when you want each agent on its own full VM that is ready to work: /dev/kvm, coding agents, a desktop, HTTPS ports and minute-by-minute snapshots built in, and stops that cost nothing. Compare it one to one: bochka vs DigitalOcean and bochka vs Linode.
Questions people ask
Is DigitalOcean cheaper than Linode?
For long-running servers they cost the same: a 4 vCPU / 8 GB machine running all month comes to $48 on both, and $13 for workdays only. For short sessions DigitalOcean is far cheaper, because Linode bills each one as a full hour. On bochka, the always-on machine comes to $26 a month.
Which is faster, DigitalOcean or Linode?
There is no comparable measurement for either one. Both sell shared CPU plans that other tenants can slow and dedicated CPU plans for more money. bochka ran 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in the public StarSling benchmark.
Can DigitalOcean or Linode run Docker and nested VMs?
Both run Docker, since each machine is a full VM with root. DigitalOcean mentions nested VMs in its live migration docs but does not list them as a feature, and Linode staff say nested virtualization is not supported. On bochka, /dev/kvm is documented on every machine.
Do I pay for a powered-off Droplet or Linode?
Yes, on both. DigitalOcean bills a powered-off Droplet until you destroy it, and Akamai bills a powered-off Linode until you delete it. On bochka, a stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
How many machines can a new account run?
A new DigitalOcean team is on Tier 1, with 3 Droplets at once; Tier 5 allows 100 and is reached through prepayment, paid invoices or a request. Linode publishes no fixed limit and raises account limits by support ticket. bochka allows 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan.
Is Linode the same as Akamai Cloud?
Yes. Akamai bought Linode in 2022 and now sells it as Akamai Cloud, and its virtual machines are still called Linodes.
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