DigitalOcean vs IBM SoftLayer comparison

The compared DigitalOcean and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. DigitalOcean is ranked #14 in ISI , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 2.1% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #23 in PCSS , and holds a 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of DigitalOcean users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.

DigitalOcean

Read 14 DigitalOcean reviews

1,232 Views
1,195 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM SoftLayer

Read 2 IBM SoftLayer reviews

224 Views
125 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

DigitalOcean

IBM SoftLayer

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between DigitalOcean and IBM SoftLayer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Akamai and others in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS).

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Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

August 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

DigitalOcean

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (14th)

IBM SoftLayer

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Public Cloud Storage Services (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Cloud Services solutions, they serve different purposes. DigitalOcean is designed for Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) and holds a mindshare of 2.1%, up 2.1% compared to last year.
IBM SoftLayer, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 0.5% mindshare, up 0.2% since last year.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
DigitalOcean	2.1%
Amazon AWS	16.0%
Microsoft Azure	15.5%
Other	66.4%

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Public Cloud Storage Services Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM SoftLayer	0.5%
Amazon S3 Glacier	14.5%
Amazon S3	13.6%
Other	71.4%

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Michael Olayemi

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

Enjoy cost-effective hosting with flexible deployment and room for payment model improvement

I use only one feature, which is the droplet, and it has been satisfactory. The droplet feature is valuable for hosting my applications as it is particularly cost-effective and serves my needs well. I also have total freedom over what I use, and I have a better user interface and documentation compared to Oracle.

Read full review

reviewer1032702

Global Principal Cloud Architect at NTT DATA

Stable with excellent speed and agility

The most valuable aspect of the solution is simply to have the ability to host in a cloud form and out of the data center - the IBM big iron solution. It's the speed and the agility that really sell SoftLayer. The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer. The ability to extract act from your current location, load into your future location, with limited change, and then be able to take the transfer actions slowly and methodically after you're in your new location is the part that really makes this awesome. The stability and scalability are quite good.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The user interface is nice, and it is very easy to use. Anyone can use it."

"DigitalOcean is much cheaper compared to Oracle, Amazon, and Google, making it a better option for a startup."

"It's been a good choice for us for some services. We generally have several deployments. For instance, for some static Angular applications, it was a clear choice to run them on Cloudflare, which performs very well in this context. All the assets go on DigitalOcean."

"The technical support services are good."

"The team was particularly satisfied with the flexibility of the service and the rules for managing virtual machines on DigitalOcean."

"The most outstanding aspect of DigitalOcean is its user interface and ease of use. Compared to more complex solutions, such as AWS, DigitalOcean's platform is highly intuitive and user-friendly."

"The solution's app platform simplifies many tasks a developer must handle manually. For instance, when serving a website, the app platform uses NGINX to manage the app's serving, caching, and automatic rerunning in case of failure."

"The droplet feature is valuable for hosting my applications as it is particularly cost-effective and serves my needs well."

More DigitalOcean pros

"The ELT versus ETL extract, transform and load versus extract, load, and then transform, the ELT method is what really sells SoftLayer."

"The stability is the solution's most valuable aspect for our organization."

Cons

"We found the solution to be a bit expensive."

"The technical support for this solution could be improved."

"The solution could improve by having integration with GitHub."

"I would like to see an automation feature added to send emails out using the open-source solution."

"I would like to see improvements to the logging and user interface. The verification process could be more streamlined."

"The issue with DigitalOcean is primarily the latency. So, when you have a mixed system with some components staying here, and then we encounter network latency, it's not optimal. Our"

"DigitalOcean could offer a pay-as-you-go model similar to AWS, where I would pay for what I use rather than having fixed payments."

"The platform could enhance its features, particularly for ETL processes. Additionally, more integration features would be highly beneficial."

More DigitalOcean cons

"For us, the versioning was an issue."

"The interface is hard to use for us. It should be simplified."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is a pay as you go solution. There is no license and it is usage based."

"The price of DigitalOcean could be lower. It is expensive. it's higher than other solutions available in the market. We pay approximately $20 to $25 a month to use the solution. The price we pay is for the shared CPU option."

"The solution provides the cheapest cloud in comparison to the other cloud solutions."

"The pricing is cheap."

"The pricing is moderate and reasonable for a mid-tier cloud platform."

"I am using the cheapest option available, which costs $50 per month."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"There is no licensing fee but there is a subscription cost based on how much RAM and storage you require."

More DigitalOcean pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

University

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DigitalOcean?

It's been a good choice for us for some services. We generally have several deployments. For instance, for some static Angular applications, it was a clear choice to run them on Cloudflare, which p...

See all answers

What needs improvement with DigitalOcean?

There are disadvantages, such as machines getting stuck or disconnected, requiring restarts. Sometimes we lose connection and need to check with the IT service provider from the DigitalOcean servic...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for DigitalOcean?

We use DigitalOcean mostly for RDS services and cloud-related systems where we want to deploy codes and run them using nginx or other services where it is cheaper to use, and we use it to extract d...

See all answers

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Comparisons

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Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs DigitalOcean

Compared 10% of the time

Alibaba Cloud vs DigitalOcean

Compared 8% of the time

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Oracle Cloud Software Appliance vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 54% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM SoftLayer

Compared 46% of the time

More IBM SoftLayer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

DigitalOcean

September 2025

Download DigitalOcean product report

Buyer's Guide

Public Cloud Storage Services

August 2025

Download IBM SoftLayer product report

Also Known As

Digital Ocean

CloudLayer

Overview

DigitalOcean has the fastest and most convenient cloud technology to help you easily and more efficiently manage your infrastructure so you can get back to coding. We provide all of our users with high-performance SSD Hard Drives, a flexible API, and the ability to select the nearest data center location.

DigitalOcean

SoftLayer provides cloud infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centers and network points of presence around the world. Our customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.

Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Our unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.

IBM

Sample Customers

jQuery Foundation, Pertino, TaskRabbit, Compose, InfluxDB, The Able Few

Whogohost Ltd., Skypicker, Infinity Computers and Communications Company, Grace Co. Ltd., Keyword, Uvionics Tech, Tennis Australia, immixGroup, Salesbox, Cxense ASA, Avnet Inc., Komsomolskaya Pravda, Seekr

Buyer's Guide

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

August 2025

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We monitor all Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.