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Digital Ocean is pretty similar to Vultr: they offer a straight easy API for starting up VMs and managing DNS (I've written a tool that uses both of their API[1
by djsumdog 7y ago
Digital Ocean is pretty similar to Vultr: they offer a straight easy API for starting up VMs and managing DNS (I've written a tool that uses both of their API[1]; been meaning to do a post on the differences).
It's kinda nice because you're just putting up VMs and there's not the type of vendor lockin you get with AWS/Azure/Google. That being said, DO is obviously trying to compete on that scale now. It has managed databases to compete with RDS, load balancers, and even managed k8s.
They want to be a real AWS alternative, but when you start building around these components, you get locked in. If they're laying off people, it could adversely affect startups thinking of building around their services.
And for people who think "Well I can just use another terraform provider" .. it really is not that simple at all. AWS/Azure/Google/DO are all very different. They have vastly different terraform providers/modules and you're pretty much writing an entirely new setup per each provider because of they way they handle firewalls, security, IPs, inbound-outbound, etc. The OpenStack API or any type of real standard has yet to emerge that branches all these offering. If you want "cloud" hosting (and most do because managing your own Postgres/MySQL clusters with backups and failover is a fucking bitch; especially if you're just starting out and want to get going fast), you need to realize you might need to be locked in very early in the game.
[1]: https://github.com/sumdog/bee2/tree/master/lib https://github.com/sumdog/bee2/tree/master/lib
- tanilama 7y ago> They want to be a real AWS alternative They can't. Too small to grow big.
- timfrietas 7y agoYou mean Vultr is pretty similar to DO :) When I worked at DigitalOcean all we could do was shake our head and laugh at how blatantly hard Vultr tried to copy what we did.
- djsumdog 7y agoYes, that's what I meant. :) DO did come first and Vultr pretty much copied everything with lower prices; but DO has matched a lot of those prices since then as well.
- tyingq 7y agoYou could argue that DO copied Linode. An interesting thread on the Linode forum when DO launched: https://www.linode.com/community/questions/8303/new-linode-competitor-digitalocean https://www.linode.com/community/questions/8303/new-linode-c...
- daxorid 7y agoYes, but one thing Vultr didn't copy from DO is their disgusting and virulent anti-free speech position. The result is a superior product. Today, Vultr offers similar service, at a lower price point, without the risk that your entire account will be suspended for thinking unapproved thoughts. This is a pretty good selling point to anyone who isn't an apparatchik of modern political and social dogma.
- djsumdog 7y agoI forgot DigitalOcean was one of the players when all this shit went down: https://battlepenguin.com/politics/the-new-era-of-corporate-censorship/ https://battlepenguin.com/politics/the-new-era-of-corporate-...
- danaris 7y agoI'd call that a significant selling point for DO—not being willing to do business with literal Nazis. Free speech maximalism as a cover for raging racism (and sexism, and homophobia, etc) is what's disgusting.
- brobinson 7y agoThey've been better than DO for many years (since at least 2015) on pricing, performance, and locations.
- kaawkaaw 7y agoVultrs API is pretty rough. It's form data with only GETs and POSTs kinda archaic.