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I'm not sure what the author is trying to say regarding billing. Both Linode and Digital Ocean bill monthly, and both only charge you for the part of the month

I'm not sure what the author is trying to say regarding billing. Both Linode and Digital Ocean bill monthly, and both only charge you for the part of the month that your VPS exists for. He seems to be implying that if you have a Linode VPS for one day you'll be billed for a month of it.

schneidmaster 13y ago
With Linode, if you sign up for a month and then cancel after a day, you get a prorated Linode credit. If you spin up five basic Linodes and delete them all after a day, you get nearly $100 back in Linode credit but you still get charged for $100. With DO, you get charged for only what you use. If you spin up a droplet and then delete it after a day, you only get charged for like $0.17. To my broke college student self, anyway, that's a preferable business model.
- jebblue 13y ago
  I didn't go to college but several decades of paying utility bills tells me that flat rate is preferable.
  - schneidmaster 13y ago
    Digital Ocean bills hourly assuming 28-day months (so, [price per month / 672] per hour) and caps at the monthly rate. There's no circumstance under which you're paying more than the advertised monthly rate. You just get 2-3 "free" days in most months.
- danellis 13y ago
  So DO doesn't charge you up front?
  - schneidmaster 13y ago
    Nope, they don't. They keep a running total of how much server you've "used" (like, I've currently used $2.95 for the last few days of several droplets) and bill you at the end of the month.
  - saraid216 13y ago
    That's one of their selling points. I started up a droplet last month because I needed the better deal on RAM. I've been charged only ~8$ for December.
- whatevsbro 13y ago
  Not only that, but they recently just canceled out my outstanding balance of $0.85 when I asked if it was possible to only pay them what I owed, instead of a full $5. That wasn't even surprising, considering the way they've been operating.

schneidmaster 13y ago

With Linode, if you sign up for a month and then cancel after a day, you get a prorated Linode credit. If you spin up five basic Linodes and delete them all after a day, you get nearly $100 back in Linode credit but you still get charged for $100. With DO, you get charged for only what you use. If you spin up a droplet and then delete it after a day, you only get charged for like $0.17. To my broke college student self, anyway, that's a preferable business model.

jebblue 13y ago
I didn't go to college but several decades of paying utility bills tells me that flat rate is preferable.
- schneidmaster 13y ago
  Digital Ocean bills hourly assuming 28-day months (so, [price per month / 672] per hour) and caps at the monthly rate. There's no circumstance under which you're paying more than the advertised monthly rate. You just get 2-3 "free" days in most months.
danellis 13y ago
So DO doesn't charge you up front?
- schneidmaster 13y ago
  Nope, they don't. They keep a running total of how much server you've "used" (like, I've currently used $2.95 for the last few days of several droplets) and bill you at the end of the month.
- saraid216 13y ago
  That's one of their selling points. I started up a droplet last month because I needed the better deal on RAM. I've been charged only ~8$ for December.
whatevsbro 13y ago
Not only that, but they recently just canceled out my outstanding balance of $0.85 when I asked if it was possible to only pay them what I owed, instead of a full $5. That wasn't even surprising, considering the way they've been operating.