How we scored DigitalOcean
Editorial scores, never paid placement. Commission has no bearing on them, see how we rank.
| Overall | 3.9 / 5 |
|---|---|
| Customer support | 2.5 / 5 |
| Support response time | 3.0 / 5 |
| Value for money | 5.0 / 5 |
| Server speed | 4.5 / 5 |
| Network uptime | 4.5 / 5 |
| Product range | 3.5 / 5 |
What the WordPress 1-Click image sets up
DigitalOcean is not a WordPress host in the usual sense. It sells virtual servers, called droplets, and offers a WordPress 1-Click image in its Marketplace. According to DigitalOcean's documentation (generated 26 October 2026), the image installs:
- Ubuntu 24.04
- Caddy 2, which handles HTTPS through Let's Encrypt automatically
- PHP 8.3 FPM
- MySQL 8.0
- The latest WordPress, plus WP-CLI
- The WP-Fail2Ban plugin, fail2ban and a UFW firewall with ports 22, 80 and 443 open
The documented minimum is 1 GB RAM, 1 core and 25 GB of disk. For production, the documentation recommends 2 GB or more of RAM, 2 or more cores and 50 GB or more of disk.
Setup runs in four steps. You deploy the droplet from the Marketplace, choosing a size, a region and an SSH key. You can optionally add a Managed MySQL cluster. You then log in over SSH as root, and a script runs on first login. It asks for an email address, an admin username and password and a site title, obtains a certificate for the IP address, configures Caddy and installs WP-Fail2Ban. DigitalOcean says this takes about two to three minutes. Finally you point an A record at the droplet and run /root/wp_setup_domain.sh, which configures Caddy for your domain and updates the WordPress URLs. DNS can take 5 to 60 minutes to propagate.
Our step-by-step guide to installing WordPress on a DigitalOcean droplet walks through this in order. We have written it from DigitalOcean's documentation and have not timed the install ourselves.
What you are responsible for afterwards
The image sets up the stack once. After that, nobody manages it for you. DigitalOcean support is by ticket and community Q&A, and it does not cover WordPress itself. In practice that leaves you responsible for:
- WordPress core, plugin and theme updates (the documentation shows
wp core update --allow-rootandwp plugin list --allow-rootas examples) - Operating system and PHP updates, including enabling automatic security updates, which the documentation lists as a best practice
- Backups: DigitalOcean offers them as a paid option, but restoring and testing them is yours to do
- Security: changing the default admin username, strong passwords, and considering a plugin such as Wordfence or Sucuri, as the documentation suggests
- Diagnosing faults. The documentation points you to
systemctl status caddy,journalctl -u caddy,systemctl status php8.3-fpmandufw status - Email, staging and a CDN, none of which are included
DigitalOcean also recommends its Initial Server Setup guide after the image is running. WordPress lives in /var/www/html/ and the Caddy configuration in /etc/caddy/Caddyfile, which is useful to know before something goes wrong.
The real monthly cost
The $6 headline price is the droplet alone. Backups are extra: DigitalOcean charges 20% of the droplet price for weekly backups or 30% for daily. The table adds that to three droplet sizes, all in dollars as billed.
| Droplet | Droplet price | With weekly backups (+20%) | With daily backups (+30%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GiB, 1 vCPU, 25 GiB | $6 | $7.20 | $7.80 |
| 2 GiB, 1 vCPU, 50 GiB | $12 | $14.40 | $15.60 |
| 2 GiB, 2 vCPU, 60 GiB | $18 | $21.60 | $23.40 |
The $18 row is the first listed droplet that meets all three of DigitalOcean's production recommendations (2 GB or more, 2 or more cores, 50 GB or more). The $12 droplet has 1 vCPU. Over three years, the cheapest setup with weekly backups costs $7.20 × 36 = $259.20, and the $18 droplet with daily backups costs $23.40 × 36 = $842.40. Billing is per second from 1 January 2026, with a minimum of 60 seconds or $0.01.
Snapshots are priced separately at $0.06 per GB per month. DigitalOcean's pricing FAQ also mentions a $5 free credit for new accounts.
The second cost is not a DigitalOcean charge. Many people who run a server themselves now pay for a ChatGPT or Claude subscription to help with commands, errors and security questions. In the UK that is roughly £15 to £20 a month. This is our estimate of a typical setup, not a figure from DigitalOcean, and you may not need it if you are comfortable with Linux. If you do take it on, the practical monthly cost of the $6 droplet becomes $7.20 plus £15 to £20, which is no longer the cheapest option. Currencies are shown as billed and not added together.
Data centre, performance and traffic
DigitalOcean has a London region (LON1). The $6 droplet includes 1,000 GiB of monthly transfer, and the $12 droplet 2,000 GiB. There is no visit cap, because you are limited by the size of the server instead. We have not measured load times or uptime on any droplet, and we make no performance claims here. Performance depends on your caching, your plugins and how you configure the stack.
Who should not choose DigitalOcean
- Anyone who is not comfortable with SSH, the command line and server updates.
- Businesses that need someone to call when WordPress breaks. Support is tickets and community only.
- WooCommerce store owners who have nobody to own security and backups.
- Anyone who needs email hosting, staging or a CDN included.
If you want the same droplet infrastructure with the server side managed for you, Cloudways runs on DigitalOcean (and has since DigitalOcean bought it in 2022). Our Cloudways vs DigitalOcean comparison covers the cost and workload difference, and the Cloudways review has its pricing.
How DigitalOcean compares
DigitalOcean wins on price and control and loses on support. For developers who want root access and no plugin restrictions, see best WordPress hosting for developers. For everyone else, a managed UK host such as HostPresto costs more per month but includes the support, backups and email that this setup leaves to you. Our guide on when to upgrade from shared to managed hosting helps with that decision. To open an account and look at current droplet pricing, Visit DigitalOcean.
Our verdict
DigitalOcean is the honest answer to "how cheap can WordPress hosting get?", $6 a month for a London server that outperforms most shared hosting. It is only a good answer if you are comfortable with SSH and updates, or willing to pay an AI assistant to be your sysadmin. Our setup guide walks through the 1-Click image step by step; if it reads like work, pick Cloudways, which runs the same droplet for you.
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