Switching guide, 2026
Looking for a DigitalOcean alternative? Same Droplet idea, fewer locks.
DigitalOcean made cloud servers friendly. Here’s what it blocks, what its extras cost, and the Lite that replaces your Droplet this afternoon.
DigitalOcean, 4 GB with daily backups
- Droplet2 vCPU, 4 GB, 80 GB SSD$24
- Daily backups30% of the Droplet+$7.20
- Mail ports 25, 465, 587On every DropletBlocked
$31.20 a month, as published on 3 November 2026.
LiteKeep Lite 6
$8
- 6 vCPU
- 6 GB
- 100 GB NVMe
- Port 25 open
- Crypto
- No ID
Daily backups add $0.72 a month, priced per GB of disk.
The short answer
If you use DigitalOcean for Droplets, a Lite does the same job with fewer rules and a smaller bill. Mail ports are open, mining is allowed, and you pay in Bitcoin, USDT or six other coins with no ID. At DigitalOcean’s own prices, a 4 GB Droplet is $24 a month; a Lite 6 with 6 vCPU and 6 GB is $8.
Using managed databases, Kubernetes or App Platform? Those stay where they are. The calculator below prices a full month of server, backups and traffic on both.
Most “DigitalOcean alternatives” pages are other clouds ranking themselves first. None of them mentions the rules that actually make people move.
On DigitalOcean, mail ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked on every Droplet. Mining needs written permission. Crypto is stablecoins only, for some customers, after a name, an address and a $25 authorization. And daily backups add 30% to the Droplet’s price.
So here’s the full picture: the rules side by side, a full month priced on both, and the Lite that matches your Droplet.
In this guide you’ll learn
- The rules that decide it: mail, mining and payment
- A cost calculator: a full month on both
- Matched plans from 2 GB to 32 GB
- What stays the same and what to keep on DigitalOcean
- How to move without downtime
Chapter 1
The short answer
From DigitalOcean’s own pricing page, docs and policies on 3 November 2026, and ours.
| DigitalOcean Droplet | LiteKeep Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| Sending mail (ports 25, 465, 587) | Blocked on every Droplet | Open, with reverse DNS you set |
| Crypto mining | Only with written permission | Allowed |
| Paying in crypto | Stablecoins only, limited availability, name, address and a $25 authorization | BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, SOL, BNB, XRP, XMR |
| Sign-up | A payment method before you create anything | Email and password, no ID |
| Daily backups | 30% of the Droplet’s price | $0.0072 per GB of disk |
| Snapshots | $0.06 per GB a month | $0.0072 per GB a month |
| Network on regular plans | Up to 2 Gbps | 10 Gbps port on every plan |
| DDoS protection | Free, always on | Included, always on |
Chapter 2
Price a full month on both
Pick the RAM of your Droplet and the traffic you send, and tick daily backups if you use them. Every charge is listed.
A full month, side by side
Lite 8, $13.15 a month
DigitalOcean: its cheapest plan with that RAM and its own add-on prices, as published on 3 November 2026, in US dollars. Both bill by the hour with a monthly cap. See every Lite
From 8 GB, DigitalOcean’s cheapest Droplet is a Premium AMD plan with NVMe, so that’s what the calculator uses. Its regular plans are the cheapest up to 4 GB.
Chapter 3
Why people look for a DigitalOcean alternative
DigitalOcean is pleasant to use. These are the walls people hit.
1. You can’t send mail
SMTP ports 25, 465 and 587 are blocked on all Droplets by default, including traffic through a reserved IP. A mail server, or an app that sends mail directly, has to go through a third-party relay.
On a Lite, outbound port 25 is open and you set reverse DNS for your IP yourself. Run Postfix, Mailcow or your app’s own mailer.
2. Mining and nodes need permission
DigitalOcean’s acceptable use policy forbids mining any cryptocurrency without explicit written permission.
On LiteKeep, mining and crypto nodes are allowed without asking. See our acceptable use policy.
3. Paying in crypto, without ID
DigitalOcean now takes stablecoins from supported wallets, but says access is limited and may not be available to everyone. Setup asks for your name and address and places a $25 authorization.
On LiteKeep, crypto is how you pay: Bitcoin, Ether, USDT, USDC, Solana, BNB, XRP or Monero. An email address and a password open the account. How paying for hosting with crypto works.
4. The bill at the same RAM
DigitalOcean’s cheapest 2 GB Droplet is $12 with one vCPU, and 8 GB starts at $42. A Lite 2 is $4 with two vCPUs, and a Lite 8 is $12 with eight. Daily backups on a Droplet add 30% of its price; on a Lite they’re $0.0072 per GB of disk, so $0.72 a month on a Lite 6.
Chapter 4
What stays the same, and what to keep
Moving a Droplet isn’t learning a new way of working.
- Hourly billing with a monthly cap. DigitalOcean bills per second; a Lite bills per started hour at 0.15% of its monthly price, never more than the monthly price.
- Powered-off servers still bill on both, because the resources stay reserved. Delete a server to stop paying.
- Traffic pooled across your servers on both. Past the pool, DigitalOcean charges $0.01 per GiB, about $10 per TB; LiteKeep charges $2 per TB.
- KVM, full root, Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux and Rocky, plus one-click apps such as Docker, Coolify, WordPress and n8n.
Chapter 5
How to move from DigitalOcean without downtime
Both bill by usage, so you only pay for the overlap.
- Lower your DNS TTL a day beforeHow to check: Set it to 300 seconds, so the switch spreads in minutes.
- Deploy your Lite and secure itHow to check: Same OS version if you can. Follow our VPS security guide first.
- Copy your filesHow to check: From the new server:
rsync -avz --progress root@old-droplet:/var/www/ /var/www/. Run it again just before the switch; the second pass copies only changes. - Dump and restore databasesHow to check: For example
mysqldumporpg_dumpon the Droplet, then import on the Lite. - Test, then switch DNSHow to check: Point your own PC at the new IP with your hosts file, click through, then change DNS.
- Destroy the DropletHow to check: Powering it off isn’t enough: a powered-off Droplet still bills until you destroy it.
Chapter 6
Quick answers
The questions people ask before they switch.
Can I run a mail server? Yes. Outbound port 25 is open, and you set reverse DNS for your IP yourself.
Can I pay with Bitcoin, USDT or Monero? Yes, and with ETH, USDC, SOL, BNB and XRP.
Do you ask for ID? No. An email address and a password open the account.
Is DDoS protection included? Yes, always-on filtering on our upstream network, on every server.
Do you have managed databases or Kubernetes? No. A Lite is a server with full root; run the database yourself or keep a managed one where it is.
Can I run Windows? Yes: Windows Server on any Lite, for $4 a month extra.
Now it’s your move
If a blocked mail port, a mining rule or the way you want to pay sent you here, a Lite removes all three, for a fraction of the Droplet’s price.
Deploy one next to your Droplet, move a site over this afternoon, then destroy the old one.