# DigitalOcean Droplet alternative for PHP hosting

Source: https://www.fortrabbit.com/alternatives/digitalocean-droplets
Published: 2026-10-31
Updated: 2026-10-31


## About DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean was founded in 2012 and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Droplets are its virtual servers, from $4 a month for 512 MiB of RAM, in data centers in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. DNS hosting is free.

## Why not a Droplet?

A Droplet is a plain Linux server. DigitalOcean's shared responsibility model leaves the operating system, access and the software on it to the customer: Nginx or Apache, PHP-FPM, MySQL, TLS, firewalls and the next PHP security release. Backups are an opt-in extra.

That is a fair trade with a sysadmin on the team. Without one, the $4 server costs hours every month, and the hours are not on the invoice.

## Why fortrabbit

fortrabbit hosts PHP apps, not servers. Git push deploys, Composer and npm in the build, MySQL as a component, backups as a component, and cron jobs and workers as settings. We patch the PHP runtime and run the infrastructure on AWS.

DigitalOcean also sells App Platform, a PaaS of its own, compared on [its own page](/alternatives/digitalocean-app-platform).

## Droplets and fortrabbit

| Feature | DigitalOcean Droplet | fortrabbit |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Unit | Server, root access | Managed app |
| Price | From $4 | From about €5 |
| Web stack | DIY | Managed |
| PHP patches | DIY | Managed |
| MySQL | DIY or Managed Database | Component |
| Backups | Opt-in | Component |

## FAQ

### Is fortrabbit more expensive than a Droplet?

**A little** — The smallest Droplet costs $4 a month for 512 MiB of RAM, and the web stack, MySQL and backups are extra work or extra cost. A fortrabbit app with MySQL starts at about €5 a month, patched and backed up.

### Who patches PHP on fortrabbit?

**We do** — DigitalOcean leaves the operating system and PHP on a Droplet to the customer. On fortrabbit, the PHP runtime and the infrastructure are ours to patch.

### Can root software run on fortrabbit?

**No** — fortrabbit has no root shell. A project that needs Redis, Elasticsearch or a custom daemon on the same box stays on a Droplet.

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- [Migrate from DigitalOcean Droplets](/migrate/from-digitalocean-droplets)
- [How to choose](/alternatives/how-to-choose-php-hosting)