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DigitalOcean vs Squarespace Domains: Pricing Comparison 2026

Side-by-side pricing comparison of DigitalOcean and Squarespace Domains. See all plans, features, and costs at a glance.

Bottom line: DigitalOcean starts at $0.15/mo, making it $16/mo cheaper than Squarespace Domains ($16/mo). DigitalOcean offers a free plan.

Last updated: March 16, 2026

Data compiled by Arthur Jacquemin
Updated March 16, 2026
Try DigitalOcean freeTry Squarespace Domains free

DigitalOcean vs Squarespace Domains: Quick Pricing Facts

FeatureDigitalOceanSquarespace Domains
Starting Price$0.15/mo$16/mo
Number of Plans184
Free TierYesNo
Pricing Modelusage-basedflat
Annual DiscountN/AN/A

DigitalOcean is the more affordable option, starting at $0.15/mo compared to Squarespace Domains' $16/mo. Both are Hosting & Infra tools with 22 combined pricing plans and 111 features compared.

DigitalOcean stands out with a free plan for getting started. DigitalOcean uses usage-based pricing while Squarespace Domains uses flat pricing, which may affect your total cost at scale.

Review the detailed tier-by-tier comparison above to see exactly which features are included at each price point and find the best fit for your Hosting & Infra needs.

Pricing Plans
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean
Try it free
Squarespace Domains
Squarespace Domains
Try it free
Tier 1
Gradient™ AI Platform
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Create custom AI Agents
  • Integrate leading LLMs into your workflows
  • No infrastructure management
Start with Gradient™ AI Platform
Basic
$16/month
Includes
  • Beautiful templates and powerful tools for any website
  • Free custom domain*
  • Squarespace AI
  • Up to 2 contributors
  • Credit card rates starting at 2.9% + $0.30
  • Online store transaction fee of 2%
  • Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 7%
  • Sell products and services
  • Send invoices for free
  • Sell content and memberships
Start with Basic
Tier 2
Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets
$2/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Run training and inference on AI/ML models
  • Process large data sets and complex neural networks
  • Serve additional use cases like high-performance computing (HPC)
Start with Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets
CorePopular
$23/month
Includes
  • Beautiful templates and powerful tools for any website
  • Free custom domain*
  • Squarespace AI
  • Unlimited contributors
  • Advanced website analytics
  • Complete customization with CSS and Javascript
  • Professional email from Google Workspace**
  • Credit card rates starting at 2.9% + $0.30
  • Online store transaction fee of 0%
  • Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 5%
  • Sell products and services
  • Send invoices for free
  • Sell content and memberships
  • Professional shipping and tax services
  • Sales funnel analytics
  • API integrations for advanced sales functionality
Start with Core
Tier 3
Additional GPU Options
Custom pricing
Includes
  • Simple provisioning interface
  • Build, train, and deploy large models
  • Scale AI/ML workloads on demand
Start with Additional GPU Options
Plus
$39/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Beautiful templates and powerful tools for any website
  • Free custom domain*
  • Squarespace AI
  • Unlimited contributors
  • Advanced website analytics
  • Complete customization with CSS and Javascript
  • Professional email from Google Workspace**
  • Credit card rates starting at 2.7% + $0.30
  • Online store transaction fee of 0%
  • Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 1%
  • Sell products and services
  • Send invoices for free
  • Sell content and memberships
  • Professional shipping and tax services
  • Sales funnel analytics
  • API integrations for advanced sales functionality
Start with Plus
Tier 4
App Platform
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Build, deploy and scale apps quickly
  • Fully managed solution, zero infrastructure management
  • Highly scalable
Start with App Platform
Advanced
$99/month
Includes
  • Beautiful templates and powerful tools for any website
  • Free custom domain*
  • Squarespace AI
  • Unlimited contributors
  • Advanced website analytics
  • Complete customization with CSS and Javascript
  • Professional email from Google Workspace**
  • Credit card rates starting at 2.5% + $0.30
  • Online store transaction fee of 0%
  • Digital Content and Memberships transaction fee of 0%
  • Sell products and services
  • Send invoices for free
  • Sell content and memberships
  • Professional shipping and tax services
  • Sales funnel analytics
  • API integrations for advanced sales functionality
Start with Advanced
Tier 5
Droplets
$4/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Per-sec billing with 60 sec minimum or $0.01, whichever is higher
  • Deploy in seconds
  • Scale up on demand
  • Run any workload - from mission critical apps to low traffic sites
Start with Droplets
—
Tier 6
Kubernetes
$12/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Simple, managed Kubernetes built for scale
  • Free control plane, free bandwidth allowance, and more
  • Automate and optimize to peak performance
Start with Kubernetes
—
Tier 7
Functions
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Focus on building great apps
  • Pay for what you use
  • Scale automatically
Start with Functions
—
Tier 8
Cloudways Managed Hosting
$11/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Optimized for Wordpress & PHP based apps
  • SSD stack with PHP 8 & Redis
  • Unlimited apps, Git & staging
Start with Cloudways Managed Hosting
—
Tier 9
Backups
$20/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Choose flexible frequencies  from Weekly, Daily, or Every 12/6/4 hours.
  • Set custom retention periods from 3 days up to 6 months.
  • Fast and fully-automated.
Start with Backups
—
Tier 10
Databases
$15/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Managed MongoDB, Kafka, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, and OpenSearch
  • Worry-free setup, maintenance, and easy migration
  • Free daily backups, automated failover, and more!
Start with Databases
—
Tier 11
Spaces
$5/monthCheapest
Includes
  • S3-compatible object storage
  • Highly scalable
  • Built in CDN
Start with Spaces
—
Tier 12
Network File Storage
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Minimum: 50 GiB
  • Increments: 10 GiB
  • Flat pricing across all supported regions
Start with Network File Storage
—
Tier 13
Volumes
$10/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Block storage
  • Highly available
  • Easily scale block storage, resize when needed, and move them between droplets
Start with Volumes
—
Tier 14
Container Registry
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Easily store and manage private container images
  • Transfer container images over high-speed HTTPs connections to servers across four continents
Start with Container Registry
—
Tier 15
Load Balancers
$12/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Improve availability, performance, and scalability
  • Let's Encrypt and HTTP/3 support
  • Compatible with Droplets and DigitalOcean Kubernetes
Start with Load Balancers
—
Tier 16
Support Plans
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Find answers to common questions, development guidelines written by experts and get free email support
  • Ideal for those testing ideas and hosting small applications
Start with Support Plans
—
Tier 17
Virtual Private Cloud
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Ingress data transfer to VPCs is free. Egress data transfer from VPCs to the internet counts against bandwidth quotas.
  • Intra-datacenter VPC peering is free. Inter-datacenter VPC peering is $0.01/GiB.
  • VPC NAT Gateway: $40.00 per node, includes 100 GiB bandwidth (overage $0.01/GiB), supports up to 500,000 connections.
Start with Virtual Private Cloud
—
Tier 18
Uptime
$0/monthCheapest
Includes
  • Uptime and latency checks
  • Alerts by email and Slack
  • One Uptime Check/month included with every account
Start with Uptime
—

Swipe to compare plans →

DigitalOcean

Developer-friendly cloud infrastructure with simple pricing

View all DigitalOcean plans

Squarespace Domains

Domain registration service formerly Google Domains

View all Squarespace Domains plans
Our Pick

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean offers a free plan, starts at $15.85/mo lower ($0.15/mo vs $16/mo), offers 18 tiers vs 4.

Based on pricing data only. Review the full comparison below for your specific needs.

Best value: DigitalOcean

Try DigitalOcean free

Which Should You Choose?

Choose DigitalOcean if:

  • •You want lower per-user costs—DigitalOcean starts at $0.15/mo, saving $15.85/mo compared to Squarespace Domains at $16/mo
  • •You need a free plan with Build, deploy and scale apps quickly, Fully managed solution, zero infrastructure management—DigitalOcean offers no-cost access with no credit card required
  • •You need 18 pricing tiers for flexible team sizing—more options mean less overpaying for features you don't need
  • •Your team needs custom enterprise pricing—DigitalOcean offers negotiated terms for large deployments

Choose Squarespace Domains if:

  • •You want more features built-in—Squarespace Domains offers 5 additional features across its plans
  • •Squarespace Domains's 4-tier flat structure gives clearer cost visibility for budget planning
  • •Squarespace Domains's expanded feature set across 4 plans fits your workflow better

DigitalOcean is the more affordable choice [1], starting at $0.15/mo compared to Squarespace Domains' $16/mo. For a 50-person team on paid plans, this translates to DigitalOcean saving approximately $793/month. DigitalOcean offers 18 pricing tiers compared to Squarespace Domains' 4, giving you more granular control over scaling costs as your team grows. Across all tiers, DigitalOcean provides 53 total features versus 58 for Squarespace Domains, offering a more focused toolset depending on your specific needs. For budget-conscious teams seeking predictable costs, DigitalOcean delivers superior value. Squarespace Domains may justify its premium for specialized needs, but most organizations will find DigitalOcean the smarter financial choice.

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Frequently Asked Questions: DigitalOcean vs Squarespace Domains

Which is cheaper, DigitalOcean or Squarespace Domains?
As of March 2026, DigitalOcean starts at a lower price point. DigitalOcean starts at $0.15/mo while Squarespace Domains starts at $16/mo. However, the best value depends on the features you need at each tier.
How many pricing plans does DigitalOcean have vs Squarespace Domains?
DigitalOcean offers 18 pricing plans, while Squarespace Domains offers 4 plans. More plans typically means more flexibility to match your exact needs and budget.
Does DigitalOcean or Squarespace Domains offer a free plan?
DigitalOcean offers a free plan, while Squarespace Domains does not. If budget is a concern, DigitalOcean lets you get started at no cost.
What is the most popular Squarespace Domains plan?
The Core plan is Squarespace Domains' most popular tier, priced at $23/mo. Key features include Beautiful templates and powerful tools for any website, Free custom domain*, Squarespace AI.
Does DigitalOcean or Squarespace Domains offer custom enterprise pricing?
DigitalOcean offers a custom-priced enterprise tier for larger teams. Squarespace Domains lists all its pricing publicly.
What pricing models do DigitalOcean and Squarespace Domains use?
DigitalOcean uses a usage-based pricing model, while Squarespace Domains uses flat pricing. The right model depends on your team size and usage patterns.
How do DigitalOcean and Squarespace Domains compare for Hosting & Infra?
Both DigitalOcean and Squarespace Domains are Hosting & Infra tools. DigitalOcean offers 18 plans starting at $0.15/mo, while Squarespace Domains offers 4 plans starting at $16/mo. Review the feature breakdowns above to see which better fits your Hosting & Infra needs.

Sources

  1. DigitalOcean Official Pricing— Vendor pricing page
  2. Squarespace Domains Official Pricing— Vendor pricing page

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