I've been a Linode customer for many years. I couldn't be happier. They have a buttload of locations to choose from, fast networks, and as everyone else has already mentioned: out of this world support. I've even managed to earn a few hundred bucks in referral cash from them.

I had a handful of dyno's, a worker, and a few add-ons running my iPhone app's API within Heroku up until about a week ago where I transitioned everything onto a small collection of Linodes in the UK datacenter. We're launching in Europe so it made sense to bring everything closer. If you're comfortable and skilled with a terminal, you can get a lot more bang for your buck with Linode.

That being said, I am always interested in trying something new. For a $40 Linode you get 1GB of RAM, with DigitalOcean the same $40 gets you 2GB of RAM and they run on SSD's. I'm going to deploy a copy of my primary API server here to take it for a spin.

First impression thus far: fast deployment. From pressing the submit button to shelling in took literally less than a minute.

Unfortunately though the latency on the box seems a bit high. There is a bit of lag in the terminal, something I do not experience with Linode's UK datacenter.

I'm in Sweden on a 4G modem, here's a traceroute between me and both boxes. DigitalOcean is first, followed by Linode.

### DigitalOcean – Amsterdam Datacenter
traceroute to 192.81.221.48 (192.81.221.48), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 tiny (192.168.0.1) 10.573 ms 1.658 ms 1.393 ms
2 10.9.14.115 (10.9.14.115) 33.218 ms 24.250 ms 59.223 ms
3 10.9.14.113 (10.9.14.113) 51.009 ms 35.878 ms 30.836 ms
4 90-229-25-24.link.se.telia.net (90.229.25.24) 33.153 ms 30.662 ms 34.999 ms
5 s-b2-link.telia.net (80.91.247.96) 33.962 ms
s-b2-link.telia.net (80.91.246.228) 74.544 ms
s-b2-link.telia.net (213.155.133.147) 77.395 ms
6 s-bb1-link.telia.net (80.91.246.148) 36.792 ms
s-bb2-link.telia.net (80.91.246.234) 29.966 ms
s-bb2-link.telia.net (213.155.133.142) 31.228 ms
7 kbn-bb2-link.telia.net (213.155.134.141) 151.952 ms
kbn-bb2-link.telia.net (213.248.65.29) 42.281 ms
kbn-bb2-link.telia.net (80.91.246.178) 123.130 ms
8 kbn-b3-link.telia.net (80.91.249.51) 39.032 ms 45.868 ms
kbn-b3-link.telia.net (80.91.245.159) 44.708 ms
9 te4-7.ccr01.cph01.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.14.33) 67.971 ms 60.729 ms 96.055 ms
10 te0-7-0-0.ccr22.ham01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.62.117) 132.391 ms
te0-7-0-6.ccr21.ham01.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.2.149) 97.568 ms
te0-7-0-0.ccr22.ham01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.62.117) 137.713 ms
11 te0-0-0-3.mpd21.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.50.57) 101.141 ms 89.885 ms
te0-0-0-3.mpd22.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.1.101) 147.596 ms
12 te2-1.mag01.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.48.62) 104.005 ms
te1-1.mag01.ams03.atlas.cogentco.com (130.117.0.242) 52.704 ms 127.224 ms
13 nxs-internet.demarc.cogentco.com (149.6.128.6) 98.294 ms 130.686 ms 142.924 ms
14 192.81.221.48 (192.81.221.48) 148.148 ms 107.753 ms 134.880 ms

and now Linode...

### Linode – London, UK Datacenter
traceroute to blitzen.dbld8.com (176.58.120.7), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 tiny (192.168.0.1) 9.671 ms 2.313 ms 1.411 ms
2 10.9.14.115 (10.9.14.115) 32.881 ms 21.701 ms 34.152 ms
3 10.9.14.113 (10.9.14.113) 36.843 ms 21.986 ms 26.750 ms
4 90-229-25-24.link.se.telia.net (90.229.25.24) 26.421 ms 24.166 ms 26.982 ms
5 s-b2-link.telia.net (213.155.134.55) 27.415 ms
s-b2-link.telia.net (80.91.248.199) 33.347 ms 37.758 ms
6 s-bb2-link.telia.net (80.91.254.114) 34.993 ms
s-bb1-link.telia.net (80.91.254.58) 92.886 ms
s-bb1-link.telia.net (80.91.247.216) 38.297 ms
7 hbg-bb1-link.telia.net (213.155.135.236) 83.932 ms
hbg-bb1-link.telia.net (80.91.251.41) 36.076 ms
hbg-bb2-link.telia.net (80.91.247.147) 47.708 ms
8 ldn-bb2-link.telia.net (80.91.247.201) 67.937 ms
ldn-bb2-link.telia.net (213.155.132.247) 106.801 ms
ldn-bb2-link.telia.net (80.91.247.169) 63.880 ms
9 ldn-b3-link.telia.net (80.91.249.170) 54.534 ms
ldn-b3-link.telia.net (80.91.251.237) 101.259 ms
ldn-b3-link.telia.net (80.91.247.25) 64.316 ms
10 telecity-ic-150799-ldn-b3.c.telia.net (80.239.167.94) 59.564 ms 70.329 ms 64.835 ms
11 85.90.238.70 (85.90.238.70) 70.606 ms 68.463 ms 60.808 ms
12 212.111.33.234 (212.111.33.234) 69.237 ms 60.927 ms 70.726 ms
13 li522-7.members.linode.com (176.58.120.7) 65.147 ms 60.434 ms 62.646 ms

Quite a difference here. Geographically Sweden is closer to Amsterdam, but i'd imagine there is a fat pipe crossing the North Sea that is faster than being routed through Northern Europe to AMS.