Azure Virtual Machines vs DigitalOcean
Azure Virtual Machines is a huge menu of Linux, Windows, Arm and GPU machines in 77 regions, with quotas, reservations and Spot. DigitalOcean Droplets are simpler Linux servers with a fixed hourly price and a monthly cap, but a new team can only run 3 at once.
The companies and products
Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines is Microsoft's general-purpose cloud VM service: you rent Linux or Windows machines by the minute in Azure regions worldwide.
It is a hyperscaler IaaS product, not a sandbox API. Each VM runs on Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor with its own kernel, root and SSH, and you pick from hundreds of sizes, including Arm, burstable and GPU families. Networking, disks, images, firewalls and any agent tooling are separate pieces you set up yourself, so it suits teams that already run on Azure and want full control.
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean is a general-purpose cloud, and Droplets are its Linux virtual machines.
A Droplet is a Linux VM you rent by size, with root, a public IP, local SSD and a monthly transfer allowance. You pick an image, then install and run your own software on it, next to DigitalOcean products like Kubernetes, managed databases, load balancers and cloud firewalls. It is a server host, not an agent sandbox, so this page compares the two where they overlap: giving an agent its own Linux machine. DigitalOcean also sells two separate products in preview, Harness Runtime for agents and MicroVMs, which are not Droplets.
Which use cases each one fits
For each use case, Battleships prices every sandbox provider on the same workload and sorts them from the cheapest monthly bill up. “3rd cheapest of 364” means 2 of the other 363 providers run that workload, with every feature it needs, for less. “With limits” means the provider runs it but misses something, so it is listed after every full match. Open a use case for its whole ranking and what each provider misses.
| Use case and its workload | Azure Virtual Machines: price rank | DigitalOcean: price rank | boat: price rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software factory 100 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 2,200 sessions of 8 h a month Both give a full Linux VM with root and Docker that you set up yourself; boat ships agents, snapshots, HTTPS URLs and free stops on every machine. | 83rd of 367, with limits $730 a month | 134th of 367, with limits $1,187 a month | 3rd cheapest of 367 $634 a month |
| Always-on AI employees 50 machines 24/7 · 2 vCPU / 4 GB A Droplet is the simpler always-on server and Azure is cheapest only on a 3-year reservation; boat runs it month to month with snapshots and a desktop. | 113th of 366, with limits $644 a month | 35th of 366, with limits $1,429 a month | 5th cheapest of 366 $657 a month |
| Code interpreter bursts 100 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 200,000 sessions of 1 min a month DigitalOcean bills per second with a 60 second minimum and Azure per full minute, so both suit short runs better than boat, whose start limits make big bursts a compromise. | 114th of 345, with limits $222 a month | 63rd of 345, with limits $60 a month | 186th of 345, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Sandboxes for your users 300 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 23 min a month A new DigitalOcean team can run 3 Droplets at once, and Azure caps vCPUs per region and family; boat allows 100 to 2,000 sandboxes by plan. | 63rd of 361, with limits $500 a month | 54th of 361, with limits $421 a month | Cheapest of 361 $209 a month |
| RL rollouts 1,000 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 1,000,000 sessions of 3 min a month Azure Spot VMs make big RL fleets cheap if rollouts survive eviction with 30 seconds of notice; DigitalOcean sells spot only for GPU Droplets. | 19th of 360, with limits $1,039 a month | 31st of 360, with limits $1,786 a month | 34th of 360, with limits $2,000 a month |
| Agent evals 250 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 15,000 sessions of 20 min a month Azure fits eval batches well with per-minute billing and many sizes; on DigitalOcean the 3 Droplet limit of a new team gets in the way first. | 3rd cheapest of 364 $173 a month | 106th of 364, with limits $357 a month | 10th cheapest of 364 $200 a month |
| CI runners 40 at once · 8 vCPU / 16 GB · 6,000 sessions of 12 min a month | 35th cheapest of 377 $335 a month | 146th of 377, with limits $171 a month | 4th cheapest of 377 $86 a month |
| 24/7 dev boxes 1 machine 24/7 · 4 vCPU / 8 GB All three fit a 24/7 dev box: a Droplet or an Azure VM is a classic always-on server, and a boat machine keeps its disk with snapshots every minute. | 72nd cheapest of 368 $94 a month | 39th cheapest of 368 $48 a month | 18th cheapest of 368 $26 a month |
| Computer-use agents 50 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 20,000 sessions of 15 min a month Neither Azure nor DigitalOcean has a desktop stream built in, so you install a desktop and VNC yourself; boat streams a 60fps desktop with Chromium. | 100th of 369, with limits $192 a month | 117th of 369, with limits $263 a month | 6th cheapest of 369 $200 a month |
| Browser-use agents 50 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 30,000 sessions of 10 min a month | 168th of 367, with limits $107 a month | 56th of 367, with limits $147 a month | 7th cheapest of 367 $200 a month |
| Scraping & bots (startup scale) 50 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 100,000 sessions of 3 min a month | 194th of 346, with limits $116 a month | 88th of 346, with limits $175 a month | 6th cheapest of 346 $90 a month |
| Mass scraping & bots (undetectable) 1,000 at once · 1 vCPU / 2 GB · 3,000,000 sessions of 2 min a month | 81st of 338, with limits $2,044 a month | 69th of 338, with limits $1,786 a month | 71st of 338, with limits $1,800 a month |
| Parallel red teaming 200 at once · 2 vCPU / 4 GB · 5,000 sessions of 30 min a month | 110th of 360, with limits $46 a month | 22nd of 360, with limits $199 a month | 2nd cheapest of 360 $200 a month |
| GPU eval jobs 10 at once · 8 vCPU / 32 GB · 500 sessions of 30 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
| macOS agents 5 at once · 4 vCPU / 8 GB · 1,000 sessions of 20 min a month | Can't run it | Can't run it | Can't run it |
Key features
| Feature | Azure Virtual Machines | DigitalOcean | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | A general cloud VM from hundreds of sizes; images, networking and tooling are yours to set up | A general Linux server you set up and run yourself | An agent sandbox: a full VM per sandbox, created and driven by API |
| Isolation | Full Hyper-V VM with its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel | Full VM with its own kernel |
| Operating systems and CPUs | Linux and Windows guests on Intel, AMD and Arm sizes, plus burstable B-series | Linux only on x86; Basic plans share hyper-threads, dedicated CPU plans cost more | Linux on dedicated AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) hosts; Wine for Windows apps |
| Docker and nested virtualization | Root and Docker on any size; nested virtualization on Intel and AMD D and F sizes, not on Arm or B-series | Root and Docker; nested VMs are mentioned in the live migration docs but not listed as a feature | Docker, root, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine, documented |
| Stopping | A deallocated VM stops compute billing, but disks and static IPs keep billing; a shutdown from inside the OS keeps billing | A powered-off Droplet is billed in full; you destroy it to stop paying | A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk |
| Snapshots | On-demand disk snapshots; scheduled ones need Azure Backup, a separate paid service | On-demand disk snapshots, billed by size; paid scheduled backups from every 4 hours to weekly | Automatic snapshots every minute and on stop |
| Pause with memory | Hibernation saves memory on supported sizes up to 64 GB of RAM; you trigger it by API | None; recreating from a snapshot restores the disk only | Resume reboots from disk (no memory snapshots) |
| Fork and clone | Capture an image or disk snapshot, then boot new VMs cold; image capture needs the VM stopped | Take a live snapshot, then create new Droplets from it (disk, no memory) | Fork a running sandbox in one call (disk, no memory) |
| Reaching the machine | Public IPv4 and any port through security group rules; HTTPS is yours to run, or you add a gateway | Public IPv4 and IPv6 on any port; HTTPS needs your own certificates or a load balancer | HTTPS URLs for up to 50 ports, token-protected; raw TCP; own IP |
| Outbound rules | Security group rules by IP, and domain allowlists with the paid Azure Firewall | Free cloud firewalls with outbound rules by IP range, Droplet or tag | Open internet on every plan; no provider-side allowlist |
| Desktop and computer use | None built in; you install your own VNC or RDP server | Headless Linux; you install a desktop and VNC yourself | 60fps desktop and Chromium, computer use and browser control, embeddable stream |
| Coding agents and keys | No agents built in; Key Vault fetches secrets into the VM, where code inside can read them | No agents on Droplets (Harness Runtime is a separate product); you put secrets on the server yourself | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and more preinstalled with a prompt, steer and events API; AI credentials proxy for any HTTPS API |
| GPUs | GPU families such as NC with Nvidia H100 and A100 | Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, on demand, reserved or spot | None |
| Regions | 77 regions worldwide, available or coming soon | 13 regions in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia | EU only: Germany, Finland, France |
Every feature Battleships tracks (43)
| Feature | Azure Virtual Machines | DigitalOcean | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full VM (own kernel) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docker inside | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nested virtualization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Root | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Systemd | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop GUI | No | No | Yes |
| Browser | No | No | Yes |
| Computer-use API | No | No | Yes |
| SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent disk | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pause/resume | Yes | No | Yes |
| Automatic snapshots | No | No | Yes |
| Fork/clone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live fork (no pause) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Memory fork | No | No | No |
| Custom image (Docker or snapshot) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ≥24 h sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Idle auto-stop | No | No | No |
| Wake on request | No | No | No |
| HTTPS preview URLs | No | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP inbound | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Public IPv4 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Egress allowlist | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secret proxy | No | No | Yes |
| Secret proxy for any API | No | No | Yes |
| Preinstalled agents | No | No | Yes |
| Agent harness API | No | No | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
| GPU | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windows | Yes | No | No |
| Arm64 | Yes | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No | No |
| BYOC | No | No | No |
| Open source | No | No | No |
| Scoped API keys | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Spend limits | No | No | Yes |
| Usage per sandbox (API) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audit logs | Yes | Not published | No |
| SSO | Yes | Yes | No |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes | No |
| EU data residency | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zero data retention | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Performance
There is no comparable measurement for Azure Virtual Machines or DigitalOcean: neither was in the public StarSling benchmark run. boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB in that run of 2026-09-29. On both clouds, speed depends on the plan: Azure has many CPU families and burstable sizes, and DigitalOcean's Basic plans share hyper-threads with other Droplets.
Node.js build-and-test loop at 4 vCPU / 8 GB, higher is better. Measured with the open hpc-sandbox-benchmarks suite. Azure Virtual Machines and DigitalOcean have no published run in this suite yet, so there is no like-for-like number to compare.
Pricing in five scenarios
Each bill is priced from the providers' public price lists by the open Battleships engine, with the cheapest plan that runs the scenario.
| Scenario | Azure Virtual Machines, a month | DigitalOcean, a month | boat, a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, 8 hours a day, 22 days a month, files kept between days | $26 · Pay-as-you-go subscription (no plan fee) | $13 · Pay as you go | $20 · $20/mo |
| One agent that never stops 4 vCPU / 8 GB, 50 GB disk, running 24/7 all month | $48 · Pay-as-you-go subscription (no plan fee) · with limits | $48 · Pay as you go | $26 · $20/mo |
| 50 agents in parallel 50 machines of 4 vCPU / 8 GB at once, 8-hour sessions, 1,100 sessions a month, Docker inside | $1,168 · Pay-as-you-go subscription (no plan fee) | $629 · Pay as you go · with limits | $317 · $20/mo × 3 seats |
| Sandboxes for your users 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 30,000 sessions of 10 minutes a month, up to 300 at once | $225 · Pay-as-you-go subscription (no plan fee) | $179 · Pay as you go · with limits | $200 · $100/mo × 2 seats |
| 1,000 short jobs at once 2 vCPU / 4 GB, 1,000 at once, 3 minutes each, 200,000 jobs a month | $483 · Pay-as-you-go subscription (no plan fee) · with limits | $357 · Pay as you go · with limits | $2,000 · $2000/mo · with limits |
Azure Virtual Machines: Azure bills each VM per full minute while it runs, with no plan fee; disks, public IPv4 and egress are billed on top, and disks keep billing while the VM is deallocated. The cheapest machine that never stops needs a 3-year reservation, billed whether it runs or not.
DigitalOcean: Each Droplet size has a fixed hourly price, billed per second with a 60 second minimum and capped at 672 hours a month. Billing runs from create to destroy, including while powered off, and snapshots and backups cost extra.
DigitalOcean: You pick a monthly plan from $20, and all of it becomes usage credit spent per second on running sandboxes. A stopped sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Limits in those scenarios
A new DigitalOcean team is on Tier 1: 3 Droplets at once, Basic shared plans only, so 50 agents in parallel and sandboxes for your users do not fit until you reach a higher tier. Azure fits both, within vCPU quotas per region and per family that start low and rise by request. Azure's $48 a month for one agent that never stops needs a 3-year commitment, while DigitalOcean's $48 is month to month. For 1,000 short jobs at once nothing fits: Azure's burstable VMs throttle above 30% of each vCPU, DigitalOcean caps at 3 Droplets, and boat queues starts above its per-minute and per-day limits.
| Scenario | Azure Virtual Machines | DigitalOcean | boat |
|---|---|---|---|
| One coding agent, workdays | None that bite | None that bite | None that bite |
| One agent that never stops |
| None that bite | None that bite |
| 50 agents in parallel | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| Sandboxes for your users | None that bite |
| None that bite |
| 1,000 short jobs at once |
|
|
|
Which one should you use?
Use Azure Virtual Machines when
you need Windows, Arm, hibernation, Spot pricing or a region in almost any country, or your company already runs on Azure.
- Windows, Arm and many sizes. Useful if agents need Windows or Arm machines, or a very specific size: Azure rents all of these, DigitalOcean is Linux on x86.
- Regions almost everywhere. Useful if data must stay in a given country: Azure lists 77 regions worldwide against DigitalOcean's 13.
- Hibernation, Spot and reservations. Useful if a VM must resume with its memory, or big batches can survive eviction or commit for years to pay less.
Use DigitalOcean when
you want simple Linux servers with one predictable price, free firewalls and GPUs, and you only need a few machines at first.
- One simple price per Droplet. Useful if you want a bill you can predict: a fixed hourly price, billed per second and capped at 672 hours a month.
- Free firewalls and a small cloud around it. Useful if a server must sit next to managed databases and Kubernetes, behind free firewalls with outbound rules.
- Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Useful if agents train or serve models: DigitalOcean rents Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, including AMD MI300X and newer cards.
Where boat fits
Azure and DigitalOcean both rent plain servers you build on. If what you are really running is agents, boat gives each one a full VM that already has Docker, /dev/kvm, a desktop, HTTPS URLs, forks and coding agents you drive by API. It is a sandbox product, not a cloud, so GPUs, Windows and regions outside the EU stay with Azure or DigitalOcean.
Idle agents stop billing, files stay
A powered-off Droplet bills in full, and a deallocated Azure VM still bills its disks and counts against your vCPU quota. boat saves the disk every minute and on stop, and a stopped sandbox costs nothing.
Fork a running machine in one call
On Azure a copy means stopping the VM, capturing an image and booting new VMs cold. On DigitalOcean you snapshot, then create Droplets one by one, and a new team can only run 3.
Agents, desktop and HTTPS built in
On both clouds you install the agents, a desktop and VNC, then run TLS or a load balancer for every preview link, and keys land inside the machine. boat ships these with a credentials proxy that keeps keys out.
Use boat when the machines are for agents: full VMs with Docker and /dev/kvm, forks of running sandboxes, snapshots every minute, free stops, a desktop, HTTPS URLs and coding agents you drive by API. Compare it one to one: boat vs Azure Virtual Machines and boat vs DigitalOcean.
Questions people ask
Is Azure cheaper than DigitalOcean?
Usually not in our scenarios. One coding agent on workdays is $13 a month on DigitalOcean against $26 on Azure, and one agent that never stops is $48 on both, but Azure needs a 3-year commitment for that price. boat comes to $20 and $26 for the same two.
Which can run 50 agents at once?
Azure fits 50 agents in parallel at $1,168 a month, within your vCPU quota. DigitalOcean would cost $629 but a new team can only run 3 Droplets, so you need a higher tier first. boat fits it at $317 a month.
Which is faster?
Neither Azure nor DigitalOcean has a comparable measurement in the benchmark we use. boat did 26.69 Node.js build-and-test runs per second at 4 vCPU / 8 GB. On both clouds the speed depends on the CPU family or plan you pick.
Can Azure VMs and Droplets run Docker and nested VMs?
Both run Docker with root. Azure documents nested virtualization on Intel and AMD D and F sizes, not on Arm or B-series; DigitalOcean only mentions nested VMs in its live migration docs. boat documents Docker, systemd and /dev/kvm on every machine.
Do I pay for a stopped machine?
On DigitalOcean, yes: a powered-off Droplet is billed in full until you destroy it. On Azure, a deallocated VM stops compute billing but its disks and static IPs keep billing. A stopped boat sandbox costs nothing and keeps its disk.
Which has Windows, GPUs and more regions?
Azure has Windows, Arm and Nvidia GPUs in 77 regions. DigitalOcean is Linux only, with Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets in 13 regions. boat runs Linux only in the EU, with no GPUs.
Try boat
Install the CLI, then run boat new.
7-day free trial
More comparisons
- boat vs Azure Virtual Machines
- boat vs DigitalOcean
- AWS EC2 vs Azure Virtual Machines
- Google Compute Engine vs Azure Virtual Machines
- Azure Virtual Machines vs Oracle Cloud
- Azure Virtual Machines vs Hetzner Cloud
- Azure Virtual Machines vs Vultr
- Azure Virtual Machines vs Linode
- Azure Virtual Machines vs Scaleway
- Azure Virtual Machines vs OVHcloud
- Azure Virtual Machines vs IONOS Cloud
- Azure Virtual Machines vs Contabo