[tracker1]

Because spending $25-50/month on side projects that may sit for a while before I pick it up again is one thing. Spending hundreds a month is another. DO is significantly faster at any price point than what you get from lightsail or aws-ec2. Beyond that, I'd be more inclined to use Azure's data services simply because I like the interfaces better and far less hassle to get started with. I'd probably use SQL minimally and lean on AWS Tables quite a bit.

For a DO only solution, I'd probably use SQL more and then rely on their blob (s3 compatible) storage for some bits. I have a few small projects that I've been getting anxious to finally work on, and don't want to spend a bunch of money on them in the interim.

In case of modest growth, I also don't want to be hamstrung doing DB operations work for something that isn't actually making me money... I'll split things up to save a bit in the nearer term so long as I can have a migration path.

If I did split with data in azure/aws and the apps in DO, I might go all azure later, or I might go all DO and take on the DB operations side... it depends on if/how things grow.