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by rolleiflex 2753 days ago
The same thing applies to AWS, and AWS doesn't have '10 servers maximum' limit.

Beyond anything, it tells people about their target audience, which is indie development. That's fine, and it's a great market to be in. But in the case I have to spin up 17 servers in 24 hours in three continents, I can't really afford to deal with DigitalOcean's support under that kind of stress. This doesn't happen often, but when it happens, it absolutely breaks you.

4 comments

AWS most definitely has service limits that apply to all products including ec2 for this exact (and other abusive) reasons. In fact, the aws limits are even more convoluted and can hit at random if not tracked. More details here: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#How_many_instances_can_I_ru...
Yeah, as I was building out some apps over the past year it was a game of ‘which account limit will I hit next’. Most of them require a support ticket to be raised, and justification.
Hey Rolleiflex - Thanks so much for being a DigitalOcean customer! We would be happy to increase your Droplet limit if you get in touch. Just visit the support link from your Cloud control panel to make the request or drop me a line directly (first name @).

Thanks! Zach Director of Support, DigitalOcean

Hey Zach, thanks for chiming in. I’ve moved on from DO to AWS a long time ago, but I appreciate the sentiment.
May be they should allow customer to set higher default limit instead of 10? Which is silly.

( I never knew there was such a low limit of 10 instances. )

For what it's worth, my account has a limit of 25 and I've never requested an increase. So I guess after some period of use and payment they trust you and increase your limit automatically?

I've been a DO customer for 5 years but I'm not sure when my droplet limit was increased.

I thought the limit was for your protection and you can get it increased just by contacting them?
I preemptively contacted Support to verify my bona fides - I think my cap now (self-requested) is something like 50 or so
AWS also has a initial soft limit on EC2 instances. I dont remember what it is but its <100
Yeah, I’m sure they have — It’s just that AWS’ limits are a lot more compatible with a startup (vs an indie developer) than DigitalOcean’s.
FWIW, I find AWS limits confusing and seemingly random. Also, the fact that you can't limit total spending is _very_ unfriendly to (at least indie, as you point out) developers. I have no experience with DO though, maybe that will change with this offering.
Have you actually dealt with their support though? Your example of going from (seemingly) zero servers to 17 across 3 continents in 24 hours (indicating unforeseen absolutely incredible traction and growth) seems significantly less likely than getting a response from their support team increasing usage limits within the same timeframe.