DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS)
DOKS is the managed Kubernetes we use most for small and mid-size production workloads. The control plane is free, pricing is predictable and the platform is simple enough that a small team can own it.
We run DOKS clusters with Flux, cert-manager, ingress-nginx and Prometheus, and we know its quirks: node pool sizing, kubelet memory behavior, load balancer limits and how to upgrade without dropping traffic.
At a glance
| Control plane | Managed, free; HA control plane optional |
|---|---|
| Storage | DO Block Storage CSI, Spaces (S3-compatible) |
| Networking | DO Load Balancers, VPC, ingress-nginx |
| Regions | NYC, SFO, AMS, LON, FRA, SGP, BLR, SYD, TOR |
What RackLedge does
- Cluster build and GitOps bootstrap
- Cost review: node counts, pool sizing, unused load balancers
- Upgrade management and node rotation
- 24/7 monitoring and on-call
How we work
Every cluster we build starts from Git. Infrastructure as code creates the cluster, Flux or Argo CD reconciles everything inside it, and no change reaches production without a pull request. That is what makes a rebuild after a bad day a matter of hours instead of weeks.
Operations are the product: monitoring with alerts that mean something, backups of cluster state and persistent volumes, upgrades on a quarterly cadence and an on-call engineer who already knows the environment. We run production Kubernetes for our own platforms, so the runbooks are ones we use ourselves.
We are honest about fit. A handful of stable services on a couple of VMs does not need Kubernetes, and we will say so. Teams that ship weekly, need to scale or run many services get real value from it.
Related services
More on kubernetes
Frequently asked questions
Is DigitalOcean serious enough for production?
Yes for most business workloads. It lacks some enterprise services AWS and Azure offer, but for web applications, APIs and internal tools it is reliable and far cheaper.
Need a hand with this?
Tell us what you are running and what is slowing you down. You get a straight assessment and a plan, with no obligation. Support desk is staffed 24/7.