---
type: entity
subtype: organization
title: "DigitalOcean"
description: "Cloud host mentioned as an example of running n8n in the cloud, where webhook endpoints must be protected."
resource: "https://www.digitalocean.com"
tags: [cloud-hosting, deployment, self-hosting]
videos: [knowledge-graphs-in-n8n-are-finally-here, the-ultimate-guide-to-local-ai-and-ai-agents-the-future-is-here, build-a-chatgpt-style-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agents-in-minutes, create-your-own-private-local-ai-cloud-stack-in-under-20-minutes, n8n-crawl4ai-scrape-any-website-in-minutes-with-no-code, revealing-my-complete-ai-agent-blueprint, flowise-n8n-the-best-no-code-local-ai-agent-combo, deploy-any-ai-app-to-the-cloud-fast, the-hard-truth-about-hosting-your-own-llms, complete-guide-to-langserve-make-your-ai-agent-actually-useful, youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is the cloud provider Cole reaches for by default whenever a project needs a real server rather than a local machine. It is the recurring, unsponsored recommendation across his deployment videos: "for my cloud provider today I chose digital ocean I really really prefer digital ocean for most use cases and so I'm just going to keep it simple using what I'm really comfortable with here." He is careful to disclose there is no sponsorship behind the endorsement ("Digital Ocean's not sponsoring this video. It's actually just what I use to host my N8N"), which makes it a genuine tooling preference rather than a paid placement.

Its main appeal, in his telling, is price for ordinary compute. He repeatedly frames it as the cheapest sane way to stand up a persistent [deployment](../../concepts/agent-deployment.md) target: "$6 a month is all it takes on digital ocean to get Cloud compute that is powerful enough to run n8n," and "digital ocean has the best pricing for General instances that aren't GPU instances." A DigitalOcean droplet is the assumed substrate under most of his self-hosted work, hosting [n8n](../tools/n8n.md) with a real domain name, running [Crawl4AI](../tools/crawl4ai.md) via its App Platform, and standing up a full [local AI](../../concepts/local-ai.md) package. Because those services get exposed on a public droplet, he pairs the host with basic hardening: "if you have n8n running in the cloud or self-hosted through something like Digital Ocean then you do want to protect all of your web hook endpoints."

Cole is not uncritical. For GPU-heavy work DigitalOcean is a weaker fit, "digital ocean is actually pretty pricey and they don't have a ton of options," though they do offer GPU machines for teams that want them. His enthusiasm is scoped to CPU instances that run [n8n](../tools/n8n.md), [Ollama](../tools/ollama.md)-backed stacks, [memory](../../concepts/memory-systems.md)- and [RAG](../../concepts/rag.md)-driven agents, and webhook-style [tool](../../concepts/tool-use.md) endpoints affordably and predictably.

## Contrasts with

- [RunPod](../tools/runpod.md) - Cole warns against RunPod for hosting because "you don't actually get the underlying machine. You're just sshing into a container," whereas a DigitalOcean droplet gives you the real box.

## Works with

- [n8n](../tools/n8n.md) - A no-code AI automation platform for building agents and workflows that integrate with 500+ applications.
- [Crawl4AI](../tools/crawl4ai.md) - The open-source crawling library powering Cole's RAG MCP server, handling llms.txt, sitemaps, and recursive scraping.
- [Ollama](../tools/ollama.md) - Local LLM runtime; works with a locally-run bolt.diy but can't be reached by a self-hosted (remote) instance.
- [Local AI Package](../tools/local-ai-package.md) - Cole's bundled collection of self-hosted AI services (database, n8n, Ollama, Open Web UI) that installs the whole stack together for free.

## Related

- [Agent Deployment](../../concepts/agent-deployment.md) - Getting agents to production, containerizing, networking, reverse-proxying, and choosing a provider-agnostic, cost-predictable host.
- [Local & Self-Hosted AI](../../concepts/local-ai.md) - Running open-weight models on your own hardware or cloud for privacy, cost control, and independence from API providers.
- [Model Selection](../../concepts/model-selection.md) - Choosing the right LLM per task by trading off quality, speed, and cost, often routing easy requests to cheap models and hard ones to expensive models.
- [Memory Systems](../../concepts/memory-systems.md) - Giving agents durable short- and long-term memory so conversations, user context, and facts persist across sessions and users.
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)](../../concepts/rag.md) - Grounding an LLM's answers by retrieving relevant documents from an external knowledge base and injecting them into the prompt at query time.
- [Tool Calling](../../concepts/tool-use.md) - Letting an LLM invoke external functions and APIs so it can take actions and fetch data beyond its parametric knowledge.

## Sources

- [Deploy ANY AI App to the Cloud FAST](../../sources/deploy-any-ai-app-to-the-cloud-fast.md) - "[0:02:42] for my cloud provider today I chose digital ocean I really really prefer digital ocean for most use cases and so I'm just going to keep it simple using what I'm really comfortable with here"
- [You're WASTING TIME Coding Your AI Agents](../../sources/youre-wasting-time-coding-your-ai-agents.md) - "[0:02:50] $6 a month is all it takes on digital ocean to get Cloud compute that is powerful enough to run n8n"
- [Revealing my COMPLETE AI Agent Blueprint](../../sources/revealing-my-complete-ai-agent-blueprint.md) - "[0:11:05] digital ocean has the best pricing for General instances that aren't GPU instances"
- [The Ultimate Guide to Local AI and AI Agents (The Future is Here)](../../sources/the-ultimate-guide-to-local-ai-and-ai-agents-the-future-is-here.md) - "[1:28:00] the cloud platform that we will be deploying to today is Digital Ocean... they have both GPU machines... and they have very affordable CPU instances"
- [Create Your Own Private Local AI Cloud Stack in Under 20 Minutes](../../sources/create-your-own-private-local-ai-cloud-stack-in-under-20-minutes.md) - "[0:03:18] we're going to be using digital ocean to deploy our local AI package they are not sponsoring this video... they have the best options in my mind for CPU instances"
- [Build a ChatGPT Style App for Your n8n AI Agents in MINUTES](../../sources/build-a-chatgpt-style-app-for-your-n8n-ai-agents-in-minutes.md) - "[0:12:38] if you have n8n running in the cloud or self-hosted through something like Digital Ocean then you do want to protect all of your web hook endpoints."
- [n8n + Crawl4AI - Scrape ANY Website in Minutes with NO Code](../../sources/n8n-crawl4ai-scrape-any-website-in-minutes-with-no-code.md) - "[0:07:49] the one that I have found the easiest by far though is digital ocean... not sponsored by them in any way I just use them for my instances in the cloud"
- [The HARD Truth About Hosting Your Own LLMs](../../sources/the-hard-truth-about-hosting-your-own-llms.md) - "[0:09:00] digital ocean is actually pretty pricey and they don't have a ton of options I know that they are expanding this in the future"
- [Knowledge Graphs in n8n are FINALLY Here!](../../sources/knowledge-graphs-in-n8n-are-finally-here.md) - "[0:05:49] I will be assuming that you already have something like a digital ocean droplet with N8N up and running"
- [Flowise + n8n - The BEST No Code + Local AI Agent Combo](../../sources/flowise-n8n-the-best-no-code-local-ai-agent-combo.md) - "[0:23:52] I'm just using what I have right here with my hosted n8n that I have hosted myself within digital ocean with a domain name"
- [COMPLETE Guide to LangServe - Make Your AI Agent Actually Useful](../../sources/complete-guide-to-langserve-make-your-ai-agent-actually-useful.md) - "[0:01:17] I will show you step by step how to deploy your AI agent to your own dedicated Cloud Server using digital ocean for literally only $7 a month"
