Screenshot of Linode's homepage, captured for this review.
Linode Review
Linode pairs DigitalOcean-style flat pricing with free 24/7 phone support and Akamai networking. The developer experience is slightly rougher, but the fundamentals are excellent.
Review last updated 2026-08-19 · How we rate hosts
Scorecard
Pros
- Free 24/7 phone support, unusual for an unmanaged cloud
- Simple flat pricing that matches DigitalOcean tier for tier
- Akamai backbone and CDN integration since the acquisition
- Two decades of VPS operating history
Cons
- Unmanaged - no control panel or server administration included
- Console and ecosystem feel a step behind DigitalOcean
- Akamai rebrand has made some product pages enterprise-focused and harder to navigate
Linode plans & pricing
Promotional monthly rates as of August 19, 2026; most require the listed prepaid term and renew at the higher rate shown. Confirm on Linode's site before buying.
| Plan | Intro price | Renews at | Storage | Sites | Bandwidth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nanode 1GBVPS Hosting | $5/mo | $5/mo | 25 GB SSD | 1 TB/mo | ||
| Linode 4GBVPS Hosting | $24/mo | $24/mo | 80 GB SSD | 4 TB/mo | ||
| Dedicated CPU 4GBCloud Hosting | $36/mo | $36/mo | 80 GB SSD | 4 TB/mo | ||
| Linode 8GBCloud Hosting | $48/mo | $48/mo | 160 GB SSD | 5 TB/mo |
Our Linode review
Linode is one of the original VPS companies - it was selling Linux virtual machines in 2003, nearly a decade before DigitalOcean existed. Akamai acquired it in 2022 for roughly $900M and has been folding it into a broader edge-cloud story ever since.
Pricing mirrors DigitalOcean almost exactly: a $5 Nanode with 1GB RAM and 1TB transfer, $24 for 2 vCPU/4GB shared plans, and dedicated-CPU instances from $36. Transfer allowances are pooled across instances, which is generous for multi-server setups.
The standout is support. Linode still answers phones 24/7 at no charge, something neither DigitalOcean nor Vultr offers on base accounts. For a solo developer whose server is down at 3am, that difference is not academic.
The Akamai acquisition cuts both ways. The network integration and new core regions are real upgrades, but the marketing and docs have drifted enterprise-ward, and longtime users grumble that the simple linode.com experience is being absorbed into akamai.com.
Like all raw clouds here, this is unmanaged hosting: you get root, a clean API and good uptime, and everything above the OS is your problem. If you want cPanel-style hosting, look at ScalaHosting or KnownHost instead.
Notable facts
- Acquired by Akamai in 2022 for ~$900M
- One of the first VPS providers, founded 2003
At a glance
| Founded | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, US (Akamai) |
| Data centers | Newark, Dallas, Fremont, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai |
| Hosting types | Cloud Hosting, VPS Hosting |
| Starting price | $5/mo |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% |
| Support | phone, tickets, knowledge-base (24/7) |
| Free migration | No |
Frequently asked questions
Is Linode the same as Akamai Cloud?
Yes. Linode compute products now live under the Akamai Cloud brand, but the plans, pricing model and console lineage are Linode through and through.
Bottom line
Linode pairs DigitalOcean-style flat pricing with free 24/7 phone support and Akamai networking. The developer experience is slightly rougher, but the fundamentals are excellent.
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