Suggestions appear as you type. Use the up and down arrows to choose one and Enter to open it.

This page's audience our own tag's counts — open to see them
–Visits
–Page views
–Clicks to vendors
–Time on page
–Reading now
Clicks to vendors, by tool
  • –
Top countries
  • –
Devices
  • –

– · visits, page views and clicks counted by our own tag, which counts more than our checked analytics; every figure rounded down · how we count

Head-to-head · MySQL Hosting

Aiven for MySQL vs DigitalOcean Managed MySQL

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 7 checks side by side
Higher score Aiven for MySQL #1 in MySQL Hosting 9.4/10 Free plan · 30-day trial Free planFree trial✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Aiven
DigitalOcean Managed MySQL #7 in MySQL Hosting 8.7/10 Paid ✓ 4 of 4 features Visit DigitalOcean

Aiven for MySQL leads on 2 checks, DigitalOcean Managed MySQL on 1, and 4 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 7 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreAiven for MySQL · 9.4/10
  • Lowest starting priceAiven for MySQL · $5/mo
  • Free planonly Aiven for MySQL
  • Free trialonly Aiven for MySQL

Aiven for MySQL scores higher on our rubric for mysql hosting: 9.4 against 8.7 out of 10; our editors rank them #1 and #7.

Aiven for MySQL offers free plan; DigitalOcean Managed MySQL doesn't. Aiven for MySQL is cheaper to start at $5/mo against $15.15/mo. DigitalOcean Managed MySQL leads on included storage: 10 GB versus 8 GB.

Aiven for MySQL is the better fit for managed MySQL value seekers. DigitalOcean Managed MySQL is the better fit for affordable production MySQL clusters.

  • Aiven for MySQL fits best

    Managed MySQL value seekers

  • DigitalOcean Managed MySQL fits best

    Affordable production MySQL clusters

Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.

Side by side

Feature Aiven for MySQL 9.4/10 Visit ↗ DigitalOcean Managed MySQL 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 9.4 8.7
Ranking #1 in MySQL Hosting #7 in MySQL Hosting
Best for Managed MySQL value seekers Affordable production MySQL clusters
Pricing model Free plan + paid Paid
Starting price $5/mo (best) $15.15/mo
Free plan ✓ (best) —
Free trial 30 days —
Deployment Cloud Cloud
Platforms Web Web
Support Email, Tickets, Community, Docs · 24/7 Tickets, Live chat, Community, Docs
Compliance SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SSO/SAML SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS
Integrations 5 integrations 2 integrations
Built for Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Aiven for MySQL 4/4 · DigitalOcean Managed MySQL 4/4
Automated backups ✓ ✓
Point-in-time restore ✓ ✓
High availability ✓ ✓
Private networking ✓ ✓
Specs
Scaling mode Both Both
Included storage 8 GB 10 GB (best)
Our review
Pros
  • Free plan plus $5/month Developer entry tier
  • Point-in-time recovery, backups, and cross-region read replicas
  • Private connectivity, high availability, and broad integrations
  • Automated backups include seven-day point-in-time recovery.
  • Standby nodes provide automated failover and high availability.
  • Scaling, replicas, VPC networking, and query insights are included.
Cons
  • Free and Developer plans exclude integrations and connection pooling
  • The Free plan includes only 1 GB of total storage
  • Production-oriented high availability starts with the Business plan
  • There is no free plan.
  • The service is focused on MySQL rather than multiple database engines.
  • Advanced edition pricing is not shown in the listed plans.
Our verdict

Aiven for MySQL is a fully managed relational database service for developers and organizations running web applications, e-commerce systems, microservices, and other workloads. Aiven handles provisioning, patching, backups, security,…

Read the review →

DigitalOcean Managed MySQL is a cloud-hosted service for developers, startups, growing businesses, and enterprises that want DigitalOcean to handle MySQL cluster provisioning and maintenance. Clusters can be managed through a web control…

Read the review →
  1. Aiven for MySQLMySQL Hosting 9.4Free plan · 30-day trial
  2. DigitalOcean Managed MySQLMySQL Hosting 8.7Paid

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Aiven for MySQL — where it wins

    • Free plan plus $5/month Developer entry tier
    • Point-in-time recovery, backups, and cross-region read replicas
    • Private connectivity, high availability, and broad integrations

    Where it doesn't

    • Free and Developer plans exclude integrations and connection pooling
    • The Free plan includes only 1 GB of total storage
    • Production-oriented high availability starts with the Business plan

  • DigitalOcean Managed MySQL — where it wins

    • Automated backups include seven-day point-in-time recovery.
    • Standby nodes provide automated failover and high availability.
    • Scaling, replicas, VPC networking, and query insights are included.

    Where it doesn't

    • There is no free plan.
    • The service is focused on MySQL rather than multiple database engines.
    • Advanced edition pricing is not shown in the listed plans.
  • Aiven for MySQL9.4/10 · Free plan · 30-day trial

    Flexible managed MySQL with a free tier, low entry price, and production features.

    Visit AivenFull verdict →
  • DigitalOcean Managed MySQL8.7/10 · Paid

    A cost-conscious managed MySQL service with production features from $15.15/month.

    Visit DigitalOceanFull verdict →

More comparisons

All MySQL hosting comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update