Hi Ryan, ok - let’s see:

• you are on a shared server with hostgator and renting a VPS at DO is basically the same. You have just one of many droplets running on the same server. However, hostgator optimized their servers already for end customers which is good for “one-size-fits-all” performance but here at DO you are the developer, meaning you not only “have to” optimize the server yourself - you can also do it much better. You can follow some tutorials here to pull this off - I’d recommend a LEMP stack with Ubuntu 14.04 since most tutorials seem to cover ubuntu. Once you managed that, look into “memcached” and “varnish” - it takes some effort to read up on all of this but it’s well worth the effort (on a low budget). If you want the best performance possible, don’t do any work yourself and don’t mind spending $30/month stop reading and go straight to wpengine.com (currently regarded as the best)

• I also started out with serverpilot but quickly outgrew it. if you want to do things yourself then it’s hard to follow most tutorials since serverpilot changes where certain files are located and how to manipulate them. since SSL integration also cost extra I wouldn’t recommend them (except for total beginners). The only upside is that they keep your server secure - they don’t make it noticably faster (last time I checked). bottom line, if you’re serious about performance ditch them

• you are right about singapore. I’ve read some other reports from DO customers who complained about performance in this datacenter. I think this is the main reason for your bad speed results. once you’re back in NY things should look brighter

But wait - I saved the best for last - here’s a shameless copy of the secret sauce formula wpengine (mentioned above) uses: go to github.com/zach-adams/hgv-deploy-full and follow the instructions.
If you manage to install this, your server should be superfast and capable of handling lots of traffic

have a nice one :)

You need to provide more details to get an answer:

1. what service did you use to do the speed test? pingdom tools?
2. where is the speed test server located?
3. where is your hostgator server located?
4. what kind of server did you rent at hostgator? dedicated or shared server with x sites on it?
5. where is your digitalocean droplet located?
6. what size is your digitalocean droplet?
7. what kind of app is running on your droplet? wordpress?
8. are you using nginx or apache?
9. did you do any server optimization on your droplet at all?
10. …I could go on but if you know the answers to most of these questions we should get a better idea what exactly seems to slow you down

best regards

hey @sugarhill, I have updated the thread with the details you requested.