The private network option allows communication between droplets in the same data center without counting towards your bandwidth limits. This is a shared private network and your droplets are addressable by other droplets in the same region so you should take steps to ensure security of any traffic you pass over the private network interface.

Hi there,

I just came across this question and decided to post a small update here in case that anyone else comes across this in 2020.

I would recommend considering the new DigitalOcean VPC networks.

VPC networks are completely isolated from both other customers and other VPCs on your own account. See here for more details:

https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/networking/vpc/

It’s also worth pointing out that DigitalOcean private networks provided account level isolation since July 18, 2018. The big changes with the release of VPCs are:

• You can create multiple VPCs that are isolated from each other
• You can define the IP range for your VPCs yourself

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