What's your current production setup on DigitalOcean?

Hey!

For most production workloads I usually go with managed Kubernetes (DOKS) + managed services.

Typical setup:

• DOKS for app workloads (easy scaling, rolling deploys, high availability)

• Managed PostgreSQL/Redis so I don’t handle maintenance/backups

• Spaces for object storage

• Load Balancer in front

• Terraform to provision everything

Main reason is less operational overhead and easier scaling compared to managing multiple Droplets manually. You get more control than App Platform but still avoid running your own control plane.

For smaller projects though, a single Droplet with Docker is honestly still hard to beat for simplicity and cost.

Heya,

For me it depends on the size of the project.

For really small stuff or quick tools, I still use plain Droplets — simple, cheap, and fast to get going. But for anything production or client-facing, I usually go more managed.

Typical setup is:

• DigitalOcean Managed PostgreSQL for the DB (I don’t want to babysit backups, failover, upgrades)

• DOKS for app workloads

• Spaces if I need object storage

• Load Balancer in front if traffic matters

For example, with a Django app + Next.js frontend: Django runs as an API inside Kubernetes, Next.js either as another service in the same cluster or sometimes static/exported behind a CDN. DB is managed Postgres, not inside the cluster. This setup has been pretty stable for me and easy to scale when needed.

Basically: Droplets for small/simple, managed services + Kubernetes for anything that needs to be boring and reliable in prod.