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What is DigitalOcean?

Learn about DigitalOcean and how Ship It Squirrel uses it to host your apps

What is DigitalOcean?

DigitalOcean is a cloud hosting provider that lets you create virtual servers (called "droplets") to run your web applications.

Why DigitalOcean?

Ship It Squirrel uses DigitalOcean to host your Rails apps. DigitalOcean is a popular choice for developers because:

  • Simple pricing — Servers start at $4/month with predictable, flat-rate billing
  • Developer-friendly — Clean dashboard and straightforward API
  • Fast provisioning — New servers are ready in under a minute
  • Global data centers — Choose from regions in the US, Europe, Asia, and more

How Ship It Squirrel uses DigitalOcean

When you connect your DigitalOcean account, Ship It Squirrel can:

  1. Create new servers for you directly from the dashboard
  2. Import existing servers (droplets) you've already created
  3. Provision servers with everything your Rails app needs — Ruby, PostgreSQL, Redis, Node.js, and Caddy for automatic HTTPS
  4. Deploy your code to those servers with a single click or automatically on git push

You maintain full ownership and control of your servers. Ship It Squirrel just makes managing them easier.

Getting started

1. Create a DigitalOcean account

If you don't already have one, sign up at digitalocean.com. You'll need a credit card or PayPal for billing.

2. Generate an API token

Ship It Squirrel connects to DigitalOcean through their API. You'll need to create a personal access token:

  1. Go to API > Tokens in your DigitalOcean dashboard
  2. Click "Generate New Token"
  3. Give it a name like "Ship It Squirrel"
  4. Select both Read and Write scopes
  5. Copy the token — you won't be able to see it again

Your token is stored securely using encryption and is only used to manage your droplets. Ship It Squirrel never shares your token with third parties.

3. Connect in Ship It Squirrel

Paste your API token into the DigitalOcean connection form during onboarding, or go to Settings > Integrations at any time.

How much does DigitalOcean cost?

DigitalOcean charges separately from Ship It Squirrel. Their pricing for servers (droplets):

  • $6/month (1GB RAM) — Suitable for small/staging apps
  • $12/month (2GB RAM) — Minimum recommended for production Rails apps
  • $24/month (4GB RAM) — Recommended for production with room to grow

You can host unlimited apps on a single server with Ship It Squirrel, so one DigitalOcean droplet can run multiple Rails apps.

Next steps

  • Getting Started — Full walkthrough of setting up Ship It Squirrel
  • Server Setup — Detailed guide on creating and configuring droplets