DigitalOcean DDoS Protection

Powerful DDoS mitigation

Your DigitalOcean resources are safeguarded from DDoS attacks with free, built-in DDoS protection that works automatically.

Maximize uptime

Keep your cloud resources available with DDoS Protection actively working to block attacks 24/7.

Automatic peace of mind

You're protected against ever-evolving varieties of network-layer DDoS, without any need for manual configuration.

Speedy mitigation

Built into the DigitalOcean cloud, in-network DDoS mitigation defends your resources without having to route traffic to a third party.

Key features

Native, network-level protection

DigitalOcean DDoS Protection monitors network layers 3 and 4 and is built into our cloud.

Automated and intelligent threat mitigation

Common, generalized DDoS attacks are blocked automatically via rules that adapt to attack types, while still allowing legitimate data traffic to pass through.

Protection from many types of DDoS

Volumetric attacks such as UDP floods, ICMP floods, TCP floods, and DNS reflection attacks are covered, plus protocol-layer attacks such as SYN floods, BGP attacks, and ping-of-death attacks.

Works across the DigitalOcean cloud

DDoS Protection covers your DigitalOcean cloud infrastructure, including Droplets, Kubernetes, Managed Databases, Load Balancers, and assigned Reserved IPs, across all our data centers.

Digital world map, with cities highlighted: New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney.

With constant attack threats on the internet that often aim to take down websites via DDoS, being knocked off line is something I can't risk. That is why I wouldn't hesitate to flick a switch on my DigitalOcean hosted website and have instant peace of mind that someone is protecting me. Minimal fuss, maximum impact.

Kevin Groves

Founder, House of Kiya

Frequently asked questions about DDoS protection on DigitalOcean

What is DigitalOcean DDoS Protection?

It’s a free, always-on service that protects your DigitalOcean infrastructure— Droplets, Kubernetes clusters, Managed Databases, Load Balancers, and Reserved IPs—from network-layer (layers 3–4) DDoS attacks without any manual configuration.

Which types of attacks does DigitalOcean DDoS Protection block automatically?

It defends against volumetric attacks (UDP/ICMP/TCP floods, DNS reflection), protocol-layer attacks (SYN floods, BGP exploits, ping-of-death), and multi-vector attacks combining various tactics.

Will it slow down my app or add latency?

Nope. All detection and mitigation happens inside DigitalOcean’s network, so traffic doesn’t detour through third parties, so no extra latency, no fuss.

What happens when traffic exceeds mitigation capacity?

Once the attack volume overwhelms what DigitalOcean can handle, we blackhole the IP, dropping all incoming traffic (malicious or legitimate) until the traffic subsides, then notify the account owner. Keep this in mind for uptime-critical apps.

Do I have to configure anything to enable this protection?

No. It’s enabled by default for all applicable resources. It’s instant protection as soon as your resource is live.

From where does this protection apply globally?

Coverage extends across all DigitalOcean data centers, including New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney. Your apps get global resilience by default.

Is application-layer (layer 7) DDoS protected too?

No. This service covers network-level attacks only (layers 3 and 4). For application-layer threats, consider adding a WAF (Web Application Firewall) or a service like Cloudflare or Akamai.

Do developers still need CDN or Cloudflare if this is in place?

If you're only concerned about network-layer floods, DigitalOcean’s DDoS protection might be enough (and many devs skip Cloudflare entirely for this). But Cloudflare or similar can layer on app-layer protection, caching, bot defense, WAF, and global edge logic.

Is there any cost for this protection?

Zero cost. It’s built into DigitalOcean’s platform and applies to your eligible resources automatically without extra billing.

How should digital-native enterprises think about DDoS Protection?

For developers and startups, it’s a no-brainer—just spin up your infrastructure. For enterprises, it’s baseline protection you don’t have to pay for. Still, critical systems should consider defense-in-depth: combine this with CDNs, WAFs, rate limiting, and traffic monitoring for full security posture.