Congratulations Linode. Where do you go from here?
Feb 15, 2022

It’s not every day that one of your competitors is acquired. So, when we saw that Akamai is acquiring Linode, it certainly got our attention. When acquisitions like this happen in tech, you tend to think about the impact on two groups: the team and the customers.

To the Linode team we say: Congratulations! As one of the few other bootstrapped, founder-owned cloud computing platforms, we know how hard it is to grow a company, meet the needs of customers, and compete. We respect the work that the Linode team has done, and in some ways Vultr, Linode, and the other independents have been on the same "side", battling the Big Tech clouds. So, well done Linode team, and we wish you the best.

The bigger question now, however, is: what will the impact of this acquisition be on Linode’s customers? Will the developers and SMBs who make up the majority of Linode’s customer base still get the same service, value, and focus that they had prior to the acquisition?

To answer that question, let’s go straight to the source: Akamai’s earnings call announcing the acquisition. About 53 minutes into the call, during the Q&A, Akamai explains, "The primary objective is to take Linode and really scale that up and sell it into the large enterprise space," and "…The focus will be moving Linode’s capabilities into our platform and having a comprehensive solution for large enterprise customers."

Makes total sense – if you are Akamai. Take new cloud services, and sell them to your core customer base of large enterprises. But if you are a developer or SMB who has relied on Linode for its "simple, affordable, and accessible" cloud solutions and services, will Linode continue to make sense for you?

Like Linode, Vultr has resonated with developers and tech-savvy SMBs who are seeking something they can’t get from the Big Tech clouds. Simplicity over complexity. Predictable bills. High performance, at a great price. Essential cloud compute and cloud storage that you can spin up quickly.

Unlike Linode, Vultr is larger, has been expanding rapidly around the world, and has invested significantly in its platform. Vultr has opened a new data center location per month for the last five months, and now has 23 global locations and growing – more than Linode and DigitalOcean combined. We can continue to invest in this rapid expansion because Vultr is still fully bootstrapped and independent – not beholden to investor or Wall Street expectations. We remain focused on our core mission of providing developers and businesses of all sizes around the world with unrivaled ease of use, global reach, and price-to-performance.

For any Linode customer who wants to explore independent alternatives, we are offering $150 in free credit to try Vultr. Or, if your monthly Linode bill is over $150 per month, simply Contact Us, show us your Linode bill, and we will offer you a free month of credit.