Linode, now part of Akamai, keeps its plan structure simple. There are four families worth knowing and one decision that actually matters.
The families
| Plan | Built for |
|---|---|
| Shared CPU | Development, staging, low-traffic production, workers that idle |
| Dedicated CPU | Sustained load: application servers, databases, CI runners |
| High Memory | Caches, in-memory analytics, large database working sets |
| GPU | Training and inference workloads |
Shared or dedicated
Shared plans place several tenants on a host. For anything that spends most of its time idle, that is excellent value and the contention never shows.
Dedicated plans guarantee your cores. Choose them when load is sustained, when latency consistency matters, or when you are running a database whose query times must be predictable. The tell that you need to switch is variance rather than slowness: timings that move around without a matching traffic change.
Sizing
- Memory first. A workload that swaps on cloud storage is far slower than one on a slightly larger plan.
- Look at a week of CPU data, not an hour.
- If I/O wait is high while CPU idles, storage is your constraint. Consider a plan with more local NVMe or move hot data.
- Two smaller instances behind a NodeBalancer usually beat one large instance for availability.
Regions and the Akamai network
Linode runs data centres across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Australia. The Akamai acquisition improved distribution and peering, which matters for latency-sensitive delivery.
Pick a region for user proximity and any data residency requirement, then confirm the services you need exist there. Newer capabilities land in some regions before others.
Account limits and mail
Accounts cap how many instances can run concurrently, and new accounts start conservative. Increases are requested and reviewed.
Outbound SMTP on port 25 is restricted by default. Our Linode listings include a configuration with port 25 opened, which is for running a genuine mail server rather than sending application email. For application mail, relay through Amazon SES instead, and read the port 25 guide before sending anything.
Where Linode fits
Linode competes with DigitalOcean on developer experience and with Hetzner on price. It is not the platform for a broad managed service catalogue; for analytics or ML the large platforms remain the answer. See DigitalOcean vs Linode and Linode vs Hetzner.
Common questions
Can I resize an instance?
Yes, with a reboot. Disk can grow; shrinking requires more care.
Is transfer included?
Plans include a monthly transfer allowance, pooled across the account, with overage billed beyond it.
Are GPU plans always available?
Availability varies by region and demand. Confirm before planning around them.