What is the difference between a droplet and a snapshot?

A droplet and a snapshot are distinct features offered by Digital Ocean. A droplet refers to a virtual server instance, which is essentially a cloud-based server that can be provisioned and deployed rapidly. It runs on a shared host infrastructure and can be customized as per individual requirements. On the other hand, a snapshot refers to a point-in-time copy of a droplet. It captures the entire state of the droplet, including its data, configurations, and installed software. Snapshots serve as a backup mechanism, allowing users to save their droplet's configuration and content. They provide the ability to revert to a previous state or create new droplets with the same configurations efficiently. Essentially, a droplet is the running virtual server, while a snapshot is a saved image of that server for backup or replication purposes.