Microsoft Azure vs Cloudways: Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Overall Winner
Cloudways
- Wins in 4 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Performance, Best for WordPress, Best for Developers
- 4.2/5 overall rating
Category Winners
Best Price
Microsoft Azure
$4.00/mo vs $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Cloudways
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Tie
Similar support options
Best for WordPress
Cloudways
Optimized, Staging, WooCommerce
Best for Developers
Cloudways
SSH, Git, Staging, Node.js
Best for Beginners
Cloudways
Higher ease of use score (5.5/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | Cloud Infrastructure | VPS Hosting |
| Monthly Price | $4.00/mo | — |
| Renewal Price | $4.00 | — |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 3.5/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 2.0/5 | 4.6/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 46 | 3,600 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $48.00 | $168.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $48.00 | $168.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | — | 0 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | 0 months | — |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | — | 25 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD/PREMIUM SSD/ULTRA DISK | SSD |
| Bandwidth | — | 1000 GB |
| Max Websites | — | Unlimited |
| Max Databases | — | Unlimited |
| PHP Versions | — | 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 |
| SSH Access | ||
| Git Deployment | ||
| Staging Environment | — | |
| Cron Jobs | ||
| Redis Available | ||
| Programming Languages | ||
| Node.js Support | ||
| Python Support | ||
| Ruby Support | ||
| WordPress Features | ||
| WordPress Optimized | ||
| WordPress Auto-Install | ||
| WordPress Auto-Updates | ||
| WordPress Staging | ||
| WooCommerce Optimized | ||
| LiteSpeed Cache | ||
| Object Caching | ||
| WP Multisite | ||
| WP-CLI Access | ||
| Security | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| DDoS Protection Level | Azure DDoS Protection (Basic free; Standard from $2,944/mo) | Bot Protection and Firewall via Cloudflare |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Manual/Snapshot-based | Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily) |
| Backup Retention | — | 14 days |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Ticket, Phone, Chat, Knowledge Base, Community Forum | Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base, Phone (Premium add-on), Slack (Premium add-on) |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | Paid support plans | 24/7/365 |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | 24/7 with paid support | Premium Support add-on only |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian | English |
| Knowledge Base Quality | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Avg Support Wait | — | 2 min |
| Email Accounts | ||
| Email Account Limit | 0 | — |
| Mailbox Size | — | — |
| Webmail Access | ||
| Spam Filter | ||
| Email Forwarding | ||
| Performance | ||
| CDN Included | ||
| CDN Provider | Azure CDN (additional cost) | Cloudflare Enterprise CDN |
| Server Locations | East US, East US 2, West US, West US 2, West US 3, Central US, South Central US, North Central US, West Central US, Canada Central, Canada East, Brazil South, UK South, UK West, France Central, France South, Germany West Central, Germany North, Switzerland North, Switzerland West, Norway East, Norway West, Sweden Central, North Europe, West Europe, Poland Central, Italy North, Spain Central, UAE North, UAE Central, South Africa North, South Africa West, Qatar Central, Israel Central, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Japan East, Japan West, Korea Central, Korea South, Central India, South India, West India, Australia East, Australia Southeast, Australia Central, Australia Central 2, China North, China East | US (Multiple), Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil |
| Server Location Count | 60 | 65 |
| Choose Server Location | ||
| HTTP/2 Support | ||
| Brotli Compression | ||
| Uptime SLA Credit | ||
| Platform Support | ||
| Drupal Support | ||
| Joomla Support | ||
| Magento Support | ||
| Laravel Support | ||
| Django Support | ||
| Next.js Support | ||
| Rails Support | ||
| Static Site Support | ||
| Control Panel | ||
| cPanel Included | ||
| Control Panel | Azure Portal | Cloudways Platform |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 0 | 1 |
| Migration Turnaround | — | 2 days |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | — |
| Migration Quality | — | 5.0/10 |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 1, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 27701, PCI DSS, HIPAA, HITRUST, FedRAMP, FISMA, NIST 800-53, CJIS | SOC 2, ISO 27001 |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.0/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Performance Rating | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| Support Quality | 2.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 5.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Features Rating | 5.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 2.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 2.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 1.0/10 | 3.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 4.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 4.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 1.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Pay per GB egress; rates vary by region | Pay-as-you-go; bandwidth included varies by plan (1TB base); overage charged at provider rates |
| Storage Overage | Pay for storage used | Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2010 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | United States | Malta |
| Parent Company | Microsoft Corporation | DigitalOcean (acquired September 2022 for $350M) |
| Green Hosting | — | |
| Instant Activation | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Managed WP Available | ||
| Pricing Model | — | — |
| Monthly Visit Limit | — | — |
| Visit Overage Cost | — | — |
| PHP Workers | — | — |
| Plugin Restrictions | — | — |
| Dev Environment | — | — |
| Dev Env Name | — | — |
| Regional Info | ||
| Best Countries | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, Singapore, India, Brazil, Canada, France | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Australia |
| Local Currencies | USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, AUD, SGD, INR, BRL, CAD | USD, EUR, GBP |
| Support Languages | English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian | English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001 | GDPR, SOC 2 |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.4/5 | 4.7/5 |
| BBB Rating | NR | N/A (Malta-based, no US BBB listing) |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | Azure SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, MariaDB | MySQL/MariaDB |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | — |
| PHP Switching | — | |
| Subdomains | — | Unlimited |
| FTP Accounts | — | Unlimited |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | Pay-as-you-go; $200 free credit for 30 days; 12 months of free services | No money-back guarantee; pay-as-you-go model means you only pay for resources used; unused prepaid funds can be refunded within 3 months of adding funds |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, Invoice, Enterprise Agreement | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Azure App Service Managed Certificates | Let's Encrypt |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | Global | United States |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | — | Redis/Memcached |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Partner program | Recurring |
| Commission Amount | Microsoft Partner Network; varies by tier | Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | — | — |
| Account Suspension Policy | Violation of ToS; non-payment; abuse | Account suspended for TOS violations; servers still billed until deleted; fraud prevention enforcement active |
| Malware Removal Cost | — | $0.00 |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | Enterprises with Microsoft ecosystem (.NET, Windows Server, Active Directory); Hybrid cloud deployments; Organizations needing 60+ regions; Government/regulated industries (FedRAMP, HIPAA); Developers familiar with Visual Studio/Azure DevOps | Developers and agencies needing managed cloud hosting; WordPress/WooCommerce sites needing scalable performance; Users wanting flexibility across AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode; Teams needing staging environments and Git deployment; Growing businesses that need to scale quickly; Users who want cloud power without server management |
| Avoid If | Beginner wanting simple hosting; Need predictable pricing; Small projects without cloud expertise; Not using Microsoft stack; Need included support | Need email hosting included; Want traditional shared hosting pricing; Prefer cPanel; Need domain registration; Budget-conscious with predictable monthly costs; New to web hosting (steeper learning curve) |
| Known Issues | Poor Trustpilot rating (2.0) due to billing complaints and unexpected fees; Complex pricing leads to bill shock; Support requires paid plan; Steep learning curve; Non-functional tooling complaints; Credit card removal issues reported; Used by 95% of Fortune 500 but challenging for small users | Email hosting not included (requires third-party add-on at extra cost); No domain registration; Backup storage charged separately at $0.033/GB; DNS hosting is paid add-on; Premium Support with phone/Slack costs extra; Pay-as-you-go billing can be confusing; Charged in arrears for previous month; Some users report billing issues and being charged after cancellation; No cPanel (proprietary panel); Post-DigitalOcean acquisition some users report declining support quality |
| Unique Selling Point | Best Microsoft ecosystem integration with 60+ global regions and leading hybrid cloud capabilities via Azure Arc | Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility |
| Ideal Customer | Enterprise using Microsoft technologies (.NET, Windows Server, SQL Server) needing hybrid cloud and extensive compliance certifications | Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity |
| Best Alternative To | Amazon Web Services | WP Engine |
| Primary Competitors | Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud | Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel |
We strive for accuracy, but pricing and features change frequently. Some data may be outdated. Report an error and we'll update it promptly.
Our Verdict
Choose Microsoft Azure if you...
- Need enterprise-grade features
Choose Cloudways if you...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
- Need WordPress-optimized hosting
- Need staging environments
- Are new to web hosting
- Want more server locations (65 available)