Cloudways vs DigitalOcean: Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Overall Winner
Cloudways
- Wins in 3 of 7 categories
- Top in: Best Support, Best for WordPress, Best for Developers
- 4.2/5 overall rating
Category Winners
Best Price
DigitalOcean
$4.00/mo vs $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Tie
Similar performance metrics
Best Support
Cloudways
Live chat, Phone
Best for WordPress
Cloudways
Optimized, Staging, WooCommerce
Best for Developers
Cloudways
SSH, Git, Staging, Node.js
Best for Beginners
DigitalOcean
Higher ease of use score (6.5/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | VPS Hosting | Cloud Infrastructure |
| Monthly Price | — | $4.00/mo |
| Renewal Price | — | $4.00 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.2/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 3,600 | 2,140 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $168.00 | $48.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $168.00 | $48.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 0 days |
| Setup Fee | Free | Free |
| Monthly Billing | ||
| Minimum Contract | — | 0 months |
| Technical Specs | ||
| Storage | 25 GB | 25 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD/NVME |
| Bandwidth | 1000 GB | 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 | Bot Protection and Firewall via Cloudflare | Standard DDoS protection included on all Droplets |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily) | Weekly (20% extra) or Daily (30% extra) or Usage-based |
| Backup Retention | 14 days | 7 days |
| Backup Restore Fee | Free | Free |
| On-Demand Backup | ||
| Two-Factor Auth | ||
| Wildcard SSL | ||
| Dedicated IP | ||
| Support | ||
| Support Channels | Live Chat, Ticket, Knowledge Base, Phone (Premium add-on), Slack (Premium add-on) | Ticket, Live Chat (paid plans), Knowledge Base, Community Forum, Tutorials |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7/365 | 24/7 (Standard $99/mo and Premium $999/mo plans) |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | Premium Support add-on only | — |
| Ticket Support | ||
| Priority Support | ||
| Support Languages | English | 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 | Cloudflare Enterprise CDN | DigitalOcean CDN (additional product, paid) |
| Server Locations | US (Multiple), Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil | New York (NYC1, NYC2, NYC3), San Francisco (SFO2, SFO3), Toronto (TOR1), Amsterdam (AMS3), Frankfurt (FRA1), London (LON1), Bangalore (BLR1), Singapore (SGP1), Sydney (SYD1), Atlanta (ATL1) |
| Server Location Count | 65 | 15 |
| 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 | Cloudways Platform | DigitalOcean Control Panel |
| Softaculous | ||
| Website Builder | ||
| Builder Name | — | — |
| Migration | ||
| Migration Websites Limit | 1 | 0 |
| Migration Turnaround | 2 days | — |
| Paid Migration Cost | — | — |
| Migration Quality | 5.0/10 | — |
| Compliance | ||
| GDPR Compliant | ||
| PCI Compliant | ||
| HIPAA Compliant | ||
| Data Center Certs | SOC 2, ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS |
| Ratings | ||
| Value for Money | 3.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Performance Rating | 5.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Support Quality | 4.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 3.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Suitability Scores | ||
| For Bloggers | 3.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For E-commerce | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Agencies | 5.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| For Developers | 5.0/10 | 5.0/10 |
| For Beginners | 2.0/10 | 2.0/10 |
| For Enterprise | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Policies | ||
| Bandwidth Overage | Pay-as-you-go; bandwidth included varies by plan (1TB base); overage charged at provider rates | Outbound transfer included per plan (500GiB-11TB); $0.01/GiB overage; Inbound always free |
| Storage Overage | Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage | Pay for additional Block Storage at $0.10/GiB/month |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2011 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Malta | United States |
| Parent Company | DigitalOcean (acquired September 2022 for $350M) | Independent (publicly traded NYSE: DOCN since March 2021; major investors include Access Industries, BlackRock, Vanguard) |
| 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, Singapore, Australia | United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Canada, Australia |
| Local Currencies | USD, EUR, GBP | USD |
| Support Languages | English | English |
| Data Sovereignty | GDPR, SOC 2 | GDPR, SOC 2, PCI-DSS |
| External Ratings | ||
| G2 Rating | 4.7/5 | 4.6/5 |
| BBB Rating | N/A (Malta-based, no US BBB listing) | D- |
| Advanced Technical | ||
| Inode Limit | — | — |
| Max DB Size | — | — |
| Max Upload Size | — | — |
| Database Type | MySQL/MariaDB | MySQL/PostgreSQL (managed available) |
| Elasticsearch | ||
| Image Optimization | — | — |
| PHP Switching | — | |
| Subdomains | Unlimited | — |
| FTP Accounts | Unlimited | — |
| Additional Pricing | ||
| Free Domain Duration | — | — |
| Money Back Exclusions | 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 | No money-back guarantee; Pay-as-you-go with per-second billing (60-second minimum); Can destroy resources anytime; Unused credits remain in account |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Let's Encrypt | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or Load Balancer SSL |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | $4/mo |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | — |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | Redis/Memcached | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring | Recurring percentage |
| Commission Amount | Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie | 10% recurring commission for 12 months per referred customer; 30-day cookie; No minimum payout; Via Impact Radius |
| Additional Policies | ||
| File Hosting Allowed | ||
| Proxy/VPN Allowed | ||
| Bandwidth Overage Cost | — | $0.01 |
| Account Suspension Policy | Account suspended for TOS violations; servers still billed until deleted; fraud prevention enforcement active | Violation of ToS; fraud detection; non-payment after grace period; abuse reports |
| Malware Removal Cost | $0.00 | — |
| Downloadable Backups | ||
| Additional Platforms | ||
| PrestaShop | ||
| Ghost | ||
| Shopify Migration | ||
| Wix Migration | ||
| Squarespace Migration | ||
| Webflow Export | ||
| Editorial Info | ||
| Best For | 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 | Developers and startups wanting reliable cloud infrastructure; Teams valuing excellent documentation and tutorials; App Platform users wanting PaaS simplicity; Kubernetes users; Companies needing PCI compliance; Users wanting predictable transparent pricing; API-first automation workflows |
| Avoid If | 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) | Need managed WordPress hosting; Want phone support; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included email hosting; Want cPanel included; Budget-constrained (free support limited); Need many global locations (only 15 vs Vultr's 32) |
| Known Issues | 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 | No phone support; Free support tier limited (24hr+ response); No managed WordPress; Billing issues reported causing resource deletion without warning; Backups and support plans add significant cost; No cPanel/Plesk included; GPU droplets require commitments; Some report occasional hardware failures; Limited data center count (15) vs some competitors |
| Unique Selling Point | Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility | Best-in-class documentation and tutorials with App Platform PaaS and developer-first approach |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity | Developer or startup wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with excellent documentation and transparent pricing |
| Best Alternative To | WP Engine | AWS Lightsail |
| Primary Competitors | Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel | Vultr, Linode, AWS Lightsail |
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 Cloudways if you...
- Need phone support
- Need WordPress-optimized hosting
- Need staging environments
- Want more server locations (65 available)
- Need free website migration
Choose DigitalOcean if you...
- Prefer DigitalOcean's approach to hosting