Cloudways vs Linode (Akamai): Complete 2026 Comparison
In-depth comparison of these two hosting providers across pricing, performance, features, and support.
Result
It's a Tie!
- Both hosts are evenly matched
- Choose based on your specific needs
Category Winners
Best Price
Linode (Akamai)
$5.00/mo vs $Infinity/mo
Best Value
Tie
Similar renewal pricing
Best Performance
Cloudways
99.99% uptime, 4.2/5 rating
Best Support
Linode (Akamai)
Live chat, Phone, 24/7
Best for WordPress
Cloudways
Optimized, Staging, WooCommerce
Best for Developers
Cloudways
SSH, Git, Staging, Node.js
Best for Beginners
Linode (Akamai)
Higher ease of use score (6.0/10)
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Essential Info | ||
| Hosting Type | VPS Hosting | Cloud Infrastructure |
| Monthly Price | — | $5.00/mo |
| Renewal Price | — | $5.00 |
| Renewal Markup | 0% | 0% |
| Overall Rating | 4.2/5 | 4.0/5 |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Trustpilot Rating | 4.6/5 | 2.0/5 |
| Trustpilot Reviews | 3,600 | 202 |
| Free SSL | ||
| Free Domain | ||
| Free Migration | ||
| Pricing Details | ||
| First Year Cost | $168.00 | $60.00 |
| Second Year Cost | $168.00 | $60.00 |
| Money Back Guarantee | 0 days | 7 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 | Akamai-powered DDoS protection included on all plans |
| Malware Scanning | ||
| Malware Removal | ||
| Firewall Included | ||
| Backup Frequency | Hourly to Daily (configurable: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, daily) | Daily automatic (paid add-on) |
| 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) | Phone, Ticket, Live Chat, Email, Knowledge Base, Community Forum, IRC |
| Live Chat | ||
| Live Chat Hours | 24/7/365 | 24/7 |
| Phone Support | ||
| Phone Support Hours | Premium Support add-on only | 24/7 (US: 855-454-6633, Global: +1-609-380-7100) |
| 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 | Akamai CDN (integration available, paid) |
| Server Locations | US (Multiple), Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil | Newark (US), Atlanta (US), Dallas (US), Fremont (US), Los Angeles (US), Chicago (US), Seattle (US), Miami (US), Washington DC (US), Toronto (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Paris (France), Milan (Italy), Stockholm (Sweden), Tokyo (Japan), Osaka (Japan), Singapore, Mumbai (India), Chennai (India), Sydney (Australia), Jakarta (Indonesia) |
| Server Location Count | 65 | 25 |
| 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 | Linode Cloud Manager |
| 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 | 3.5/10 |
| Performance Rating | 5.0/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Support Quality | 4.5/10 | 3.5/10 |
| Security Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.5/10 |
| Features Rating | 4.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Ease of Use | 3.5/10 | 4.0/10 |
| Transparency Rating | 4.0/10 | 4.0/10 |
| 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 | Transfer pooled across all Linodes (1TB-20TB depending on plan); $0.005/GB additional egress |
| Storage Overage | Pay-as-you-go; can upgrade server size or add block storage | Pay for additional Block Storage volumes |
| Adult Content Allowed | ||
| Gambling Sites Allowed | ||
| Crypto Sites Allowed | ||
| Reseller Hosting | ||
| White Label | ||
| API Access | ||
| Company Info | ||
| Year Founded | 2011 | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Malta | United States |
| Parent Company | DigitalOcean (acquired September 2022 for $350M) | Akamai Technologies (acquired for $900M in March 2022; Akamai trades as NASDAQ: AKAM) |
| 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, Japan, Singapore, India, Australia, Brazil |
| 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) | NR (Not Rated) |
| 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 | 7-day unconditional refund guarantee for compute services; Hourly billing allows pay-as-you-go; Can cancel anytime |
| Payment Methods | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal | Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Google Pay |
| Auto Renewal Default | ||
| Domain Privacy Included | — | — |
| Domain Privacy Cost | — | — |
| SSL Provider | Let's Encrypt | Self-managed (Let's Encrypt recommended) or NodeBalancer SSL termination |
| Dedicated IP Cost | — | — |
| Additional Support | ||
| Phone Support Countries | United States | United States |
| Priority Support Cost | — | — |
| Community Forum | ||
| Support Outsourced | ||
| Object Cache Type | Redis/Memcached | — |
| Business & Affiliate | ||
| Affiliate Program | ||
| Commission Type | Recurring | Fixed per acquisition |
| Commission Amount | Up to $125 per referral or lifetime 7% recurring; 90-day cookie | $100 per new customer who stays active 90+ days; 90-day cookie; Referral program: $25 credit when referee spends $25 |
| 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; 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 wanting reliable infrastructure with phone support; Teams needing Akamai edge network integration; Users valuing predictable flat-rate pricing; Kubernetes users (LKE); Users needing 24/7 phone support (rare for cloud providers); Long-term Linux users comfortable with unmanaged hosting |
| 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 included cPanel; Beginner requiring hand-holding; Need included email hosting; Budget-sensitive (prices increased post-acquisition); Concerned about recent support quality decline; Need extensive global coverage (fewer locations than competitors) |
| 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 | Low Trustpilot rating (2.0/5) with many complaints about account verification/cancellation; Price increases post-Akamai acquisition; Some report worse support quality after acquisition; Aggressive fraud detection leads to false positives; No managed WordPress; Limited compared to hyperscalers for enterprise features; Some legacy features deprecated |
| Unique Selling Point | Managed cloud hosting across 5 providers (AWS, GCP, DO, Vultr, Linode) with pay-as-you-go flexibility | Only major cloud provider with 24/7 phone support, backed by Akamai's global edge network and DDoS protection |
| Ideal Customer | Developer or agency wanting managed cloud power without server administration complexity | Developer or business wanting reliable cloud infrastructure with phone support and enterprise-grade DDoS protection |
| Best Alternative To | WP Engine | DigitalOcean |
| Primary Competitors | Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel | DigitalOcean, Vultr, 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...
- Want higher-rated hosting (4.2/5)
- Need WordPress-optimized hosting
- Need staging environments
- Want more server locations (65 available)
- Need free website migration
Choose Linode (Akamai) if you...
- Require 24/7 live chat support