Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Cloudways
- ✦ EC2 Compute
- ✦ S3 Storage
- ✦ Lambda Serverless
- ✦ Managed Hosting
- ✦ 1-Click Install
- ✦ Free SSL
AWS wins for enterprise DevOps engineers needing granular cloud infrastructure via custom pay-as-you-go pricing. Cloudways wins for developers deploying managed WordPress stacks starting at $14/mo.
When to Choose Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Cloudways
The question that matters: “In what situation will I regret choosing A over B after 3 months?”
AWS ECS/EKS deploys new container revisions while health checks verify readiness and API Gateway shifts traffic - all without dropping a single request.
Cloudways' 1-Click Install provisions WordPress with Free SSL pre-enabled and a Staging Environment ready for review - all in under 2 minutes.
S3 stores assets and CloudFront caches them at 600+ edge locations globally, serving a 50MB file to Tokyo in 50ms instead of 2 seconds.
Cloudways' Automated Backups run daily, letting hosting resellers roll back corrupted updates in under 5 minutes with a single restore action.
Pricing Comparison & PlansHigh· Verified May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Plans
Free tier available
AWS Free Tier
FreeBest for: Ideal for new users to explore AWS services without upfront costs
- ✓Access to over 30 always-free services up to specified limits
- ✓$100 USD credits upon sign-up for new customers
- ✓Earn up to an additional $100 USD credits by exploring foundational services
- ✓Free account plan for up to 6 months, no charges until upgrade to paid plan
- ✓Ideal for experimenting and building proof of concepts
Pay-as-you-go (On-Demand)
Contact SalesBest for: Offers maximum flexibility with no long-term commitments
- ✓Pay only for the individual services you need
- ✓No upfront costs or long-term contracts
- ✓Pay for services only for as long as you use them
- ✓Easily adapt to changing business needs without overcommitting budgets
- ✓Billed per hour, per second, per GB, or per request depending on the service
Savings Plans
Contact SalesBest for: Provides significant discounts over On-Demand pricing in exchange for a 1-year or 3-year commitment to a consistent amount of compute usage.
- ✓Save over On-Demand pricing with a commitment to a specific amount ($/hour) of usage
- ✓Discounts up to 72% compared to On-Demand rates
- ✓Includes Compute Savings Plans (up to 66% off, flexible across EC2, Fargate, Lambda)
- ✓Includes EC2 Instance Savings Plans (up to 72% off, specific instance family in a region)
- ✓Includes Database Savings Plans (up to 35% off, covers various database services)
Reserved Instances
Contact SalesBest for: Offers a discount compared to On-Demand pricing by committing to a specific instance configuration for a 1-year or 3-year term.
- ✓Significant discount (up to 75%) compared to On-Demand Instance pricing
- ✓Capacity reservation when used in a specific Availability Zone
- ✓Available for Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS
- ✓Standard RIs offer flexibility to change AZ, instance size, networking type
- ✓Convertible RIs offer flexibility to change instance families, OS, tenancies (up to 66% discount)
Spot Instances
Contact SalesBest for: Leverages unused EC2 capacity for up to 90% savings compared to On-Demand prices
- ✓Access to unused AWS capacity
- ✓Up to 90% discount off On-Demand prices
- ✓Pay-as-you-go model for interruptible workloads
- ✓Ideal for fault-tolerant and interruption-tolerant workloads
- ✓Instances can be reclaimed by AWS with a two-minute warning
Enterprise Discount Program (EDP)
Contact SalesBest for: Designed for large enterprises with substantial AWS spend, offering custom discounts and terms based on negotiated agreements.
- ✓Tailored discount program for enterprise cloud users
- ✓Requires demonstrated history of significant AWS cloud usage (typically $1M+ annually)
- ✓Negotiated discounts on total AWS billing
- ✓Commitment period typically 1-5 years
- ✓Access to benefits like Enterprise Support, dedicated teams, prototyping support, and training credits
Cloudways Plans
Paid plans only
DigitalOcean Standard 1GB
$11/moBest for: This entry-level plan is ideal for small websites or testing environments, offering a cost-effective start on DigitalOcean.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Choice of 5 cloud providers
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
Vultr Standard 1GB
$14/moBest for: An affordable Vultr option for basic hosting needs, offering a balance of performance and cost for smaller projects.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Choice of 5 cloud providers
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
Linode 1GB
$14/moBest for: A solid choice for those preferring Linode, providing reliable hosting for small to medium-sized websites at a competitive price.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Choice of 5 cloud providers
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
Vultr High-Frequency 1GB
$16/moBest for: Recommended for users prioritizing CPU performance, this Vultr plan offers better speed for slightly higher cost than standard.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Choice of 5 cloud providers
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
AWS Small
$21/moBest for: This plan offers entry into AWS managed hosting, suitable for users who need the AWS ecosystem for their smaller applications.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Enterprise-grade infrastructure
- ✓Higher reliability and uptime
- ✓Advanced security features
- ✓Amazon's global infrastructure network
DigitalOcean Premium 2GB
$22/moBest for: A good mid-range option for growing websites needing more resources and improved performance compared to the standard tier.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Choice of 5 cloud providers
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
Google Cloud Small
$37/moBest for: Ideal for users seeking Google Cloud's robust infrastructure and global network for their applications, even at a smaller scale.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Enterprise-grade infrastructure
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
DigitalOcean Premium 4GB
$50/moBest for: Suitable for demanding applications or high-traffic sites, providing substantial resources for robust performance on DigitalOcean.
- ✓Managed cloud platform
- ✓Choice of 5 cloud providers
- ✓Built-in caching tools
- ✓Free SSL certificates
- ✓Staging environment
Capability Breakdown
10 differences found across 18 standardized features
- •EC2 Compute
- •S3 Storage
- •Lambda Serverless
- •RDS Databases
- •CloudFront CDN
- •ECS/EKS Containers
- •API Gateway
- •IAM Security
- •CloudWatch Monitoring
- •Route 53 DNS
- •SageMaker AI/ML
- •VPC Networking
- •Elastic Beanstalk
- •Lightsail
- •200+ Services
- •CloudFormation Templates
- •CodePipeline CI
- •CodeBuild Automation
- •CodeCommit Version
- •CodeArtifact Repos
- •XRay Tracing
- •CloudTrail Logging
- •Config Compliance
- •OpsWorks Management
- •Workspaces Desktop
- •Workdocs Storage
- •Directory Service
- •Cognito Identity
- •Pinpoint Marketing
- •SES Email
- •SQS Messaging
- •SNS Notifications
- •MQ Messaging
- •MSK Streaming
- •Kinesis Analytics
- •Glue ETL
- •Lake Formation
- •OpenSearch Service
- •QuickSight Analytics
- •Rekognition Vision
- •Transcribe Audio
- •Comprehend Text
- •Lex Chatbots
- •Connect Contact
- •Step Functions
- •AppFlow Integration
- •AppSync GraphQL
- •CloudHSM Security
- •Key Management
- •Certificate Manager
- •Shield Protection
- •WAF Firewall
- •Firewall Manager
- •Resource Groups
- •Tag Editor
- •Cost Explorer
- •Budgeting Alerts
- •Trusted Advisor
- •Support Hub
- •Well Architected
- •Control Tower
- •CloudDevelopment Kit
- •AWS Cloud9
- •CodeGuru Review
- •DevOps Guru
- •XRay Insights
- •Performance Hub
- •Managed Hosting
- •1-Click Install
- •Free SSL
- •Free Migration
- •Staging Environment
- •CDN
- •Automated Backups
- •Server Monitoring
- •PHP Apps Support
- •WordPress Optimization
- •Team Collaboration
- •SFTP/SSH Access
- •24/7 Support
- •Git Deployment
- •CloudwaysBot
Strengths & Limitations
Evaluative strengths and weaknesses: not feature lists
- +Unmatched breadth of 200+ fully-featured services
- +Most extensive global cloud infrastructure and availability zones
- +Deepest enterprise adoption and third-party ecosystem support
- +Mature, robust services for compute, storage, and databases
- +Pioneering serverless (Lambda) and managed container services
- −Complex pricing models can lead to unexpected, high costs
- −Steep learning curve due to the sheer number of services
- −Data egress fees are significantly higher than competitors'
- −Inconsistent UI/UX across different service consoles
- −Premium support plans are expensive for smaller teams
- +Choice of 3 top IaaS providers (DO, AWS, GCE)
- +Pay-as-you-go pricing with no long-term contracts
- +Built-in advanced caching (Varnish, Memcached, Redis)
- +Free SSL, migrations, and staging for all applications
- +Vertical scaling allows resizing servers with one click
- −No root access, limiting advanced server configurations
- −Email hosting is not included; requires a separate add-on
- −No domain registration service; must use a third-party registrar
- −Support can be slow unless you purchase a premium support plan
- −No cPanel; uses a proprietary, less familiar control panel
At a Glance
Recent Price History
Amazon Web Services (AWS) removed the "Savings Plans & Reserved Instances" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) added a new "Savings Plans" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) removed the "Pay-as-you-go" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) added a new "Pay-as-you-go (On-Demand)" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) added a new "Spot Instances" plan (Custom pricing)
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Cloudways added a new "DigitalOcean Premium 4GB" plan at $50/mo
Plan added · May 30, 2026
Cloudways lowered "Google Cloud Small" from $37.45/mo to $37.33/mo (0%)
Price change · May 30, 2026
Cloudways lowered "AWS Small" from $38.56/mo to $20.56/mo (-47%)
Price change · May 30, 2026
Cloudways removed the "DigitalOcean 4GB" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Cloudways removed the "DigitalOcean 1GB" plan
Plan removed · May 30, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Comparisons
Sources & Data Trail · Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- 1.Official Pricing Page·Source of verified tiers(Checked: 2026-05-30)
- 2.Official Website·Official vendor website
- 3.G2·G2 verified reviews · 4.5/5 · 80 reviews
- 4.Capterra·Capterra verified reviews · 4.6/5
- 5.TrustRadius·TrustRadius verified reviews
- 6.PeerSpot·PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews
- 7.StackShare·StackShare developer community
Sources & Data Trail · Cloudways
- 1.Official Pricing Page·Source of verified tiers(Checked: 2026-05-30)
- 2.Official Website·Official vendor website
- 3.G2·G2 verified reviews · 4.5/5 · 1,127 reviews
- 4.Capterra·Capterra verified reviews · 4.7/5
- 5.TrustRadius·TrustRadius verified reviews
- 6.PeerSpot·PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews
- 7.StackShare·StackShare developer community