Cloudways Pricing: Plans & Features 2026
Unlike typical fixed-rate hosts, Cloudways charges $11/mo to $50/mo based on your chosen cloud provider, averaging 40% above standard market rates.
Cloudways plans and pricing
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
Cloudways pricing: the quick answer
Cloudways is per-server managed hosting with no free plan, priced by the cloud you pick as of July 4, 2026. On DigitalOcean it starts at $11 a month for a 1 GB server, $22 for 2 GB, and $50 for 4 GB; Vultr and Linode 1 GB run $14, Vultr High Frequency $16, an AWS small instance $20.56, and Google Cloud small $37.33. Billing is monthly pay-as-you-go and team seats are free. Offsite backup storage is the line that surprises people, at $0.033 per GB per server on top.
- DigitalOcean Standard 1GB$11/mo
- Vultr Standard 1GB$14/mo
- Linode 1GB$14/mo
- Vultr High-Frequency 1GB$16/mo
- AWS Small$20.56/mo
- DigitalOcean Premium 2GB$22/mo
- Google Cloud Small$37.33/mo
- DigitalOcean Premium 4GB$50/mo
At $11/mo to start, Cloudways sits 8% below the $11.99/mo median across 20 cloud hosting tools we track.
Cloudways cost calculator
What Cloudways really costs
Server size is the visible price. Backup storage, a CDN add-on, and the platform fee on the WordPress autoscaling product all bill on top of it.
Pricing Expert Take
Independent analysis · Cloudways
Value Analysis
Despite offering no free trial, Cloudways' entry-level DigitalOcean Standard 1GB plan is priced at $11/mo, significantly below competitors like AWS Small at $20.56/mo and Google Cloud Small at $37.33/mo. However, this entry price quickly scales to $22/mo for the DigitalOcean Premium 2GB plan and $50/mo for the 4GB tier. While the platform offers excellent built-in caching and staging environments, users pay a significant premium over raw infrastructure costs for the convenience of a managed control panel.
Hidden Costs
- Management Markup: A raw VPS costing $6 to $8/mo is marked up to $14 to $16/mo once the Cloudways management layer is added.
- Scaling Premiums: Upgrading server resources scales the management fee proportionally, making vertical scaling highly expensive.
- Hourly Billing Traps: Users report being billed for hundreds of hours in a month even after deleting a server within the first hour of creation.
Red Flags
Users express frustration over the steep markup on raw cloud resources and unexpected billing discrepancies after server deletion. Some customers have been charged for hundreds of hours of usage on servers that were active for less than an hour.
"A $6-$8 VPS can easily become $14-$16+ on Cloudways once the management layer is added."
"cloudways charged me for 289 hours on may"
Based on analysis of recent Reddit and G2 discussions.
Green Wins
The DigitalOcean Standard 1GB plan at $11/mo offers choice of 3 top IaaS providers (DO, AWS, GCE).
- 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)
"Users consistently praise the excellent support provided by Cloudways, highlighting the team's responsiveness and"
G2
"The support is excellent, knowledgeable and instantaneous"
Capterra
"r/Cloudways: Welcome to the unofficial Cloudways subreddit"
User review
User Voices
"A $6-$8 VPS can easily become $14-$16+ on Cloudways once the management layer is added."
Reddit (negative)
"Cloudways pricing is actually super competitive compared to popular providers like Bluehost"
Reddit (positive)
"Cloudways is clearly THE BEST for anyone who cannot manage a dedicated server."
Reddit (positive)
Verdict
The DigitalOcean and Vultr entry plans are ideal for developers and agencies who want cloud performance without the headache of command-line server administration. For those who prefer a traditional, fully integrated hosting experience without the management markup, Hostinger offers a highly competitive alternative.
Cloudways price history
Cheaper Cloud Hosting tools
Frequently asked questions
How does Cloudways pricing compare?
See how Cloudways's 8 pricing plans stack up against similar Cloud Hosting tools.
Research Reports
Sources & Data Trail · Cloudways
- 1.Official Pricing Page·Source of verified tiers(Checked: 2026-07-02)
- 2.Official Website·Official vendor website
- 3.G2·G2 verified user reviews · 4.5/5 · 1,127 reviews
- 4.Capterra·Capterra verified user reviews · 4.7/5
- 5.TrustRadius·TrustRadius verified reviews
- 6.PeerSpot·PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews
- 7.StackShare·StackShare developer community