Cloudways Pricing: Plans & Cost Calculator 2026
Cloudways runs from $11/mo for a managed cloud server, scaling by the provider and size you pick, plus a separate WordPress autoscaling line (Autonomous) up to $342/mo.
Cloudways plans and pricing
Billing surface
Pick a plan, set your seat count and switch billing to see the running total. The full breakdown lives in the calculator below.
DigitalOcean Standard 1GB
This entry-level plan is ideal for small websites or testing environments, offering a cost-effective start on DigitalOcean.
Autonomous Small
Personal sites and simple blogs on autoscaling WordPress
Vultr Standard 1GB
An affordable Vultr option for basic hosting needs, offering a balance of performance and cost for smaller projects.
Linode 1GB
A solid choice for those preferring Linode, providing reliable hosting for small to medium-sized websites at a competitive price.
Vultr High-Frequency 1GB
Recommended for users prioritizing CPU performance, this Vultr plan offers better speed for slightly higher cost than standard.
AWS Small
Growing businesses + moderate traffic
Google Cloud Small
Growing businesses + moderate traffic
Autonomous Medium
Demanding sites with higher traffic
Autonomous 8XL
eCommerce and resource-intensive WordPress
Autonomous Enterprise
Large-scale WordPress deployments
Cloudways pricing: the quick answer
Cloudways is per-server managed hosting with no free plan, priced by the cloud you pick as of July 16, 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. There is also a separate autoscaling WordPress line, Cloudways Autonomous, priced by resource size from $11/mo for Small up to $342/mo for 8XL. Offsite backup storage is the line that surprises people, at $0.033 per GB per server on top.
- DigitalOcean Standard 1GB$11/mo
- Autonomous Small$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
- All 12 plans below
At $11/mo to start, Cloudways sits 8% below the $11.99/mo median across 19 cloud hosting tools we track.
Cloudways cost calculator
Cloudways Hidden Costs & Pitfalls
Server size is the visible price. Offsite backup storage and a managed CDN add-on both bill on top of it, and the WordPress autoscaling line, Cloudways Autonomous, is priced separately from the per-cloud servers.
Cloudways pricing, read against its live plans and category
Positioning
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.
Cost drivers
- 1Management Markup: A raw VPS costing $6 to $8/mo is marked up to $14 to $16/mo once the Cloudways management layer is added.
- 2Scaling Premiums: Upgrading server resources scales the management fee proportionally, making vertical scaling highly expensive.
- 3Hourly Billing Traps: Users report being billed for hundreds of hours in a month even after deleting a server within the first hour of creation.
Watch-outs
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.
Strengths
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)
What users say
“A $6-$8 VPS can easily become $14-$16+ on Cloudways once the management layer is added.”
“Cloudways pricing is actually super competitive compared to popular providers like Bluehost”
Editor’s take
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.
Oleh KemFounder & Lead AnalystCloudways price history
Cheaper Cloud Hosting tools
Frequently asked questions
Sources & verification
| Source | What was checked | Last checked |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudways Autonomous pricing | Prices for the Autonomous autoscaling WordPress tiers (Small $11, Medium $88, up to 8XL $342) come from this page, which the main pricing table leaves out. | July 16, 2026 |
| Official Pricing Page | Source of verified tiers | July 16, 2026 |
| Official Website | Official vendor website | — |
| G2 | G2 verified user reviews · 4.5/5 · 1,127 reviews | — |
| Capterra | Capterra verified user reviews · 4.7/5 | — |
| TrustRadius | TrustRadius verified reviews | — |
| PeerSpot | PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews | — |
| StackShare | StackShare developer community | — |
Every fact on this Cloudways pricing page is tied to a named source and a verification date. Freshness-sensitive figures trace to the sources above; verify against the vendor before relying on them.
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