20i vs Cloudways (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cloudways grades higher than 20i: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Cloudways grades higher on value for money, the free plan and platforms. They get the same grade on features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Cloudways
Managed cloud hosting on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google
Which one is for you
Pick 20i if
- Fits if you want a UK host with a monthly plan and no contract
- Makes sense if you resell or run many sites and want plans that scale
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a trial or free tier, as there is none
- Tight if you host more than one site, since Startup and Plan 1 allow one
- Pricey as you grow, because plans jump from £10 to £300 a month
- Watch out: prices are in pounds, and the page does not state refund terms for the £1 month
Pick Cloudways if
- Fits if your site has outgrown shared hosting but you don't want to run a server
- Works for agencies hosting WordPress, Laravel or other PHP apps on servers they control
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want email included, as it's a paid add-on, like the CDN and malware protection
- Skip it if picking a server size sounds like homework, since you choose it yourself
- Tight if you want a proper look before paying, as the free trial lasts 3 days
- Watch out: offsite backup storage is $0.033 per GB per server on top, and prices exclude tax
- Pricey if you want autoscaling, as Autonomous starts at $99 a month for one site
How we grade them
| 1.6GPA20iWeak | 2.2GPACloudwaysFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStartup is £10 a month at renewal, around $13, between the $11 middle and the $19 dearer-quarter line for web hosts. The first month is £1. | BGraded against the managed hosts it's weighed against. A 1 GB DigitalOcean server is $11 a month, billed hourly with no intro price to expire, so two years cost $264. Rocket.net and Kinsta run $25 to $29 a month, though here you size the server yourself. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan or trial. The £1 first month is a discount, not a trial. | DA 3-day free trial with no credit card. Three days is less than a week, too short to judge a host properly, so it lands at D. |
| Features | CAutoscaling, a CDN, backups, malware scanning and free migration. The entry plan hosts one site and 50 GB of bandwidth. | CManaged servers on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud, with SSL, backups, staging, Object Cache Pro, Copilot and free migration. The gaps the listing names: email, the CDN and the malware protection service are paid add-ons. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. A hosting control panel, DNS and site migration are on you. | CNo app store rating to go on. You choose and size the server yourself, which is more decisions than a shared hosting plan asks of you. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with WordPress, WooCommerce and Magento support. | BA web console with no app on record, plus a published API and a choice of five cloud providers, with WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento and Laravel apps on top. |
| Best for | UK-priced web hosting that scales on its own | managed cloud servers without running them yourself |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: 20i and Cloudways. How we grade
Price against what you get
20i starts at about $13.40 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Cloudways starts at $11 a month and scores 2.3.
Cloudways scores higher and starts $2.40 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 23 score higher than 20i for less, and 3 score higher than Cloudways for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- 20i also covers managed WordPress.
At a glance
| 20i | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free trial |
| Starts at | £10 per month at renewal (Startup), after a first month for £1 | $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 3-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | 20i | Cloudways, LLC |
| Price read from | 20i.com | cloudways.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
20i
- Prices are in pounds sterling. The £1 first month applies to the first month only; after that the plan renews at its monthly price.
- Startup and Plan 1 host a single website; the Startup plan has 50 GB of bandwidth.
- Each step up the price ladder is large, from £10 a month to £300 a month at Plan 5.
- The page does not say how a plan is refunded or whether the £1 month can be cancelled before it renews.
Cloudways
- Offsite backup storage is billed at $0.033 per GB per server on top of the server price, and listed prices exclude tax.
- Email hosting, the Cloudflare CDN and the malware protection service are paid add-ons rather than part of the server price.
- You choose and size the server yourself, which takes more decisions than a shared hosting plan.
Key features
20i
- Autoscaling resources
- The platform allocates resources across its whole network instead of one server, and sets PHP workers automatically. The page says there are no inode limits.
- Free CDN and edge pre-cache
- Every plan includes a CDN with global edge pre-caching and no bandwidth throttling on the CDN, according to the plan page.
- Security and backups
- Plans include free SSL certificates, a web application firewall with malware scanning and automatic daily backups.
- Free migrations
- Sites can be migrated on demand, with the vendor stating no downtime. Migrations are listed as free and unlimited.
- Data centres in three regions
- Plans can be placed in UK, US or Asia data centres. 20i's own 24/7 support team answers by ticket or live chat.
- Twentie AI assistant
- An AI assistant is listed among the features of every web hosting plan.
Cloudways
- Choice of cloud provider
- Servers run on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud, and you pick the provider, size and location, then scale up later.
- Managed server essentials
- Cloudways sets up and maintains the server with free SSL, backups, one-click staging and Object Cache Pro, and moves an existing site over for free.
- Copilot AI monitoring
- Cloudways Copilot watches the server's critical components and uses AI to diagnose issues and suggest fixes.
- Security and malware scanning
- Servers get malware scanning and vulnerability alerts, with a fuller malware protection service and a Cloudflare CDN sold as add-ons.
- Cloudways API
- Cloudways publishes an API, linked from every page, for working with the platform from your own scripts and tools.
Plans
20i
Startup£10
per month at renewal, after a first month for £1
1 website, 10 GB storage, 50 GB bandwidth and 10 mailboxes. The first month costs £1; no contract.
Plan 1£20
per month at renewal, after a first month for £1
1 website, 10 GB storage, 100 GB bandwidth, 20 mailboxes and 5 GB of MySQL storage.
Plan 2£40
per month at renewal, after a first month for £1
3 websites, 20 GB storage, 200 GB bandwidth, 50 mailboxes and 15 GB of MySQL storage.
Plan 3£80
per month at renewal, after a first month for £1
10 websites, 40 GB storage, 300 GB bandwidth, 100 mailboxes and 50 GB of MySQL storage.
Plan 4£150
per month at renewal, after a first month for £1
25 websites, 50 GB storage, 500 GB bandwidth, 250 mailboxes and 125 GB of MySQL storage.
Plan 5£300
per month at renewal, after a first month for £1
50 websites, 100 GB storage, 1 TB bandwidth, 500 mailboxes and 250 GB of MySQL storage.
Cloudways
Flexible, 1 GB server$11
per month, billed hourly
DigitalOcean Standard server with 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD and 1 TB bandwidth, for unlimited sites. $0.0164 an hour; Premium with NVMe is $14.
Flexible, 2 GB server$24
per month, billed hourly
DigitalOcean Standard server with 2 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD and 2 TB bandwidth. The Premium version with NVMe storage is $28 a month.
Flexible, 4 GB server$46
per month, billed hourly
DigitalOcean Standard server with 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs and 80 GB SSD, where Object Cache Pro is included. Premium is $54; an 8 GB server is $88.
Autonomous Growth$99
per month
Autoscaling WordPress for one site, with 150 GB bandwidth and 20 GB disk. Extra disk is $1 a GB, bandwidth $0.04 a GB and extra servers $0.07 an hour.
Autonomous Scale$199
per month
One site on two baseline autoscaling servers, with 250 GB bandwidth and 50 GB disk. Plus, with three servers and 1,000 GB, is $399 a month.
Ways to pay less
20i
- Other savings
First month of web hosting for £1
Each web hosting plan is £1 for its first month, then returns to the listed monthly price. The page shows no end date.
Cloudways
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, 20i or Cloudways?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Cloudways is cheaper to start with: $11 a month, against about $13.40 a month for 20i. 20i starts at £10 per month at renewal (Startup), after a first month for £1, and Cloudways starts at $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly.
Which has a free plan, 20i or Cloudways?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither 20i nor Cloudways has a free plan. Cloudways has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.