BigScoots vs Cloudways (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cloudways grades higher than BigScoots: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 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.
BigScoots
Managed WordPress hosting priced by monthly visitors
Cloudways
Managed cloud hosting on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google
Which one is for you
Pick BigScoots if
- Fits if you run a WordPress site and want the host to handle migrations and upkeep
- Works for sites with steady traffic that fits a visitor tier
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you run one small site, at $29.17 a month for 1 site
- Tight if your traffic grows, because plans are capped by monthly visitors
- Skip it if you want to try first, as there is no free plan or trial listed
- Watch out: Essential 75 uses a CDN, and Boost starts at Essential 125
- Watch out: monthly billing is higher on every plan, with annual shown as two months free
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
| 1.6GPABigScootsWeak | 2.2GPACloudwaysFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CEssential 75 is $29.17 a month billed annually for 1 site and 75k visitors, above the $20.83 dearer-quarter line for web hosting. Two sites and 200k visitors is $70.83. | 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 | FNothing is free: no free plan and no trial are listed. | 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 | CManaged WordPress with free migrations, staging, backups, SSL, monitoring and email. Boost by BigScoots starts at Essential 125, and shared, VPS and dedicated are separate products. | 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 managed host handles servers, but you still migrate and connect a site. | 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 and WordPress only, with a Cloudflare-powered CDN and no integrations list. | 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 | managed WordPress hosting sized by monthly visitors | 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: BigScoots and Cloudways. How we grade
Price against what you get
BigScoots starts at $29.17 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 $18.17 a month lower. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 54 score higher than BigScoots 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
- BigScoots also covers managed WordPress and page speed.
- Cloudways also covers malware protection.
At a glance
| BigScoots | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free trial |
| Starts at | $29.17 per month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly) | $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 | BigScoots | Cloudways, LLC |
| Price read from | bigscoots.com | cloudways.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
BigScoots
- Plans are capped by monthly visitors, so traffic growth can push a site into a pricier tier.
- Essential 75 uses a CDN rather than Boost; Boost by BigScoots starts with Essential 125.
- Annual billing is shown as two months free; the monthly price is higher on every plan.
- Shared hosting, VPS and dedicated servers have their own pricing, not covered by these plans.
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
BigScoots
- Free migrations
- The vendor says its team performs zero-downtime site migrations at no charge on every managed WordPress plan.
- Boost by BigScoots
- A performance and edge delivery layer built on a custom Cloudflare Enterprise setup, included from the Essential 125 plan upward.
- Staging, backups and SSL
- One-click staging, automatic and manual backups with retention, and an SSL certificate for each site.
- Monitoring and security
- Sites are checked every 60 seconds, with a DDoS and web application firewall service and an uptime SLA.
- Email included
- Unlimited email accounts with 10 GB of storage appear in the plan comparison.
- Other hosting types
- Cloud VPS, dedicated servers, shared hosting and optimization, security and website maintenance services are sold separately.
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
BigScoots
Essential 75$29.17
per month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly)
1 WordPress site, 75k monthly visitors, 10 GB storage, 150 GB bandwidth and a Cloudflare-powered CDN.
Essential 125$50
per month, billed annually ($60 billed monthly)
1 site, 125k monthly visitors, 15 GB storage, 500 GB bandwidth, with 1 Boost by BigScoots license.
Essential 200$70.83
per month, billed annually ($85 billed monthly)
2 sites, 200k monthly visitors, 30 GB storage, 750 GB bandwidth, with 1 Boost license.
Core 500$166.67
per month, billed annually ($200 billed monthly)
5 sites, 500k monthly visitors, 100 GB storage, 1.5 TB bandwidth and 2 Boost licenses.
Core 1000$291.67
per month, billed annually ($350 billed monthly)
10 sites, 1M monthly visitors, 150 GB storage, 2 TB bandwidth and 5 Boost licenses.
EnterpriseCustom
Unlimited sites and millions of visitors, quoted through a consultation. Essential 300 ($100 a month annually) also exists.
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
BigScoots
- Annual discount
Two months free on annual billing
The pricing page shows annual plans at a lower monthly rate, for example $350 a year for Essential 75 versus $35 a month.
Cloudways
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, BigScoots or Cloudways?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cloudways is cheaper to start with: $11 a month, against $29.17 a month for BigScoots. BigScoots starts at $29.17 per month, billed annually ($35 billed monthly), and Cloudways starts at $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly.
Which has a free plan, BigScoots or Cloudways?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither BigScoots 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.