Closte vs Cloudways (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cloudways grades higher than Closte: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Closte grades higher on the free plan. Cloudways grades higher on value for money 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 Closte if
- Fits if you run WordPress sites with uneven traffic
- Works for developers who use WP-CLI and Composer
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a fixed monthly bill, as CPU, memory and CDN traffic are metered
- Not for you if you host anything but WordPress
- Watch out: it does not host mailboxes, so you need a separate email service
- Watch out: a custom CDN hostname costs about $14.50 a month and DNS about $1 a 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
| 2.0GPAClosteFair | 2.2GPACloudwaysFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo base fee is stated: CPU, memory and CDN traffic are metered, so the bill is hard to predict. | 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 | CYou start with no card, and then pay as you go. | 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 | CWordPress on Google Cloud with backups, staging, WP-CLI and free migration, but WordPress only and no mailboxes. | 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, and metered billing needs watching. | 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, built on Google Cloud CDN and LiteSpeed. | 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 | pay-as-you-go WordPress hosting | 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: Closte and Cloudways. How we grade
Where they differ
- Closte also covers managed WordPress and page speed.
At a glance
| Closte | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | Not published | $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | Start free with no credit card; billing then follows metered usage | 3-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Closte LLC | Cloudways, LLC |
| Price read from | closte.com | cloudways.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Closte
- Bills vary with usage: CPU is $0.15 per 1000 HPI, memory $0.003 per 1000 MPI, and CDN traffic is billed per GB by region.
- Closte only sends email for WordPress; it does not host mailboxes, so a separate mail service is needed.
- A custom CDN hostname costs about $14.50 a month and DNS about $1 a month.
- It is built for WordPress only.
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
Closte
- WordPress on Google Cloud
- Sites run on Google's network with Google Cloud CDN, DNS and HTTP/3, and LiteSpeed caching with managed OPcache and object cache.
- Automated backups and security
- Includes automated backups, malware detection, DDoS protection and a web application firewall.
- Staging environments
- Staging sites are full clones with CDN and backups, hidden from crawlers, and you can have several and push between them.
- Developer tools
- SSH and SFTP, Git and Composer, WP-CLI, custom PHP settings, a log viewer and web-based database tools.
- Free migration
- The vendor says migrations are free and handled by an experienced developer, with data centers on five continents.
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
Closte
Pay as you go$0
base fee not stated; billed on metered usage
No fixed plans. Disk is about $0.7 per GB a month, worldwide bandwidth $0.11 per GB and CDN from $0.08 per GB.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Closte or Cloudways?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Closte publishes no starting price, and Cloudways starts at $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly.
Which has a free plan, Closte or Cloudways?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Closte nor Cloudways has a free plan. Both have 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.