Cloudways vs DigitalOcean (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Cloudways and DigitalOcean share a 2.2 GPA, and only DigitalOcean has a free plan.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Cloudways grades higher on ease of use and platforms. DigitalOcean grades higher on the free plan and features. They get the same grade on value for money.
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
DigitalOcean
Cloud servers, app hosting and managed databases for developers
Which one is for you
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
Pick DigitalOcean if
- Fits if you want plain virtual machines with a monthly cap on the price
- Works for teams that want databases and Kubernetes under one bill
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you don't want to patch and secure a server yourself
- Tight if you stay free: 3 static apps and 1GiB of transfer each
- Watch out: a container, worker or job makes a free app paid
- Watch out: most listed prices are starting points, and larger Droplets, databases and GPUs cost more
How we grade them
| 2.2GPACloudwaysFair | 2.2GPADigitalOceanFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | BDroplets from $4 a month, inside the cheaper quarter ($5.28). Managed databases start at $15, Kubernetes at $12 and bandwidth past the allowance is $0.01 per GiB. |
| Free plan and 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. | C3 static-site apps free on App Platform, 1GiB of transfer each. Add a container, worker or job and the app is paid. |
| Features | 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. | BDroplets, App Platform, managed Kubernetes and databases, storage, backups and GPUs from one provider. The listing names no hole in the core job. |
| Ease of use | 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. | DNo store rating on record. Droplets are unmanaged servers: setup, updates and security are yours. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | CWeb only, and the listing shows no integrations. |
| Best for | managed cloud servers without running them yourself | plain cloud servers for developers |
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: Cloudways and DigitalOcean. How we grade
Price against what you get
Cloudways starts at $11 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. DigitalOcean starts at $4 a month and scores 2.0.
Cloudways scores higher, and starts $7 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 3 score higher than Cloudways for less, and 8 score higher than DigitalOcean 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
- Cloudways also covers malware protection.
- DigitalOcean also covers databases.
At a glance
| Cloudways | DigitalOcean | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly | $4 per month (Droplet), billed per second |
| Free plan | None | App Platform: 3 apps made only of static sites, with 1GiB of data transfer per app. |
| Free trial | 3-day free trial, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cloudways, LLC | DigitalOcean |
| Price read from | cloudways.com | digitalocean.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
DigitalOcean
- Free App Platform apps can only use static site components; any container, worker or job makes the app paid.
- Bandwidth beyond a Droplet's included transfer is billed at $0.01 per GiB.
- A Droplet is an unmanaged server: updates and security setup are the buyer's job.
- Many of the listed prices are starting points; larger Droplet, database and GPU sizes cost more.
Key features
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.
DigitalOcean
- Droplets
- Virtual machines in Basic and Premium CPU options, billed per second since January 1, 2026, with a monthly cap on each size.
- App Platform
- A managed way to deploy static sites, web services, workers and jobs, with free static sites for up to three apps.
- Managed Kubernetes and Functions
- Kubernetes starts at $12 a month, and Functions include 90,000 GiB-seconds a month free with no per-invocation charge.
- Storage
- Spaces object storage starts at $5 a month, block storage volumes at $10, and shared file storage is $0.15 per GiB-month.
- Backups and snapshots
- Droplet backups cost 20% of the Droplet price for weekly and 30% for daily, and snapshots are usage-based from $0.01 per GiB a month.
- GPU Droplets and AI models
- GPU Droplets start at $0.76 per GPU-hour on demand, and the platform also lists hosted AI models priced per million tokens.
Plans
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.
DigitalOcean
App Platform static sites$0
per month for up to 3 static-site apps
Free for apps using only static sites, with 1GiB of transfer each. Extra static-only apps are $3 a month.
App Platform containers$5
per month for the entry container plan
Paid apps with web services, workers or jobs run on container plans from $5 a month; other plans include $10, $20 and $25.
Droplets$4
per month, billed per second
Virtual machines, billed per second with a 60-second or $0.01 minimum. Each includes outbound transfer, starting at 500GiB a month.
Managed Databases$15
per month and up
Fully managed databases for PostgreSQL, MySQL and caching, maintained by DigitalOcean.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Cloudways or DigitalOcean?
As of Nov 12, 2026, DigitalOcean is cheaper to start with: $4 a month, against $11 a month for Cloudways. Cloudways starts at $11 per month for a 1 GB DigitalOcean server, billed hourly, and DigitalOcean starts at $4 per month (Droplet), billed per second.
Which has a free plan, Cloudways or DigitalOcean?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only DigitalOcean has a free plan. Cloudways does not, though it 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.