Cloudways vs Kinsta
We give Cloudways a 2.0 GPA and Kinsta a 2.2, out of 4.0. Kinsta grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
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
Kinsta
Managed WordPress hosting priced by sites, visits or bandwidth
How we grade them
| 2.0GPACloudwaysFair | 2.2GPAKinstaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CNo price on record: Cloudways' pages answered our readers with a bot check, so no two-year figure can be worked out. With nothing to compare, it sits at C, the grade for no stated price. Email, the CDN and malware protection are extra on top. | CGraded against the other managed WordPress hosts, not cheap shared hosting. Launch is $350 a year after a free first month, so two years cost $700, about $29.17 a month, toward the dear end of that group. Each extra site is $30 a month. |
| Free plan and trial | DA 3-day free trial with no credit card, which is nice. But three days is less than a week, too short to judge a host properly, so it lands at D. | DThe first month is free on Launch, Single and WP 2 for new customers, but you sign up to a paid plan to get it, so it works like a trial that needs payment details. After that there's a 30-day money-back guarantee. |
| 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. | BDaily backups, one-click staging, a Cloudflare firewall and CDN, free malware removal, unlimited free migrations, SSO and its own APM tool for slow plugins. Hourly backups and Redis are paid add-ons, but the managed WordPress job is all there. |
| 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. | CNo app store rating to go on. Kinsta's team moves your sites over for free, which helps, but there are plans, limits and add-ons to get your head around. |
| 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. | BA web dashboard with no app on record, plus a REST API for creating sites and clearing cache, and backups to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. |
| Best for | managed cloud servers without running them yourself | managed WordPress with an API and monitoring |
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 Kinsta. How we grade
Where they differ
- Kinsta also covers managed WordPress.
At a glance
| Cloudways | Kinsta | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | Not published | $30 per month for 1 site, billed annually ($35 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 3-day free trial, no credit card required | First month free on Launch, Single and WP 2 plans for new customers, then a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cloudways, LLC | Kinsta Inc. |
| Price read from | Not confirmed | kinsta.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Cloudways
- Sites that have outgrown shared hosting but do not want to run a server
- Agencies hosting many client apps on servers they control
- Developers running Laravel or other PHP apps alongside WordPress
Kinsta
- Business sites that have outgrown shared hosting
- Agencies and teams that need staging, user roles and an API
- WooCommerce shops that want a host managing WordPress for them
Worth knowing
Cloudways
- Cloudways' pages answered our readers with a bot check, so its server prices could not be read and are not listed here.
- 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.
Kinsta
- Plans cap monthly visits, bandwidth and storage; going over keeps the site online but adds overage fees, with alerts at 80% and 100%.
- Each extra site is $30 a month and each extra 20 GB of disk is $20 a month.
- A visit is each unique IP address in a 24-hour period, and visits to all sites on a plan count toward one monthly limit.
- Redis caching, hourly backups, external backups and premium staging are paid add-ons.
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.
Kinsta
- Firewall, CDN and malware removal
- Sites sit behind a Kinsta firewall and Cloudflare with enterprise DDoS protection, are served from a CDN with edge caching, and get malware cleaned up at no charge.
- Daily backups and staging
- Sites are backed up every 24 hours, kept for 14 days on entry plans, and have one-click staging. Hourly backups and premium staging are paid add-ons.
- Kinsta API
- A REST API creates sites, reads site details, clears cache and restarts PHP, so routine work can be scripted.
- Built-in APM tool
- Kinsta's own application monitoring tool traces slow plugins, queries and requests on a site.
- Unlimited migrations and users
- Kinsta's team migrates any number of WordPress sites for free, and you can add unlimited users with their own access levels, with SAML single sign-on.
- 24/7 support in 8 languages
- Support is by chat around the clock, from people rather than a bot.
Plans
Cloudways
Pricing could not be confirmed. See cloudways.com.
Kinsta
Launch$30
per month for 1 site, billed annually ($35 billed monthly)
Resource-based plan with 75,000 visits, 15 GB bandwidth and 15 GB storage a month. First month free.
Single 35k$30
per month for 1 site, billed annually ($35 billed monthly)
Billed by 35,000 visits a month, with 10 GB storage; Single 20GB is the same price billed by bandwidth instead. First month free.
Launch Plus$50
per month for 1 site, billed annually ($59 billed monthly)
125,000 visits, 25 GB bandwidth and 25 GB storage a month for one busier site.
Build$58
per month for 2 sites, billed annually ($69 billed monthly)
200,000 visits, 40 GB bandwidth and 30 GB storage a month shared by two sites.
WP 2$59
per month for 2 sites, billed annually ($70 billed monthly)
Two sites billed by 70,000 visits or 40 GB bandwidth a month, with 20 GB storage. First month free.
Expand$83
per month for 5 sites, billed annually ($99 billed monthly)
350,000 visits, 65 GB bandwidth and 40 GB storage a month across five sites. Larger plans run to Lead at $250 a month for 20 sites.
Ways to pay less
Cloudways
No public discounts listed.
Kinsta
- Annual discount
Two months off with annual billing
Paying yearly costs ten times the monthly price, for example $350 a year for Launch instead of $35 a month.
- Other savings
Up to $10,000 in hosting credits for agencies
Eligible agencies on Agency plans can get up to $10,000 in hosting credits, plus free hosting for the agency's own site.
