Cloudways vs Nexcess
We give Cloudways a 2.0 GPA and Nexcess a 1.6, out of 4.0. Cloudways grades higher on the free plan and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, 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
Free trial
How we grade them
| 2.0GPACloudwaysFair | 1.6GPANexcessWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CNo price on record: every plan is quoted after a talk with its team, so no two-year figure can be worked out. It sits at C, the grade for no stated price. The add-ons are priced: Imunify360 malware scanning is $30 a month, cPanel from $20. |
| 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. | FNo free plan and no trial, and no self-serve plan to try at all. You start with a conversation. |
| 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. | CManaged WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento and Shopware, managed VPS, a compliance-ready setup and full migrations including email and DNS. The gaps the listing names: malware scanning is a $30 add-on, and cPanel and Plesk cost extra. |
| 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. Its team plans the setup with you and does the migration, which helps, but you can't just sign up and start. |
| 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. | CA web service with no app or API on record. The named integrations are the platforms it hosts and its control panels: WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Shopware, cPanel, Plesk and InterWorx. |
| Best for | managed cloud servers without running them yourself | stores that need PCI-ready managed hosting |
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 Nexcess. How we grade
Where they differ
- Nexcess also covers managed WordPress.
In commonWebMalware protection
At a glance
| Cloudways | Nexcess | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Paid |
| Starts at | Not published | Not published |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 3-day free trial, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cloudways, LLC | Nexcess Corp. |
| Price read from | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| 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
Nexcess
- Stores that need PCI-ready hosting for WooCommerce or Magento
- Businesses moving off shared hosting that want a managed VPS
- Teams that prefer to plan hosting with an engineer rather than pick a plan online
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.
Nexcess
- No hosting plan has a published price; WordPress, ecommerce and VPS hosting are quoted after talking with its team.
- cPanel costs $20 a month for 5 accounts, $35 for 30 or $50 for 100, and Plesk is $15 a month on Windows servers.
- Imunify360 malware scanning is a $30-a-month add-on, ThreatDown intrusion monitoring $34 and per-server DDoS mitigation $111.
- Its pages lead with regulated industries such as healthcare and finance, so there is no self-serve plan for a small blog.
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.
Nexcess
- Managed WordPress and WooCommerce
- WordPress and WooCommerce environments come with automatic updates, security hardening and performance tuning, and scale up for traffic spikes.
- Magento and Shopware hosting
- Ecommerce environments for Magento and Shopware are managed at the application layer, with autoscaling and a bundled CDN for Shopware.
- Managed VPS
- Each VPS has its own CPU, RAM and storage, with OS and security patches, DDoS protection, firewalls, a CDN and WAF, and 7-day Acronis backups.
- Control panel choice
- InterWorx is included free on Linux servers; cPanel and Plesk are available for a monthly fee.
- Compliance-ready setup
- The platform is built for PCI-DSS, HIPAA and SOC 2 requirements, and PCI ASV scans and vulnerability scanning can be added.
- Full migrations
- Its team moves files, databases, email and DNS records, including SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and verifies sites before DNS is switched.
Plans
Cloudways
Pricing could not be confirmed. See cloudways.com.
Nexcess
Pricing could not be confirmed. See nexcess.com.
