Best for: Cloudways for growing WordPress, agency, and WooCommerce projects that need clean scaling and predictable infrastructure choices.
Avoid if: You want the simplest possible setup with minimal server decisions on day one.
Biggest tradeoff: Bluehost is easier to start, but Cloudways gives you more control and fewer renewal surprises.
Scope first: I’m comparing product pages and help docs checked on February 16, 2026, not running a controlled load test in this piece. So this is a buying decision guide, not a benchmark lab report.
First Impressions
When I first opened Cloudways, the onboarding immediately felt infrastructure-first. You pick a cloud provider (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud), then server type, then size. The entry DigitalOcean plan shown was $11/month with 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50GB storage, and 2TB bandwidth, plus hourly billing shown as $0.0357. That tells you right away this is not “set and forget beginner hosting.” It is managed, but still technical enough to reward people who like control.
Bluehost felt opposite in tone: fast path to launch, fewer decisions up front, and strong beginner framing. The shared hosting page emphasized 10, 50, or 100 websites, plus “ideal for 40K / 200K / 400K visits per month” depending on tier, and a 30-day money-back guarantee with 99.99% uptime SLA language. Good for momentum, especially if your main goal is getting one site live this week.
The catch showed up early, though. Bluehost’s public sales page snapshot displayed promo prices like $3.00/month with “Renews at $x.xx/mo” placeholders in the crawl, while Cloudways showed concrete monthly and hourly rates directly in the pricing configurator. That matters because pricing clarity is part of product quality, not just billing detail.
What Worked
Cloudways and Bluehost both do useful things well, but they succeed for different users.
| Area | Cloudways | Bluehost | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting resources | $11/mo plan shows 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50GB, 2TB transfer | Starter tier shows 10GB NVMe, “ideal for 40K visits/mo” | Cloudways starts stronger on raw server resources; Bluehost starts simpler with traffic guidance. |
| Control model | Choose provider + server family + size | Pick packaged tier (Starter/Business/eCommerce) | Cloudways is better if you want tuning flexibility; Bluehost is better if you want fewer decisions. |
| App/site limits | “Unlimited websites” and “Unlimited visits” (server capacity applies) | 10/50/100 website limits by plan | Agencies and multi-site builders get more structural freedom on Cloudways. |
| Support availability | 24/7/365 chat + ticket support listed | 24/7 chat; phone support varies by plan | Both are always-on, but Bluehost phone access can depend on tier. |
| Developer tooling | 1-click app launch, staging references, multiple PHP versions | SSH, WP-CLI, and staging listed on shared hosting features | Both are workable for developers; Cloudways has deeper server-level choices. |
The biggest Cloudways strength is scaling flexibility. Cloudways documentation and changelog updates describe vertical scaling improvements and provider-specific scaling behavior, with options to scale resources based on provider constraints. If you run campaigns or seasonal sales, that flexibility is operational insurance.
Bluehost’s practical win is guided packaging. The “ideal visits per month” numbers are blunt but useful. For less technical teams, mapping a site to 40K versus 200K monthly visits is easier than choosing VM classes and storage behavior.
One dry truth: easy onboarding and infrastructure control rarely live in the same product surface. These two platforms prove it.
What Didn’t
Both services have friction, and you should price that friction before you buy.
| Pain Point | Cloudways | Bluehost | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner learning curve | You still make infra choices (provider, size, scaling path) | Simpler launch flow | First-time users can mis-size Cloudways environments without guidance. |
| Add-on economics | Offsite backups billed at $0.033/GB/server; premium support add-ons exist | Many extras marketed around core hosting plans | Your “real monthly” can drift upward on both, just through different mechanisms. |
| Pricing transparency on sales pages | Core monthly/hourly pricing is clear | Promo display and renewal placeholders can be inconsistent on public pages | You may need help docs/account center to confirm true long-term Bluehost cost. |
| Scale behavior | Some scaling/downscaling limits vary by cloud provider rules | Tier jumps are simpler but less granular | Cloudways gives precision, but you must understand provider-specific constraints. |
Cloudways’ weakness is not performance, it is decision density. If you are not comfortable with cloud vocabulary, setup feels like work.
Bluehost’s weakness is long-term pricing confidence from the marketing layer alone. You can find renewal tables in help documentation, but buyers should not have to triangulate basic total cost from multiple pages.
Pricing Reality Check
Here is the practical 2026 math from official pages checked on February 16, 2026.
Cloudways (Flexible, DigitalOcean example):
- Public entry plan shown: $11/month (also $0.0357 hourly), with 2GB RAM / 1 vCPU / 50GB / 2TB.
- Offsite backup pricing shown: $0.033/GB per server.
- Upside: pay-as-you-go structure and visible infrastructure mapping.
- Downside: optional costs can stack (backups, support tiers, CDN choices, etc.).
Bluehost (shared/WordPress renewal docs + web-hosting page):
- Shared renewal examples in help docs: Starter $15.99 monthly renewal, Business $20.99, eCommerce Essentials $32.99 (monthly renewal column).
- 36-month renewal equivalents listed lower (e.g., Starter $9.99/mo on 36-month renewal), but still materially above typical promo first-term rates.
- Public web-hosting page snapshot showed low promo entry displays (for long terms), but renewal visibility on that page was inconsistent in the crawl.
- Upside: aggressive first-term entry pricing can be budget-friendly.
- Downside: renewal delta can be steep if you plan beyond year one.
Pricing implication in plain English: if your horizon is 24-36 months, Cloudways is often easier to forecast. If your horizon is 6-12 months and you want the lowest launch friction, Bluehost can still be the cheaper start.
Pricing sources (checked 2026-02-16):
- Cloudways pricing: https://www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php
- Bluehost web hosting page: https://www.bluehost.com/web-hosting
- Bluehost shared hosting prices/renewals: https://www.bluehost.com/help/article/shared-hosting-prices
- Bluehost renewal FAQ: https://www.bluehost.com/help/article/renewal-price-faq
Who Should Pick Which
-
First-time blogger or solo creator: pick Bluehost.
You get guided onboarding, WordPress-friendly defaults, and clear tier labels by expected traffic (40K/200K/400K monthly visit guidance). -
Freelancer building multiple client sites: pick Cloudways.
Unlimited app/site framing, provider choice, and vertical scaling controls are more useful than beginner hand-holding once you manage several properties. -
WooCommerce store with growth spikes: pick Cloudways unless you want pure simplicity.
Scaling behavior and infrastructure control are stronger for stores where traffic and checkout load can swing hard. -
Non-technical team that never wants server decisions: pick Bluehost.
You trade precision for ease, and that can be the right trade when operational bandwidth is near zero. -
Developer who wants SSH/WP-CLI/staging plus tuning control: pick Cloudways.
Bluehost includes SSH/WP-CLI/staging, but Cloudways offers a deeper platform for ongoing optimization.
Ranked recommendation by user type:
- Most users planning to grow seriously in 2026: Cloudways
- Beginners launching first site fast: Bluehost
- Agencies and technical operators: Cloudways
- Small brochure sites with short budget horizon: Bluehost
Switch trigger: move off Bluehost when renewal hits and your site is consistently pushing the top of your plan’s visit guidance, or when you need finer scaling than tier jumps can provide.