Best for: teams that want managed hosting on cloud infrastructure without hiring extra DevOps help.
Avoid if: you need deep infra control, custom networking patterns, or the absolute lowest compute cost per VM.
Biggest tradeoff: Cloudways is easier and faster to run, but DigitalOcean gives you more control and better raw price efficiency.
Head-to-Head: cloudways vs digitalocean
| Decision factor | Cloudways | DigitalOcean | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price (monthly) | From $11/mo (Flexible, DO-backed plan shown with 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50GB, 2TB) | From $4/mo (Basic Droplet 512MiB, 1 vCPU, 10GB, 500GiB) | If you are price-sensitive and can self-manage Linux, DigitalOcean starts much cheaper. |
| 2GB class pricing | $11/mo (2GB/1vCPU/50GB/2TB shown on Cloudways pricing page) | $12/mo (2GB/1vCPU/50GB/2,000GiB Basic Droplet) | At this size, list prices are close; Cloudways bundles management while DO is DIY. |
| Billing model | Hourly + monthly cap; platform-managed plans | Per-second billing for Droplets (effective Jan 1, 2026) + monthly caps | Short-lived test workloads now favor DO more than before. |
| Included management | Managed stack, backups, staging, app-level workflow tools | Infrastructure primitives (Droplets, networking, storage); management is your job | Cloudways reduces operations overhead; DO expects engineering ownership. |
| Support baseline | 24/7 chat + ticketing on platform | Starter support free; published tiers from $24/mo to $999/mo | DO support is explicit and tiered; Cloudways is simpler for non-enterprise buyers. |
| Published support response times | Not clearly tiered on main pricing pages | Starter <24h, Developer <8h, Standard <2h, Premium <30m | If strict response commitments matter, DO is clearer. |
| Uptime commitment | Cloudways SLA focuses on platform/console availability; infra uptime depends on provider | Droplet SLA: 99.99% monthly uptime commitment | DO gives a direct compute-level SLA; Cloudways adds a management layer on top. |
| Bandwidth overage signals | Off-site backups billed separately at $0.033/GB | Public internet egress overage $0.01/GiB | Hidden cost risk differs: Cloudways backup storage vs DO network overages. |
| Control panel + dev tooling | Custom panel for apps/servers, staging, team roles, managed routines | DO Control Panel + API + CLI + Terraform provider | Developers who automate heavily usually move faster on DO primitives. |
| Vertical scale ceiling (examples shown) | Up to large plans like 128GB/24 vCPU on displayed DO-backed tier | Multiple families up to much larger dedicated profiles | For serious scale, DO’s product surface is broader; Cloudways is narrower but curated. |
Cloudways and DigitalOcean are not direct twins. Cloudways is a managed layer designed to reduce operational work. DigitalOcean is cloud infrastructure with clean ergonomics, but it still expects you to run the stack.
That distinction matters more than almost any feature checklist.
If your team is shipping a WordPress, WooCommerce, or PHP app and wants fewer maintenance tasks, Cloudways usually gets you to production faster. If you are running mixed workloads, custom services, or infrastructure-as-code across environments, DigitalOcean gives you cleaner long-term control.
Pricing Breakdown
Pricing checked on February 17, 2026. Sources:
- Cloudways pricing page: https://www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php
- Cloudways backup pricing note: https://support.cloudways.com/en/articles/5119648-charges-for-off-site-backups
- DigitalOcean Droplet pricing: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets
- DigitalOcean overall pricing/egress note: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing
- DigitalOcean support plans: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/support
Entry and small production tiers
Cloudways Flexible (DO-backed plans shown publicly) starts at $11/mo for 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50GB storage, 2TB transfer.
DigitalOcean Basic Droplets start at $4/mo for 512MiB RAM, 10GB SSD, 500GiB transfer, then $6/mo at 1GB and $12/mo at 2GB.
Plain-language implication: DigitalOcean is cheaper at the true entry level. But at around 2GB, Cloudways pricing is close enough that management convenience can outweigh a small dollar difference.
Mid-tier comparison
Cloudways’ displayed DO-backed mid profile around 8GB/4 vCPU is $88/mo with 160GB storage and 5TB transfer.
DigitalOcean Basic equivalent resource shape is $48/mo for 8GB/4 vCPU shared CPU (with 5,000GiB transfer), while dedicated families cost more but provide predictable CPU allocation.
Plain-language implication: once you move up tiers, DO raw compute is often materially cheaper if you can handle patching, backups, monitoring, and incident work yourself.
Overage and “renewal” reality
Neither platform follows classic “$2.99 first term, then painful renewal” shared-hosting tactics for core compute. Both are usage-based monthly models.
But you still get effective renewal pressure from add-ons:
- Cloudways off-site backups are billed separately at $0.033/GB on Flexible plans.
- DigitalOcean public internet egress overage is $0.01/GiB after included transfer.
- DigitalOcean support can remain free, but production teams often move to $24, $99, or higher monthly support tiers.
Plain-language implication: headline compute price is only step one. For busy production sites, bandwidth, backups, and support policy can change the winner.
2026 billing change that shifts the math
DigitalOcean moved Droplets to per-second billing (with a 60-second minimum) effective January 1, 2026.
Plain-language implication: ephemeral workloads (CI workers, temporary test servers, short jobs) are easier to cost-optimize directly on DO than on a managed wrapper.
Where Each Tool Pulls Ahead
Cloudways pulls ahead when speed and operations simplicity matter
Cloudways is stronger for agencies, solo operators, and small product teams that need managed hosting behavior without building an ops function.
Concrete advantages:
- You get an opinionated stack and platform workflow instead of assembling monitoring, patching, and backup routines from scratch.
- At the practical 2GB class, the displayed $11 vs $12 gap against DO is small enough to justify convenience.
- For WordPress or WooCommerce workloads, managed routines and staging patterns reduce routine production risk.
Consequence: less time on server maintenance, more time shipping site and app changes.
DigitalOcean pulls ahead when control and cost efficiency drive decisions
DigitalOcean wins when the team wants infrastructure building blocks and strict ownership of architecture.
Concrete advantages:
- The entry point at $4/mo is much lower than Cloudways’ managed entry.
- Droplet billing is per-second from 2026-01-01, which is attractive for bursty and automation-heavy workloads.
- Published compute SLA is 99.99% for Droplets, and support tiers have explicit response targets.
- Product depth (Droplets, networking, Kubernetes, databases, APIs, Terraform support) better matches teams with platform engineering habits.
Consequence: lower unit cost and broader architecture options, but higher operational responsibility.
Performance, support, panel, and scaling in plain terms
Performance: DO gives direct control over instance classes and architecture. Cloudways can perform well for web workloads, but you are trading some low-level control for managed defaults.
Support: DO is transparent with response-time tiers. Cloudways is easier to access quickly for typical hosting questions, but with less public specificity on guaranteed response windows in standard plans.
Control panel/dev tools: Cloudways is app-first and friendlier for non-sysadmins. DO is infrastructure-first and better for API-driven workflows. If your team enjoys tuning cloud primitives at midnight, DO will feel like home.
Scalability: both scale, but DO has the broader ceiling and service surface. Cloudways scales well inside its managed lane.
The Verdict
For most buyers in 2026, Cloudways is the better default pick because it reduces operational drag while keeping pricing close enough at common web app sizes.
Choose Cloudways if you are:
- A business owner, blogger, or WooCommerce operator who wants managed speed with fewer moving parts.
- An agency that needs repeatable client hosting workflows and less server babysitting.
- A small team shipping PHP/WordPress products without dedicated DevOps capacity.
Choose DigitalOcean if you are:
- A developer-led team that wants full Linux and network control.
- Running mixed workloads where infra automation and per-second billing produce real savings.
- Comfortable owning backups, hardening, scaling patterns, and troubleshooting depth internally.
Ranked recommendation by user type:
- Non-technical owner or marketer: Cloudways
- Agency managing multiple client sites: Cloudways
- Startup with one platform engineer: DigitalOcean
- SaaS team with Terraform-first ops: DigitalOcean
- Cost-minimal side project with sysadmin skills: DigitalOcean
Switch trigger: move from Cloudways to DigitalOcean when monthly platform convenience costs exceed the value of saved ops time, or when you need infrastructure patterns Cloudways cannot expose cleanly.