Best for: Hostinger for cost-focused owners, first-time builders, and small teams shipping quickly.
Avoid if: You need cloud-provider choice, granular server tuning, or agency-grade multi-stack workflows.
Biggest tradeoff: Cloudways gives stronger control and scaling paths, but Hostinger is dramatically cheaper at entry and easier day one.
Scope and limits first: this comparison is based on vendor pages and help docs checked on February 16, 2026. I focused on plan math, included resources, support terms, and operational limits. I did not run fresh synthetic load tests in this piece, so any performance conclusions here are “specs + platform design,” not a lab bake-off.
Head-to-Head: cloudways vs hostinger
| Factor | Cloudways | Hostinger | What It Means in Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting model | Managed cloud layer on top of DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, GCE | Managed web + managed cloud on Hostinger stack | Cloudways is better if infra choice matters; Hostinger is better if you want fewer decisions. |
| Lowest published entry price | $11/mo (Cloudways Flexible, DO micro class) | $1.99/mo (Web Premium promo) or $6.99/mo (Cloud Startup promo) | Hostinger is far cheaper to start. Cloudways starts at “serious project” pricing. |
| Renewal pattern | Pay-as-you-go monthly; no classic long-term “renewal jump” structure shown on core pricing | Large intro-to-renewal delta (example: $1.99 to $10.99; $6.99 to $25.99 on listed plans) | Hostinger wins short-term cash flow; Cloudways pricing is steadier month to month. |
| Entry cloud resources | DO plan examples show 2GB RAM / 1 vCPU / 50GB at $11 | Cloud Startup lists 4GB RAM / 2 CPU / 100GB NVMe | On raw starter specs, Hostinger Cloud Startup is stronger for the dollar. |
| Website limits | “Unlimited websites” shown on Flexible server cards | Web Premium: up to 3 websites; Business: up to 50; Cloud Startup: up to 100 | Cloudways is freer at account structure level; Hostinger enforces clearer plan caps. |
| Support baseline | 24/7 chat + ticketing; SLA target 30 min for high-priority tickets, 6h normal | 24/7 support; “under 3 minutes” response claim on sales pages | Hostinger looks faster for quick questions; Cloudways is explicit about ticket priority SLAs. |
| Control panel / dev UX | Cloudways panel with staging/cloning, SSH/SFTP, vertical scaling, provider selection | hPanel with guided flows, SSH on Premium+ plans, Node.js app slots on Business/Cloud | Hostinger is easier for beginners; Cloudways is better for operators who tune environments. |
| Add-on economics | Offsite backup storage fee ($0.033/GB per server) + paid add-ons (e.g., support/CDN/security) | Many basics bundled, but feature ceilings and renewal pricing matter | Cloudways can become pricier as you stack add-ons; Hostinger can become pricier at renewal. |
Cloudways markets flexibility; Hostinger markets value and convenience. Both claims are mostly accurate, but they target different buyer stress points.
Pricing Breakdown
Cloud pricing is where buyers get misled most often, so here is the practical math.
Cloudways bills like a taxi meter; Hostinger bills like a gym membership.
Entry and renewal math (published figures)
| Plan | Intro Price | Renewal / Ongoing Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger Web Premium | $1.99/mo (48-month term shown) | $10.99/mo renewal | Up to 3 websites, 20GB SSD, 2 mailboxes/site (1 year free). |
| Hostinger Web Business | $2.99/mo (site) / $2.84/mo (coupon page snapshot) | $16.99/mo renewal | Up to 50 websites, 50GB NVMe, daily/on-demand backups. |
| Hostinger Cloud Startup | $6.99/mo (site) / $6.64/mo (coupon snapshot) | $25.99/mo renewal | 2 CPU, 4GB RAM, 100GB NVMe, 100 sites, dedicated IP. |
| Hostinger Cloud Professional | $15.99/mo (48-month term listed) | Renewal not clearly listed in the captured FAQ block | Mid-tier cloud option; verify checkout total before purchase. |
| Hostinger Cloud Enterprise | $29.99/mo (48-month term listed) | Renewal not clearly listed in the captured FAQ block | Higher-resource cloud tier; renewal confirmation needed at checkout. |
| Cloudways Flexible (DO micro card) | $11/mo | Month-to-month published rate | 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50GB storage, 2TB transfer. |
| Cloudways Autonomous Growth | $100/mo | Month-to-month published rate | Includes autoscaling baseline and bundled premium stack components. |
| Cloudways Autonomous Scale | $200/mo | Month-to-month published rate | Higher autoscaling baseline with usage-based overages. |
Pricing implications you actually feel
Hostinger’s biggest risk is renewal shock. A Cloud Startup jump from $6.99 to $25.99 is meaningful if you budget only by intro banners.
Cloudways’ risk is additive cost creep: backup storage, support upgrades, and optional services can move your real monthly bill quickly.
Sources (checked February 16, 2026)
- Cloudways pricing: https://www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php
- Cloudways support/SLA: https://www.cloudways.com/en/support.php, https://www.cloudways.com/en/sla.php
- Hostinger web hosting pricing: https://www.hostinger.com/web-hosting
- Hostinger cloud hosting pricing: https://www.hostinger.com/cloud-hosting
- Hostinger coupons/pricing snapshot: https://www.hostinger.com/coupons
- Hostinger limits/versioning doc: https://www.hostinger.com/support/10717644-new-web-and-cloud-hosting-limits-at-hostinger/
Where Each Tool Pulls Ahead
Performance
Cloudways pull-ahead scenario: bursty or complex workloads where you want infrastructure choice and tuning freedom. Their Flexible plans expose provider options and scaling behavior, and Autonomous tiers add autoscaling baseline logic for high-traffic WordPress/WooCommerce patterns.
Hostinger pull-ahead scenario: most SMB sites that just need enough resources without tuning. Cloud Startup shows 2 CPU / 4GB RAM / 100 PHP workers / 100GB NVMe, which is a strong “set-and-run” baseline for small stores and agency client sites.
Plain consequence: Cloudways gives more knobs. Hostinger gives faster time-to-stable performance for non-specialists.
Support
Cloudways gives clearer documented priority behavior: SLA target of 30 minutes for high-priority tickets and 6 hours for normal-priority tickets, plus paid support tiers at account level. That helps teams that escalate issues with ticket discipline.
Hostinger leans on quick frontline contact, with sales-page claims around under 3-minute support response. For beginners who ask many small operational questions, that interaction model is usually easier.
Plain consequence: choose Cloudways if you want structured escalation; choose Hostinger if you want quick chat-first help.
Control panel/dev tools
Cloudways is stronger for developer workflow depth: staging/cloning, SSH/SFTP, vertical scaling, multiple providers, and broader app patterns under one platform. If you run agency workloads with mixed stacks, that flexibility matters.
Hostinger’s hPanel is cleaner for non-technical operators. You still get SSH on Premium+ plans and managed Node.js app capacity on Business/Cloud tiers (for example, 5 Node.js apps on Business, 10 on Cloud Startup), but the environment is more guided and opinionated.
Plain consequence: Cloudways favors control; Hostinger favors clarity.
Scalability
Cloudways scales better when your architecture changes, not just your traffic. You can change providers, size classes, and add specialized services as projects mature.
Hostinger scales well inside its own ladder from Web to Cloud tiers, but published limit versioning and plan caps (for websites, storage, databases, mailboxes) mean you should validate your specific purchase cohort. Their support docs now explicitly track version changes by purchase date, including a v3 tier introduced from December 17, 2025.
Plain consequence: Hostinger handles predictable growth well; Cloudways handles unpredictable growth and mixed workloads better.
The Verdict
For the majority of buyers in 2026, Hostinger is the better pick. You get lower starting cost, easier operations, solid included resources, and a friendlier control experience for teams that are not full-time hosting engineers.
Choose Cloudways when your project earns the complexity: agency portfolios with varied tech stacks, WooCommerce stores with bursty traffic, or teams that need cloud-provider choice and deeper platform control.
Ranked recommendations by user type
- First-time site owner or blogger: Hostinger Web Premium or Business.
- Small business site with growth plans: Hostinger Cloud Startup.
- Developer or agency managing mixed client stacks: Cloudways Flexible.
- High-traffic WooCommerce/LMS with scaling spikes: Cloudways Autonomous.
Switch trigger: move off Hostinger when resource ceilings, workflow friction, or architecture constraints start costing revenue or engineer time; move off Cloudways when your monthly bill is consistently higher than the operational complexity you actually use.