Cloudways vs DigitalOcean

Cloudways runs a managed hosting stack on top of a cloud server, including DigitalOcean's: 1 GB costs $14 a month there, against $6 for the same size Droplet you manage yourself. Both bill by the hour.

Pick Cloudways if

Cloud serversBilled in US dollars

You want the host to install, patch and back up the stack for you
You'd like to pick DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud underneath
You'd like a 3-day trial with no card

All Cloudways facts

Pick DigitalOcean if

Cloud serversBilled in US dollars

You're comfortable running Linux yourself and want the lower price
You want managed databases or Kubernetes alongside your servers
You want the smallest server: 512 MiB for $4.00 a month

All DigitalOcean facts

The same server on both

Each host's cheapest entry plan with at least this much memory, with the IPv4 address added where it's extra.

Memory

Cloudways

DigitalOcean

1 GB+

Cloudways

DigitalOcean 1GB 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB NVMe$14.00

DigitalOcean

Basic 1 GiB 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB SSD$6.00

2 GB+

Cloudways

DigitalOcean 2GB (Small) 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 50 GB NVMe$28.00

DigitalOcean

Basic 2 GiB 1 vCPU, 2 GB, 50 GB SSD$12.00

4 GB+

Cloudways

DigitalOcean 4GB (Medium) 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 80 GB NVMe$54.00

DigitalOcean

No entry plan this size

8 GB+

Cloudways

DigitalOcean 8GB (Large) 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 160 GB NVMe$99.00

DigitalOcean

No entry plan this size

Where they differ most

With IPv4, per month

Cloudways: $14.00/month
DigitalOcean: $4.00/month

Continents

Cloudways: North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Africa
DigitalOcean: North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania

Automatic backups

Cloudways: Not stated
DigitalOcean: 20% of the plan price

CPU in entry plans

Cloudways: Not stated
DigitalOcean: Shared

Included traffic

Cloudways: 1 TB on DigitalOcean 1GB
DigitalOcean: Not stated on Basic 512 MiB

Managed databases

Cloudways: Not stated
DigitalOcean: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, MongoDB, Kafka, OpenSearch

Every fact, side by side

A dot marks a row where they differ. Rows with an info mark open a note.

Cloudways

DigitalOcean

What it really costs

Cheapest plan $14.00/month, DigitalOcean 1GB (1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB NVMe)$4.00/month, Basic 512 MiB (1 vCPU, 0.5 GB, 10 GB SSD)

With IPv4, per month $14.00/month$4.00/month

Promo and renewal Same price on renewalSame price on renewal

VAT in listed prices Prices exclude VATPrices exclude VAT

How you pay

Signup checks No card needed for the trial; other checks not statedPayment method required to verify identity; a temporary card pre-authorisation (typically $1)