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Head to head

Cloudways vs DigitalOcean

The same six questions asked of each one, side by side.

AttributeAlternativeCloudwaysOur pickDigitalOcean
Starting price$11/mo$4/mo
Free tierLimitedNo
Ease of startScored 3/5A weekend to learnScored 2/5Takes real setup
Fit for solo / small teamScored 4/5Good for a small teamScored 3/5Workable for a small team
Switching costLowLow
Best forPeople who have outgrown shared hosting but do not want to administer a server. You choose the cloud provider and Cloudways handles the rest.Developers who are comfortable on a command line and want predictable, honest infrastructure pricing with excellent documentation.
Worth knowing side by side
Renews higherNoNo
Worst forAnyone who wants everything included. Email hosting costs extra and support is thinner than at Kinsta or WP Engine.Anyone who is not technical. There is no cPanel, no managed WordPress and no one to call when the site goes down at 2am.
Skip it ifYou want a fixed monthly bill you can forget about. Hourly billing in arrears is flexible but less predictable.You do not want to be responsible for updates, backups and security. That is entirely your job here.
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Why DigitalOcean is marked as our pick

Plain cloud servers at a price that never changes, provided you can run them yourself. It has the lowest ongoing cost of the tools compared here. We compare on the price you keep paying, not the introductory rate — a plan advertised cheaply that renews higher is ranked on its renewal price. Read the methodology.

Other matchups