Hosting & infrastructure · By Moonlaunch Studio · Updated October 2026
DigitalOcean vs Cloudways
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This isn't a like-for-like comparison, and that's the point. DigitalOcean Droplets are virtual servers that you manage yourself. Cloudways is a managed hosting platform that runs your sites on cloud servers (including DigitalOcean) and handles much of the server setup and maintenance for you. Cloudways' own pricing page notes that Cloudways is part of DigitalOcean LLC. The real question is how much server work you want to do.
Pricing checked October 2026 from the vendor's site; confirm current pricing on their site.
Quick summary
- DigitalOcean may suit developers who are comfortable with Linux and SSH, want the lowest entry price, and need to run more than websites (APIs, databases, workers, VPNs).
- Cloudways may suit agencies, freelancers, and site owners running WordPress, Magento, Laravel, or other PHP apps who want 24/7 support, staging, and backups without administering the server themselves.
Pricing compared
| Aspect | DigitalOcean (Basic Droplets) | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $4/month (512 MiB RAM, 1 vCPU, 10 GiB SSD, 500 GiB transfer) | Flexible (managed cloud servers): from $11/month, per Cloudways' pricing FAQ |
| Other examples | $6/month (1 GiB, 1 vCPU, 25 GiB SSD); $12/month (2 GiB, 1 vCPU, 50 GiB SSD); $24/month (4 GiB, 2 vCPUs, 80 GiB SSD) | Autonomous (autoscaling managed WordPress): Growth $99/month, Scale $199/month, Plus $399/month |
| Billing | Per-second billing with a 60-second minimum (effective January 1, 2026), capped at the monthly price for bundled plans | Charged hourly for what you use; invoiced monthly in arrears |
| Backups | Paid add-on: 20% (weekly) or 30% (daily) of the Droplet cost, or usage-based from $0.01/GiB per month | Automated and on-demand backups listed; offsite backup storage billed at $0.033/GB per server |
| Extra bandwidth | Each plan includes an outbound transfer allowance; inbound is free | Pay-as-you-go beyond plan limits; on DigitalOcean servers, $0.02/GB |
| Free trial / refunds | Promotional credits for new users, per DigitalOcean; DigitalOcean states it does not offer refunds | Free trial without a credit card, per Cloudways |
What's managed for you
| Area | DigitalOcean Droplets | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Server management | Unmanaged (IaaS): you manage the OS, apps, and data | Managed: optimized stack, server-level firewall, monitoring |
| Support | Support plans aren't covered on the Droplet pricing page; DigitalOcean notes Droplets are unmanaged and points to managed providers for server management | 24/7/365 support via live chat and tickets on all plans; paid Advanced Support add-on |
| SSL | You configure it on your server (unmanaged) | Free Let's Encrypt SSL built in |
| Staging | Not a managed feature; you set it up yourself | Free staging environments with one-click push to live |
| Caching | Your choice of stack | Object Cache Pro included free on servers with 4GB RAM or more; Redis listed |
| Cloud choice | DigitalOcean only | Flexible plans can run on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud |
| Migration | Not listed on the Droplet pricing page | Free migration of your first website, per Cloudways |
| What you can run | Any Linux workload: websites, databases, CI/CD, VPNs, game servers | Focused on WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and PHP applications |
DigitalOcean
Droplets are DigitalOcean's virtual private servers. Beyond Basic Droplets, DigitalOcean lists CPU-Optimized, General Purpose, Memory-Optimized, and Storage-Optimized plans with dedicated vCPUs, plus configurable v5 Droplets billed by the hour. Its pricing page lists datacenters including New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney.
May suit: developers and technical founders who want full root access, predictable monthly caps, and the flexibility to run non-website workloads.
Pros
- Low entry price ($4/month)
- Per-second billing with monthly caps on bundled plans
- Wide range of Droplet types for different workloads
- Billing alerts for spending thresholds
Cons
- Unmanaged: security updates, backups, and stack setup are on you
- Backups cost extra
- No refunds, per DigitalOcean's FAQ
Cloudways
Cloudways offers two products: Flexible, where you choose the cloud provider and server size and Cloudways manages the stack, and Autonomous, a Kubernetes-based managed WordPress platform with autoscaling, Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, and Object Cache Pro included. Optional add-ons include Cloudflare Enterprise CDN (from $4.99 per domain per month), malware protection (from $4 per app per month), and Rackspace email ($1.50 per mailbox per month).
May suit: agencies and site owners who want unlimited apps on a server, staging, backups, and around-the-clock support without hiring a sysadmin.
Pros
- 24/7 support included on all plans
- Choice of five cloud providers on Flexible plans
- Free SSL, staging, and first-site migration
- Free trial without a credit card
Cons
- Higher starting price than an unmanaged Droplet
- Focused on PHP-based apps rather than any workload
- Some features (CDN, malware protection, advanced support) are paid add-ons
How to choose
- Be honest about server skills and time. If you don't want to handle OS updates, firewalls, and backups, the managed route usually costs less than your time.
- Match the workload. For WordPress or PHP sites, Cloudways is built for that. For APIs, databases, background workers, or anything non-PHP, a Droplet is more flexible.
- Compare total cost, not entry price. Add backups, support, CDN, and the hours you'd spend maintaining a server to the Droplet price before comparing.
- Consider growth. Cloudways Autonomous plans include autoscaling for traffic spikes; on Droplets you'd resize or add servers yourself.
Sources
Checked in October 2026. Confirm current details on the vendors' sites.
- DigitalOcean Droplet pricing and FAQ: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets
- Cloudways pricing, add-ons, and FAQ: https://www.cloudways.com/en/pricing.php