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AWS Lightsail vs Cloudways
This is not a like-for-like contest. AWS Lightsail sells raw compute and hands you the operating system; Cloudways sells a managed service and charges for the work you no longer do. Compare them only if you genuinely have not decided whether to run the server yourself.
AWS Lightsail
$5.00/mo entry
Teams who want AWS on the invoice and a plausible growth path, at Droplet prices for the first year.
Cloudways
$14.00/mo entry
Freelancers and small agencies hosting several client sites on one managed server.
Specification differences
Entry plans compared line by line. Rows marked with a dash are preferences rather than measurable wins, so we do not pick a side on them.
| Attribute | AWS Lightsail | Cloudways | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month | $5.00 | $14.00 | AWS Lightsail |
| Entry plan vCPU | 2 | 1 | AWS Lightsail |
| Entry plan RAM | 0.5 GB | 1 GB | Cloudways |
| Entry plan storage | 20 GB | 25 GB | Cloudways |
| Included transfer | 1 TB | 1 TB | |
| Listed regions | 20 | 25 | Cloudways |
| Management model | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | Managed | |
| Support | AWS Basic Support included; paid Developer/Business tiers via the parent account. | 24/7 live chat and tickets; premium support tiers cost extra. | |
| Billing | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price for the bundle. | Hourly metering billed monthly, pay-as-you-go. | |
| Free tier | AWS says you can get started with Lightsail for free under the AWS Free Tier, but its pricing page names no bundle or duration. Check the Free Tier terms before counting on it. | Free trial available for new accounts; no permanent free tier. |
Same size, side by side
The cheapest plan from each provider that meets each size, so the comparison is between equal servers rather than two entry plans. Prices include a separately-billed IPv4 address where the provider charges for one.
| Size | AWS Lightsail | Cloudways | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU / 1 GB | $7.00General 1GB · 2 vCPU · 1 GB · 40 GBModest RAM but the bundled transfer runs ahead of DigitalOcean and Vultr at the same tier. | no plan this size | — |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB | $24.00General 4GB · 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GBStraight lift of the DigitalOcean 4GB tier, on AWS invoicing. | no plan this size | — |
| 4 vCPU / 8 GB | $84.00General 16GB · 4 vCPU · 16 GB · 320 GBFirst general bundle with four vCPUs. | no plan this size | — |
| 8 vCPU / 16 GB | $164.00General 32GB · 8 vCPU · 32 GB · 640 GBEight vCPUs; double the 16GB bundle for a little under double the price. | no plan this size | — |
Every provider at these sizes, ranked: 1 GB RAM · 4 GB RAM · 8 GB RAM · 16 GB RAM
Where each one wins and loses
AWS Lightsail
Lightsail is Amazon’s answer to the DigitalOcean-style Droplet: a small set of flat-priced instances with a simplified console, bundled with the option to graduate onto the rest of AWS once you need a VPC, load balancer or IAM policy. The public-IPv4 bundles include a fixed monthly transfer allowance and there is a cheaper IPv6-only tier for people who can live without an IPv4 address. The catch is that the AWS Console’s reputation for complexity is not entirely fair to Lightsail, but the moment you outgrow it you inherit that complexity.
Strengths
- Flat monthly pricing with generous bundled transfer
- One-click upgrade path onto the wider AWS platform when you need it
- IPv6-only bundles a few dollars cheaper than the equivalent IPv4 tier
- Backed by AWS operational track record
Weaknesses
- Smaller-plan RAM and disk lag the budget-cloud peer group at the same price
- Add-ons like snapshots, load balancers and managed databases are billed separately
- Support is AWS-style ticket support, not developer chat
- Graduating to full AWS surfaces the complexity Lightsail was meant to hide
Support: AWS Basic Support included; paid Developer/Business tiers via the parent account.
Billing: Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price for the bundle.
Free tier: AWS says you can get started with Lightsail for free under the AWS Free Tier, but its pricing page names no bundle or duration. Check the Free Tier terms before counting on it.
Cloudways
Cloudways does not own datacentres. It provisions servers on underlying clouds such as DigitalOcean and Vultr and adds the managed layer on top: stack configuration, caching, staging, automated backups and one-click server maintenance. You pay a premium over the raw instance for not having to be a sysadmin, while keeping the ability to move up in size.
Strengths
- Managed stack, caching and staging without full agency pricing
- Choice of underlying cloud provider and region
- Unlimited sites per server within the resources you buy
- Vertical scaling without rebuilding the server
Weaknesses
- Clear markup over provisioning the same instance yourself
- You are dependent on two vendors rather than one
- Email hosting is a paid add-on, not included
Support: 24/7 live chat and tickets; premium support tiers cost extra.
Billing: Hourly metering billed monthly, pay-as-you-go.
Free tier: Free trial available for new accounts; no permanent free tier.
The full cost stack
What a server costs beyond its sticker price. Only figures read from each provider's own documentation appear; a gap says “not captured yet”.
| Item | AWS Lightsail | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | n/a | n/a |
| Automatic backups | not captured yet | not captured yet |
| Outbound traffic beyond the allowance | $0.09/GB over allowance | not captured yet |
| Smallest managed load balancer | $18.00/mo | not captured yet |
Sources: aws.amazon.com
Price changes we have logged
No tracked price change for either provider yet.
Full record at the change log.
Every plan
The complete plan ladders, with the date and source of every price, are on each provider's page: AWS Lightsail and Cloudways.
All figures are the providers' own published list prices in USD, on-demand monthly. The index was last refreshed 2026-10-14, and every row shows the date its own price was read. Nothing here is live or negotiated pricing. Where a provider bills a public IPv4 address on top, it is added to the monthly price, the ranking and every cost per vCPU or per GB, and the row shows the parts: the server, any disk priced apart, and the IPv4 charge. Some prices exclude VAT or need a commitment; the plan notes say which. Check the provider's pricing page before you commit.
Related comparisons
AWS Lightsail vs Cloudways — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- How many datacentre locations do AWS Lightsail and Cloudways have?
- AWS Lightsail lists 20 and Cloudways lists 25.