8 of 52 providers reward us when you sign up through our links. It never changes a ranking. Which ones
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean
This is not a like-for-like contest.
Cloudways
$14/mo entry
Cloudways pricingFreelancers and small agencies hosting several client sites on one managed server.
DigitalOcean
$4/mo entry
DigitalOcean pricingDevelopers who want a real server with predictable billing and no surprise egress invoice.
DigitalOcean 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.
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 | Cloudways | DigitalOcean | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price / month | $14 | $4 | DigitalOcean |
| Entry plan vCPU | 1 | 1 | |
| Entry plan RAM | 1 GB | 0.5 GB | Cloudways |
| Entry plan storage | 25 GB | 10 GB | Cloudways |
| Included transfer | 1 TB | 0.5 TB | Cloudways |
| Listed regions | 25 | 15 | Cloudways |
| Management model | Managed | Unmanaged (you run the OS) | |
| Support | 24/7 live chat and tickets; premium support tiers cost extra. | Ticket support on all plans; paid support tiers for faster response. | |
| Billing | Hourly metering billed monthly, pay-as-you-go. | Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price. | |
| Free tier | Free trial available for new accounts; no permanent free tier. | No permanent free tier. Trial credit is offered to new accounts from time to time. |
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 | Cloudways | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 vCPU / 1 GB | no plan this size | $6Basic 1GB · 1 vCPU · 1 GB · 25 GBEntry Droplet. Adequate for a single small app or a low-traffic site. | — |
| 2 vCPU / 4 GB | no plan this size | $24Basic 4GB · 2 vCPU · 4 GB · 80 GBComfortable for a production app with a local database. | — |
| 4 vCPU / 8 GB | no plan this size | $48Basic 8GB · 4 vCPU · 8 GB · 160 GBHeadroom for several services on one host. | — |
| 8 vCPU / 16 GB | no plan this size | $96Basic 16GB · 8 vCPU · 16 GB · 320 GBEight shared cores and 16GB for a busy single-server stack. | — |
Every provider at these sizes, ranked: 1 GB RAM · 4 GB RAM · 8 GB RAM · 16 GB RAM
Where each one wins and loses
Cloudways
Cloudways does not own data centers. 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.
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean built its reputation on flat monthly pricing and documentation that a solo developer can finish reading. Droplets are plain virtual machines: you get root access and you own the operating system, the patching and the backups. It is the usual first step off shared hosting for people who want control without a cloud-architecture certification.
Strengths
- Flat monthly price per Droplet size, so the invoice is predictable
- Generous included egress compared with the hyperscalers
- Documentation and community tutorials are unusually good
- Managed databases, object storage and Kubernetes available alongside
Weaknesses
- Unmanaged: OS updates, security hardening and backups are your job
- Fewer regions than AWS or Google Cloud
- Backups and snapshots are billed on top of the Droplet price
Support: Ticket support on all plans; paid support tiers for faster response.
Billing: Hourly metering, capped at the listed monthly price.
Free tier: No permanent free tier. Trial credit is offered to new accounts from time to time.
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 | Cloudways | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | n/a | n/a |
| Automatic backups | not captured yet | Weekly backups are 20% of the Droplet price; daily backups are 30%. |
| Outbound traffic beyond the allowance | not captured yet | $0.01/GB over allowance |
| Smallest managed load balancer | not captured yet | $12/mo |
Sources: docs.digitalocean.com · docs.digitalocean.com · docs.digitalocean.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: Cloudways and DigitalOcean.
These are the providers' own list prices, shown in US dollars and last updated 23 Oct 2026. 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. Each row says when we read its price, and whether it excludes VAT or needs a term. Check the provider's page before you buy.
Related comparisons
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean — frequently asked
Every answer is computed from this pair's own prices and costs.
- How many data center locations do Cloudways and DigitalOcean have?
- Cloudways lists 25 and DigitalOcean lists 15.
- What do backups add at Cloudways and DigitalOcean?
- Cloudways: not captured yet; DigitalOcean: 20% of the plan price.