Short answer: the Cloudways vs DigitalOcean question is managed versus do-it-yourself. Cloudways runs your WordPress sites on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud and manages the server for you: $14 a month for 1 GB on DigitalOcean Premium, $28 for 2 GB, with backups, caching, a firewall and 24/7 support included. A plain DigitalOcean or Vultr server with the same RAM costs $5–12, but you install and look after the stack yourself. Pay for Cloudways if your time costs more than about the difference; go unmanaged if you are comfortable with Linux and want root access or a control panel.
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Prices come from the providers’ own pages, checked on 7 October 2026 in a browser, excluding tax.
Table of Contents
Price for the same server
| RAM / vCPU | Cloudways on DigitalOcean Premium Check price (opens in a new tab) → | DigitalOcean Basic (unmanaged) Check price (opens in a new tab) → | Vultr (unmanaged) Check price (opens in a new tab) → |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB / 1 vCPU | $14 / month (25 GB NVMe, 1 TB) | $6 (25 GiB, 1,000 GiB) | $5 Regular / $6 High Frequency |
| 2 GB / 1 vCPU | $28 / month (50 GB NVMe, 2 TB) | $12 (50 GiB, 2,000 GiB) | n/a at this size in our check |
| 4 GB / 2 vCPU | $54 / month (80 GB NVMe, 4 TB) | $24 (80 GiB, 4,000 GiB) | $20 Regular Performance (80 GB, 3 TB) |
| 8 GB / 4 vCPU | $99 / month (160 GB NVMe, 5 TB) | $48 (160 GiB, 5,000 GiB) | $48 High Performance (180 GB, 6 TB) |
Prices last checked: 7 October 2026. Cloudways prices are for DigitalOcean Premium servers; other clouds on Cloudways cost more. Cloudways bills hourly ($0.0208 an hour for the 1 GB plan); DigitalOcean bills per second; Vultr bills hourly.
What the Cloudways price includes
- 24/7 support, free migration of the first site, staging, unlimited sites on the server.
- Server-level firewall (Imunify360), free SSL, Redis, and Object Cache Pro on 4 GB servers and above.
- Managed backups (off-site backup storage is $0.033 per GB), monitoring and vertical scaling.
- A 3-day free trial without a credit card.
What you give up: Cloudways does not give root access, so you cannot install cPanel, DirectAdmin or other system software. Paid extras include Cloudflare Enterprise (from $4.99 per domain), malware removal (from $4 per app) and Advanced Support ($100 a month).
Try Cloudways free for 3 days Partner link
What unmanaged costs you (besides money)
- Installing and tuning the web server, PHP-FPM, database and cache (see OpenLiteSpeed and WordPress on AlmaLinux 10).
- Security updates, firewall, malware scanning and backups you have tested.
- Your own monitoring and someone to call at 2 a.m.
- Backups cost extra: 20% of the server price on both DigitalOcean (weekly) and Vultr.
See DigitalOcean See Vultr Partner link
DigitalOcean or Vultr?
| DigitalOcean Check price (opens in a new tab) → | Vultr Check price (opens in a new tab) → | |
|---|---|---|
| Datacentres | 16 | 33 regions |
| Billing | Per second (60 s minimum) | Hourly |
| cPanel | One-click image; licence after a 15-day trial | One-click app; licence billed on the instance from $31.99 |
| Paid support tiers | $24 / $99 / $999 a month | Ticket support |
| Best for | Documentation, predictable small servers | More locations, High Frequency CPUs |
Our recommendation
- One business site, no Linux admin: Cloudways 1–2 GB. The support and backups are worth the extra $8–16 a month.
- Several client sites, an agency: Cloudways 4 GB, or a DigitalOcean server with a panel if you need email hosting too (Cloudways does not host mailboxes; it sells Rackspace mail at $1.50 per mailbox).
- You are a sysadmin: DigitalOcean or Vultr with OpenLiteSpeed or a panel. Read the real cost of running cPanel first.
Related: LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress · Clean a hacked WordPress site · Cheapest way to run cPanel · Recommended server providers
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean at a glance
Already on DigitalOcean? See common DigitalOcean Droplet problems and how to send email when DigitalOcean blocks SMTP.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudways cheaper than DigitalOcean?
No. Cloudways runs on DigitalOcean and other clouds and adds management, so the same 1 GB server costs $14 on Cloudways and $6 directly on DigitalOcean. You pay the difference for support, backups, caching and security.
Can I use cPanel on Cloudways?
No. Cloudways does not give root access, so third-party control panels cannot be installed. Use a DigitalOcean or Vultr server if you need cPanel or DirectAdmin.
Does Cloudways host email?
Not on the server. It offers Rackspace mailboxes as an add-on at $1.50 per mailbox per month, or you can use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Is there a free trial?
Cloudways offers 3 days free without a credit card. DigitalOcean and Vultr are billed by the second or hour, so a short test costs cents.
Which cloud should I choose inside Cloudways?
DigitalOcean Premium is the cheapest on Cloudways. AWS and Google Cloud cost several times more and mainly make sense if your other systems already run there.
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