DigitalOcean vs Cloudways

Which One is Better in Apr 2026?

Compare Cloudways & DigitalOcean head-to-head to make a confident, well-informed choice for your website!

Let's help you find out which one of the two hosts is the best web hosting provider for your needs in 2026.
Our in-depth DigitalOcean vs Cloudways comparison covers pricing, performance, features, customer rating, and more.
It will help you determine whether DigitalOcean or Cloudways is the better choice for your needs!

And The Winner is... Cloudways

In this comprehensive DigitalOcean vs Cloudways comparison, we examine all aspects, from pricing and performance to user reviews & ratings. By evaluating these hosting providers, we aim to give you a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Our analysis ultimately reveals why Cloudways consistently stands out as the top choice for website owners seeking reliable hosting solutions.

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Providers Comparison
2nd
4.1
23 reviews
Winner
4.7
208 reviews

Provider Profile

Get to know DigitalOcean and Cloudways

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Company Name
DigitalOcean
Cloudways
Website
digitalocean.com
cloudways.com
Year Founded
2012
2010
HQ Location
Flag of United StatesUnited States
Flag of MaltaMalta
Money Back Guarantee
None
None
Accepts Monthly Payments
Yes
Yes
Starting Price
$4.00/mo
$11.00/mo
Review
DigitalOcean Review
Cloudways Review
Coupons
Get Coupons 2
Get Coupons 2
Overview

DigitalOcean is a cloud infrastructure provider that streamlines cloud computing for developers, startups, and small to medium-sized businesses. Celeb...

Read more in DigitalOcean review

Cloudways was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Malta. Its plans start at $11 per month. Want to know what real users think about Cloudways? There are 208 customer reviews of Cloudways on HostDean, check them out to see what people are saying about their experience with Cloudways.

Read more in Cloudways review

Ratings

Cloudways and DigitalOcean rating on HostDean

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Performance
4.3
4.8
Reliability
4.2
4.8
Pricing
4.1
4.5
Support
3.7
4.7
Features
4.2
4.8

User Reviews

The latest positive & negative user reviews of each provider

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Latest Positive Review
Krzysztof Gołąbek
Krzysztof Gołąbek
Flag of NetherlandsNetherlands
5.0

DigitalOcean support is very responsive

I've found DigitalOcean's support team to be very quick to respond and they always get straight to the point without any unnecessary chatter. It's rea...
lly efficient.
Show moreShow less
Christina S.
Christina S.
Flag of United StatesUnited States
5.0

Cloudways is a top tier choice for my business needs

I handle more than 60 sites, and whenever I run into a problem, Cloudways support is immediately available to help me sort it out. It's incredibly rel...
iable.
Show moreShow less
Latest Negative Review
Leo
Leo
Flag of United StatesUnited States
1.0

Getting scam emails from DigitalOcean

I keep receiving these scam emails that seem to be from DigitalOcean. It's really annoying and makes me doubt if they're a legitimate company. I would...
n't trust them based on this.
Show moreShow less
Martin W
Martin W
Flag of MexicoMexico
1.0

I don't know what service was used by…

I don't know what service was used by those saying this is a great host... In less than 48 hours I couldn't migrate any site. Their migration system d...
oesn't work. It's not as flexible as other providers like dreamhost or hostinger. I wanted to give them a try as they could use providers like digitalocean or aws. But 'startup coolness' aside... doesn't work at all their service.
Show moreShow less

Support Channels

How do Cloudways and DigitalOcean offer support?

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Live Chat
No
Yes
Phone
No
Yes
Support Forum
Yes
No
Knowledge Base
Yes
Yes
Video Guides
No
Yes

Datacenters

Where are Cloudways and DigitalOcean servers Located?

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North America
Yes
Yes
Europe
Yes
Yes
Asia
Yes
Yes
Oceania
Yes
Yes
South America
No
Yes
Africa
No
Yes

Payment Methods

What payment methods do Cloudways and DigitalOcean support?

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Credit Card
Yes
Yes
PayPal
Yes
Yes
Alipay
Yes
No
Amazon Pay
No
No
Apple Pay
Yes
No
Bitcoin
No
No
Cryptocurrencies
No
No
Electronic Check (eCheck) / ACH
Yes
No
Google Pay
Yes
No
Money Order
Yes
No
MoneyGram
No
No
Personal / Cashier’s Check
No
No
Skrill
No
No
Western Union
No
No
Wire Transfer
Yes
No
Paysera
No
No
UnionPay
No
No
Venmo
No
No
Pricing

Cloud Hosting

Cloud Hosting Pricing Overview

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Low tier Under $4
N/A
N/A
Low tier Under $8

Basic Droplet - 512 MiB

$4.00 / month
  • RAM 512 MB
  • CPU 1 core
  • Space 10 GB SSD
  • Bandwidth 500 GB
  • Control Panel -
  • Sites Number Unlimited
  • Free Domain -
1.0
4 reviews
View Basic Droplet - 512 MiB Plan
N/A
High tier Over $10

Basic Droplet - 2 GiB

$12.00 / month
  • RAM 2 GB
  • CPU 1 core
  • Space 50 GB SSD
  • Bandwidth 2 TB
  • Control Panel -
  • Sites Number Unlimited
  • Free Domain -
2.2
1 review
View Basic Droplet - 2 GiB Plan

DigitalOcean Micro

$11.00 / month
  • RAM 1 GB
  • CPU 1 core
  • Space 25 GB SSD
  • Bandwidth 1 TB
  • Control Panel Custom
  • Sites Number Unlimited
  • Free Domain -
5.0
1 review
View DigitalOcean Micro Plan

Managed WordPress

Managed WordPress Hosting Pricing Overview

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Low tier Under $8
N/A
N/A
Medium tier Under $16
N/A
N/A
High tier Over $16
N/A

Cloudways Autonomous - Growth

$100.00 / month
  • RAM -
  • CPU -
  • Space 20 GB
  • Bandwidth 150 GB
  • Control Panel Custom
  • Sites Number 1
  • Free Domain -
5.0
1 review
View Cloudways Autonomous - Growth Plan

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server Pricing Overview

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Low tier Under $20
N/A
N/A
Medium tier Under $40
N/A
N/A
High tier Over $40
N/A

DigitalOcean GP Large (Premium)

$106.00 / month
  • RAM 8 GB
  • CPU 2 cores
  • Space 30 GB NVMe
  • Bandwidth 4 TB
  • OS
    Linux Linux
  • Control Panel Custom
  • Free Domain -
5.0
1 review
View DigitalOcean GP Large (Premium) Plan
Services

Services

DigitalOcean and Cloudways services

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Website Builder
N/A
N/A
VPS
N/A
Yes
Shared Hosting
N/A
N/A
Dedicated Server
N/A
N/A
Cloud Hosting
Yes
Yes
CDN
N/A
N/A
SSL
N/A
N/A
DDoS Protection Services
N/A
N/A
Domain Registration
N/A
N/A
Managed WordPress Hosting
N/A
N/A
Reseller Hosting
N/A
N/A
Colocation
N/A
N/A

Specialized Services

Additional specialized services offered by the providers

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Blog Hosting
N/A
N/A
DMCA Ignored Hosting
N/A
N/A
eCommerce Hosting
N/A
Yes
Forum Hosting
N/A
N/A
Green Hosting
N/A
N/A
Managed Hosting
N/A
Yes
Managed VPS
N/A
Yes
Offshore Hosting
N/A
N/A
Small Business Hosting
N/A
Yes
Streaming Hosting
N/A
N/A
Unlimited Hosting
N/A
N/A

CMS Support

Supported content management systems

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WordPress
N/A
Yes
WooCommerce
N/A
Yes
Drupal
N/A
Yes
Ghost
N/A
N/A
Joomla
N/A
Yes
Magento
N/A
Yes
PrestaShop
N/A
Yes
OpenCart
N/A
Yes
Moodle
N/A
Yes
b2evolution
N/A
N/A
Shoutcast
N/A
N/A
SocialEngine
N/A
N/A
ExpressionEngine
N/A
N/A
ConcreteCMS
N/A
N/A
Tech Stack

Web Servers

Supported web servers (software)

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Apache
N/A
Yes
NGINX
N/A
Yes
LiteSpeed
N/A
N/A
Microsoft IIS
N/A
N/A
Tomcat
N/A
N/A
Lighttpd
N/A
N/A
Caddy
N/A
N/A

Tools

Web server & hosting management tools

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Elasticsearch
N/A
Yes
FTP Access
Yes
Yes
Memcached
N/A
Yes
phpMyAdmin
N/A
N/A
phpPgAdmin
N/A
N/A
SFTP Access
Yes
Yes
Softaculous
N/A
N/A
SSH Access
Yes
Yes
Varnish Cache
N/A
Yes
Adminer
N/A
N/A
File Manager
N/A
N/A

Programming Language

Supported programming languages & frameworks

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ASP.NET
N/A
N/A
CodeIgniter
N/A
Yes
Django
N/A
N/A
Flask
N/A
N/A
Go
N/A
N/A
Java
N/A
N/A
Laravel
N/A
Yes
Node.js
N/A
Yes
Perl
N/A
N/A
PHP
N/A
Yes
Python
N/A
N/A
Ruby on Rails
N/A
N/A
Scala
N/A
N/A
Symfony
N/A
Yes
Ruby
N/A
N/A

Databases

Supported databases

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MySQL
N/A
N/A
MariaDB
N/A
Yes
Microsoft SQL Server
N/A
N/A
MongoDB
N/A
N/A
PostgreSQL
N/A
N/A
Redis
N/A
Yes
SQLite
N/A
N/A
Valkey
N/A
N/A
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FAQs

Your Cloudways and DigitalOcean Questions, Answered by HostDean Experts

Which is cheaper, DigitalOcean or Cloudways?

If you compare the cost of DigitalOcean and Cloudways (specifically the starting price), you will find that DigitalOcean is the cheaper option with a starting price of $4. On the other hand, Cloudways is the provider with the highest starting price as their prices start from $11.

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