Cloudways fits site owners who want a managed WordPress server, while DigitalOcean fits developers who can run Linux themselves.
The same 4 GB server costs $46 a month at Cloudways and $24 as a DigitalOcean Droplet. Across sizes, the management fee runs $5 to $40 a month.
Both companies have the same owner, and Cloudways’ DigitalOcean servers list the same specs as Basic Droplets. The real choice is how much server work you want to hand off.
The Cloudways review and the DigitalOcean review cover each service in full. This page focuses on what the management layer costs and what you get for it.
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean: the short verdict
Cloudways wins for hands-off WordPress hosting, and DigitalOcean wins on price, costing about half as much for the same server specs.
Cloudways: for site owners, agencies, and stores who want a fast cloud server without learning server administration.
DigitalOcean: for developers and technical users who can handle updates, security, and backups themselves, or who run apps other than websites.
Learning server skills? A Droplet is a cheap way to practice. Just don’t put a client’s store on it until you can fix it at 2 a.m.
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean at a glance
| Decision point | Cloudways | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| 4 GB, 2 vCPU server | $46 a month | $24 a month |
| Server management | Patching, firewalls, monitoring, caching handled | Self-managed |
| Backups | Automated; offsite storage $0.033 per GB | 20% (weekly) or 30% (daily) of Droplet price, or usage-based |
| Transfer overage | $0.02 per GB on DigitalOcean servers | $0.01 per GiB, pooled |
| Uptime SLA | None listed | 99.99% per Droplet, with service credits |
| Included support | 24/7 live chat and tickets | 24/7 tickets, replies within 24 hours |
| Root access | Not available | Full control |
| Data center locations | 9 DigitalOcean regions | 16 data centers in 13 cities |
| Current plans and prices | See Cloudways plans | See DigitalOcean plans |
How Cloudways and DigitalOcean are related
DigitalOcean has owned Cloudways since September 8, 2022, when it completed a $350 million acquisition, according to DigitalOcean’s investor announcement.
DigitalOcean’s own comparison article presents the two as serving different users. It says Cloudways handles server management behind the scenes, while DigitalOcean users manage their own servers.
So you’re not choosing between rival companies. You’re choosing how much of the server work to hand off.
Cloudways and DigitalOcean prices for the same specs
A Cloudways DigitalOcean server costs roughly double a matching Basic Droplet, from $11 vs $6 at 1 GB to $88 vs $48 at 8 GB.
The listed specs match, so the whole gap is the management fee.
| Size | Specs (both) | DigitalOcean Droplet | Cloudways server | Management fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer | $6 | $11 | $5 a month |
| 2 GB | 1 vCPU, 50 GB SSD, 2 TB transfer | $12 | $24 | $12 a month |
| 4 GB | 2 vCPUs, 80 GB SSD, 4 TB transfer | $24 | $46 | $22 a month |
| 8 GB | 4 vCPUs, 160 GB SSD, 5 TB transfer | $48 | $88 | $40 a month |
DigitalOcean’s figures come from its Droplet pricing page. Cloudways lists its figures in its pricing table.
Prices confirmed on September 25, 2026.
Prices change often, so check Cloudways’ current prices and DigitalOcean’s current prices before you buy.
Both are monthly prices with no long-term contract, so there are no intro or renewal rates to compare.
Cloudways bills by the hour and invoices monthly for the previous month’s usage, as its billing guide explains.
In yearly terms, the fee ranges from $60 on a 1 GB server to $480 on an 8 GB server.
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean backup costs
Cloudways includes automated backups, while a DigitalOcean Droplet needs a paid backup add-on. DigitalOcean charges 20% of the Droplet price for weekly backups, or 30% for daily ones.
With daily backups, a 4 GB Droplet costs $31.20 a month. That narrows the gap with Cloudways’ $46 to $14.80 a month.
DigitalOcean also offers usage-based backups from $0.01 per GiB a month, with flexible frequency and retention.
Cloudways, for its part, charges $0.033 per GB for offsite backup storage on each server.
What Cloudways manages that a DigitalOcean Droplet leaves to you
Cloudways handles OS patching, firewalls, caching, backups, and SSL on its DigitalOcean servers, while a raw Droplet leaves every one of those tasks to you.
Its DigitalOcean hosting page lists:
- OS patching, dedicated firewalls, and real-time monitoring
- automated backups with scheduling and one-click restores
- a caching stack with Nginx, Apache, Varnish, Memcached, and Redis
- Object Cache Pro, which its pricing table lists as free on 2 GB servers and up
- free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates
- Unlimited staging areas and one-click server cloning
- 24/7 chat and ticket support
On a Droplet, you’d install and tune the web server, set up SSL renewals, configure a firewall, schedule backups, and keep the operating system patched.
The trade-off runs the other way too. Cloudways doesn’t give root access because it says in a help article that root users could break its platform tools.
For your site, the Cloudways fee is really a fee for a part-time server administrator. The question is whether that’s you.
WordPress on a DigitalOcean Droplet vs on Cloudways
DigitalOcean’s WordPress 1-Click App gets a site running in minutes, but Cloudways keeps looking after the server afterward.
The Marketplace listing installs Ubuntu 24.04, PHP 8.3, MySQL 8.0, the Caddy web server, WordPress, and fail2ban.
Fail2ban blocks repeated failed logins. After setup, though, keeping that Droplet updated and secure is up to you.
The listing points WordPress questions to the WordPress.org support forums. DigitalOcean support covers the Droplet, not the WordPress setup inside it.
If you go this way, the first 30 steps on an unmanaged VPS and hardening SSH against brute-force attacks are the right place to start.
Is self-managing DigitalOcean worth the savings over Cloudways?
Self-managing a DigitalOcean Droplet saves $5 to $40 a month over Cloudways, which pays off only if server upkeep takes you less time than that money is worth.
Here’s a simple way to decide, using an assumption we’ve labeled. Say your time is worth $25 an hour.
- On a 1 GB server, Cloudways costs $5 a month more. That’s 12 minutes of your time. Almost any maintenance takes longer.
- On a 4 GB server, the fee is $22 a month, or about 53 minutes. Updates, security checks, and a backup test can easily take that.
- On an 8 GB server, the fee is $40 a month, or 96 minutes. A skilled admin with automation may spend less.
Put your own hourly value into the same math. Then add the cost of one bad night: a hacked site or a failed update with no working backup.
The skills a self-managed VPS needs help you judge honestly whether you have them.
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean bandwidth, uptime, locations, and support
DigitalOcean charges half the overage rate of Cloudways ($0.01 vs $0.02 per GB) and publishes a 99.99% uptime SLA. Cloudways includes live chat, which DigitalOcean sells as paid support.
Bandwidth: both include the same monthly transfer per size. DigitalOcean charges $0.01 per GiB over the allowance, pooled across your Droplets, per its bandwidth billing docs.
Cloudways bills overage on its DigitalOcean servers at $0.02 per GB, double DigitalOcean’s rate, according to its bandwidth charges article.
Uptime: DigitalOcean’s Droplet SLA promises 99.99% monthly uptime, with service credits if it misses. We found no uptime SLA percentage on Cloudways’ pricing or terms pages.
Scaling: both let you resize to a larger server.
DigitalOcean’s resize guide says you must power off a Droplet before resizing it in the control panel, so plan for a short outage.
Support: Cloudways offers 24/7 live chat and tickets on every server. Advanced Support costs $25 a month extra.
DigitalOcean’s free Starter plan is 24/7 ticket support with replies in under 24 hours.
Its support plans add faster replies from $24 a month, and live chat from $99 a month.
Locations: Cloudways lists 9 regions for its DigitalOcean servers: New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney.
DigitalOcean’s regional availability docs list 16 data centers in 13 cities, adding US sites such as Atlanta and Richmond.
Flexibility: a Droplet can run anything, from Node.js apps to databases to game servers. Cloudways is built around web apps like WordPress, WooCommerce, and Laravel.
Trial: Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card (not for AWS or Google Cloud servers) on its pricing page. We found no money-back guarantee listed there.
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean winners by category
Cloudways wins five of nine categories, mostly on management and support, while DigitalOcean wins on price, overage, uptime terms, and flexibility.
| Category | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price for the same specs | DigitalOcean | About half the Cloudways price |
| Hands-off server management | Cloudways | Patching, firewalls, and monitoring handled |
| WordPress speed setup | Cloudways | Caching stack and Object Cache Pro included |
| Backups | Cloudways | Included, vs 20 to 30% extra on DigitalOcean |
| Staging | Cloudways | Unlimited staging areas |
| Transfer overage | DigitalOcean | $0.01 vs $0.02 per GB |
| Uptime SLA | DigitalOcean | 99.99% published; none listed by Cloudways |
| Flexibility | DigitalOcean | Root access and any software |
| Included support | Cloudways | Live chat at no extra cost |
Our pick: Cloudways for most WordPress site owners and agencies. DigitalOcean for developers who already manage Linux servers or need more than a web hosting stack.
Should you choose Cloudways or DigitalOcean?
Choose Cloudways if you’d rather pay $5 to $40 a month than maintain a server, and DigitalOcean if you already manage Linux and want root access.
A small business owner with one WordPress site: Cloudways. At 1 GB or 2 GB, the $5 to $12 fee costs less than an hour of most people’s time.
A developer comfortable with SSH and Linux: a DigitalOcean Droplet saves $264 a year on a 4 GB server, and you keep full control.
An agency hosting client sites: usually Cloudways, since staging, backups, and support cover every app on the server.
Building a custom app, not a website? DigitalOcean, where you’re not limited to a web hosting stack.
Cloudways also appears against a fully managed host in Cloudways vs Kinsta.
Wider questions sit in the VPS hosting section, and managed vs unmanaged VPS explains the trade-off in general terms.
Ready to check prices? Visit Cloudways or visit DigitalOcean to see today’s plans before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Cloudways more expensive than DigitalOcean?
Cloudways charges for management that DigitalOcean leaves to you. The extra money covers patching, firewalls, backups, caching, staging, and live chat on top of the same DigitalOcean hardware.
Does DigitalOcean own Cloudways?
Yes. DigitalOcean completed its $350 million purchase of Cloudways in September 2022, and Cloudways still sells its own managed plans on DigitalOcean servers.
How much more does Cloudways cost than DigitalOcean?
Between $5 and $40 a month, depending on size. A 1 GB server is $11 at Cloudways vs $6 at DigitalOcean, and an 8 GB server is $88 vs $48.
Do Cloudways and DigitalOcean include backups?
Cloudways does, apart from a $0.033 per GB offsite storage fee. DigitalOcean backups cost extra: a percentage of the Droplet price or a usage-based rate.
Is Cloudways or DigitalOcean better for beginners?
Cloudways. You still pick a server size, but Cloudways runs the server software and security, while a DigitalOcean Droplet expects Linux skills.
Can I get root access on Cloudways like on DigitalOcean?
No. Cloudways blocks root access to protect its platform tools, while a DigitalOcean Droplet gives you full control of the server.
How we compared Cloudways and DigitalOcean
This comparison is built from official sources only.
For DigitalOcean, we used its Droplet pricing page, Droplet SLA, support plans, bandwidth billing, regional availability and resize docs, WordPress Marketplace listing, Cloudways comparison article, and acquisition announcement.
For Cloudways, we used its pricing page and pricing table, DigitalOcean hosting page, and help articles on billing, bandwidth charges, and root access.
All details were checked on September 25, 2026.
Our Methodology and Editorial Guidelines explain how we research hosts and correct errors.
