Cloudways alternatives: what the same server costs elsewhere
Cloudways rents you a server on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud and runs it for you, with the server and the management on one bill and no root access. Below, Cloudways' list price for a 2 GB and a 4 GB server sits next to the same server bought directly, with and without a management panel, and next to two hosts that sell no server at all.
- The markup: at list price Cloudways costs 1.9 to 2.8 times the same-size server bought directly; a 2 GB server is $24–$28 a month on Cloudways and $10–$14 at DigitalOcean, Vultr or Akamai.
- Closest replacement: a DigitalOcean droplet plus RunCloud Essentials ($9/mo, one server, backups included) comes to $21 a month for 2 GB.
- Several servers: five 2 GB droplets plus RunCloud, Ploi or Laravel Forge cost $70–$79 a month, against $120–$140 on Cloudways.
- No server to run: Kinsta ($35/mo for one WordPress site) or DigitalOcean App Platform (from $5/mo).
Price at the same spec
What a 2 GB and a 4 GB server cost, per month
The 2 GB column is 2 GB RAM and 1 vCPU; the 4 GB column is 4 GB RAM and 2 vCPU. Disk sizes are listed per row because they differ slightly between providers. Cloudways rows include its management layer; direct rows are the bare server, and panel rows add the cheapest panel plan that allows that many servers.
| Setup | Disk (2 GB / 4 GB) | 2 GB, 1 vCPU | 4 GB, 2 vCPU | Five 2 GB servers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudways on DigitalOcean Standard | 50 / 80 GB SSD | $24 | $46 | $120 | Management, backups, Imunify360 and 24x7 support included; no root |
| Cloudways on DigitalOcean Premium | 50 / 80 GB NVMe | $28 | $54 | $140 | The tab Cloudways' pricing page opens on |
| Cloudways on Vultr Standard | 55 / 80 GB SSD | $28 | $54 | $140 | Same inclusions as above |
| Cloudways on Linode | 50 / 80 GB SSD | $28 | $59 | $140 | Same inclusions as above |
| DigitalOcean Droplet, Basic Regular | 50 / 80 GiB SSD | $12 | $24 | $60 | Bare server, you run it |
| DigitalOcean Droplet, Premium AMD | 50 / 80 GiB NVMe | $14 | $28 | $70 | Bare server, NVMe like Cloudways' default tab |
| Vultr Regular Performance | 55 / 80 GB SSD | $10 | $20 | $50 | Bare server, previous-generation Intel |
| Akamai (Linode) Shared CPU | 50 / 80 GB | $12 | $24 | $60 | Bare server, North America price |
| DigitalOcean Regular + RunCloud | 50 / 80 GiB SSD | $21 | $33 | $79 | Essentials $9 (1 server, backups included); five servers need Professional $19 |
| DigitalOcean Regular + Ploi | 50 / 80 GiB SSD | $22 | $34 | $70 | Basic $10 (up to 5 servers); backups need Pro $16 |
| DigitalOcean Regular + Laravel Forge | 50 / 80 GiB SSD | $24 | $36 | $79 | Hobby $12 (1 external server); five servers need Growth $19; database backups need Business $39 |
| DigitalOcean App Platform | Containers, no server disk | $25 | $50 | $125 | Shared containers: 1 vCPU/2 GiB and 2 vCPU/4 GiB; you deploy apps, not servers |
| Kinsta Single 20GB | 10 GB storage | Not sold by RAM or CPU: $35/mo billed monthly, or $350/yr billed annually | Managed WordPress, 1 site | ||
Formula: five-server column = 5 × the server price, plus one panel subscription where a panel is used. Panel rows = DigitalOcean Regular droplet + the panel's monthly price. All prices are USD list prices billed monthly, before tax. Left out: Cloudways' Black Friday offer (80% off for the first 2 months, capped at $200 off a month) and Kinsta's Black Friday offer (first month free, then 50% off for 3 months, new customers, ends 1 December 2026). Cloudways' offsite backup storage ($0.033/GB) is extra.
Sources, checked 2026-11-10: Cloudways pricing · DigitalOcean Droplets · Vultr · Akamai Cloud (Linode) · RunCloud · Ploi · Laravel Forge · DigitalOcean App Platform · Kinsta
The shortlist
5 Cloudways alternatives and who each one suits
The first three are panels: you rent the server from a cloud provider at its own price and pay the panel separately. The last two sell no server you manage.
A panel for PHP and WordPress servers in a cloud account you own. Essentials ($9/mo) covers one server with full and incremental backups, one staging environment and NGINX FastCGI plus Redis caching. Professional ($19/mo) allows 50 servers and 10 staging environments; zero-downtime atomic deployment and the ModSecurity WAF are on Business ($49/mo).
A panel with a free plan (1 server, 1 site, 5 deployments a month) and paid plans at $10 (up to 5 servers), $16 (up to 10) and $36 (unlimited) a month. Automatic database and file backups, zero-downtime deployment and server monitoring start at Pro ($16). Yearly billing is 10% cheaper, and Pro has a 5-day trial without a card.
Laravel's own server panel. Hobby ($12/mo) covers unlimited Laravel VPS servers plus one server on another provider; Growth ($19/mo) allows unlimited servers. Zero-downtime deployments are on every plan, while database backups and server monitoring need Business ($39/mo).
Kinsta runs the WordPress stack itself, so there is no server for you to manage. The Single 20GB plan is $35/mo billed monthly or $350/yr, for one WordPress site with 10 GB storage, 125 GB CDN bandwidth, 14-day backup retention and 24/7 human support. Priced per site, so it costs more than a panel once you run several sites.
DigitalOcean's own platform for deploying apps from Git without a server. Up to 3 static sites are free; paid containers start at $5/mo (1 vCPU, 512 MiB), and a development database is $7/mo.
Before you move
What you rebuild when you leave Cloudways
Cloudways' price covers more than the server. This is what it includes and which panel plan gives you the same piece back. "Not checked" means the item was not on the pricing page we read.
| What | Cloudways | RunCloud | Ploi | Laravel Forge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The server | In the price | Rented separately, in your cloud account | Rented separately, in your cloud account | Rented separately, or Laravel VPS |
| Root access | ✗ Not given | ✓ Your own server | ✓ Your own server | ✓ Your own server |
| Backups | Automated, included; offsite storage $0.033/GB | Full and incremental from Essentials ($9), 2 GB storage free | Database and file backups from Pro ($16) | Database backups on Business ($39) only |
| Staging | Included | 1 environment (Essentials), 10 (Professional) | Staging-to-production from Basic ($10) | Not checked |
| Firewall | Imunify360, included | 6G/7G/8G firewall from Professional; ModSecurity WAF on Business | Firewall management from Basic ($10) | Not checked |
| Caching | Redis free; Object Cache Pro free on 4 GB+ servers | NGINX FastCGI and Redis from Essentials | Not checked | Redis on Laravel VPS |
| Zero-downtime deploys | Not on its pricing page | Atomic deployment on Business ($49) | From Pro ($16) | All plans |
| Support | 24x7, included | Not checked | Support access from Pro ($16) | Community (Hobby), 24-hour goal (Growth), 8-hour goal (Business) |
| Try first | 5-day free trial, no card | 14-day money-back guarantee | 5-day Pro trial, no card | Not checked |
Plan prices are per month, billed monthly. Cloudways also includes free migrations and offers Cloudflare Enterprise as an add-on from $4.99 per domain a month.
Method
How we checked
On 10 November 2026 we read each vendor's pricing page as rendered in a browser, in US dollars, and switched Cloudways' provider tabs one by one to record each server size. Prices are list prices billed monthly, before tax; Black Friday offers are left out, and the totals are plain arithmetic on the listed numbers. The DigitalOcean acquisition date and price come from DigitalOcean's SEC filing.
Common questions
Cloudways alternatives: common questions
How much more does Cloudways cost than the same server bought directly?
At list prices checked on 10 November 2026, Cloudways charges 1.9 to 2.8 times what the same-size server costs direct. A 2 GB, 1 vCPU server is $24 a month on Cloudways' DigitalOcean Standard tab against $12 for the matching DigitalOcean droplet, and $28 on Cloudways' Vultr tab against $10 at Vultr. The Cloudways price includes the management layer, backups and 24x7 support; the direct price is the bare server.
What is the closest Cloudways alternative?
For most people leaving Cloudways it is a server panel such as RunCloud on a droplet you rent yourself. RunCloud Essentials costs $9 a month for one server and includes full and incremental backups, a staging environment and NGINX FastCGI plus Redis caching, so a 2 GB DigitalOcean droplet plus RunCloud comes to $21 a month. For five or more servers, RunCloud Professional ($19), Ploi or Laravel Forge cover the same ground.
Can I get root access on a Cloudways alternative?
Yes, with any panel that connects to your own cloud account. Cloudways does not hand out root (its own help article is titled "Why Can't I Have Root Access to My Server?"). With RunCloud, Ploi or Laravel Forge the server is rented in a cloud account you own, so root stays with you.
When is Cloudways still worth it?
When you run one or two sites and want one bill that already covers the server, automated backups, the Imunify360 firewall, free migrations and 24x7 support. For one 2 GB server, DigitalOcean plus RunCloud Essentials ($21) still costs less than Cloudways ($24), but DigitalOcean plus Ploi Pro ($28) or Laravel Forge Business ($51), the plans that include backups, costs more. Cloudways also offers a 5-day free trial without a credit card.
Does DigitalOcean own Cloudways?
Yes. DigitalOcean completed its acquisition of Cloudways on 1 September 2022 for $350 million in cash, according to its SEC filing. Cloudways still lets you pick DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud as the underlying provider.