Website owners in need of more resources are often attracted by cloud hosting’s prowess. After a bit of research, most of them usually end up on the Cloudways vs SiteGround junction. Understandably so, as these are some of the range-topping cloud hosting options.
Cloudways is owned by DigitalOcean and is a famous reseller hosting provider. It resells unmanaged cloud hosting from other companies as managed hosting operated by the company itself. SiteGround is a Bulgarian company with a focus on shared (web) hosting. However, it also offers multiple cloud hosting plans for sites with higher resource demands.
The backgrounds of SiteGround and Cloudways differ somewhat, but they intersect in the area of cloud hosting, where both provide excellent performance, resources, and scalability options. Let’s compare Cloudways and SiteGround to see which one is better in 2026.
Cloudways vs SiteGround – Quick Conclusion
Cloudways and SiteGround target different markets. One favors cloud hosting, and the other targets managed WordPress hosting but offers awesome cloud hosting as well. In the end, SiteGround won this duel but it’s extremely important to read the entire comparison.
We outlined every little detail about both to help you make the right choice for your needs. Before we go down the rabbit hole, let’s slide into it with a table showcasing their most important features and information:
| Cloudways | SiteGround | |
| Shared Hosting Price | / | Starts at $3.99/mo |
| Cloud Hosting Price | Starts at $11/mo | Starts at $100/mo |
| 1-Year Free Web Domain | No | No |
| WHOIS Domain Protection | No | No |
| Uptime in Our Tests | 99.98% | 99.99% |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes |
| Automated Backups | Yes, with off-server backups | Yes, with off-server backups |
| Storage Type | SSD | SSD |
| Storage Size | 25 GB to 3,840 GB | 40 GB to 1 TB |
| Website Builder | No | Yes |
| Number of hosted websites | Unlimited | 1 to unlimited |
| Free Site Migration | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 live chat, phone, email, knowledge base | 24/7 live chat, phone, email, knowledge base |
| Money-Back Guarantee | No, 3-day trial | 30 days |
SiteGround vs Cloudways: Hosting Plans & Pricing
Our first SiteGround vs Cloudways comparison will compare their value for money.
To do that, we first must establish which types of hosting they offer. SiteGround, as said, focuses on web hosting, or better said, a “special” type of it called managed WordPress hosting. That’s because SiteGround offers the said feature in every plan.
For example, HostGator has higher prices for managed WordPress hosting, making it disadvantageous. In addition, SiteGround lets you be a reseller and sell its resources, and finally, there are four cloud hosting plans you can buy at a slightly higher price.
Cloudways has a self-explanatory name; it’s a pure cloud hosting company.
To be exact, it’s a reseller hosting provider, which sells unmanaged cloud hosting from DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud as managed cloud hosting. Cloudways is famous for its flexibility and scalability, both of which benefit growing businesses.
How Much Does SiteGround Cost?
If cloud hosting isn’t your end-all-be-all solution, you won’t mind going for shared hosting. This is where SiteGround because of habitually cheaper plans that this time, start at only $3.99/mo for the StartUp plan. The GrowBig plan at $6.69/mo is also phenomenal.
This one, which is our recommendation, hosts unlimited sites, supports unlimited traffic, and comes with a SiteGround website builder, daily backups, free SSL, and more. The GoGeek plan expands upon it with more storage, white label, and other high-end features.
Now, we move to cloud storage and things are already getting pricier.
The Jump Start plan is the least expensive hosting offer here and costs $100/mo for 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, 400 GB of SSD storage, and 5 TB data transfer. The rest is displayed above but you can clearly see that SiteGround can get pretty expensive very quickly.
There’s the option to figure out your own cloud hosting plan by allocating CPU, memory, and SSD space exactly to your liking. Thus, you can go from 4 to 33 cores, from 8 GB to 130 GB of RAM, and from 40 GB to 1 TB of SSD storage if you need that much.
SiteGround is also a fully-managed service and you can scale automatically based on your needs. For instance, you can add one CPU core or even just 1 GB of RAM. Finally, there’s a 30-day refund policy for all plans in case you end up disappointed and want to quit.
How Much Does Cloudways Cost?
Cloudways should have a more straightforward pricing structure because it offers only one type of hosting. One high up in the clouds. However, that’s not the case because it “fetches” resources from five different companies, such as:
- DigitalOcean, which also owns Cloudways
- Vultr
- Linode
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)
- Google Cloud
Now, you can also choose from the so-called Premium (High Frequency) or Standard plans if you opt for Vultr or DigitalOcean respectively. Plus, you can choose to pay monthly or hourly, which we’ve never seen before.
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll mention only price and resource ranges:
| Price Range | RAM | CPU | Storage | |
| DigitalOcean | $14/mo to $487/mo (Premium), $11/mo to $1,056/mo (Standard) | 1 GB to 192 GB | 1 to 32 cores | 25 GB to 3,840 GB |
| Vultr | $16/mo to $405/mo (High Frequency), $14/mo to $400/mo (Standard) | 1 GB to 58 GB | 1 to 16 cores | 25 GB to 1,280 GB |
| Linode | $14/mo to $1,253/mo | 1 GB to 192 GB | 1 to 32 cores | 25 GB to 3,840 GB |
| AWS | $20.56/mo to $3,569.98/mo | 1 GB to 384 GB | 2 to 96 cores | 20 GB |
| Google Cloud | $37.45/mo to $1,593.58/mo | 1.75 GB to 64 GB | 1 to 64 cores | 20 GB |
Cloudways start at about $11/mo for the cheapest DigitalOcean cloud hosting plan with 1 GB of RAM, 1 CPU core, 25 GB of storage, and 1 TB of bandwidth. While the price is incredibly affordable for cloud storage, the resources you get are on the “slimmer” side.
You can always pay more to get more but as you see, Cloudways can get ridiculously expensive if you enjoy too much of your escapades. DigitalOcean and Vultr cloud resources are the most affordable, while AWS and Google Cloud can cost thousands of dollars.
Be aware that Cloudways also has a 3-day free trial to test it out without a credit card; SiteGround only has a 30-day refund policy and no free trial.
Which Provider Delivers the Best Value?
Flexibility-wise, Cloudways takes the reigns, especially because it also includes features like a firewall, free SSL, automated backups, Cloudflare CDN, and more. However, SiteGround also offers shared hosting plans, so you get a bit more freedom outside the “cloud” realm.
Despite being one of the best web hosting options, SiteGround starts at only $3.99/mo or $6.69/mo for hosting unlimited websites. Cloudways begins at $11/mo for an underwhelming proposition with fewer resources.
That said, comparing their cheapest plans, SiteGround is a slightly better value for money in general.
Cloudways vs SiteGround Performance Comparison
Since we established that SiteGround is more affordable than Cloudways, it’ll be interesting to see if it’s a better performer. Our SiteGround vs Cloudways test takes us to a full-on performance comparison across GTmetrix and Pingdom.
We used GTmetrix to test website speed, while Pingdom was used for response time and uptime analysis.
At the time of writing, we hosted two websites on US servers from Cloudways and SiteGround and used GTmetrix’s American server location for testing.
One more thing. We tried to make the comparison on par by “aligning” our plan selection in Cloudways to match SiteGround’s cheapest cloud hosting plan. Thus, we used DigitalOcean’s DO8GB plan with 8 GB of RAM and a 4-core CPU with 5 TB transfer.
It ideally mimics SiteGround’s Jump Start plan, making for a one-to-one evaluation.
GTmetrix Tests
Okay, so first up, we have GTmetrix tests whose results are in the table below:
| GTmetrix San Antonio, TX, USA Metrics | Cloudways | SiteGround |
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | 1.0 s | 1.2 s |
| FLT (Fully Loaded Time) | 1.4 s | 1.5 s |
| TBT (Total Blocking Time) | 27 ms | 20 ms |
| TTI (Time to Interactive) | 175 ms | 183 ms |
| FCP (First Contentful Paint) | 542 ms | 654 ms |
No doubt, these are some of the speediest hosting providers you can get.
Judging by our GTmetrix results, we can see that Cloudways is just a notch faster overall with the same computing resources. However, the performance difference is barely noticeable to the naked eye. If it weren’t for GTmetrix, we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Get Fast Loading Times With Cloudways
Uptime and Response Times
When it comes to uptimes, both providers adhere to the “golden standard” – 99.9%. One thing is a promise and another is delivery. To ensure they stuck to their promises, we used Pingdom and tested SiteGround and Cloudways for 6 months. This time, we did notice a difference in overall reliability, as Cloudways had significantly more downtime.
For example, in 6 months, Cloudways had 5 outages and more than 30 minutes of downtime. On the other hand, SiteGround’s had 3 minor outages and less than 10 minutes of downtime.
The Cloudways result isn’t terrible and the 99.98% uptime guarantee is still upheld. Response times for cloud hosting are usually lower than the “standard” of roughly 650 ms in shared hosting. When testing SiteGround vs Cloudways, we swiftly confirmed our theory.
- Cloudways had an average response time of 252 ms
- SiteGround had an average response time of 211 ms
In comparison, SiteGround’s shared hosting plans showed 339 ms in our tests. All the details can be found in our full review of SiteGround.
The great thing about both is that response times don’t fluctuate drastically. They usually hover between 210 ms and 290 ms, resulting in excellent results on both sides.
Enjoy Reliable Uptime With SiteGround
So, Cloudways offers superior loading times, while SiteGround wins in uptime and response times, making the speed test a tie.
Which Hosting Provider Is Easier to Use?
When comparing shared and cloud hosting, it’s important to address their ease of use. Cloudways isn’t as beginner-friendly as SiteGround. Cloud hosting, in general, usually isn’t used by beginners because of its intricate nature and more resources that beginners usually don’t need.
Cloudways
That said, Cloudways’ initial setup will be slightly different. The provider has a proprietary panel, which lets you access your bare virtual server. From here, it’s a playground and you can customize and personalize it to match your needs. This shouldn’t be an issue.
For example, Cloudways still offers a left-hand side menu where you can see your applications and settings, such as website monitoring, bot protection, backups, migration tools, etc. From here, you can also switch from different servers if you have multiple.
The Domain Management menu lets you add or delete domains as you see fit. Then, you can access the domain you want with a single click. We love the nifty search bar up top, which lets you promptly access specific apps or servers without digging too deep.
Keep in mind that Cloudways won’t do things automatically for you. You still need to install the desired CRM, for example, if you want to make a WordPress site, and “inject” your free SSL certificate to ensure proper website security and protection.
SiteGround
SiteGround’s in-house sPanel is a bit simpler to use in our book.
It’s also a lot smoother, as the panel functions on a single page, so sifting through menus and settings means the page won’t always load anew. The menu on the left is intuitive enough and allows you to access your domains, security features, and statistics.
Here, you’ll also find your WordPress settings and be able to update it and improve its performance through various optimization options. SiteGround also includes a search bar to find specific settings, plus, you can pin the most used tools at the top for easier access.
In our SiteGround vs Cloudways review, we found the former’s control panel a bit more customizable and beginner-friendly. Not to mention that the initial setup is more convenient, as SiteGround automatically installs your free SSL without hassle.
With everything said, we prefer SiteGround over Cloudways in this aspect.
Get Started With SiteGround Now
Website Setup Experience & Features
While these are primarily hosting companies, nowadays, web hosts offer website builders that allow you to create a website without opting for third-party options. However, you can also install WordPress and go this route, which is what most people end up doing.
How easy it is to start a website with Cloudways and SiteGround? Let’s see.
Cloudways
Cloudways gives you total control over how you want to start and build your site from the ground up. As this is a reseller hosting company, don’t expect a website builder. However, it does offer a fair share of supported CMS providers, such as:
- WordPress
- Magento
- WooCommerce
- Laravel
In Cloudways, they’re deemed Applications. So, on your dashboard, you need to go to the Applications menu, select “Add Application“, and then pick the server you want to install it on. From here, choose the preferred CMS – we used WordPress, for example.
Once you do this, Cloudways will install WordPress and it’ll be ready for your website.
As said, you’ll also have to install your SSL certificate. To do this, go to SSL Certificate on the left and choose “Let’s Encrypt” as a free option.
Provide your domain name, enter your email address, and click “Install Certificate“. But what about the domain name?
Well, Cloudways won’t assign it to you for free. You need to buy it beforehand or simply get a free domain name as explained here.
Once your domain name is purchased, you need to go to Domain Management on the left, enter the domain address, and press “Save Changes”. Cloudways takes quite a bit of time and effort to set up, especially if you’re new.
Heck, you’ll even need to point the domain to your server, which involves making an A record with the domain registrar, which, we’re sure, creates even more confusion. We recommend having Cloudways’ support team guide you through the initial setup.
SiteGround
SiteGround is a child’s play compared to Cloudways and that’s a huge relief.
After using Cloudways, we switched to SiteGround to give our brains some rest. It’s very relaxing here. Once you pay for the plan, you’ll need to get a domain name, which you can either buy elsewhere or through SiteGround. That’s a two-minute job.
Now, you can use your domain to either build a website with SiteGround’s website builder or install WordPress with a single click. Its website builder is a bit limited and won’t be as great as Wix which our experts reviewed recently. SiteGround’s focus is managed WordPress hosting.
For this reason, we chose to install WordPress.
To do this, simply select WordPress from the “New Website” menu, provide your email and password, and watch it install in seconds. As said, SiteGround installs your free SSL right away and you don’t have to point your domain to a server and jump through hoops.
SiteGround isn’t only simpler for website creation. It’s more flexible because it allows you to choose between a CMS, a website builder, or website migration, which is, by the way, free, so you won’t spend more money if you have a well-established website you want to use.
All of this results in another SiteGround’s triumph.
Features Analysis
In this SiteGround vs Cloudways comparison, we’ll focus on their cloud-specific features because there’s no point in comparing apples to oranges.
Both providers offer some impressive features in all of their cloud hosting plans, such as:
- Automated backups
- Free SSL
- Staging
- Caching
- Free CDN
- SFTP and SSH access
- Free website migrations
- Collaborators
Out of all of them, we found collaborators and staging most interesting.
Both Cloudways and SiteGround let you add collaborators, which can help you develop the website and work as a team. Better yet, you can manage your collaborators and assign different permissions, to ensure each does his/her job properly.
When it comes to staging, we think it’s important for those who love experimenting.
In the staging phase, you can replicate your website as many times as you want. From here, you can modify website copies as you want in case you, for instance, want to add new elements or improve optimization, without compromising the original site.
With a click of a button, in both providers, you can replace the original site with the desired copy and make all the changes go live. In addition to this, SiteGround offers a few WordPress-friendly features, one of which is dynamic caching via the SG Optimizer plugin.
Explore All Features of Cloudways
It’s SiteGround’s way of boosting WordPress and WooCommerce website performance.
Though, as of recently, Cloudways also includes its Object Cache Pro for 4+ GB RAM servers, which, paired with Cloudflare CDN, improves loading times and overall performance.
Let’s be honest – both are saturated with features and both will get points in this round.
Which One Is More Secure, SiteGround or Cloudways?
SiteGround offers secure web hosting and packs all the essentials you need. Cloudways doesn’t hold punches and retaliates with the same long list of security tools. No matter which one you choose, you’ll have free access to:
- Free SSL
- Advanced DDoS protection
- Malware scanning
- Automated backups
- Real-time monitoring
- Bot protection
- Web Application Firewall
- Brute Force protection, and more.
Cloudways offers auto-healing servers, which restart if the server faces issues, to ensure it runs smoothly. SiteGround offers various restoration variants, which help you restore databases and files through backups made preemptively on a remote server.
As managed WordPress hosting, SiteGround also packs its security plugin for WordPress, which further amplifies your WordPress website “composure”. One thing to note is that neither offers domain privacy, so this is a paid add-on, which costs roughly $20+/- a year.
When it comes to automated backups, neither will disappoint.
You get daily backups plus the option for on-demand backups and off-server copies for added convenience. These come at no additional cost, no matter the plan you choose! History repeats with another tie, which leads us to the last Cloudways vs SiteGround comparison.
Customer Support
The last comparison will analyze their support teams. Spoiler alert: they’re awesome!
SiteGround and Cloudways offer 24/7 live chat support.
They’re some of the fastest options we used. In Cloudways, for instance, the support team agent picked us up right away and before that happened, we were asked to provide an email in case of accidental disconnection. This is very useful if you suddenly lose Internet access.
Apart from live chat support, both sides allow you to send a ticket or simply contact the company via email. SiteGround, for example, lets you telephone the support team, which Cloudways allows in its Premium support add-ons where responses are also quicker.
If you don’t want to get in touch, you have overarching knowledge bases, FAQs, and guides, all of which will give you a broad overview of your issue and offer a solution. Generally, SiteGround is a bit more generous and doesn’t have the fancy “Premium” support add-on. This means you can use all means of support without limits.
As such, SiteGround has the upper hand over Cloudways in this round.
Summary: Pick SiteGround Over Cloudways
At the end of each Cloudways vs SiteGround round, we declared the winner. Yet, if we only do the math and count the score, our conclusion would be shallow. You wouldn’t get a clear picture. We’ll try our best to land the plane and give you a definitive answer. First of all, for the majority of people, SiteGround will be a superior choice.
This is because it’s more affordable, simpler to use, and more reliable in terms of uptime and response times. The fact that it also offers web hosting means you can start with hosting on a budget and expand to cloud hosting later on. Cloudways has different “politics” this time.
It confines you to cloud hosting, which, while amazing overall, won’t suit beginners. Furthermore, it’s a lot more complicated to set up and has occasional downtimes. Not to mention its prices, which can rapidly go up if you need more computing resources.
As cloud hosting, Cloudways is superior and more flexible than its rival. Overall, however, SiteGround seems to be a better option for most users, except for extreme resource needs, which only mid-size and large businesses have and don’t mind paying for.