VPS and app hosting · head to head
Cloudways vs DigitalOcean
What each costs, whether there's a free plan, and what each is best for, from prices checked on their own sites.
| Fact |  Cloudways |  DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| From | $11/mo | $4/mo |
| Free plan | Yes · 3-day free trial, no card | Yes · $5 signup credit, applied automatically when you create your first team |
| Best for | Managed hosting on top of DigitalOcean, AWS and Google Cloud servers. | Simple managed apps next to other DigitalOcean services |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
| Website | Visit | Visit |
The difference in short
- DigitalOcean costs less to start: $4/mo against $11/mo for Cloudways.
- Both have a free plan, trial or credit to start with.
Cloudways pricing
All about Cloudways| Plan | Price | Specs / includes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean Standard (SSD) 1 GB - Micro | $11/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 25 GB SSD | pay-as-you-go hourly ($0.0164/hr), billed monthly in arrears; prices exclude taxes. Provider = DigitalOcean, server type Basic, Standard toggle. |
| DigitalOcean Standard (SSD) 2 GB - Small | $24/mo | 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 50 GB SSD | pay-as-you-go hourly ($0.0357/hr), billed monthly in arrears; excl. taxes |
| DigitalOcean Standard (SSD) 4 GB - Medium | $46/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GB SSD | pay-as-you-go hourly ($0.0685/hr), billed monthly in arrears; excl. taxes. Labelled 'Most popular'. 8 GB / 4 vCPU / 160 GB is $88/mo. |
| DigitalOcean Premium (NVMe) 1 GB - Micro | $14/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 25 GB NVMe | pay-as-you-go hourly ($0.0208/hr), billed monthly in arrears; excl. taxes. This Premium (NVMe) view is the page default. |
| DigitalOcean Premium (NVMe) 2 GB - Small | $28/mo | 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 50 GB NVMe | pay-as-you-go hourly ($0.0417/hr), billed monthly in arrears; excl. taxes |
| DigitalOcean Premium (NVMe) 4 GB - Medium | $54/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GB NVMe | pay-as-you-go hourly ($0.0804/hr), billed monthly in arrears; excl. taxes. 8 GB / 4 vCPU / 160 GB NVMe is $99/mo. |
DigitalOcean pricing
All about DigitalOcean| Plan | Price | Specs / includes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Droplet 512 MiB | $4/mo | 1 vCPU · 0.5 GB RAM · 10 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.00595/hr). Regular CPU option. |
| Basic Droplet 1 GiB | $6/mo | 1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 25 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.00893/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 2 GiB (1 vCPU) | $12/mo | 1 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 50 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.01786/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 2 GiB (2 vCPU) | $18/mo | 2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 60 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.02679/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 4 GiB | $24/mo | 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM · 80 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.03571/hr) |
| Basic Droplet 8 GiB | $48/mo | 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 160 GiB SSD | hourly/per-second billing, capped at the monthly price ($0.07143/hr). 16 GiB / 8 vCPU / 320 GiB is $96/mo ($0.14286/hr). |
What's good, and what to watch for
Cloudways
Managed hosting on top of DigitalOcean, AWS and Google Cloud servers.
DigitalOcean
- Billed per second with a one-minute minimum; jobs bill only while running
- The transfer allowance is pooled across all apps in the team
- Development Postgres database for $7 a month
- Autoscaling works only on dedicated-CPU plans, from $29/month
- The $5 size can't scale; transfer beyond the allowance is $0.02/GiB
- Autoscaling works only on dedicated-CPU instances, not shared ones
Other VPS and app hosting options
Cheapest first where the prices compare.
Fly.io
Vultr
Hostinger
UpCloudFAQ
Which is cheaper, Cloudways or DigitalOcean?
DigitalOcean costs less to start: $4/mo against $11/mo for Cloudways. Prices checked Oct 18, 2026 on each company's own site.
Do Cloudways and DigitalOcean have a free plan?
Cloudways: Yes. 3-day free trial, no card. DigitalOcean: Yes: $5 signup credit, applied automatically when you create your first team.
What else should I compare with Cloudways and DigitalOcean?
Other VPS and app hosting options we've checked: Fly.io ($2.19/mo), Vultr ($2.50/mo), Hostinger ($2.99/mo), UpCloud ($3.50/mo).
Keep comparing
Built from the prices and facts we checked on each company's own site. We haven't tested either hands-on.How we work