Cloudways vs DigitalOcean

Cloudways provides a managed layer on top of infrastructure providers like DigitalOcean. While DigitalOcean itself offers unmanaged servers and a broader PaaS suite (App Platform, Functions) at a lower base cost.

What's good about...

Cloudways logo Cloudways

  • Deploy to 65+ datacenter regions across multiple cloud providers
  • Built-in cache, database, and CDN integration
  • Offers free SSL, staging environments, and automated backups

DigitalOcean logo DigitalOcean

  • Simple, developer-first cloud
  • Predictable pricing & monthly caps
  • AI platform powered by Paperspace GPUs
  • Vast library of tutorials & 1-click apps

Price comparison

How do Cloudways's prices compare against DigitalOcean?

VM Small

Closest config to 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM.
Cloudways Cloudways
$11.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (DO1GB)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$6.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic)

VM Medium

Closest config to 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM.
Cloudways Cloudways
$88.00 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (DO8GB)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$48.00 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic)

VM Large

Closest config to 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (dedicated preferred).
Cloudways Cloudways
$149.00 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (DO16GB)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$168.00 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized)

Block Storage

Closest config to 100+ GB SSD, 3,000+ IOPS, 100+ MB/s throughput, no snapshots.
Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$10.00 / mo 100 GB

Object Storage

Closest config to 1 TB stored, 100 GB in / 250 GB out, 1M GET, 100k PUT/POST.
Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$20.00 / mo 1 TiB

Load Balancer

Closest config to TCP, 1 node (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM), 200+ Mbps, 1,000 conn/sec, 1 TB processed/mo.
Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$12.00 / mo

Managed PostgreSQL

Closest config to 1 node, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50+ GB storage, 10 GB read / 5 GB write per month.
Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$60.00 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage

Managed Redis®*

Closest config to 1 node, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 req/s, 1 KB avg request size.
Cloudways Cloudways
Included depending on plan
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$15.00 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM

Serverless 25M Executions

Closest config to 25M invocations, 150ms execution time, 512 MB memory.
Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$34.69 / mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration

Free egress allowance

Cloudways Cloudways
1-12 TB / mo
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
100 GB - 10 TB / mo per instance

1 TB of egress beyond allowance

Cloudways Cloudways
$20.00 $0.02 / GB (DO provider)
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$10.00 $0.01 / GB

GPU Fleet Overview

Starting Price

Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
$0.76/hr

Billing Options

Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
On-DemandReserved (12mo)

Available Models

DigitalOcean offers 8 GPU models.

Heads up: We do our best to keep these specs & prices accurate. However, cloud costs may fluctuate based on region, usage, and other factors not listed here. These are estimates based on common setups and are for informational purposes only. Always verify current rates & exact specs with the provider before provisioning.

Which services do they offer

Company details

Website
Cloudways Cloudways
www.cloudways.com
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
digitalocean.com
Headquarters
Cloudways Cloudways
United States of America
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
United States of America
Founded
Cloudways Cloudways
2012
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
2011
Data Center Locations
Cloudways Cloudways
--
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
14
Example Customers
Cloudways Cloudways
Stone Digital, BlueSkyPhoenix, DigiPix, PlatoData.io, James Schramko
DigitalOcean DigitalOcean
Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai

Alternatives to consider

Compare Cloudways and DigitalOcean against other cloud providers.

View all comparisons

Our data for Cloudways was last updated on Feb. 12, 2026, and for DigitalOcean on June 12, 2026.