Cloudways
vs
DigitalOcean
Cloudways layers managed WordPress hosting on servers from clouds including DigitalOcean, while DigitalOcean sells the Droplets directly at lower prices with Kubernetes, managed databases and GPUs.
What's good about each
- Deploy to 65+ datacenter regions across multiple cloud providers
- Built-in cache, database, and CDN integration
- Offers free SSL, staging environments, and automated backups
- Monthly price caps on bundled Droplet plans
- Nvidia and AMD GPU Droplets, plus bare metal
- Outbound traffic allowance shared across the whole account
- Large tutorial library and 1-click app marketplace
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Cloudways | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $11.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (DO1GB) | $6.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic) | 45% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Medium VM | $88.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (DO8GB) | $48.00 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (Basic) | 45% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
| Large VM | $149.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (DO16GB) | $168.00 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (CPU-Optimized) | 11% cheaper on Cloudways |
| Block storage | -- Not listed | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | |
| Object storage | -- Not listed | $20.00 /mo 1 TB | |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $60.90 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 60 GB storage | |
| Redis | Included depending on plan | $15.00 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (Valkey) | |
| Load balancer | -- Not listed | $12.00 /mo Regional HTTP, 1 node | |
| Serverless | -- Not listed | $34.69 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | |
| Egress allowance | 1-12 TB / mo | 500 GB - 12 TB / mo per instance, pooled | |
| Egress | $20.00 /TB $0.02 / GB (DO provider) | $10.00 /TB $0.01 / GB | 50% cheaper on DigitalOcean |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
DigitalOcean offers 10 GPU models. We track no GPU listings from Cloudways. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Cloudways | DigitalOcean | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
H100
3 configs
|
-- | $3.26 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
B300
2 configs
|
-- | $7.94 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
H200
3 configs
|
-- | $3.40 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
MI300X
3 configs
|
-- | $1.91 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI355X
1 config
|
-- | $4.50 /GPU/hr Spot | DigitalOcean only |
|
L40S
1 config
|
-- | $1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | DigitalOcean only |
|
RTX 6000 Ada
1 config
|
-- | $1.57 /GPU/hr On-demand | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI325X
3 configs
|
-- | $2.88 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | DigitalOcean only |
|
RTX 4000 Ada
1 config
|
-- | $0.76 /GPU/hr On-demand | DigitalOcean only |
|
MI350X
2 configs
|
-- | $4.00 /GPU/hr Spot | DigitalOcean only |
DigitalOcean bills on-demand, spot and reserved (12 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Cloudways | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | -- | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | -- | Data centers only |
| HIPAA | -- | Yes |
| GDPR | -- | Yes |
| PCI DSS | -- | SAQ-A |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Cloudways | DigitalOcean |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Locations | -- | 16 |
| Example customers | Stone Digital, BlueSkyPhoenix, DigiPix, PlatoData.io, James Schramko | Crisp, ScraperAPI, GHost, and CTO.ai |
| Website | www.cloudways.com | digitalocean.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Cloudways and DigitalOcean against other cloud providers.
Our data for Cloudways was last updated on Sept. 18, 2026, and for DigitalOcean on Sept. 21, 2026.