Cloudways pricing explained: the same 1 GB server costs $11 to $37 depending on the cloud you pick

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Cloudways does not own servers. It rents them from five clouds (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud), installs and runs the software stack, and sells the result as one monthly price. That makes its pricing page more confusing than most: the same "Micro" plan has five different prices. We read every plan on it, and the FAQ that explains how you are billed.

The four smallest plans on each cloud

These are the plan cards Cloudways shows first for each cloud. Every plan includes Cloudways' managed stack, unlimited sites and unlimited visits.

The empty hourly cells are ones we did not record; the monthly price is what the card shows. Larger sizes exist on every cloud (on DigitalOcean up to 192 GB) and are chosen with a slider on the pricing page. AWS and Google Cloud prices vary by region, as the FAQ says; the cards show one price.

Read the AWS and Google Cloud rows twice. They include 2 GB and 1 GB of transfer a month, not terabytes, and 20 GB of disk. Everything above that is billed by use.

What it costs compared with buying the server yourself

On the three clouds that also sell to the public at a flat price, the same size bought directly costs about half:

The direct prices are from each provider's own pricing page on 2 Oct 2026, as listed in our price-per-GB comparison. The difference is what you pay Cloudways to run the server: installing and patching the stack, backups, monitoring, staging copies and 24/7 support. Whether that is worth $5 to $35 a month is the question in Cloudways vs your own VPS with Coolify.

On DigitalOcean the gap is smallest. That is the cloud to pick unless you have a reason to need another one.

How you are billed

From Cloudways' pricing FAQ:

• By the hour, no contract. "Cloudways charges you hourly." Changing plan mid-month shows up immediately on the invoice.
• Charged afterwards. Cloudways uses "post-billing" and charges "in arrears": invoices are issued in the first week of each month for the previous month's use.
• Tax on top. All listed prices exclude tax. Cloudways says that "as part of DigitalOcean LLC" it collects VAT, GST or sales tax in some countries and US states, shown as a separate line. Registered businesses can submit a tax ID to be exempted on future invoices.
• Regional prices on AWS and Google Cloud. North America and Europe are generally cheaper than Asia Pacific and South America.

What costs extra

On DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode the plan includes 1 to 5 TB of transfer, which a small site will not use up. On AWS, 2 GB is a few thousand page views; a site with real traffic should budget for bandwidth.

The free trial

Cloudways offers a 3-day trial of its Flexible plans "without a credit card". The FAQ describes it as "no risk, no obligation, no credit card required and you can cancel anytime". It is not available on Google Cloud: you need to upgrade your account to launch servers there.

Three days is enough to launch a server, migrate a copy of a site and look at the speed and the control panel. Here is how to use the trial.

Which plan for what

1. One WordPress or PHP site, small traffic: DigitalOcean Standard Micro, $11. Move up to Small ($24) if it is a shop or runs WooCommerce.
2. Several client sites on one server: DigitalOcean Standard Medium, $46: 4 GB and 4 TB of transfer, unlimited sites.
3. Faster disks for the same size: DigitalOcean Premium, $3 to $11 more than Standard.
4. You must be on AWS or Google Cloud (a client requirement, a region): expect two to four times the price for the same memory, plus bandwidth.

Start with the Cloudways trial on DigitalOcean; it takes minutes to launch a server and costs nothing for three days.

What we have not tested

How fast a Cloudways server is, how good the support is, and what a migration is like. We plan to run the trial, time the server launch and migrate a test site; the numbers will be published as a hands-on review and linked from here.

FAQ

How much does Cloudways cost per month?

On 3 Oct 2026 the smallest Cloudways server cost $11 a month on DigitalOcean (1 GB, 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD), $14 on Vultr or Linode, $20.56 on AWS and $37.33 on Google Cloud. Taxes are added on top where they apply.

Does Cloudways charge monthly or hourly?

Hourly. You pay only for the hours a server runs, and Cloudways invoices in arrears in the first week of each month for the previous month. There is no contract.

Is there a Cloudways free trial?

Yes, a 3-day trial without a credit card. It is not available on Google Cloud servers.

Why is Cloudways more expensive on AWS and Google Cloud?

Cloudways passes on each cloud's own infrastructure prices, which are higher on AWS and Google Cloud and vary by region. Their plans also include only 1 to 2 GB of transfer a month; extra bandwidth costs $0.12 per GB on AWS and $0.10 to $0.17 on Google Cloud.

Is Cloudways cheaper than buying a server directly?

No. The same 1 GB server costs $6 a month directly from DigitalOcean and $11 through Cloudways. The difference pays for Cloudways managing the server: the stack, updates, backups, monitoring and support.