7 Best Cloudways Alternatives in 2026

The Cloudways Markup Problem (With Numbers)

Cloudways is not a hosting company. They do not own servers. They do not operate datacenters. Cloudways is a management dashboard that sits on top of five cloud providers — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, and Google Cloud — and charges you a premium to use a nicer interface for infrastructure you could rent directly.

Here is what that premium actually looks like:

That markup pays for Cloudways' Nginx/Varnish stack configuration, their dashboard, automated backups, SSL management, and support. These are real services. The question is whether they are worth $8–21/mo per server when standalone management panels like RunCloud and Ploi charge $8/mo flat for equivalent functionality and you keep root access.

For a single small site, the difference is $100/year. Run five sites across two servers and you are looking at $500–1,000/year in markup alone. That is the calculus driving the migration wave away from Cloudways.

The Aiven Acquisition: What It Means for Cloudways Users

Cloudways has changed hands twice in three years. DigitalOcean bought it in 2022 for $350M. Then Aiven — a Finnish company that sells managed database services (Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch) — acquired Cloudways from DigitalOcean in late 2024.

This matters because Aiven's entire business is managed databases. They have no history in application hosting, WordPress management, or PHP deployment pipelines. The strategic logic of the acquisition appears to be cross-selling Cloudways' customer base on Aiven's database products — not investing in making Cloudways a better hosting platform.

Three things have happened since the acquisition that worry long-term users:

• Pricing continued upward. Plans that were $10/mo pre-DigitalOcean acquisition are now $14–16/mo. Each ownership change has brought price increases, never decreases.
• Product development has slowed. Cloudways' feature releases in 2025 focused on database integrations (Aiven's products) rather than hosting improvements. The management dashboard, deployment workflow, and server stack have seen minimal updates.
• Support quality reports are mixed. Cloudways built its reputation on responsive, knowledgeable support. Multiple community reports since the Aiven transition describe longer response times and less technical depth in first-line support. This pattern is common after acquisitions — the original team disperses and institutional knowledge leaves.

None of this means Cloudways will disappear tomorrow. The platform still works. But if you are choosing a hosting platform for the next 2–3 years, the ownership instability is a real risk factor. Every alternative on this list is either independently owned or backed by a parent company whose core business is actually hosting.

#1. ScalaHosting — Managed VPS Without the Infrastructure Markup

ScalaHosting is what Cloudways would look like if they owned their own hardware instead of reselling someone else's.

ScalaHosting runs managed VPS on infrastructure they actually control — their own servers in Dallas and Sofia datacenters, NVMe storage, and a proprietary control panel called SPanel that replaces cPanel without the licensing fees Cloudways would pass on to you. The entry managed VPS is $29.95/mo for 2 CPU cores, 4 GB RAM, and 50 GB NVMe. That includes full management, SShield security monitoring, daily backups, and — critically — root access.

The root access point matters. Cloudways locks you out of the server because their business model breaks if you can see what you are actually running on. ScalaHosting gives you root because they are selling the server, not a markup on someone else's server.

SPanel handles WordPress management, email accounts, DNS, SSL, file management, and database administration. Not as polished as cPanel, but it covers every workflow a Cloudways user would need — plus email hosting, which Cloudways has never offered. You would need Google Workspace ($7/mo per user) on Cloudways; ScalaHosting includes it.

The case for: Managed experience without the reseller markup. Root access, email hosting, and infrastructure ownership in one package.

The case against: Dallas-only US datacenter (30–40ms penalty for west coast audiences). SPanel is functional but utilitarian compared to Cloudways' UI.

#2. Vultr + RunCloud — DIY Management at a Fraction of the Cost

This is the combination that makes the Cloudways business model look indefensible.

Rent a Vultr High Frequency VPS directly: $6/mo for 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB NVMe. Install RunCloud on it: $8/mo for their Basic plan. Total: $14/mo. For that price, you get the same Nginx + PHP-FPM stack Cloudways configures, plus root access, plus you own the server, plus RunCloud's management dashboard handles SSL, backups, WordPress staging, and Git deployments.

Cloudways charges $16/mo for the same Vultr HF 1GB instance. You pay $2 more and get less — no root access, no server portability, no ability to install custom software.

At the 2GB tier, the gap widens. Vultr HF 2GB ($12/mo) + RunCloud ($8/mo) = $20/mo. Cloudways charges $33/mo for the same Vultr 2GB. That is $13/mo in pure markup — $156/year per server — for a management layer that RunCloud replaces entirely.

RunCloud's dashboard is genuinely good. I have used it on 12 servers over two years and the WordPress toolkit — staging, cloning, cache management, security hardening — matches or exceeds Cloudways. Initial setup: deploy a Vultr server, paste connection details into RunCloud, done in 10 minutes. After that, the daily experience is indistinguishable from Cloudways.

The case for: Maximum value. Infrastructure cost + flat $8/mo management fee. Agencies running 5+ servers save $600–1,500/year vs Cloudways.

The case against: You handle OS-level updates and security patches. RunCloud manages the application stack (Nginx, PHP, MySQL), but kernel updates and firewall are on you. If "zero server thinking" is your requirement, ScalaHosting or Liquid Web fits better.

#3. DigitalOcean + ServerPilot — The Original Cloudways Killer

Before RunCloud and Ploi existed, ServerPilot was the panel people used to avoid Cloudways' markup on DigitalOcean droplets. It still works, and for straightforward PHP/WordPress hosting, it is the simplest option available.

DigitalOcean Droplet ($6/mo for 1 GB) + ServerPilot ($5/mo Economy plan) = $11/mo. Cloudways charges $14/mo for the same DigitalOcean 1GB infrastructure. That is a 27% saving, and you get root access, server ownership, and ServerPilot's auto-configured Nginx + Apache + PHP stack.

ServerPilot's philosophy is minimalism. It does exactly four things well: configures your web server, manages PHP versions, handles SSL certificates, and provides a simple dashboard for creating sites. No Git deployments, no staging environments, no Redis management. If you need those features, look at RunCloud or Ploi. If you just want WordPress running on your own server without touching the command line, ServerPilot is the path of least resistance.

A detail worth noting: ServerPilot has a genuine free tier. One server, unlimited sites, no expiration. You can run DigitalOcean + ServerPilot for $6/mo total — the cost of infrastructure alone — and see if self-management works for you before committing to a paid panel. Cloudways' 3-day free trial barely gives you time to configure a site, let alone evaluate the platform.

The case for DO + ServerPilot: Cheapest viable Cloudways replacement. The $6/mo free-tier option is unbeatable for testing. DigitalOcean's ecosystem (managed databases, Spaces object storage, App Platform) means you can grow without switching providers.

The case against: ServerPilot is bare-bones compared to RunCloud or Ploi. No staging, no Git, no queue workers. If you outgrow ServerPilot's feature set, you will end up migrating to RunCloud anyway — might as well start there.

#4. Hetzner + Ploi — European Value Meets Modern Deployment

If raw price-to-performance is your primary metric, nothing in the Cloudways alternative space touches Hetzner + Ploi.

Hetzner's CX22 gives you 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, and 40 GB NVMe for €3.99/mo (~$4.35/mo). Add Ploi at $8/mo and your total is roughly $12.35/mo for a server that would cost $28–33/mo on Cloudways with comparable specs. That is not a small difference — it is a 55–63% reduction in monthly cost for equivalent or better hardware.

Ploi is the panel choice here because it matches Cloudways feature-for-feature better than any competitor. One-click site provisioning, automatic SSL, scheduled backups, WordPress/Laravel/Node deployment recipes, Redis and queue management, database GUI, and Git-based deployments from GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Ploi's interface is cleaner than RunCloud's and the deployment workflow is faster. For Laravel and PHP applications specifically, Ploi is the best management panel available.

The caveat: Hetzner's US presence is limited to Ashburn, Virginia. If you need west coast or central US locations, Vultr (9 US datacenters) or Kamatera (4 US locations) are better infrastructure choices with Ploi. But for east coast US audiences or European traffic, Hetzner's price-to-performance ratio is extraordinary — you are getting 2x the resources of a comparable Cloudways plan at less than half the price.

The case for Hetzner + Ploi: Best value in managed hosting, period. Double the resources at half the price. Ploi's deployment workflow is best-in-class for PHP and Laravel. Hetzner's AMD EPYC processors outperform DigitalOcean and Vultr's shared CPU offerings in CPU-bound tasks.

The case against: Single US datacenter (Ashburn). Hetzner's support is email-only with European business hours — if your server has a hardware issue at 2 AM EST, you may wait 6+ hours for a response. This is infrastructure support, not application support; Ploi handles the application layer regardless.

#5. Liquid Web — Fully Managed Without the Infrastructure Middleman

Liquid Web is the answer to a different question than the other alternatives on this list. Everyone else addresses Cloudways' markup problem. Liquid Web addresses the management quality problem.

If you are leaving Cloudways because the support got worse after the Aiven acquisition, because the 99.99% uptime SLA is not actually guaranteed with financial penalties, or because there is no phone number to call when your site is down at 3 AM — Liquid Web solves all of that. They own and operate their own hardware in data centers in Lansing, Michigan and Phoenix, Arizona. Their "Heroic Support" team answers the phone 24/7 with a documented 59-minute initial response SLA. Their uptime SLA is 100% with service credits if they miss it.

The trade-off is price. Liquid Web's managed VPS starts at $25/mo for 2 GB RAM. That is more than Cloudways and significantly more than the panel + VPS combinations above. But you are comparing different products. Cloudways resells other people's infrastructure with a dashboard on top. Liquid Web owns the metal your application runs on, employs the people who maintain it, and puts their phone number on the website.

For WooCommerce specifically, Liquid Web's managed plans include automatic plugin updates, storebuilder tools, abandoned cart recovery, and performance optimization tuned for commerce. Cloudways offers none of these commerce-specific features.

The case for: Hosting you can trust with a business. Phone support, own infrastructure, 100% uptime SLA, 25+ years of operation. The premium buys accountability a reseller cannot provide.

The case against: Price. If Cloudways' markup was your complaint, Liquid Web costs more, not less. Only makes sense when management quality and reliability outweigh cost.

#6. Kamatera — Custom Configs + Your Own Management Stack

Kamatera takes a fundamentally different approach than Cloudways. Instead of pre-packaged plans with fixed resources, Kamatera lets you configure exactly the CPU, RAM, storage, and bandwidth you need — then charges you for what you actually use.

Need 4 vCPUs but only 2 GB RAM? Kamatera can do that. Need 32 GB RAM but only 1 vCPU for a database server? That too. Cloudways forces you into rigid plan tiers where you inevitably pay for resources you do not use. Kamatera's pricing starts at $4/mo for a 1 vCPU / 1 GB configuration and scales linearly — no surprise jumps between tiers.

The management layer is where Kamatera differs from the panel + VPS options above. Kamatera does not have a built-in application management panel like Cloudways. You bring your own — install RunCloud, Ploi, ServerPilot, or manage the server manually via SSH. This is the most flexible approach but requires you to choose and configure a management tool yourself.

Kamatera's 30-day free trial with $100 credit is the most generous in the industry. You can provision a real server, install a management panel, migrate a site, and run it for a full month before spending a dollar. Cloudways gives you 3 days.

The four US locations (New York, Dallas, San Jose, Miami) provide solid geographic coverage. Strong for applications with specific resource requirements — memory-heavy databases, CPU-intensive processing, high-bandwidth media — where Cloudways' fixed tiers force you to overpay.

The case for: Maximum flexibility. Custom configs, 4 US locations, $100 free trial, hourly billing. Pair with RunCloud or Ploi for managed hosting at exactly the resources your app needs.

The case against: No built-in management panel — add $5–8/mo for RunCloud/Ploi. Dashboard is functional but dated. Support covers infrastructure, not application debugging.

#7. Hostinger VPS — Beginner-Friendly Managed at Half the Price

Hostinger occupies the space Cloudways used to occupy before the price increases: affordable managed VPS for people who do not want to think about servers.

Hostinger's VPS plans start at $5.99/mo for 1 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe, and 4 TB bandwidth. Read that again — $5.99/mo for 4 GB RAM. Cloudways charges $28/mo for 2 GB RAM on DigitalOcean. Hostinger includes a management panel, AI-assisted setup, WordPress optimization, and 24/7 support. The value gap is stark.

The management experience targets beginners. One-click WordPress, SSL and DNS configuration, website builder integration. Less powerful than RunCloud or Ploi — no Git deployments, limited staging, no queue workers — but for 1–3 WordPress sites where you just want things to work, Hostinger removes more friction than Cloudways at less than half the price.

The pricing requires context. Hostinger's $5.99/mo rate is typically the promotional price for a 48-month commitment. Monthly billing is higher. Cloudways bills monthly with no commitment required. If you are comparing true monthly costs, the gap narrows but Hostinger still wins significantly on price-to-resources ratio.

The case for: Best entry point for beginners. More resources at a fraction of the cost. No third-party panel needed. Good for personal sites, small businesses, and WordPress blogs.

The case against: Promotional pricing requires long commitment. Panel is simpler than RunCloud/Ploi — power users hit limits quickly. I/O performance trails Vultr and Hetzner in our benchmarks.

Cloudways vs All 7 Alternatives — Full Comparison

How to Choose Your Cloudways Replacement

The right alternative depends on why you are leaving Cloudways in the first place. Different complaints point to different solutions:

Leaving because of the markup? Go with Vultr + RunCloud or Hetzner + Ploi. You will save 40–60% while gaining root access and server ownership. The setup takes 10 minutes and the daily experience is comparable to Cloudways.

Leaving because of the Aiven acquisition uncertainty? Choose a provider that owns their infrastructure and has a stable ownership structure. ScalaHosting (private, bootstrapped) or Liquid Web (25+ years, owned by Nexcess parent company) are the safest long-term bets.

Leaving because you need root access? Every single alternative on this list provides root access. Cloudways is the only option in the managed VPS space that still restricts it. Pick based on your other priorities and root access comes included.

Leaving because support quality dropped? Liquid Web is the clear answer — 24/7 phone support with a 59-minute SLA. If that is too expensive, ScalaHosting offers responsive ticket and chat support from a team that has not been through two acquisitions in three years.

New to all of this and overwhelmed? Hostinger VPS at $5.99/mo removes complexity while giving you 2–4x the resources Cloudways offers at the same price point. The AI-assisted setup means you do not need to know what Nginx is to get a WordPress site running.

Leaving mainly to cut cost and you are fine managing the box? Skip the managed layer and rent US VPS directly. InterServer is the cheap, month-to-month US option we already cover for price-first buyers (NYC / LA / Dallas). Pair with RunCloud later if you miss a dashboard, or stay unmanaged. See current InterServer plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Cloudways mark up infrastructure costs?

Cloudways marks up underlying cloud infrastructure by 40–167% depending on the provider and plan tier. A $6/mo DigitalOcean droplet becomes $14/mo on Cloudways. A $6/mo Vultr High Frequency instance becomes $16/mo. AWS and Google Cloud markups are even steeper on higher tiers. You are paying for Cloudways' management layer, but that layer costs more than many dedicated server management panels that give you more control.

What happened after Aiven acquired Cloudways from DigitalOcean?

Aiven acquired Cloudways from DigitalOcean in late 2024. Aiven is a database-as-a-service company, not a hosting company. The long-term product direction is uncertain — Aiven's core business is managed databases (Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis), not WordPress or PHP application hosting. Pricing has continued to creep upward, and some users report the support quality that made Cloudways popular has degraded under new ownership. Whether Cloudways remains a standalone product or gets folded into Aiven's database platform is an open question heading into 2026.

Can I get managed hosting without Cloudways' markup?

Yes. Two approaches work: (1) Use a server management panel like RunCloud ($8/mo) or Ploi ($8/mo) on a VPS you rent directly from Vultr, DigitalOcean, or Hetzner. Total cost is $11–16/mo with full root access. (2) Use a managed VPS provider like ScalaHosting or Liquid Web that includes management in the price without marking up third-party infrastructure. Both approaches eliminate the middleman markup that makes Cloudways expensive for what you actually get.

Why doesn't Cloudways give root access?

Cloudways restricts root access because their business model depends on controlling the server stack. If you had root access, you could see exactly what infrastructure you are running on and replicate their Nginx/Varnish/PHP-FPM configuration yourself for a fraction of the cost. The managed layer IS the product — and restricting root access prevents you from realizing you could build the same setup for 40–60% less. Some alternatives like ScalaHosting provide full management AND root access, proving these two things are not mutually exclusive.

Is RunCloud + Vultr really comparable to Cloudways?

For PHP and WordPress hosting, RunCloud + Vultr provides equivalent or better functionality. RunCloud handles Nginx configuration, PHP-FPM management, SSL certificates, scheduled backups, WordPress staging, and Git deployments. The key differences: you get root access (Cloudways does not offer this), you own the server (portable to any provider), and RunCloud supports more PHP frameworks natively. The trade-off is that initial server provisioning takes 5–10 minutes of setup instead of Cloudways' one-click flow. After that, daily management is effectively identical.

How do I migrate from Cloudways to a self-managed VPS?

Step 1: Provision a new VPS on Vultr, DigitalOcean, or Hetzner. Step 2: Install your management panel (RunCloud, Ploi, or ServerPilot). Step 3: Create a site on the new server with matching PHP version. Step 4: Export your database and files from Cloudways (SFTP + mysqldump, or use a WordPress migration plugin like All-in-One WP Migration). Step 5: Import on the new server. Step 6: Lower DNS TTL to 300 seconds, wait 24 hours, then update DNS. The whole process takes 2–4 hours for a typical WordPress site. The hardest part is replicating Cloudways' Varnish caching — most panels use Redis or Nginx FastCGI cache instead, which actually performs better for WordPress.

Which Cloudways alternative is best for WordPress specifically?

ScalaHosting if you want fully managed with zero server work — SPanel includes a WordPress manager, automatic updates, and staging. Vultr + RunCloud if you want WordPress management with root access and server control — RunCloud's WordPress toolkit handles staging, cloning, backups, and cache management. Hostinger VPS if you are on a tight budget — their managed VPS starts at $5.99/mo with a WordPress-optimized stack and AI-assisted setup. All three outperform Cloudways on price-to-performance ratio for WordPress workloads.

Does Cloudways own any infrastructure?

No. Cloudways does not own any servers or datacenters. They are a management layer on top of five cloud providers: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode (now Akamai), AWS, and Google Cloud. When you pay Cloudways $14/mo, they rent a $6 DigitalOcean droplet and keep the $8 difference as their margin. This is the core of the markup problem — you are paying a premium for a management dashboard that alternatives like RunCloud ($8/mo flat) or ScalaHosting (no markup, owns infrastructure) can replace while giving you more control.

Is Liquid Web overkill if I'm coming from Cloudways?

Depends on what drove you to Cloudways in the first place. If you chose Cloudways because it was cheap and easy, then yes — Liquid Web starts at $25/mo and targets businesses where downtime has real revenue impact. But if you are leaving Cloudways because the management layer is not good enough (slow support, limited configurations, no phone support), Liquid Web is the upgrade path. They own their own hardware, staff 24/7 phone support with a 59-minute response SLA, and provide a 100% uptime guarantee. The price premium buys infrastructure ownership and accountability that a reseller like Cloudways structurally cannot provide.