Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Cloudways Comparison
Compare Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Cloudways features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
7.9/10
Amazon's public cloud platform, with over 200 pay-as-you-go services for compute, storage, databases, networking and AI, used by startups through large enterprises and governments.
Cloudways
7/10
Managed cloud hosting platform that runs WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel and PHP apps on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud servers.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.9/10 | 7/10 |
| Analytics | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Cost | 5/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 10/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4/10 | 8/10 |
| Integration | 10/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 10/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Cloudways cost by team size
Amazon Web Services (AWS) costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Cloudways |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree plan | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
| 5 users | FreeFree plan | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
| 10 users | FreeFree plan | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
| 25 users | FreeFree plan | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
| 50 users | FreeFree plan | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Has a free plan (Cloudways does not)
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $14/mo
- Higher Customization score (10/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Integration score (10/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose Cloudways
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for small business (7/10 vs 5/10)
Pros & Cons
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Pros
- The service catalogue is unusually broad, with over 200 services across 38 regions, so most infrastructure needs can be met on one platform.
- EC2 has a 99.99% region-level SLA with credits of up to 100%, and instances unavailable for more than six minutes in an hour are not billed for that hour.
- The free plan gives up to $200 in credits, and more than 30 always-free services let new teams experiment at low cost.
- Support scales from a $29 minimum up to dedicated Enterprise and Unified Operations tiers for mission-critical workloads.
- G2 rates it 4.4 across more than 17,000 reviews, and reviewers praise its scalability and global reach.
Cons
- Reviewers widely cite a steep learning curve across the console and services.
- Usage pricing is complex and can produce unexpected bills unless spend is monitored closely.
- Paid support is billed as a percentage of total AWS spend, so support costs rise with usage.
- A July 2025 billing console bug showed customers estimated charges in the billions, which hurt trust in its cost tooling.
Cloudways
Pros
- You can choose from five cloud providers and more than 50 locations from one control panel.
- Hourly pay-as-you-go billing, with a 5-day trial that needs no credit card.
- Every server includes free SSL, Layer 3 and 4 DDoS mitigation, a firewall and offsite backups.
- Agencies get one-click staging, cloning and Git auto-deployment for many client sites.
- Ratings are strong, at about 4.7 on G2 and 4.6 on Trustpilot.
Cons
- Email hosting and domain registration are not included.
- Billing gets hard to track once add-ons and bandwidth overages are added, and some reviewers report charges after cancelling.
- Some reviewers say support quality has dropped since the DigitalOcean acquisition.
- Power users report limited low-level control.
- Phone support requires a paid premium support add-on.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Amazon Web Services (AWS) scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.9/10 against 7/10 for Cloudways. The largest gap is in Customization: 10/10 for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and 6/10 for Cloudways.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) costs less for 10 users: free on its Free plan, against about $14/mo on its Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) plan for Cloudways, billed monthly.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a free plan; Cloudways does not list one.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the better fit for developers: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 6/10 for Cloudways.
