Cloudways vs Hetzner: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Cloudways and Hetzner to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
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.
Hetzner
6.4/10
German hosting provider offering cloud servers, dedicated servers, S3-compatible object storage and shared web hosting at low prices for developers and businesses.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 6.4/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 9/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/mo Webhosting S |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/mo Webhosting S |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| DDoS Protection | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs Hetzner cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudways | Hetzner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/moWebhosting S |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €2/moWebhosting S |
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 Cloudways
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose Hetzner
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Customization score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
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.
Hetzner
Pros
- Compute is still cheaper than DigitalOcean, Linode or Vultr and several times cheaper than the hyperscalers, even after the 2026 price rises.
- Cloud servers are billed hourly with a monthly cap, and firewalls and private networks are included at no extra cost.
- Infrastructure can be automated through a REST API, a CLI, and integrations for Terraform, Ansible and Kubernetes.
- Hetzner owns its data centers in Germany and Finland, which suits teams that need EU data residency.
- Object storage includes 1 TB of storage and 1 TB of egress for a flat base price.
Cons
- Prices rose by about 30 to 37 percent in April 2026, the second increase in about 18 months.
- US cloud bandwidth allowances were cut sharply in December 2024.
- Reviewers often report strict identity checks that block or close new accounts.
- There is no 24/7 chat support, and some reviewers say support is slow to respond.
- Managed services are limited compared with the hyperscalers, so most of the stack is self-managed.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 6.4/10 for Hetzner. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Cloudways and 4/10 for Hetzner.
No, neither Cloudways nor Hetzner lists a free plan.
Hetzner is the better fit for developers: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 6/10 for Cloudways.
