Cloudways vs InterServer (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Cloudways is our pick, scoring 7/10 against 5.6/10 for InterServer on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 3/10). For 10 users, InterServer costs about $3/mo, against $14/mo for Cloudways; neither Cloudways nor InterServer lists a free plan.
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.
InterServer
5.6/10
US-based budget hosting provider offering shared web hosting, slice-based KVM and Windows cloud VPS, dedicated bare metal servers and colocation for small businesses and developers.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 5.6/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 9/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 5/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 3/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/mo Cloud VPS (1 slice) |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/mo Cloud VPS (1 slice) |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Cloud Compute | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs InterServer cost by team size
InterServer costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Cloudways | InterServer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/moCloud VPS (1 slice) |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/moCloud VPS (1 slice) |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/moCloud VPS (1 slice) |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/moCloud VPS (1 slice) |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $3/moCloud VPS (1 slice) |
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.
Who Cloudways and InterServer suit
Cloudways fits agencies better than InterServer.
| Audience | Cloudways | InterServer |
|---|---|---|
| Agencies | 9/10Reviewers praise managing many client sites from one account, and the panel includes cloning and staging. | 5/10Reseller hosting and scalable VPS are available, but the US-only locations and mixed support reviews limit it for client-facing work. |
| Developers | 6/10Git deployment, an API and WP-CLI are available, but some reviewers say low-level control is limited. | 7/10KVM VPS with root access, many OS templates and an API suit developers who self-manage, though there is no PaaS, Kubernetes or Git deployment. |
| Small Business | 7/10Plans start at 14 dollars a month and include managed security, though some beginners find the server concepts confusing. | 8/10The low-cost shared plan has unlimited email and storage, free SSL and weekly backups, which covers typical small business websites. |
| Freelancers | 7/10Low entry pricing and multi-site management suit freelancers who host client sites. | 7/10Monthly billing with no long-term contract and 3-dollar VPS slices make it cheap to host client or personal projects. |
| E-commerce | 8/10The stack is tuned for WooCommerce and Magento, with Object Cache Pro included on larger servers. | Not rated |
| Enterprise | Not rated | 3/10There are no published compliance certifications, managed cloud services or global regions, which large organizations usually require. |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Cloudways
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 3/10)
- Higher Integration score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for agencies (9/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose InterServer
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: $3/mo vs $14/mo
- Higher Cost score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Customization score (7/10 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.
InterServer
Pros
- Very low entry prices: shared hosting is 2.50 dollars for the first month, and a VPS slice with 2 GB RAM and 40 GB SSD is 3 dollars a month.
- VPS resources scale linearly in 3-dollar slices up to 32 slices, so upgrades are predictable and need no plan migration.
- The shared plan bundles LiteSpeed caching, free SSL, a free Cloudflare CDN, weekly backups and more than 450 one-click installers.
- Monthly billing without long-term contracts, plus a 30-day guarantee on shared hosting.
- The company owns its Secaucus data center and has operated since 1999, and its Trustpilot rating is around 4.3 from about 2,400 reviews.
Cons
- All data centers are in the US (New York metro, Dallas, Los Angeles), so visitors outside North America see more latency.
- Support quality is inconsistent: ITPro rated it poor, and Website Planet found answers fast but brief and of little help with migration.
- Shared hosting renews at 7 dollars a month after the 2.50-dollar first month, which reviewers have flagged as a renewal price jump.
- cPanel is not free; DirectAdmin is the default panel, and reviewers describe the interface as dated.
- There are no managed Kubernetes, object storage, serverless or managed database services like those of larger cloud platforms.
- VPS plans have no trial or money-back guarantee, and managed support is included only from 8 slices.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 5.6/10 for InterServer. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Cloudways and 3/10 for InterServer.
InterServer costs less for 10 users: about $3/mo on its Cloud VPS (1 slice) plan, against about $14/mo on its Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) plan for Cloudways, billed monthly.
No, neither Cloudways nor InterServer lists a free plan.
Cloudways is the better fit for agencies: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 5/10 for InterServer.
