Cloudways vs IONOS Comparison
Compare Cloudways vs IONOS features, pricing, and more.
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.
IONOS
6.7/10
German hosting and cloud provider offering shared web hosting, VPS, dedicated servers and public cloud services for small businesses through to enterprises.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 6.7/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs IONOS cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudways | IONOS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
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 Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose IONOS
- Higher Cost score (8/10 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.
IONOS
Pros
- Shared hosting renews at a modest $8 to $18 a month and includes daily backups, unlimited traffic and a wildcard SSL certificate
- VPS+ plans include root access, DDoS protection, a firewall and unlimited traffic from $2 a month as an introductory price
- The IONOS Cloud platform covers managed Kubernetes, S3-compatible object storage and managed databases, with a Terraform provider
- Data centers in the US, UK, Germany, Spain and France, plus GDPR and data-sovereignty commitments, suit EU buyers
- Some users say 24/7 support responds quickly and is technically knowledgeable
Cons
- The introductory price can rise sharply at renewal (the Plus plan goes from $1 to $14 a month)
- Reviews and complaints repeatedly mention aggressive auto-renewal and cancellations that are hard to complete
- The control panel is described as dated
- The lowest shared hosting plan has no CDN and only one email account
- Ratings are mixed, with a G2 average of about 3.5 out of 5
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 6.7/10 for IONOS. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Cloudways and 5/10 for IONOS.
No, neither Cloudways nor IONOS lists a free plan.
