Cloudways vs Microsoft Azure Comparison
Compare Cloudways vs Microsoft Azure 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.
Microsoft Azure
7.1/10
Microsoft's public cloud platform offering virtual machines, containers, serverless, databases, storage and AI services on pay-as-you-go pricing for businesses of all sizes.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 7.1/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 9/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 4/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 9/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | Free Azure free account |
| Features | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| DDoS Protection | 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 | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs Microsoft Azure cost by team size
Microsoft Azure costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Cloudways | Microsoft Azure |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | FreeAzure free account |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | FreeAzure free account |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | FreeAzure free account |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | FreeAzure free account |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | FreeAzure free account |
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 4/10)
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for small business (7/10 vs 4/10)
Why choose Microsoft Azure
- Has a free plan (Cloudways does not)
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $14/mo
- Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Integration score (9/10 vs 7/10)
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.
Microsoft Azure
Pros
- Free account includes a 200 USD credit plus always-free allowances such as 1 million Functions requests and Azure DevOps for 5 users.
- Close integration with Microsoft products such as Entra ID and Power BI is repeatedly praised by reviewers.
- Very broad catalogue covering compute, Kubernetes, serverless, databases, storage and AI services.
- Global footprint of over 400 datacenters across 70 regions as of fiscal 2025.
- Reviewers credit built-in identity management and security.
Cons
- Reviewers on Capterra and TrustRadius say monthly bills are hard to understand and predict.
- Steep learning curve, with many services carrying similar names.
- Some PeerSpot reviewers report support tickets taking weeks or months to resolve.
- Paid support is extra, from 29 to 1,000 USD per month beyond the free Basic plan.
- Integration with non-Microsoft platforms and documentation for new releases draw criticism.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Microsoft Azure scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.1/10 against 7/10 for Cloudways. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 8/10 for Cloudways and 4/10 for Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft Azure costs less for 10 users: free on its Azure free account plan, against about $14/mo on its Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) plan for Cloudways, billed monthly.
Microsoft Azure has a free plan; Cloudways does not list one.
Cloudways is the better fit for small business: we rate it 7/10 for them, against 4/10 for Microsoft Azure.
