Cloudways vs NHN Cloud: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Cloudways and NHN Cloud 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.
NHN Cloud
5.9/10
South Korean OpenStack-based public cloud from NHN, offering compute, Kubernetes, managed databases, storage, CDN and security services from Korean and Japanese regions.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 5.9/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| 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 | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| 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 | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs NHN Cloud cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudways | NHN Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 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 5/10)
- Higher Reliability score (8/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose NHN Cloud
Our data shows no clear advantage over Cloudways.
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.
NHN Cloud
Pros
- Very broad catalog for a regional provider: compute, NKS, serverless, managed RDS for four engines, CDN, security, and AI services.
- Holds CSAP certification, which suits Korean public-sector and regulated buyers.
- An official Terraform provider, published by NHN Cloud on GitHub, supports infrastructure as code.
- Korea-specific services such as KakaoTalk Bizmessage notifications and support for local databases like Tibero and CUBRID.
Cons
- Only four regions, three in Korea and one in Tokyo, so it reaches few markets outside Korea.
- The pricing pages we checked showed no per-unit rates; buyers have to use the calculator or ask for a quote.
- Documentation and console are Korean-first, and independent English-language reviews are scarce.
- Some services, such as Data Transporter and Storage Gateway, are still in alpha or beta.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 5.9/10 for NHN Cloud. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 8/10 for Cloudways and 5/10 for NHN Cloud.
No, neither Cloudways nor NHN Cloud lists a free plan.
