Cloudways vs SiteGround Comparison
Compare Cloudways vs SiteGround 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.
SiteGround
6.3/10
Bulgarian web host running on Google Cloud. It offers shared, managed WordPress, WooCommerce and cloud hosting for small businesses, freelancers and agencies.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 6.3/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/mo Cloud Jump Start |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/mo Cloud Jump Start |
| Features | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Git Deployments | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs SiteGround cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudways | SiteGround |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/moCloud Jump Start |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/moCloud Jump Start |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/moCloud Jump Start |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/moCloud Jump Start |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €80/moCloud Jump Start |
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 Integration score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose SiteGround
- Higher Support score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for small business (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.
SiteGround
Pros
- Every shared plan includes a custom WAF, AI anti-bot protection, malware scanning and daily off-site backups kept for 30 days.
- It runs on Google Cloud, with data centers in the US, Europe, Singapore and Sydney.
- GoGeek and the cloud plans include white-label client access and staging with Git, which helps agencies manage client sites.
- Reviewers on G2 and review sites regularly praise its support and uptime.
- Free site migrations and managed WordPress updates are included on all plans.
Cons
- Promotional first-year prices renew at roughly six to eight times the intro rate.
- The intro shared-hosting prices require paying 12 months upfront.
- The entry StartUp plan allows one site and 10 GB of storage, which a growing site can quickly outgrow.
- There is no documented public infrastructure API for developer teams.
- Some G2 users find the dashboard structure confusing.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 6.3/10 for SiteGround. The largest gap is in Integration: 7/10 for Cloudways and 4/10 for SiteGround.
No, neither Cloudways nor SiteGround lists a free plan.
SiteGround is the better fit for small business: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 7/10 for Cloudways.
