Short answer: start with Cloudways' smallest DigitalOcean server at $11 a month: 2 GB of RAM, 50 GB of storage and room for several WordPress sites. Test it free for 5 days, no card needed. Cloudways moves your first site for free, and you can resize the server in a few clicks when traffic grows.
Prices below are from Cloudways' pricing page, checked in November 2026.
Is Cloudways right for you?
Choose Cloudways if you want real cloud performance without managing a server yourself, you run several sites or a growing store, or you want to pay by the hour with no contract.
Look elsewhere if you need email hosting, a free domain or phone support, or you'd rather have everything done for you. In that case, see SiteGround or Kinsta.
Cloudways8.3/10
Developers, agencies and growing stores that want cloud power without running servers
What Cloudways costs
| DigitalOcean server | RAM | CPU | Storage | Transfer | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 2 GB | 1 vCPU | 50 GB | 2 TB | $11/mo |
| Medium | 8 GB | 4 vCPU | 160 GB | 5 TB | $88/mo |
There's no intro discount and no renewal jump: you pay the same rate every month. Usage is tracked by the hour and invoiced on the 1st for the month before. Cloudways was advertising 30% off for the first 3 months when we checked; check the pricing page for current offers.
Included at no extra cost
- Free SSL certificates.
- One free managed migration of your first website.
- Automated backups, plus free staging and cloning.
- Redis, Varnish and Object Cache Pro for faster WordPress.
- Unlimited sites on one server, up to what the server can handle.
What costs extra
- Off-site backup storage, billed at $0.033 per GB.
- Cloudflare Enterprise CDN, an optional add-on.
- Advanced support, a paid add-on; standard support is 24/7 chat and tickets.
- Email hosting, which Cloudways doesn't provide.
A stopped server is still billed, so delete servers you no longer need.
Which server size to choose
- One to a few small sites (blogs, brochure sites): the $11 DigitalOcean server is enough.
- A growing store or a busy site: start small, watch the server's CPU and memory graphs in the dashboard, and scale up when they stay high.
- Many client sites: a larger server costs less per site than lots of small hosting plans.
You can scale up in a few clicks without moving your site, so there's no need to over-buy at the start.
Which cloud provider to choose
Cloudways runs on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS and Google Cloud. DigitalOcean is the right choice for most people: it has the lowest published starting price and is covered by the free trial. Choose AWS or Google Cloud only if you need those networks specifically; they cost more and aren't included in the trial.
How to get started in 5 steps
- Start the free trial with an email address; no card is needed.
- Launch a server: pick WordPress, DigitalOcean and the smallest size, and a data center near most of your visitors.
- Move your site with Cloudways' free managed migration, or build a new one.
- Test it for a few days: check speed and send support one real question.
- Add a payment method, then point your domain to the server when you're happy.
How Cloudways compares
Cloudways costs less than premium managed hosts and gives you more server, but expects a little more from you. See Cloudways vs SiteGround, Kinsta vs Cloudways and Cloudways vs ScalaHosting, or the full Cloudways review.
Sources
- Cloudways pricing (checked November 2026)
- Cloudways WordPress hosting