Short answer: choose SiteGround if you want an easy, all-in-one host with email and phone support, and you're running one or two sites. Choose Cloudways if you run several sites or a growing store, want more server power for the money, and don't want a price jump after year one.
Side by side
| Cloudways | SiteGround | |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | 8.3/10 | 8.4/10 |
| Starting price | $11/mo (2 GB DigitalOcean server) | $2.99/mo (StartUp, year one) |
| After year one | Same, $11/mo | $14.99–$17.99/mo (StartUp) |
| Websites | Unlimited per server | 1 (StartUp), unlimited (GrowBig) |
| Billing | Hourly, no contract | Prepaid 12 to 36 months |
| Try it | 5-day free trial, no card | 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Email hosting | No | Yes |
| Support | 24/7 chat and tickets | 24/7 chat, phone and tickets |
| Free migration | First site | Migration plugin |
| Speed and uptime score | 9.0/10 | 8.8/10 |
| Support score | 7.8/10 | 9.2/10 |
Price: year one vs the long run
SiteGround wins year one: StartUp is $35.88 for the first 12 months. After that, it renews at $17.99 a month on a yearly term or $14.99 on a 24-month term.
Cloudways costs the same from day one: $11 a month, or $396 over three years for the entry server, plus a small charge for off-site backup storage. SiteGround StartUp costs about $396 to $468 over the same three years, depending on your renewal term, for one site. If you need several sites, compare Cloudways with SiteGround's GrowBig, which renews at $24.99 to $29.99 a month.
Ease of use and support
SiteGround is the easier of the two. Email, a domain dashboard, caching and security plugins all come in one place, and its support, available by phone, is rated among the best in hosting.
Cloudways gives you your own server, with a simple dashboard for launching apps and scaling. It expects you to make a few more choices, such as the cloud provider, server size and data center, and email has to come from a separate provider.
Speed
Both are fast for WordPress. SiteGround runs on Google Cloud with its own caching. Cloudways gives you dedicated server resources with Redis, Varnish and Object Cache Pro included, and you can scale up in a few clicks, which is why it handles growing stores and traffic spikes better.
Which to buy
- A first blog or a simple business site: SiteGround StartUp.
- A business site where you want hand-holding and email in one place: SiteGround GrowBig.
- Several sites, or client sites: Cloudways. One server hosts them all.
- A growing WooCommerce store: Cloudways, sized up as traffic grows.
- Coming off a SiteGround renewal: Cloudways usually costs less from here.
- 1
Cloudways8.3/10
Developers, agencies and growing stores that want cloud power without running servers
- 2
SiteGround8.4/10
Bloggers and small businesses who want WordPress looked after and great support
Read more: which Cloudways plan to choose, which SiteGround plan to buy, or the side-by-side SiteGround vs Cloudways comparison.
Sources
- Cloudways pricing (checked November 2026)
- SiteGround: current rates for shared hosting plans (October 2026)
- SiteGround WordPress hosting plans