Cloudways Review 2026
Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard scored 6.39 out of 10 in our 2026 rankings, the one Cloudways plan we currently score on a complete metric set. TTFB across the 5 Cloudways plans ranges from 419 ms to 447 ms over our October 2025 to May 2026 window, with every plan scoring 8 to 8.5 out of 10 on response time. Uptime held between 99.996% and 99.999% across all 5 plans. Cloudways costs from $11 to $16 per month with the same renewal price and a pay-as-you-go model with no contracts.
We have been monitoring Cloudways since 2020 across 5 cloud provider configurations with over 12,288,960 individual performance tests conducted across all Cloudways plans. Additional tests comprise Load testing using Loader.io, global TTFB test in 40 cities using SpeedVitals, and WPBenchmark server hardware scoring.
Cloudways strengths lie in its 99.99% uptime across all plans, strong US and EU speed, no renewal markup, server level control and multi CMS support. The weaknesses are add-on CDN and email, which mean global reach and mailboxes cost extra on top of the plan price.
In this review, we answer the question that most reviews skip: Which of the 5 cloud providers delivers the best value for your money? Also, find our Cloudways Promo code and collect coupons for 30% off savings.
Note: This review is based on our testing of Cloudways across the entry plans of the five cloud providers it offers — DigitalOcean Standard, DigitalOcean Premium, Vultr, Vultr HF, and Linode. The performance figures are measured data; the recommendations reflect our editorial assessment of those results. Unless stated otherwise, everything here applies to these tested Cloudways plans while other Cloudways plans may produce different benchmark results.
Performance Overview
| Metric | Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard | Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium | Cloudways Vultr | Cloudways Vultr HF | Cloudways Linode |
| TTFB (US) | 442ms | 447ms | 419ms | 428ms | 427ms |
| TTFB Score | 8/10 | 8/10 | 8.5/10 | 8.5/10 | 8.5/10 |
| Uptime | 99.9985% | 99.9960% | 99.9965% | 99.9985% | 99.9980% |
| Uptime Score | 9.94/10 | 9.84/10 | 9.86/10 | 9.94/10 | 9.92/10 |
| Load Test | 443ms/0% | 360ms/0% | 279ms/1.5% | 288ms/1.7% | 269ms/2.2% |
| Load Score | 5/10 | 5/10 | 4/10 | 4/10 | 4/10 |
| Global TTFB | 386ms | — | — | — | — |
| Global Score | 7/10 | — | — | — | — |
| WPBench | 4.7/10 | 4.7/10 | 4.3/10 | 7.6/10 | 7.2/10 |
| Perf Total | 7.49/10 | — | — | — | — |
| Final Score | 6.39 | — | — | — | — |
| Price | $11/mo | $14/mo | $14/mo | $16/mo | $14/mo |
Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard is the only plan we currently score on a full metric set, landing at a final 6.39 out of 10 on a performance score of 7.49. Across the 5 plans, uptime stayed between 99.996% and 99.999% from October 2025 to May 2026, and TTFB held in a tight 419 ms to 447 ms band regardless of cloud provider.
However, there were WPBench disparity with Cloudways Vultr HF with 7.6, and Cloudways Linode with 7.2, allocating significantly more computation than Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard with 4.7 and Vultr with 4.3.
Cloudways Vultr HF carries the highest hardware allocation at WPBench 7.6 and one of the fastest completed-request load times at 288 ms, though it drops 1.7% of requests at peak load. Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard and Premium are slower under load but complete every request without dropping traffic. The plans trade raw speed against clean load handling rather than one leading on every metric.
TTFB Response Time
TTFB History – Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard (Monitored Since 2020)
| Year | Avg TTFB | Min TTFB | Max TTFB | Days Monitored | Tests Performed |
| 2020 | 311ms | 237ms | 701ms | 110 | 158,400 |
| 2021 | 306ms | 251ms | 494ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2022 | 308ms | 250ms | 643ms | 364 | 524,160 |
| 2023 | 332ms | 253ms | 693ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2024 | 404ms | 327ms | 505ms | 366 | 527,040 |
| 2025 | 449ms | 352ms | 666ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2026 | 434ms | 355ms | 640ms | 181 | 260,640 |
TTFB History – Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium (Monitored Since 2022)
| Year | Avg TTFB | Min TTFB | Max TTFB | Days Monitored | Tests Performed |
| 2022 | 315ms | 263ms | 426ms | 267 | 384,480 |
| 2023 | 339ms | 261ms | 441ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2024 | 404ms | 326ms | 508ms | 366 | 527,040 |
| 2025 | 460ms | 332ms | 954ms | 364 | 524,160 |
| 2026 | 440ms | 361ms | 588ms | 181 | 260,640 |
TTFB History – Cloudways Vultr (Monitored Since 2021)
| Year | Avg TTFB | Min TTFB | Max TTFB | Days Monitored | Tests Performed |
| 2021 | 304ms | 233ms | 418ms | 285 | 410,400 |
| 2022 | 309ms | 253ms | 398ms | 364 | 524,160 |
| 2023 | 329ms | 258ms | 582ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2024 | 382ms | 297ms | 486ms | 366 | 527,040 |
| 2025 | 424ms | 327ms | 585ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2026 | 415ms | 343ms | 543ms | 181 | 260,640 |
TTFB History – Cloudways Vultr HF (Monitored Since 2021)
| Year | Avg TTFB | Min TTFB | Max TTFB | Days Monitored | Tests Performed |
| 2021 | 310ms | 243ms | 392ms | 285 | 410,400 |
| 2022 | 312ms | 239ms | 680ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2023 | 331ms | 258ms | 640ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2024 | 375ms | 307ms | 433ms | 366 | 527,040 |
| 2025 | 424ms | 302ms | 945ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2026 | 431ms | 352ms | 594ms | 181 | 260,640 |
TTFB History – Cloudways Linode (Monitored Since 2021)
| Year | Avg TTFB | Min TTFB | Max TTFB | Days Monitored | Tests Performed |
| 2021 | 303ms | 216ms | 392ms | 285 | 410,400 |
| 2022 | 300ms | 239ms | 392ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2023 | 333ms | 249ms | 538ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2024 | 400ms | 311ms | 516ms | 366 | 527,040 |
| 2025 | 446ms | 320ms | 962ms | 365 | 525,600 |
| 2026 | 415ms | 353ms | 598ms | 181 | 260,640 |
Cloudways TTFB ranges from 419 ms to 447 ms across the plans and all score 8 to 8.5 out of 10. Cloudways Vultr recorded 419 ms, Cloudways Linode 427 ms, Cloudways Vultr HF 428 ms, Cloudways DO Premium 447 ms, and DO Standard 442 ms. The spread is a narrow 28 ms, and in the first half of 2026 four of the five plans got faster than their 2025 full-year average, with Vultr and Linode leading at 415 ms. Practically, users will not feel the speed difference on TTFB alone.
Other hosts performance in this TTFB test are WP Engine with 367 ms, Hostinger with 478 ms, Kinsta with 469 ms, Bluehost with 520 ms, and SiteGround with 632 ms. All Cloudways plans beat Hostinger, Kinsta, Bluehost, and SiteGround on raw TTFB. Only WP Engine stands out faster as it comes with Edge CDN integrated which improves the response time a lot. The same Edge CDN is available at Cloudways for $4.99/domain and using it can achieve similar response time of WP Engine.
Uptime
Uptime History — Cloudways DO Standard
| Year | Uptime % | Downtime (min) | Outages | Worst Day Uptime |
| 2020 | 99.93% | 107.5 min | 7 | 97.05% |
| 2021 | 99.98% | 102 min | 3 | 93.13% |
| 2022 | 99.99% | 68 min | 5 | 97.19% |
| 2023 | 100.00% | 2 min | 1 | 99.86% |
| 2024 | 99.99% | 62 min | 3 | 95.97% |
| 2025 | 100.00% | 12 min | 8 | 99.72% |
| 2026 | 100.00% | 2 min | 2 | N/A |
Uptime History — Cloudways DO Premium
| Year | Uptime % | Downtime (min) | Outages | Worst Day Uptime |
| 2022 | 99.98% | 62 min | 4 | N/A |
| 2023 | 100.00% | 1 min | 1 | N/A |
| 2024 | 99.99% | 43 min | 3 | N/A |
| 2025 | 100.00% | 12 min | 5 | N/A |
| 2026 | 100.00% | 4 min | 3 | N/A |
Uptime History — Cloudways Vultr
| Year | Uptime % | Downtime (min) | Outages | Worst Day Uptime |
| 2021 | 99.98% | 88 min | 2 | 96.04% |
| 2022 | 99.98% | 115 min | 7 | 96.25% |
| 2023 | 100.00% | 17 min | 4 | 99.31% |
| 2024 | 99.99% | 42 min | 2 | 97.15% |
| 2025 | 100.00% | 13 min | 5 | 99.72% |
| 2026 | 100.00% | 3 min | 2 | N/A |
Uptime History — Cloudways Vultr HF
| Year | Uptime % | Downtime (min) | Outages | Worst Day Uptime |
| 2021 | 100.00% | 1 min | 1 | 99.93% |
| 2022 | 99.99% | 43 min | 3 | N/A |
| 2023 | 100.00% | 4 min | 3 | N/A |
| 2024 | 99.99% | 37 min | 6 | N/A |
| 2025 | 100.00% | 7 min | 5 | N/A |
| 2026 | 100.00% | 2 min | 2 | N/A |
Uptime History — Cloudways Linode
| Year | Uptime % | Downtime (min) | Outages | Worst Day Uptime |
| 2021 | 100.00% | 14 min | 6 | N/A |
| 2022 | 99.99% | 72 min | 7 | N/A |
| 2023 | 100.00% | 4 min | 2 | N/A |
| 2024 | 99.99% | 36 min | 4 | 98.19% |
| 2025 | 99.79% | 1,093 min | 5 | 56.24% |
| 2026 | 99.99% | 35 min | 4 | N/A |
Across our October 2025 to May 2026 window, all 5 Cloudways plans held uptime between 99.996% and 99.999%, scoring 9.84 to 9.94 out of 10 each. Other notable hosts in this field are WP Engine with 100%, Kinsta with 99.97%, Hostinger with 99.98%, and SiteGround with 99.97%. Cloudways with 99.99% is among the best in this test.
The annual 2025 uptime data suggests that Cloudways Linode had an annual uptime of 99.79% with 1,093 minutes of downtime, which is over 18 hours and the worst single day uptime was 56.24%. The rest of the Cloudways plans had strong annual uptime with Cloudways DO Standard with 99.998%, DO Premium with 99.998%, Cloudways Vultr with 99.998% and Vultr HF with 99.999%. The Cloudways Linode 2025 incident is an isolated outlier, not a pattern: across the first half of 2026 the plan returned to 99.99% uptime with just 35 minutes of downtime over 4 outages.
Load Handling
Under a 0-to-100 concurrent-user ramp, Cloudways Linode returned the fastest average for completed requests at 269 ms, followed by Cloudways Vultr at 279 ms and Cloudways Vultr HF at 288 ms. All three dropped a share of requests as the test approached peak load — Linode timed out on 2.2%, Vultr on 1.5%, and Vultr HF on 1.7% — so each scores 4 out of 10 after the error penalty.
Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard (443 ms) and Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium (360 ms) were slower on average but served every request at a 0% error rate, each scoring 5 out of 10. The trade-off is clear: the Vultr and Linode plans are quicker per request but shed traffic at the ceiling, while the two DigitalOcean plans stay slower and complete the full load without dropping a request.
Notable hosts in this test are WP Engine at an elite 27 ms, Hostinger Business at 31 ms, Kinsta at 40 ms, and SiteGround at 170 ms, all at 0% errors. Every Cloudways plan completed the test, and the two DigitalOcean plans cleared 100% of requests.
Our method ramps 0 to 100 concurrent users over 60 seconds while measuring average response time and any dropped requests. The DigitalOcean Standard and Premium plans held 0% errors through peak load, so no visitor request is dropped during a traffic spike. The Vultr, Vultr HF, and Linode plans respond faster on completed requests but may drop 1.5% to 2.2% of requests right at the 100-user ceiling.
Server Hardware Test
Cloudways Vultr HF scored 7.6 out of 10 in the WPBenchmark test, which is competitive with managed hosts like Hostinger with 7.4 and Kinsta with 8.8. Even Cloudways Linode has a strong allocation with 7.2. However, Cloudways DO Premium scored 4.7 and DO Standard scored 4.7, indicating below average hardware allocation. Cloudways Vultr scored 4.3, indicating the lowest allocation among all Cloudways plans.
WPBench measures allocated CPU, RAM and disk I/O independent of web server type. LiteSpeed and Apache will have no impact on the WPBench scores. A low WPBench score means the provider has limited resource allocation for the plan.
The WPBench score difference between Cloudways Vultr HF ($16 per month) and Cloudways Vultr ($14 per month) is because of the NVMe storage and higher clock CPUs, which translate into better resource allocation. Cloudways Vultr HF with 7.6 or Cloudways Linode with 7.2 are the only plans that offer adequate compute for plugin heavy WordPress sites or WooCommerce stores.
Global TTFB
Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard recorded a cached global average of 386 ms across 40 locations, scoring 7 out of 10, tested without the Cloudflare Enterprise add-on. It averaged 178 ms in the Americas — 42 ms in Northern Virginia, 57 ms in Toronto, 124 ms in Dallas, and 218 ms in Los Angeles — with Latin America weaker at 386 ms in Santiago and 387 ms in São Paulo.
Europe averaged 274 ms, strong for a US-origin host: 230 ms in London, 254 ms in Paris, 251 ms in Frankfurt, and 339 ms in Finland. Asia Pacific averaged 649 ms, clearly the weak region — 493 ms in Tokyo, 578 ms in Seoul, 629 ms in Sydney, 873 ms in Mumbai, and 879 ms in Delhi.
Against the field, WP Engine leads at 65 ms with edge CDN, Hostinger Business records 351 ms with static CDN, Bluehost 224 ms with Cloudflare CDN, Cloudways 386 ms with no CDN, Kinsta 477 ms, and SiteGround 1,200 ms. Cloudways beats both Kinsta and SiteGround on global TTFB despite running without a CDN. Enabling the Cloudflare Enterprise add-on for $4.99 per month would sharply improve global delivery.
While Cloudways global performance is adequate for US and European audiences, those targeting Asia Pacific can enable the Cloudflare Enterprise add-on or switch to WP Engine for faster delivery. The figures above reflect the DigitalOcean Standard plan; global TTFB tests for the Premium, Vultr, Vultr HF, and Linode plans are being added.
Which Cloudways Plan Should You Pick?
| Plan | Price | Renewal | RAM | CPU | Storage | Bandwidth |
| Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard | $11/mo | $11/mo | 1 GB | 1 Core | 25 GB SSD | 1 TB |
| Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium | $14/mo | $14/mo | 1 GB | 1 Core | 25 GB NVMe | 1 TB |
| Cloudways Vultr | $14/mo | $14/mo | 1 GB | 1 Core | 25 GB SSD | 1 TB |
| Cloudways Vultr HF | $16/mo | $16/mo | 1 GB | 1 Core | 32 GB NVMe | 1 TB |
| Cloudways Linode | $14/mo | $14/mo | 1 GB | 1 Core | 25 GB SSD | 1 TB |
The right Cloudways plan depends on your priority. Cloudways Vultr HF ($16) offers the strongest hardware at WPBench 7.6 with NVMe storage, and Cloudways Linode ($14) matches it closely at 7.2 — both suit plugin-heavy or WooCommerce sites. But under peak load these faster plans drop 1.7% to 2.2% of requests. If you value clean load handling over raw hardware, Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard ($11) and Premium ($14) completed every request at a 0% error rate.
Cloudways Linode’s 2025 uptime incident was isolated, and the plan returned to 99.99% uptime in the first half of 2026, so it is no longer a reliability concern. Cloudways DO Standard at $11 per month is the entry option and the one plan we currently score in full, at 6.39. Cloudways DO Premium and Cloudways Vultr are available at the same price of $14 per month. Cloudways Vultr and Linode respond faster on completed requests but drop 1.5% to 2.2% under load, while Premium completes every request at 0% errors.
Cloudways users are free to upgrade server size or migrate between different cloud providers within the same dashboard anytime they want without any platform lock-in. For hardware-heavy sites, the Vultr HF plan offers the best resources; for steady load handling on a budget, the DigitalOcean Standard and Premium plans complete every request.
Cloudways vs Competitors
| Metric | Cloudways (range) | Hostinger Business | Kinsta | WP Engine | SiteGround | Bluehost |
| TTFB | 419–447ms | 478ms | 469ms | 367ms | 632ms | 520ms |
| Uptime Q4 | 99.99% | 99.98% | 99.97% | 100% | 99.97% | 99.95% |
| Load Test | 269–443ms | 31ms/0% | 40ms/0% | 27ms/0% | 170ms/0% | 170ms/9% |
| Global TTFB | 386ms | 351ms | 477ms | 65ms | 1,200ms | 224ms |
| WPBench | 4.3–7.6 | 7.4 | 8.8 | 6.5 | 8.4 | 9.6 |
| CDN | Addon | Static | Edge | Edge | Addon | Static |
| Addon | Addon | None | None | Included | Addon | |
| Backups | Daily | Daily | Daily | Daily | Daily | Weekly |
| Intro Price | $11–$16/mo | $3.69/mo | $30.00/mo | $23.00/mo | $2.99/mo | $3.99/mo |
| Renewal | $11–$16/mo | $7.99/mo | $30.00/mo | $30.00/mo | $17.99/mo | $12.49/mo |
Cloudways vs Hostinger Business
Hostinger Business beats Cloudways on load handling, serving every request at 31 ms versus the fastest Cloudways completed-request time of 269 ms. It also wins on global TTFB with 351 ms versus Cloudways at 386 ms, due to its static CDN.
Cloudways, on the other hand, wins on uptime with 99.99% vs 99.98% and TTFB range with 421 ms to 451 ms vs 478 ms. All Cloudways plans win on this metric except Cloudways DO Standard. Hostinger wins on price as it is 4x cheaper at intro than Cloudways with $3.69 per month vs $14 to $16 per month. However, it renews at $7.99 per month, which significantly narrows the 2 year cost gap.
The fundamental difference between the two hosts lies in the type of hosting. While Hostinger is shared hosting, Cloudways is managed cloud, offering server isolation, scalable RAM & CPU, and root level access. Hostinger is shared resources with no scaling control. You can choose Hostinger, if you want a budget host for traffic under 100K per month with no need for server customization. Cloudways is ideal if you need server level control, vertical scaling and consistent cloud isolated performance. Read Hostinger Review
Cloudways vs Kinsta
Cloudways Vultr HF wins on TTFB with 428 ms vs 469 ms and uptime with 99.99% vs 99.97%, while Kinsta wins on load test, serving every request at 40 ms versus Cloudways Vultr HF at 288 ms with a 1.7% error rate.
Kinsta also wins on WPBench hardware with 8.8 vs 7.6. However, Kinsta costs nearly 2x more than Cloudways Vultr HF with $30 per month vs $16 per month, while both have no renewal markup. Both hosts are managed cloud platforms but while Kinsta runs on Oracle Cloud, Cloudways allows you to choose from 5 different providers.
You can choose Kinsta if you have resource hungry WordPress site (WPBench 8.8) and a fully managed WordPress specific platform at $35/month. You can choose Cloudways if you want cloud provider flexibility and multiple CMS beyond WordPress for a much lower cost with $14 to $16 vs $30. Read Cloudways Vs Kinsta
Cloudways vs WP Engine
WP Engine dominates on performance with 365 ms TTFB, near-100% uptime, 27 ms load handling at 0% errors, and a 65 ms global TTFB. Cloudways’ best plan Vultr HF trails on every speed metric but is $11 per month cheaper, while WP Engine’s built-in edge CDN delivers far better global performance at 65 ms vs 386 ms.
WP Engine is WordPress exclusive while Cloudways supports WordPress, Magento, Laravel and other PHP apps. You can choose WP Engine if you prioritize WordPress performance and are comfortable with the price point of $27/month. You can choose Cloudways if you need multi CMS support, cloud provider choice and acceptable good performance at $11 to $16 per month less. Read Cloudways Vs WP Engine
Cloudways vs SiteGround
All 5 Cloudways plans beat SiteGround on TTFB with 419 ms vs 632 ms, global reach with 386 ms vs 1,200 ms, and uptime with 99.99% vs 99.98%. SiteGround wins on WPBench hardware with 8.4 vs 7.6 and also includes email hosting at no additional cost. SiteGround’s intro is a lot cheaper than Cloudways at $3.99/month, but its renewal is higher at $17.99 per month versus $11 to $16 for Cloudways.
Cloudways beats SiteGround on global TTFB with 386 ms vs 1,200 ms, which means SiteGround’s global TTFB is over 3x worse than Cloudways. You can choose SiteGround if you buy the cheapest possible year 1 price with included email. However, if you want measurably faster performance at every level with no renewal shock and willing to handle email separately, Cloudways is the ideal host for you. (Read Cloudways Vs SiteGround)
Cloudways vs Bluehost
Bluehost wins on WPBench with 9.6, the highest in the field, and on global TTFB with 224 ms vs 386 ms due to its static CDN. Cloudways wins on TTFB with 419 ms to 447 ms vs 520 ms, uptime with 99.99% vs 99.95%, and on clean load handling, where the DigitalOcean plans complete every request at 0% errors versus Bluehost at 170 ms with a 9% error rate.
Bluehost has a cheaper intro price with $3.99 vs $11 to $16 but renews at $12.49 per month. Cloudways wins on backups with daily backups vs weekly backups, which shows a meaningful data safety gap. You can choose Bluehost if you want the highest raw server power with a WPbench of 9.6, budget pricing and can accept weekly backups and occasional load errors. For cleaner uptime, daily backups, and zero dropped requests under load, the Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard or Premium plan is the right choice, with no renewal surprise.
Who Should Use Cloudways
WordPress developers looking for server level control without managing raw infrastructure can choose Cloudways since the host provides SSH access, server scaling, staging environment with a 419 to 447 ms TTFB range and 99.99% uptime.
Small business owners with target audiences in the US or Europe can use Cloudways as the host recorded an average of 178 ms in the Americas and 274 ms in Europe for $11 to $16 with no renewal surprises, which makes budgeting predictable.
Users that need to migrate from shared hosting due to resource limitation can use Cloudways as the host offers cloud isolation and high scalability. Shared hosting users paying $8 to $18 per month at renewal are paying close to Cloudways prices but for a comparatively worse performance.
WooCommerce stores that need reliable uptime and daily backups can use Cloudways. Further, such stores can benefit from Cloudways high scalability to scale up the resources during sale events. Users who are looking for multi CMS can also use Cloudways since the host supports WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and other PHP apps on the same server.
Who Should NOT Use Cloudways
Budget conscious beginners who need everything included for a nominal price should avoid Cloudways as the host requires you to buy addon like CDN for $4.99 per month and email hosting. This could take the total cost to $20 per month. On the contrary, Hostinger Business for just $3.69 per month includes static CDN, daily backups at a much lower cost than Cloudways. If your budget is under $10 per month, choosing a shared hosting is the practical way to go about it.
If your site has heavy Asia Pacific traffic, Cloudways is not the ideal option for you since Cloudways Asia Pacific average is 649 ms without the CDN add-on, with TTFB as high as 873 ms in Mumbai and 879 ms in Delhi. The ideal hosts to choose in this case would be WP Engine with 246 ms in Asia Pacific or Hostinger Business with 287 ms, which should be measurably better for these audiences.
Non technical users who want cPanel or Plesk should not use Cloudways as the host doesn’t come with any traditional file manager and users who rely on cPanel will find it hard with the steep learning curve of the Cloudways interface. Such users can go with SiteGround or Bluehost as both offer traditional panels.
Users who need maximum server hardware at entry level should not use Cloudways as the host has WPBench score of 4.3 to 7.6 while Bluehost scored 9.6 and SiteGround scored 8.4, indicating more raw server allocation on their cheapest plans. Plugin heavy sites on a tight budget can go with shared hosts with a higher WPBench as this will deliver better compute per dollar.
Our Verdict
Cloudways DigitalOcean Standard scored 6.39 out of 10 in our 2026 rankings, the one Cloudways plan we currently score on a complete metric set. We recommend Cloudways for a managed cloud host with no renewal markup, uptime between 99.996% and 99.999% across all 5 plans, and strong US and European response times, provided you are comfortable managing email separately and adding a CDN for global reach. We do not recommend Cloudways if you are under a tight budget and your primary audience is in Asia or if you want a traditional cPanel interface.
Across the 5 plans the choice is a trade-off: Cloudways Vultr HF ($16) and Linode ($14) carry the strongest hardware and fastest completed-request load times but drop 1.7% to 2.2% at peak load, while DigitalOcean Standard ($11) and Premium ($14) are slower but complete every request. If Cloudways is not the right fit, Hostinger Business is a strong alternative with a 351 ms global TTFB, static CDN, a $3.69 intro price, and a $7.99 renewal.
This review is based on over 12,288,960 performance tests conducted across the 5 Cloudways plans between 2020 and May 2026 using tools such as Pingdom, Loader.io, SpeedVitals, and WPBenchmark.
Methodology
We purchase all hosting accounts with our own funds and none of these accounts is a promotional or press account. We purchased all 5 Cloudways plans separately and independently. Our testing tools comprise Pingdom for testing TTFB and uptime every 60 seconds for 24/7, Loader.io for load testing using 0 to 100 concurrent users over 60 seconds, SpeedVitals for measuring global TTFB from over 40 cities, and WPBenchmark to conduct 21 server hardware tests across 5 categories.
We conduct over 525,600 tests per provider per year with tests conducted every minute, 24/7/365. We conducted over 2,628,000 Cloudways specific tests alone with 5 Cloudways plans per year. Our scoring method weights Performance at 80% — TTFB 22%, Uptime 22%, Load handling 18%, Global TTFB 13%, and Hardware 5% — and Value at 20% based on the intro price tier.
Our data period is October 1, 2025 to May 31, 2026 for our current rankings. For this review, we referred to the historical data from 2020 for Cloudways DO Standard, 2021 for Cloudways Vultr, Cloudways Vultr HF, and Cloudways Linode, and 2022 for Cloudways DO Premium. We purchased and tested all 5 Cloudways plans as separate, independent accounts.
Mohan Raj is the founder of Hostingstep.com, where he oversees the independent testing of 25+ web hosting providers. He conducts 525,600+ performance tests per year across 60+ global locations to measure TTFB speed, uptime, load test, core web vitals, and hardware benchmarks. Each provider is tested using independently purchased hosting accounts, backed by verifiable data.
