In this article, we will conduct a comprehensive comparison between Cloudways and SiteGround, taking into account various factors such as performance, support, pricing, and features.
Whether you are seeking to weigh up the pros and cons of Cloudways and SiteGround, this article is the perfect guide to assist you in making an informed decision.
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Cloudways vs SiteGround
Cloudways is a Managed Cloud Hosting provider renowned for its exceptional quality of service. By leveraging the servers of leading Cloud providers such as DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Service, and Google Cloud, Cloudways can deliver an unparalleled Managed Hosting experience.
With plans starting at just $11/month, Cloudways represents one of the industry’s most cost-effective options for managed cloud hosting.
Established in 2004, SiteGround has gained widespread recognition for its exceptional shared Web hosting service. Over the years, SiteGround has revolutionized its hosting technology stacks by developing its own proprietary tools such as Site Tools, CDN, Caching Plugin, and cutting-edge security features, among others.
With a highly competitive starting price of just $3.99/month for the first year, SiteGround offers excellent value for money.
Cloudways vs SiteGround: Pricing
Before deciding between the two services, it is imperative to understand their pricing models.
Cloudways adopts a pay-as-you-go model, affording customers the freedom and flexibility to choose from eleven different plans that vary in terms of RAM, Core, Storage, and Bandwidth.
With such an extensive range of options, customers can quickly identify the plan that best suits their requirements. Here are some of Cloudways’ plans, along with their corresponding pricing:
- DO1GB: $11 per month, 1GB RAM, 1Core, 25GB Storage, 1TB Bandwidth
- DO2GB: $24 per month, 2GB RAM, 1Core, 50GB Storage, 2TB Bandwidth
- DO4GB: $46 per month, 4GB RAM, 2Core, 80GB Storage, 4TB Bandwidth
- DO8GB: $88 per month, 8GB RAM, 4Core, 160GB Storage, 5TB Bandwidth
SiteGround offers three different plans for customers to choose from, all of which are currently available at a promotional price. These plans are designed based on the number of websites, web space, and monthly visits. Here are the details of SiteGround’s plans:
- StartUp: $6.99 per month, includes 1 website, 10GB web space, and up to 10,000 visits per month.
- GrowBig: $9.99 per month, offers unlimited websites, 20GB web space, and up to 25,000 visits per month.
- GoGeek: $14.99 per month, provides unlimited websites, 40GB web space, and up to 100,000 visits per month.
It is recommended to opt for SiteGround’s GrowBig plan, provided it fits your budget, as the StartUp plan only allows hosting for a single website and lacks certain features such as on-demand backup copies, staging, and ultrafast PHP.
It is important to note that while SiteGround’s plans are currently available at a discounted price, they may be comparatively more expensive than Cloudways at the time of renewal.
For instance, SiteGround’s StartUp plan renews at $14.99 per month while providing limited features for hosting only one website. Conversely, Cloudways’ starter plan renews at $11 per month, offering a complete set of features and allowing for unlimited website hosting.
Cloudways vs. SiteGround: Performance
1. TTFB
To assess the TTFB, I conducted a test by deploying a website on both Cloudways and SiteGround.
Based on data gathered over the past 12 months, my website hosted on the Cloudways platform recorded an average response time of 303ms. On the other hand, my website hosted on SiteGround had an average TTFB of 396ms, which is 100ms higher than the Cloudways average TTFB.
Therefore, based on the results obtained, Cloudways is the clear winner regarding TTFB.
2. Uptime
Consistent and dependable uptime is a critical aspect of any reputable hosting service. To evaluate the uptime of both Cloudways and SiteGround, I thoroughly monitored their services.
Both Cloudways and SiteGround exhibited an uptime of 99.99%, indicating that both services are equally reliable and stable.
3. Load Testing
Load testing is a vital performance test that involves sending multiple simultaneous visitors to the site to evaluate its response time. I conducted load testing by sending 500 concurrent visitors to the website hosted on Cloudways and SiteGround.
Cloudways recorded a response time of 180ms, while SiteGround reflected a response time of 173ms. Based on these results, it can be concluded that both Cloudways and SiteGround exhibit equal competence in load handling.
4. Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is a critical ranking factor that has gained significant importance. I evaluated Cloudways and SiteGround on their performance based on the three fundamental metrics of Largest Contentful Paint, Total Blocking Time, and Cumulative Layout Shift.
Cloudways exhibited a Largest Contentful Paint of 468ms, a Total Blocking Time of 0s, and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0, while SiteGround recorded a Largest Contentful Paint of 546ms, a Total Blocking Time of 0s and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.
Based on these results, it is evident that Cloudways outperforms SiteGround in Core Web Vitals, as it exhibits better scores across all the metrics.
5. Global TTFB
Global TTFB is a critical parameter that measures response time across multiple global locations. It is essential to assess this parameter if your site receives traffic from various global locations. I conducted a test to evaluate the Global TTFB by pinging a website from 35 different locations.
Based on the results, Cloudways exhibited an excellent response time of 437ms, while SiteGround recorded a poor Global TTFB of 890ms. Therefore, SiteGround may not be the most suitable choice for websites that receive global traffic.
Cloudways vs SiteGround: Features
1. Control Panel
Cloudways employs a proprietary control panel that is more sophisticated than conventional control panels like cPanel or Plesk.
Moreover, it is less cluttered and user-friendly, making it easy for beginners to navigate. The control panel has several advanced features, including server monitoring, 1-Click CDN, server cloning, staging URL, and team collaboration.
SiteGround utilizes its own control panel, Site Tools, which features advanced analytical tools for monitoring website performance.
These include detailed statistics on Inode, Processes Running, CPU, Executions, and HDD usage.
In addition, the control panel allows for direct account management with a short support section, direct SiteBuilder link, and hosting account upgrades.
2. Data Center Locations
Cloudways benefits from its partnerships with five leading Cloud providers, namely DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, and Linode, which enables customers to select from a broad range of data center locations across the globe. This allows customers to quickly identify the closest server location to their target audience, resulting in faster website access for their audience.
SiteGround has a total of 6 server locations, and it also leverages the Google Cloud Platform, providing access to Google Cloud data center locations. Thus, customers should have no difficulty finding the closest server location to their global audience on SiteGround.
However, Cloudways is one-level above as it provides data center locations from most locations.
3. CDN
Cloudways boasts an in-built CDN powered by Cloudflare Enterprise, featuring over 275 global CDN locations for faster content delivery.
SiteGround provides its in-built CDN with 10 global locations.
4. Backups
Cloudways charges $0.33 per GB for backups, and they are not free of cost. However, the provider offers an automatic backup system that automatically backs your site to an external storage network.
SiteGround has a highly dependable and user-friendly backup system. The service includes automatic daily backups, ensuring you don’t have to back up your site manually. SiteGround also allows you to access up to 30 recent site backups, and restoring a backup is free on all plans.
5. Security
Cloudways has robust security features, including dedicated firewalls, Let’s Encrypt SSL, IP Whitelisting, regular security patching, two-factor authentication, and Bot Protection against DDoS and brute force attacks.
SiteGround has established a dependable track record for security over the years. SiteGround’s security framework includes a custom web application firewall to prevent various identified vulnerabilities, an AI Anti-Bot System from blocking brute-force attacks, and traffic encryption with Let’s Encrypt SSL. Additionally, the host utilizes account isolation with Linux containers.
Cloudways vs SiteGround: Support
Cloudways boasts one of the most exceptional support teams with some of the most knowledgeable professionals in the industry, and they have largely demonstrated this over the years. The support team provides excellent customer service through 24×7 live chat and ticketing.
Additionally, the host offers customers advanced and premium support add-ons for an additional fee, allowing for faster assistance. The Premium add-on includes phone and private Slack channel support and live chat and tickets.
SiteGround’s support has been consistently reliable over the years, with highly skilled and helpful representatives available 24×7 through live chat, phone, and tickets. However, if you need even faster assistance, the GoGeek plan includes Priority Support.
Conclusion
I have explained all the aspects of Cloudways and SiteGround the best I could in this post, and I am sure you have clearly understood the features that both services offer. Both Cloudways and SiteGround have their pros and cons at some places.
However, a lot depends on your exact requirement. For example, if you are under a tight budget, you can go ahead with a SiteGround as they are available at a promotional price. However, you must bear in mind that the renewal prices can be pretty high in SiteGround.Â
Cloudways has a leading edge over SiteGround when it comes to performance, and if you are looking for the best performance, you can certainly choose Cloudways over SiteGround.Â
