Cloudways vs DigitalOcean: Which Should You Choose in 2025?
Choosing the right cloud hosting partner in 2025 matters more than ever. With traffic patterns shifting, managed platforms offering more optimization, and developers demanding both control and convenience, the decision between Cloudways and DigitalOcean comes down to priorities: managed convenience or raw control and price transparency. This guide compares Cloudways vs DigitalOcean across performance, pricing, ease of use, security, scalability, support, and real-world use cases to help you decide.
Quick TL;DR
If you want hands-off, optimized hosting with built-in support, staging, automated backups, and fast application-level caching, Cloudways is the managed choice. If you prefer lower-level control, granular pricing, and the ability to build custom infrastructure (and you or your team can manage servers), DigitalOcean is the better fit.
What are Cloudways and DigitalOcean?
Cloudways overview
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that layers a user-friendly control panel and value-added services on top of public cloud providers (DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Vultr, etc.). Cloudways focuses on simplifying deployment, optimization, and maintenance for applications like WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and generic PHP apps.
DigitalOcean overview
DigitalOcean is a cloud infrastructure provider known for simple, developer-friendly virtual machines (Droplets), managed databases, object storage, and Kubernetes. DigitalOcean gives you low-level control over instances, networking, snapshots, and marketplace images. It’s popular with startups, developers, and teams who want predictable, transparent pricing and infrastructure control.
Core differences at a glance
- Managed vs unmanaged: Cloudways = managed hosting (server management, optimizations, support). DigitalOcean = unmanaged IaaS unless you use DigitalOcean’s managed services.
- Ease of use: Cloudways simplifies setup and day-to-day operations. DigitalOcean is more hands-on and requires sysadmin knowledge for deeper tuning.
- Pricing model: Cloudways charges a management fee on top of the underlying cloud provider. DigitalOcean charges only the infrastructure cost (plus optional managed services).
- Support: Cloudways provides managed support for your application stack. DigitalOcean support is focused on infrastructure and community resources; paid support tiers exist for premium support.
Performance and architecture
Performance depends on server specs, data center location, and stack optimizations (like caching, PHP-FPM tuning, CDN usage). Cloudways offers built-in optimization features—advanced caching (Varnish, Memcached/Redis), Breeze plugin for WordPress, PHP tuning, and server-level CDN integration—that help non-experts achieve strong real-world performance quickly.
DigitalOcean’s Droplets can deliver excellent raw performance, and you can tailor the stack to your needs. However, achieving the same optimizations requires manual configuration or using marketplace images and scripts.
When performance favors Cloudways
- Sites that need out-of-the-box caching and performance optimizations.
- Teams without dedicated DevOps who want predictable performance improvements.
When performance favors DigitalOcean
- Applications that need custom kernel-level tuning, specialized networking, or very specific instance configurations.
- When you want to squeeze the most cost-to-performance ratio by customizing everything.
Pricing: Transparent vs managed convenience
Pricing is often the heart of the decision.
DigitalOcean’s pricing is straightforward: you pay for the infrastructure you provision. Droplets, block storage, bandwidth, and managed add-ons are billed directly. This can be cheaper if you manage systems yourself and optimize resource usage.
Cloudways layers a management fee on top of the cloud provider’s infrastructure price in exchange for the convenience of managed hosting. That fee pays for server maintenance, support, backups, staging, optimizations, and the Cloudways platform. For many users, the time and reliability gains offset the extra cost.
Which model is cheaper?
For the same raw VM specs, DigitalOcean will often be cheaper. But factor in the cost of administration, downtime, and developer hours. If you value time and reliability or lack sysadmin resources, Cloudways’ managed pricing can be more cost-effective overall.
Ease of use and onboarding
Cloudways’ dashboard is built for simplicity: one-click application installs, managed backups, team access controls, staging environments, one-click SSL, and integrated monitoring. This reduces onboarding friction for agencies, freelancers, and small businesses.
DigitalOcean provides a polished control panel for droplets and other services, plus a robust marketplace. Still, you need to provision, secure, and tune servers yourself unless you rely on prebuilt images or third-party control panels.
Security and compliance
Both providers take security seriously. DigitalOcean offers firewalls, VPC networking, private networking, snapshots, and role-based access. Cloudways builds on top of the infrastructure with managed security practices: server hardening, regular OS updates, application-level security tools, and optional additional security features. Cloudways can be easier for teams that want managed security and patching.
Support and managed services
Cloudways provides managed support as part of its platform: application troubleshooting, server management, and performance tuning. This is often the deciding factor for non-technical teams or agencies managing client sites.
DigitalOcean’s community resources, tutorials, and standard support are excellent for developers who want to self-manage. Paid support tiers are available for mission-critical use.
Scalability and flexibility
DigitalOcean excels at providing building blocks: Droplets, load balancers, block storage, managed databases. You can architect autoscaling solutions, Kubernetes clusters, and global deployments with granular control.
Cloudways also supports scaling—adding resources, vertical scaling, and integrating with external CDNs—but it abstracts many low-level decisions to keep management simple. For most websites and small to medium apps, Cloudways’ scaling workflow is sufficient and faster to implement.
Use cases: Which one to pick
Choose Cloudways if:
- You run WordPress, WooCommerce, or other PHP apps and want out-of-the-box performance tuning.
- Your team lacks a dedicated DevOps engineer and you prefer managed support.
- You value staging environments, automated backups, and faster time-to-launch.
- You manage multiple client sites and need a centralized control panel and team features.
Choose DigitalOcean if:
- You need low-level control, custom networking, or specific instance configuration.
- You want the most transparent, typically lower infrastructure cost and can manage servers yourself.
- You’re building bespoke applications, microservices, or Kubernetes clusters and need granular control.
Real-world migration considerations
Moving from DigitalOcean to Cloudways or vice versa isn’t difficult but requires planning. Cloudways offers migration services and tools for WordPress and other apps—often simplifying the process. If you migrate off Cloudways to DigitalOcean, be ready to handle server configuration, caching setup, and security hardening yourself or hire a migration/DevOps specialist.
Integrations and ecosystem
DigitalOcean has a broad ecosystem for developers: APIs, marketplace images, managed Kubernetes, and object storage. Cloudways integrates with multiple cloud providers (including DigitalOcean) and adds services tailored for application hosting: managed caching, application-level firewalls, and developer-friendly deployment features.
Pros and cons summary
Cloudways
- Pros: Managed platform, optimized stacks, staging & backups, strong support, reduced ops overhead.
- Cons: Higher monthly cost per server, less low-level control.
DigitalOcean
- Pros: Transparent pricing, low-level control, excellent dev tools and community, typically cheaper for unmanaged setups.
- Cons: Requires sysadmin skills for hardening and optimizations; managed conveniences aren’t included.
How to decide (a short decision framework)
- Assess technical capacity: Do you have system admin/DevOps in-house?
- Evaluate uptime and performance needs: mission-critical sites may benefit from Cloudways’ managed safeguards.
- Calculate true costs: include admin time, maintenance hours, and potential downtime.
- Test: try a small project on each platform and measure performance, time-to-deploy, and maintenance burden.
Pricing comparison example (illustrative)
Exact prices change frequently. DigitalOcean typically charges only for Droplets, storage, and bandwidth. Cloudways charges the provider’s infrastructure price plus a management fee. If raw budget is the top priority and you can manage servers, DigitalOcean tends to be less expensive. If you value time and hassle-free maintenance, Cloudways’ fee can be worth it.
Verdict: Which should you choose in 2025?
If you want managed hosting with performance features, straightforward scaling, and managed support for web apps and WordPress, choose Cloudways — Try Cloudways free today to evaluate it risk-free. If you prefer complete infrastructure control, transparent pricing, and building custom deployments, choose DigitalOcean.
Conclusion
Cloudways and DigitalOcean serve different needs. Cloudways packages the best parts of modern cloud hosting into a managed experience that saves time and reduces risk; DigitalOcean gives you powerful building blocks and cost transparency for teams that want to architect their own solutions. The right choice depends on your technical resources, budget, and priorities for management vs control. Run a small pilot, compare actual costs including administration, and pick the platform that aligns with your long-term growth plans.
FAQ
1. Is Cloudways a hosting provider or a reseller of cloud infrastructure?
Cloudways is a managed hosting platform that sits on top of cloud providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, and Vultr. It’s not a traditional infrastructure provider; it bundles management, optimizations, and support on top of those providers.
2. Can I use DigitalOcean and still get managed services?
Yes. You can either self-manage DigitalOcean Droplets, use DigitalOcean’s managed services (like managed databases), or run your Droplets under a managed control panel like Cloudways (Cloudways offers plans using DigitalOcean as the underlying provider).
3. Which platform is better for WordPress?
For most users, Cloudways is better for WordPress because of built-in caching, staging, backups, and WordPress-specific optimizations. Developers who want full control might prefer DigitalOcean if they can manage and optimize the stack themselves.
4. Does Cloudways use DigitalOcean under the hood?
Cloudways offers DigitalOcean as one of its underlying cloud infrastructure providers, among others. When you choose Cloudways with a DigitalOcean backend, you get DigitalOcean VMs plus the Cloudways management layer.
5. How does pricing compare for small sites?
DigitalOcean can be cheaper if you self-manage small Droplets and minimize overhead. Cloudways will cost more per server because of the management fee, but you get faster setup, managed backups, and support. Consider the cost of your time and potential downtime when comparing.
6. Which provider offers better security by default?
Both providers are secure, but Cloudways adds managed security practices like server hardening, patch management, and application-level protection as part of the service. DigitalOcean provides the building blocks for security; you must configure and maintain them yourself.
7. Can I migrate from DigitalOcean to Cloudways without downtime?
Yes—migrations can be completed with minimal downtime when planned correctly. Cloudways offers migration tools and services for common platforms like WordPress to minimize downtime during the transfer.
8. Is DigitalOcean good for production workloads?
Absolutely. DigitalOcean supports production-grade workloads, managed databases, Kubernetes, and global data centers. Make sure you implement best practices for backups, monitoring, and security.
9. Do I need DevOps skills to use Cloudways?
No. Cloudways is designed for users who prefer not to manage low-level server tasks. It’s ideal for those who want managed hosting and support without deep DevOps expertise.
10. How do backups work on each platform?
Cloudways includes managed backups and automated scheduling as part of its platform. DigitalOcean provides snapshot and backup options at the infrastructure level; you must configure and manage them yourself (or use managed backup tools).
11. Which offers better scalability for growing apps?
Both scale well. DigitalOcean gives you more granular control for custom architectures and autoscaling; Cloudways simplifies scaling so you can add resources quickly without manual server tuning.
12. Can I use a CDN with either platform?
Yes. Both platforms support CDNs. Cloudways integrates CDN options directly in the dashboard for easier setup. With DigitalOcean, you can integrate third-party CDNs or use DigitalOcean’s Spaces CDN via configuration.
Ready to test managed hosting? Try Cloudways free today and compare the experience against a self-managed DigitalOcean droplet.
