Cloudways vs Gcore: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Cloudways and Gcore to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Cloudways
7/10
Managed cloud hosting platform that runs WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, Laravel and PHP apps on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud servers.
Gcore
6.9/10
Luxembourg-based edge and cloud provider offering CDN, virtual machines, bare metal, managed Kubernetes, object storage, AI GPU cloud, and DDoS/WAF security for businesses.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 6.9/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/mo DDoS Protection Start |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/mo DDoS Protection Start |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs Gcore cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudways | Gcore |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/moDDoS Protection Start |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/moDDoS Protection Start |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/moDDoS Protection Start |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/moDDoS Protection Start |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | €390/moDDoS Protection Start |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Cloudways
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Reliability score (8/10 vs 7/10)
Why choose Gcore
- Has a free plan (Cloudways does not)
- Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Customization score (7/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for developers (8/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
Cloudways
Pros
- You can choose from five cloud providers and more than 50 locations from one control panel.
- Hourly pay-as-you-go billing, with a 5-day trial that needs no credit card.
- Every server includes free SSL, Layer 3 and 4 DDoS mitigation, a firewall and offsite backups.
- Agencies get one-click staging, cloning and Git auto-deployment for many client sites.
- Ratings are strong, at about 4.7 on G2 and 4.6 on Trustpilot.
Cons
- Email hosting and domain registration are not included.
- Billing gets hard to track once add-ons and bandwidth overages are added, and some reviewers report charges after cancelling.
- Some reviewers say support quality has dropped since the DigitalOcean acquisition.
- Power users report limited low-level control.
- Phone support requires a paid premium support add-on.
Gcore
Pros
- The CDN includes 1 TB of traffic and 1 billion requests free each month, and traffic after that starts at 0.01 EUR per GB.
- DDoS protection pricing does not depend on attack size, and mitigation is not metered on any plan.
- The managed Kubernetes control plane is free with high availability, so you pay only for the nodes.
- A large edge footprint, reported at about 210 PoPs and 200 Tbps of capacity, suits latency-sensitive workloads such as gaming and streaming.
- Headquarters in Luxembourg is an advantage for buyers who prefer an EU-based provider.
Cons
- Trustpilot scores are around 2.5 out of 5, with complaints about recurring billing, refunds, and slow support.
- There is no public price list for VMs and bare metal; prices are only available through the calculator.
- The Terraform v2 provider is still in alpha and Gcore says it is not ready for production.
- The product range is very broad, which can make it harder for small teams to understand how pricing works.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 6.9/10 for Gcore. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 8/10 for Cloudways and 6/10 for Gcore.
Gcore has a free plan; Cloudways does not list one.
Gcore is the better fit for developers: we rate it 8/10 for them, against 6/10 for Cloudways.
