Cloudways vs Kinsta Comparison
Compare Cloudways vs Kinsta features, pricing, and more.
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.
Kinsta
7.1/10
Premium managed WordPress hosting on Google Cloud, with Cloudflare CDN, daily backups, staging and an API, sold to businesses, agencies and enterprises.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 7.1/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 3/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 9/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 9/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/mo Single 35k (or Single 20GB) |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/mo Single 35k (or Single 20GB) |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Git Deployments | ||
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Cloud Compute | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs Kinsta cost by team size
Cloudways costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Cloudways | Kinsta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/moSingle 35k (or Single 20GB) |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/moSingle 35k (or Single 20GB) |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/moSingle 35k (or Single 20GB) |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/moSingle 35k (or Single 20GB) |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $35/moSingle 35k (or Single 20GB) |
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
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: $14/mo vs $35/mo
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 3/10)
- Higher Customization score (6/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for small business (7/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose Kinsta
- Higher Support score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Reliability score (9/10 vs 8/10)
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.
Kinsta
Pros
- Every plan includes Cloudflare integration with a 300-location CDN, edge caching and DDoS filtering.
- Reviewers praise the 24/7 support from WordPress engineers, available in five languages.
- Holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications, plus GDPR and CCPA compliance.
- A REST API covers sites, environments, backups, caching, domains and DNS, which helps agencies automate their work.
- Migrations are free and handled by Kinsta's team, and every plan includes staging and daily backups.
Cons
- Plans start at $35 a month for a single site, far more than shared hosting costs.
- Single-site plans include only 10 to 15GB of storage.
- Users on Reddit and Trustpilot often complain about visit-based billing, which counts unique IPs per day.
- Some plugins are not allowed on the platform.
- Hosts only WordPress; application, database and static site hosting have moved to Sevalla.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Kinsta scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.1/10 against 7/10 for Cloudways. The largest gap is in Cost: 6/10 for Cloudways and 3/10 for Kinsta.
Cloudways costs less for 10 users: about $14/mo on its Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) plan, against about $35/mo on its Single 35k (or Single 20GB) plan for Kinsta, billed monthly.
No, neither Cloudways nor Kinsta lists a free plan.
Cloudways is the better fit for small business: we rate it 7/10 for them, against 5/10 for Kinsta.
