Cloudways vs Tencent Cloud: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Cloudways and Tencent Cloud 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.
Tencent Cloud
6.6/10
Tencent Cloud is a public cloud platform offering compute, containers, storage, databases and security services, plus Lighthouse VPS bundles for small workloads.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 6.6/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 7/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Reliability | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Scalability | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | No | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/mo Lighthouse Linux Starter |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | $14/mo Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/mo Lighthouse Linux Starter |
| Features | ||
| Automatic Backups | ||
| Cloud Compute | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Object Storage | Not listed | |
Cloudways vs Tencent Cloud cost by team size
Tencent Cloud costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Cloudways | Tencent Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/moLighthouse Linux Starter |
| 5 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/moLighthouse Linux Starter |
| 10 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/moLighthouse Linux Starter |
| 25 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/moLighthouse Linux Starter |
| 50 users | $14/moFlexible Micro (DigitalOcean) | $4/moLighthouse Linux Starter |
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 Security score (8/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose Tencent Cloud
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: $4/mo vs $14/mo
- Higher Cost score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Customization score (7/10 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.
Tencent Cloud
Pros
- Lighthouse VPS bundles start at 4.2 USD per month for 2 vCPU and 2 GB RAM, with a promotional starter plan offered at 10.08 USD per year.
- Lighthouse instances get basic Anti-DDoS, workload protection, monitoring alarms and CAM permissions activated by default.
- TKE managed Kubernetes can run very large clusters, with a stated control-plane capacity of over 50,000 nodes per cluster.
- A strong regional footprint in mainland China and Asia-Pacific helps teams serving users in those markets.
- Reviewers on Gartner and G2 praise its cost performance and how easy Lighthouse is to deploy.
Cons
- Reviewers report support staff with limited technical depth or language gaps on complex issues.
- Users describe the documentation as uneven.
- Lighthouse cannot change its IP, bind an EIP or use IPv6 after creation, and bundles cannot be downgraded.
- Discounts and cross-border data transfer charges make total cost harder to predict.
- Tencent provides no technical support for third-party software in the Lighthouse app images.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudways scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7/10 against 6.6/10 for Tencent Cloud. The largest gap is in Cost: 6/10 for Cloudways and 8/10 for Tencent Cloud.
Tencent Cloud costs less for 10 users: about $4/mo on its Lighthouse Linux Starter plan, against about $14/mo on its Flexible Micro (DigitalOcean) plan for Cloudways, billed monthly.
No, neither Cloudways nor Tencent Cloud lists a free plan.
