Short answer
As of October 23, 2026, the closest alternative to Cloudways is LikeVPS, followed by Bluehost VPS and DigitalOcean. The cheapest of the 12 is Cloudzy at $2.48/month, against $11.00 at Cloudways.
Key takeaways
- Prices run from $2.48 (Cloudzy) with a median of $5.63 per month across 12 providers.
- Widest footprint: LikeVPS, 26 data-center locations in 26 countries.
- Best rated: ScalaHosting, 4.9/5 on Trustpilot from 2,208 reviews.
- 2 of 12 offer Windows Server, 9 include DDoS protection and 4 bill by the hour.
Best Cloudways alternatives
-
1
LikeVPS
UK-registered VPS provider with 26 locations across Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania; DDoS protection and unlimited traffic included in most plans. Lite 2.0 at $10.00/month with 2 GB RAM. 26 locations in 26 countries, DDoS protection included and Windows Server available.
Lite 2.0: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 25 GB NVMe, 20 TB traffic. -
2
Bluehost VPS
Newfold-owned host with self-managed NVMe KVM VPS from 1 vCPU/2 GB and a cPanel-managed line. NVMe 2 at $5.69/month with 2 GB RAM. DDoS protection included, unmetered traffic on some plans and Trustpilot 4.5 from 31,911 reviews.
NVMe 2: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 50 GB NVMe, unmetered traffic. -
3
DigitalOcean
US public cloud with Droplet VMs from $4/mo across 13 cities on four continents. Basic 512 MB (s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb) at $4.00/month with 512 MB RAM. DDoS protection included, hourly billing and accepts crypto.
Basic 512 MB (s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb): 1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB SSD, 500 GB traffic. -
4
Akamai Cloud (Linode)
Akamai-owned cloud with Shared CPU Linodes from $5/mo in 26 core compute cities worldwide. Nanode 1 GB at $5.00/month with 1 GB RAM. 26 locations in 15 countries, DDoS protection included and hourly billing.
Nanode 1 GB: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB SSD, 1 TB traffic. -
5
HostArmada
Shared-hosting specialist with a four-plan unmanaged NVMe VPS line from $3.69/mo and nine global locations. Spark at $3.69/month with 1 GB RAM. DDoS protection included, free backups and Trustpilot 4.8 from 1,125 reviews.
Spark: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe, 2 TB traffic.
All 12 alternatives
| # | Provider | Plan | $/month | RAM | $/GB RAM | Locations | Windows | Hourly | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lite 2.0 | $10.00 | 2 GB | $5.00 | 26 | Yes | No | — | |
| 2 | NVMe 2 | $5.69 | 2 GB | $2.85 | 9 | No | No | 4.5 (31,911) | |
| 3 | Basic 512 MB (s-1vcpu-512mb-10gb) | $4.00 | 512 MB | $8.00 | 13 | No | Yes | 4.5 (2,581) | |
| 4 |  Akamai Cloud (Linode) |
Nanode 1 GB | $5.00 | 1 GB | $5.00 | 26 | No | Yes | 2.5 (207) |
| 5 | Spark | $3.69 | 1 GB | $3.69 | 9 | No | No | 4.8 (1,125) | |
| 6 | NVMe 2 GB | $16.00 | 2 GB | $8.00 | 19 | No | No | 4.3 (8) | |
| 7 | VPS XS (4GB Cloud Server) | $19.99 | 4 GB | $5.00 | 10 | No | No | 4.8 (7,204) | |
| 8 | 512 MB DDR5 | $2.48 | 512 MB | $4.96 | 13 | No | Yes | — | |
| 9 | KVM 1 | $11.99 | 4 GB | $3.00 | 10 | No | No | 4.6 (73,071) | |
| 10 | Leaseweb VPS 1 | $5.58 | 6 GB | $0.93 | 9 | No | No | 3.4 (319) | |
| 11 | Config #1 | $24.95 | 4 GB | $6.24 | 15 | No | No | 4.9 (2,208) | |
| 12 | Basic | $4.00 | 1 GB | $4.00 | 21 | Yes | Yes | 4.3 (388) |
Prices compared
Why people switch from Cloudways
Cloudways sells plans from $11.00 a month in 9 locations (Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania); it has no Windows plans, bills hourly.
Its strengths: fully managed stack (security patching, firewall, free ssl, staging, free wordpress migration) with hourly billing and a 3-day no-card trial and choice of five underlying clouds; digitalocean servers deployable in nine regions on four continents. Its limits: roughly 2x the price of the underlying digitalocean droplet, plus paid add-ons for off-site backups ($0.033/gb), cloudflare enterprise and support tiers and no root access, no os choice, no windows and no custom iso; only php-based applications are supported. The alternatives below match the strengths and avoid at least one of the limits.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Cloudways?
As of October 23, 2026, the closest alternative to Cloudways is LikeVPS, followed by Bluehost VPS and DigitalOcean. The cheapest of the 12 is Cloudzy at $2.48/month, against $11.00 at Cloudways.
What is a cheaper alternative to Cloudways?
Cloudzy at $2.48 per month (512 MB DDR5: 1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 1 TB traffic).
Sources
Prices, plans and locations were read from these pages; last checked October 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm on the provider's site before you buy.