Advertising disclosure: We earn commissions when you shop through the links below.
DigitalOcean, AWS, and GCP tiers compared — what you get, who each plan is for, and how Cloudways stacks up against Kinsta and SiteGround on price.
Test your actual workload on real infrastructure. Cancel before day 3 and you pay nothing.
DigitalOcean is the most popular cloud provider on Cloudways — good balance of performance, price, and data center coverage across 15 regions.
| Plan | RAM | vCPU | Storage | Bandwidth | Price/mo | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DO 1 GB | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB | 1 TB | $11 | Dev/test, small blogs (1–3 sites) |
| DO 2 GB | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB | 2 TB | $24 | Small agencies, 3–10 WP sites |
| DO 4 GB | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB | $46 | WooCommerce, 10–20 sites |
| DO 8 GB | 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB | 5 TB | $88 | High-traffic sites, 20–40 sites |
| DO 16 GB | 16 GB | 8 | 320 GB | 6 TB | $149 | Large WooCommerce, enterprise WP |
| DO 32 GB | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB | 7 TB | $240 | Enterprise, high-concurrency apps |
AWS gives you access to the broadest global infrastructure and the most data center regions. Best for compliance-sensitive workloads or teams already using AWS services (S3, RDS, CloudFront).
| Plan | RAM | vCPU | Storage | Price/mo | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | 1 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $20.56 | Dev/test, low-traffic blogs |
| Small | 2 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $38.56 | Small sites, 3–5 WP installs |
| Medium | 4 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $91.84 | Most popular AWS tier — multi-site agencies |
| Large | 8 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $183.22 | High-traffic sites, WooCommerce at scale |
AWS plans are significantly more expensive than DigitalOcean at equivalent RAM. Choose AWS only if you have compliance requirements or are deeply integrated with AWS services. For WordPress hosting, DigitalOcean offers far better value.
Google Cloud Platform on Cloudways gives you the same data center infrastructure as Kinsta but with full Cloudways management and multi-app flexibility. Best for teams who want GCP infrastructure without Kinsta's per-site pricing.
| Plan | RAM | vCPU | Storage | Price/mo | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1.7 GB | Shared | 20 GB | $37.33 | Entry GCP — small WordPress sites |
| Medium | 3.75 GB | 1 | 20 GB | $84 | Growing sites, 5–10 WP installs |
| Large | 7.5 GB | 2 | 20 GB | $152.02 | Most popular GCP tier — agency workloads |
| XL | 15 GB | 4 | 20 GB | $241.50 | High-traffic WooCommerce on GCP |
GCP pricing on Cloudways is higher than DigitalOcean for equivalent RAM. Choose GCP if you need Google Cloud's specific infrastructure or data center regions. For most WordPress agencies, DigitalOcean delivers better performance-per-dollar.
Cloudways' per-server pricing becomes dramatically cheaper once you host more than 2–3 sites:
| Sites Hosted | Cloudways (DO) | Kinsta | SiteGround |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 site | $11/mo | $35/mo | $2.99/mo (intro) → $17.99 renewal |
| 3 sites | $11–24/mo | $115/mo (Business 1) | $29.99/mo (GrowBig, 1 site + add-ons) |
| 5 sites | $24/mo | $115/mo | $35.99/mo (GoGeek, up to unlimited) |
| 10 sites | $24–46/mo | $230/mo (Business 2) | Multiple accounts needed |
| 20+ sites | $46–88/mo | $290–690/mo | Not practical |
Prices are approximate based on publicly listed plans as of early 2026. Annual billing discounts apply on most plans.
The $24/mo DigitalOcean 2 GB plan is the sweet spot for most agencies — it hosts 5–15 WordPress sites with room to scale, at a price Kinsta charges for a single site. For a single high-traffic WordPress site where WP-expert support matters more than cost, Kinsta at $35/mo is competitive. For a first WordPress site on a tight budget, SiteGround's $2.99/mo intro plan is hard to beat for year one.
If you are currently on Kinsta paying per site, use the pricing table above to calculate your Cloudways equivalent. For most agencies at 5+ sites, the math takes about 30 seconds. The migration is free via Cloudways' WordPress migration plugin.
Every Cloudways plan — regardless of provider or tier — includes:
No credit card. No commitment. Your price on day 4 is the same as your price in year 3 — Cloudways does not raise rates at renewal.
Per server. You can host unlimited WordPress installs, PHP apps, and other applications on a single Cloudways server. This is the key pricing advantage over Kinsta, which charges per WordPress installation.
$11/mo for the DigitalOcean 1 GB plan. It includes 1 vCPU, 25 GB SSD storage, and 1 TB bandwidth. Suitable for small blogs, dev environments, and 1–3 low-traffic WordPress sites.
Yes — Cloudways offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card required. You can deploy a server and test the platform before committing.
No. Cloudways does not use introductory pricing. The rate you see is the rate you pay month after month. This is a significant advantage over SiteGround, which renews at 3–6× the introductory price.
For most agencies with 5–15 client sites, the DigitalOcean 2 GB plan at $24/mo is the sweet spot. It supports unlimited sites, includes Object Cache Pro free, and provides enough RAM for typical PHP workloads. Scale to the 4 GB plan ($46/mo) if you run WooCommerce or high-traffic sites.
DigitalOcean is the best default choice — cheapest per GB of RAM, 15 data center regions, and well-optimized for WordPress. Choose AWS if you need maximum global reach or compliance requirements. Choose GCP if you want the same infrastructure as Kinsta at Cloudways prices. Vultr and Linode/Akamai are good alternatives at similar or lower cost.
Not directly. To switch providers (e.g. from DigitalOcean to AWS), you would clone your applications to a new server on the target provider and then point your DNS. Cloudways makes this straightforward with their server cloning tool.