Hostinger and Cloudways get compared constantly, and most of the comparisons out there are running on stale numbers. Cloudways’ entry price has moved — it’s $14/month now, not the $11 you’ll see quoted almost everywhere, including on our own earlier review. That shift matters, because the gap between “cheap shared hosting” and “affordable managed cloud” is smaller than it used to be, and the real decision comes down to what kind of host you actually need, not which one is technically cheaper.
Quick Verdict
| Category | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Choose Hostinger if | You’re running one small site on a tight budget and don’t mind prepaying years upfront |
| Choose Cloudways if | You’re running multiple sites, want flat billing that never jumps, or need real infrastructure choice |
| Pricing model | Hostinger: long prepay, sharp renewal increase. Cloudways: hourly billing, no contract, flat rate |
| Entry price | Hostinger $2.99/mo (48-month term). Cloudways $14/mo (hourly, cancel anytime) |
| Best differentiator | Domain + email included (Hostinger) vs. unlimited sites per server + your choice of 5 cloud providers (Cloudways) |
Which one fits you?
How many sites are you hosting?
Which matters more to you?
Do you want to choose your own cloud infrastructure (AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean)?
A simple decision aid based on the differences covered in this comparison — not a substitute for reading the sections below.
What They Actually Are
Hostinger owns and operates its own servers and sells shared hosting plans, tiered by resources, with a control panel (hPanel) built for people who have never managed a server. Cloudways owns no servers at all — it provisions a machine on whichever cloud provider you pick (DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud) and manages the software stack on top of it. One is traditional hosting made simple; the other is cloud infrastructure made accessible. That distinction explains almost every other difference between them.
Pricing: The Number Most Comparisons Get Wrong
| Hostinger | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $2.99/mo | $14/mo |
| Billing term | 48-month prepay for the promo rate | Hourly, no contract, cancel anytime |
| Renewal | $10.99–$25.99/mo depending on plan | Unchanged — the price you start at is the price you pay |
| Free trial | Money-back window, not a true free trial | 3-day free trial |
| What’s included | Domain (1 year), email (1 year), SSL | SSL, free migration, Object Cache Pro, Redis cache — no domain, no email |
Hostinger’s $2.99 is a genuine promotional rate tied to a four-year prepayment — it renews at three to four times that, a fact our full Hostinger review covers in detail with the actual math. Cloudways’ $14 is simply the price, billed by the hour, for as long as you use it. Neither number is “wrong,” but they answer different questions: Hostinger’s price is what you pay if you commit for years; Cloudways’ price is what you pay this month, indefinitely, with no renewal cliff waiting for you later.
For one small site kept for a year or two, Hostinger is still meaningfully cheaper. For a site you’ll keep for five years or more, run the renewal math before assuming Hostinger wins — our review’s cost calculator does exactly that.
Performance: What the Independent Numbers Show
Hostinger runs its own LiteSpeed servers with built-in server-level caching. Independent testers consistently report uptime around 99.98–99.99% and sub-second load times for typical shared-hosting sites — genuinely strong for the price, though it’s shared infrastructure, so a busy neighbour on the same server can still affect you.
Cloudways’ performance story is architectural rather than a single number: a multi-layer caching stack combining Varnish, Redis, Memcached, and Object Cache Pro, plus its own Breeze caching plugin, running on NVMe SSD storage from whichever provider you pick. Independent reviewers publishing ongoing measurements report consistently strong uptime and stable response times, though — as with any cloud setup — actual results shift with server size, region, and the site being tested.
Neither company publishes a benchmark the other doesn’t also claim to beat. Treat any specific millisecond figure from either side’s marketing with caution. The structural difference that actually matters is simpler: Hostinger’s entry-tier speed comes from a shared server you don’t control. Cloudways’ comes from a dedicated cloud instance, sized to whatever you’re willing to pay for. That means Cloudways’ performance ceiling rises with your budget. Hostinger’s shared-tier ceiling stays fixed no matter what you spend.
Security: What’s Actually Included vs. a Paid Add-On
| Hostinger | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Malware scanning | Included (Monarx-based detection across plans) | Paid add-on — $4/app/month |
| Firewall / WAF | Included (mod_security, application-layer filtering) | Included (Imunify360, server-level) |
| DDoS protection | Included (Cloudflare-protected nameservers) | Included at the infrastructure level via the chosen cloud provider |
| Free SSL | Yes, unlimited, auto-renewing | Yes, auto-issued and renewed |
| Automated backups | Weekly or daily, depending on plan | Included, scheduled or on-demand |
| Compliance certifications | Not independently audited as a platform | Not independently audited as a platform — inherits SOC2/ISO 27001/PCI-DSS from its cloud provider instead |
The one gap worth flagging plainly: Cloudways includes a server-level firewall by default, but its application-level malware scanning and cleanup is a separate $4-per-app-per-month add-on — easy to miss if you’re comparing headline security claims rather than reading the fine print. Hostinger’s malware protection, by contrast, is bundled into the base plan at every tier.
On compliance: neither company holds its own independent SOC2 or ISO 27001 audit as a platform. Cloudways says plainly that these certifications belong to its infrastructure partners — AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode all carry them — not to Cloudways itself. That distinction matters if your buyer or auditor specifically needs the hosting platform’s own certification, not just the data centre underneath it. If that’s a hard requirement, neither host here is the right answer; see our WP Engine vs Cloudways comparison for one that does hold its own platform-level certification.
Where Cloudways Pulls Ahead
Multiple Sites, One Bill
Cloudways doesn’t charge per site — it charges per server, and a server can run as many applications as its resources allow. An agency running six small client sites can consolidate them onto one Cloudways server for a single monthly charge. Hostinger’s plans cap the number of sites per plan; running six sites means either a plan with a high enough site allowance or six separate accounts.
Your Choice of Infrastructure
Picking DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, or Google Cloud as the backend matters for agencies with client requirements around region or compliance. Hostinger gives you Hostinger’s own infrastructure — no choice, but also nothing to configure.
No Renewal Shock
Cloudways’ price today is its price next year. There’s no multi-year promotional rate that quietly expires. If “predictable” matters more to you than “cheapest possible entry point,” this is the whole argument.
Where Hostinger Pulls Ahead
Domain and Email, Bundled
Cloudways includes neither. You’ll pay separately for a domain registrar and, if you want email on your domain, for Rackspace Email at $1 per mailbox per month — an add-on cost that isn’t obvious from the headline price. Hostinger bundles both for the first year, which for a single small-business site means one bill instead of three.
Zero Server Knowledge Required
Hostinger’s hPanel assumes nothing. Cloudways’ dashboard is friendlier than raw server administration, but it still expects you to understand concepts like applications, server sizing, and staging environments — a real step up from shared hosting even with a polished interface.
Lower True Entry Cost for One Site
If you’re hosting exactly one small site and have no plans to add more, Hostinger’s price — even accounting for the renewal increase — usually beats Cloudways’ add-on-inclusive real cost for the first several years.
Support: A Genuine Difference, Not Just Marketing
Hostinger’s support is 24/7 chat only, fast, and shallow by design — it will confirm the server is healthy and point you to a help article, not debug your plugin conflict. Cloudways’ support sits at the server level: because Cloudways manages the actual server stack, its support team can and does go deeper into performance and configuration issues than a shared-hosting support desk is set up to handle. This isn’t a marketing distinction — it follows directly from what each company is actually responsible for maintaining.
Hostinger vs. Cloudways at a Glance
| Hostinger | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | One small site, tight budget | Multiple sites, agencies, infra choice |
| Server type | Shared (Cloud plans available at extra cost) | Dedicated cloud instance, your provider choice |
| Root access | No | No — but far more server-level control than shared hosting |
| Domain/email included | Yes, 1 year each | No |
| Billing | Long prepay, sharp renewal jump | Hourly, flat, no contract |
| Support depth | Chat only, script-level | 24/7, server-level |
| Sites per account | Capped by plan | Unlimited per server, resource-limited |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cloudways actually more expensive than Hostinger?
At face value yes — $14/mo versus $2.99/mo. But Hostinger’s promotional rate expires after four years and renews at $10.99–$25.99/mo, while Cloudways’ price never changes. Which one is “more expensive” depends entirely on how long you keep the site.
Can I get email hosting with Cloudways?
Not built in. You’d add Rackspace Email at $1 per mailbox per month, or use a separate provider like Google Workspace. Hostinger includes email for the first year on every plan.
Do I need technical skill to use Cloudways?
More than Hostinger, but less than managing a raw server yourself. Cloudways’ dashboard handles the server administration; you still need to understand concepts like applications and server sizing that Hostinger’s hPanel hides entirely.
Which one is better for WordPress specifically?
Both host WordPress well at their respective price points. Hostinger’s LiteSpeed caching handles typical WordPress loads efficiently for a small site. Cloudways adds Redis and Object Cache Pro free, which matters more as traffic or site count grows.
Can I switch from one to the other later?
Yes — WordPress content is portable between both. Cloudways offers free migration in. Moving off Hostinger follows the standard export/import path covered in our Hostinger review.
Final Decision
Best for:
- Hostinger: One site, a fixed budget, and comfort prepaying years upfront for the lowest entry price
- Cloudways: Multiple sites, agencies, or anyone who wants flat pricing and a choice of cloud infrastructure
Avoid if:
- Hostinger: you’re annoyed by renewal-rate jumps or need more than shared-hosting-level resource isolation
- Cloudways: you want a true one-click, zero-concepts hosting experience, or need bundled email without an add-on
Bottom line:
These aren’t really competing for the same buyer. Hostinger wins the “cheapest way to get one site online” question outright. Cloudways wins the “I don’t want to think about hosting again as I add more sites” question. Pick based on which question you’re actually asking, not which number is smaller today — and if it’s the second question, run the renewal math from our Hostinger review before deciding Hostinger’s headline price settles it.
Pricing verified directly against both providers’ current published rates as of September 2026 — Cloudways’ entry price in particular has moved since many existing comparisons were written; verify current numbers before purchasing either.
Disclosure: some links on this page may be affiliate links. If you purchase through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This does not affect our editorial recommendations.
