The best Cloudways alternatives depend on what you are missing on Cloudways. If you want the same kind of cloud plan for less, Hostinger Cloud Startup costs $383.52 for four years against $672 for the Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium 1 GB server. If you want the cheapest home for several sites, Hostinger Unlimited costs $167.52. If you want email, staging and phone support in one plan, choose SiteGround GrowBig. If you want cPanel and short terms, choose Namecheap Stellar Plus.
Prices were checked on October 17, 2026 on the Cloudways, Hostinger, SiteGround and Namecheap US pricing pages. Namecheap renewal prices come from its help center, as checked for our Namecheap review on October 16, 2026.
Why people look for Cloudways alternatives
Cloudways is a good platform, but four things send people looking elsewhere. Each one is a fact from Cloudways’ own pages, not a complaint from a forum.
- No email: mailboxes are a Rackspace add-on at $1.50 per mailbox per month, or $72 per mailbox over four years. Our Cloudways pricing guide lists every add-on.
- No cPanel: Cloudways uses its own dashboard. If you know cPanel, you have to learn a new dashboard.
- No money-back guarantee: you get a 3-day free trial instead, with no credit card needed. Our Cloudways free trial guide shows how to use it well.
- Backups cost extra: off-site backup storage is billed at $0.033 per GB per server.
Cloudways also has real strengths: it bills monthly with nothing prepaid, and its price never rises at renewal. Our Cloudways review covers those in full. The alternatives below are worth it only if one of the four points above matters to you.
Cloudways alternatives compared
Assumptions: each plan is held for 48 months. Hostinger is one 48-month prepaid term. SiteGround is a 12-month intro term plus three 12-month renewals. Namecheap is a 2-year intro term plus a 2-year renewal. Cloudways is 48 monthly payments. Tax and add-ons are excluded.
| Plan | Type | Paid upfront | Four-year total | Price after the first term | Websites | Money-back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudways DigitalOcean Premium 1 GB | Managed cloud | $0 (monthly) | $672 | $14/mo, unchanged | Unlimited | Add-on | No |
| Hostinger Cloud Startup | Cloud | $383.52 | $383.52 | $25.99/mo | Unlimited | Free for 1 year | 30 days |
| Hostinger Unlimited | Shared | $167.52 | $167.52 | $16.99/mo | Unlimited | Free for 1 year | 30 days |
| SiteGround GrowBig | Managed shared | $59.88 | $1,139.52 | $29.99/mo | Unlimited | Included | 30 days |
| Namecheap Stellar Plus | Shared, cPanel | $54.72 | $201.16 | $146.44 per 2 years | Unlimited | Unlimited mailboxes | 30 days |
Over four years, three of the four alternatives cost less than Cloudways. The catch is what happens next. In year five, Cloudways still costs $168 a year. Hostinger Unlimited renews at $16.99 a month, or $203.88 a year, and Cloud Startup at $25.99, or $311.88 a year. Namecheap Stellar Plus renews at $146.44 for two years, about $73 a year. So for a long-term site, Namecheap stays cheap, while Hostinger becomes more expensive than Cloudways after the first term.
1. Hostinger Cloud Startup: the closest match for less
Best for: someone who likes the idea of cloud hosting but wants email, daily backups and a refund window included.
Cloud Startup is Hostinger’s cloud plan, and it is the nearest like-for-like swap. It allows unlimited websites, 100 GB of NVMe storage, and daily plus on-demand backups. The Cloudways Premium 1 GB server has 25 GB of storage and charges for backup storage. Over four years, Cloud Startup costs $383.52, which is $288.48 less than Cloudways. Our Cloudways vs Hostinger comparison puts the two side by side.
The key limit: you pay all $383.52 on day one, and the plan renews at $25.99 a month, almost double Cloudways’ $14. Email is free for the first year only. Our Hostinger renewal price guide shows what that jump looks like.
2. Hostinger Unlimited: the cheapest home for several sites
Best for: affiliate and niche site owners who run several small sites and want the lowest four-year bill.
Unlimited is shared hosting, not cloud, but it covers what most small content sites need: unlimited websites, 50 GB of NVMe storage and daily backups. Four years cost $167.52, which is $504.48 less than the Cloudways Premium 1 GB server. With five sites on the plan, that is $33.50 per site over four years, against $134.40 per site on Cloudways.
The key limit: this is a shared server, so you do not choose the cloud provider behind your server the way you do on Cloudways. After 48 months, the price rises to $16.99 a month. See our Hostinger review for each plan’s limits.
3. SiteGround GrowBig: email, staging and phone support in one plan
Best for: small businesses that want everything included and someone to call when something breaks.
GrowBig includes email, free daily backups, on-demand backups and staging, with unlimited websites and 50 GB of storage. SiteGround lists 24/7 live chat, phone support and tickets. Cloudways lists chat and tickets, but no phone line. The first year costs $59.88, the lowest year one of any plan here.
The key limit: the renewal. GrowBig goes to $29.99 a month, so four years cost $1,139.52, which is $467.52 more than Cloudways. Our Cloudways vs SiteGround comparison breaks this down year by year.
4. Namecheap Stellar Plus: cPanel and the lowest renewal
Best for: people who want cPanel, short commitments and a low price that stays low.
This is the host I use myself. I run my own sites on Namecheap shared hosting, add new domains in cPanel and install WordPress with the one-click installer. I find the control panel and file layout easy to understand, and Namecheap emails me before it makes changes on its side. Stellar Plus allows unlimited websites and unlimited mailboxes, and adds AutoBackup on top of the twice-weekly backups. Four years cost $201.16, and it can also be paid monthly at $7.88.
The key limit: storage is listed as “unmetered”, but our Namecheap review found a cap of 300,000 files on Stellar Plus. A large store with thousands of product images can reach that.
When to stay with Cloudways
Leaving Cloudways is not always the right move. Stay if any of these is true for you:
- You never want to prepay. Cloudways asks $0 upfront, while Hostinger Cloud Startup asks $383.52 on day one.
- You want a yearly price that never rises. At $168 a year with no renewal jump, Cloudways costs less per year from year five than both Hostinger plans and SiteGround.
- You want to choose your server. Only Cloudways lets you pick the cloud behind your server: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS or Google Cloud. Our guide to Cloudways vs DigitalOcean covers running that server yourself instead.
- You need staging on a small budget. Staging is included on every Cloudways server, including the $14 DigitalOcean Premium 1 GB server.
How these Cloudways alternatives were chosen
Each alternative had to fix at least one of the four Cloudways gaps above, host unlimited websites, and show its prices on an official US pricing page. Plans were then ranked by four-year cost and by what they include without add-ons. Prices are the providers’ published rates on the checking date. They can change, so confirm the total on the checkout page before you pay.
Final recommendation
For most readers looking for Cloudways alternatives, the deciding question is how long you will keep the site. For four years or less on a budget, Hostinger Unlimited at $167.52 is the strongest pick, and Cloud Startup is the closer match if you want cloud resources. For a long-term site with cPanel, Namecheap Stellar Plus keeps renewals at about $73 a year. For a business that wants email and phone support included, SiteGround GrowBig is worth its higher price.
Cloudways alternatives FAQ
Is there a cheaper alternative to Cloudways?
Yes. Hostinger Unlimited and Namecheap Stellar Plus both cost less over four years than the $14 DigitalOcean Premium 1 GB Cloudways server, which costs $672 over 48 months. The difference is that both are shared hosting, not a cloud server of your own.
Which Cloudways alternative includes free email?
SiteGround GrowBig includes email for as long as you keep the plan, and Namecheap Stellar Plus includes unlimited mailboxes. Hostinger’s email is free for the first year only.
Do any Cloudways alternatives offer a money-back guarantee?
Yes. Hostinger, SiteGround and Namecheap each list a 30-day money-back guarantee. Namecheap also offers a free 30-day trial, limited to one per account.
Can I move my site from Cloudways for free?
Moving out depends on the new host’s own migration offer. If you would rather move it yourself, our guide on how to move a WordPress site to a new host walks through the steps.